Herman Voaden

Canadian playwright (1903–1991)

Herman Arthur Voaden
Born	(1903-01-19)January 19, 1903 London, Ontario, Canada
Died	June 27, 1991(1991-06-27) (aged 88) Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Genre	Playwright
Notable awards	Order of Canada

Herman Arthur Voaden, CM FRSA (19 January 1903 – 27 June 1991)^[1] was a Canadian playwright.^[2]

Life and work

Born in London, Ontario,^[1] he received a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in 1923 and a Master of Arts degree in 1926 from Queen's University.^[3] He also studied at the University of Chicago and at Yale University.

His father, Dr. Arthur Voaden, pioneered vocational teaching in Ontario. His mother, Luisa Bale Voaden, was also a teacher. Voaden studied modern drama at Queen's University, 1920–1923, and wrote his 1926 Queen’s M.A. thesis on Eugene O’Neill.^[4]

In 1928 Voaden became head of the English department at the Central High School of Commerce (now the Central Toronto Academy),^[3] where he worked for decades. In 1960 his work there was described as "pioneer[ing] in progressive education methods, including the 'play approach' to drama.'"^[5]

A member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation,^[4] he ran for the House of Commons of Canada in the western Toronto riding of Trinity in the 1945 elections, 1949 elections, 1953 elections, and a 1954 by-election. He lost each time.

Voaden was a member of Toronto's Arts and Letters Club, the Dominion Drama Festival, and a founding member and first president of the Canadian Arts Council (which became the Canadian Conference of the Arts in 1958).^[1] As president of the CAC, he was one of several Canadian representatives to the first UNESCO conference, held in Paris in 1946.

Honours

In 1974, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honor, "in recognition of his contribution to the performing arts as a playwright, producer and teacher, and his services in fostering support for all the arts and crafts".^[6] He was made a Fellow in the Royal Society of Arts in 1970.

Following his death, Queen's University created the Herman Voaden Playwriting Competition to honour new works by emerging playwrights.^[7]

Works

The White Kingdom (1928)
Northern Storm (1929)
Northern Song (1930)
Western Wolf (1930)
Fragment (1931)
Wilderness (1931)
Earth Song (1932)
Rocks (1932)
Hill-Land (1934)
Murder Pattern (1936)
Ascend As the Sun (1942)
Libretto for the opera The Prodigal Son (music by Frederick Jacobi) (debuted 1945)
Emily Carr: A Stage Biography with Pictures (first performed 1960)^[8]

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c Wagner 2013.
^ Wagner 2004.
^ ^a ^b Wagner 2021.
^ ^a ^b York University 2011.
^ Voaden 1960, p. ix.
^ Order of Canada citation
^ Burliuk 1997.
^ Wagner 2020.

References

Burliuk, Greg (16 August 1997). "Workshops focus on two winning plays". Kingston Whig-Standard. p. 30. ProQuest 353109238.

Voaden, Herman, ed. (1960). Four Plays of Our Time. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada.

Wagner, Anton (16 December 2013). "Herman Arthur Voaden". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Archived from the original on 6 February 2024.