Showing 21 results

Archival Description
Catherine Banks fonds Series
Print preview View:
Ascending

Back from Australia

Series contains material related to Catherine Bank's play, Back from Australia. Records types include manuscripts and correspondence.

Bone Cage

Series contains materials related to the development, publication, and production of Bone Cage, including notes and research material, sketches, partial and complete manuscripts and typescripts, production records, and other material.

Bone Cage is a portrayal of life in rural Nova Scotia. The main character is Jamie, a 22 year old forestry worker doing 12-hour shifts operating a wood processor, clear-cutting for pulp. At the end of each shift, he walks through the destruction he has created looking for injured birds and animals and rescues those he can. Jamie's desire to escape this world is thwarted by his fear of leaving the place where he has some status. Bone Cage examines how young people in rural communities, employed in the destruction of the environment they love, treat the people they love at the end of their shift.

The play was written with financial support from a 1996 Canada Council grant. It was initially meant to deal with systematic violence in rural communities. While writing the play, a new character began to emerge and Banks took time to develop this one-woman show that became Bitter Rose.

Bone Cage was published by Playwrights' Canada Press. It won a national competition run by Theatre British Columbia and won the 2008 Governor General's Literary Award (English) for Drama. In October 2007, it was co-produced by Forerunner Playwrights Theatre and Ship’s Company Theatre and performed at Neptune Theatre’s Studio Stage in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was also produced by Mulgrave Road Theatre in Guysborough, Nova Scotia, Downstream Theatre in Calgary, Alberta (2009-2010 ), and Matchstick Theatre Productions in Halifax (2017).

Correspondence

Series contains personal and professional correspondence, mostly incoming letters regarding Banks' writing and research, publishing, play production, and other activities. Correspondence related to specific productions or plays is listed in subseries under play title series as well as filed by the donor with related manuscripts. Other correspondence is found in the series "readings, festivals and workshops" and "grant and fundraising records."

Downed Hearts

Series contains annotated typescripts, correspondence, and production script of Downed Hearts, a play by Catherine Banks. Downed Hearts is about the aftermath of an air-sea disaster.

Eula's Offer

Series contains typescripts of Eula's Offer and a letter announcing honourable mention for the play in a Canadian playwriting competition. Eula's Offer is an early play by Catherin Banks about teen parenting. The main character is Eula, a teenager who just had a baby. Her boyfriend does not want to know about the baby and she has trouble looking after it. Eula's childless brother wants to care for the child.

The play received honourable mention at the Little Ottawa Theatre Competition in 1984.

Hockey Sisters

Series contains complete and partial scripts of Hockey Sisters, lyrics used in the play, and research material. Hockey Sisters is an early unfinished play by Catherine Banks. In a 2009 interview with One Big Umbrella, a theatre blog, Banks commented that she couldn't finish the play because she "couldn’t find that hook that made me want to finish it enough to dig down and do it."

In This Light

Series contains records for a play by Catherine Banks adapted from R. Farquharson Sharp's 1911 English translation of Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People. The play was commissioned by Two Planks and a Passion Theatre and premiered at Ross Creek Centre for the Arts on 6 July 2019. Records types in include manuscript drafts, correspondence, notes, reviews and a program.

It is Solved by Walking

Series contains records related to the development, production and publication of It is Solved by Walking, a play by Catherine Banks. The world premier was produced in 2011 by Urban Curvz Theatre in Calgary, Alberta, and named one of the eleven best productions of 2011 by the Calgary Herald. The play was published by the Canadian Playwrights' Press and won the 2012 Governor General's Award Literary Award for (English) Drama. Records include manuscripts, publicity materials and notes.

Love Bytes

Series contains records from a 1999 production of Love Bytes mounted at Jest in Time Theatre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Love Bytes is a one-scene play by Catherine Banks.

Match Love

Series contains six typescripts and one manuscript of Match Love, a play by Catherine Banks.

Miscellaneous manuscripts, essays and notes

Series contains other play manuscripts, poems and essays, and notes for plays and projects, including Smoking, The New Sex, The Love of Dance, The Morningside Caper, Seasons, The Boy that Cannot Be Contained, Willpower Play, The Dinner Party, and other projects. Series also contains script notes for This Hour Has 22 Minutes and materials written for Downstage Theatre.

Miss n Me / Missy and Me

Series contains partial and complete manuscripts of Missy and Me (later Miss n Me) along with related research, production and publicity materials. Missy and Me is the sixth play written by Catherine Banks. Inspired by the music of American rapper Missy Elliott, the play tells the story of a Nova Scotia housewife leaving for New York to pursue Missy Elliott, the object of her obsession. The play was shortlisted for the 2013 Stage West Pechet Family Comedy Award and was later produced by Sarasvati Productions and performed from 21-31 May 2015 at the University of Winnipeg Asper Centre for Theatre and Film and by Eastern Front Theatre in Halifax, NS, from 14-24 March 2019.

Photographs

Series contains photographs of Catherine Banks' personal and professional activities. Some photographs relate to plays written by Banks.

Readings, festivals, workshops and awards

Series contains records related to readings, awards, workshops and literary festivals where Banks' plays have been performed or workshopped. Records include applications forms, programs, newsletters, and correspondence.

Rilla-my-Rilla

Series contains records for a play manuscript by Catherine Banks based on L.M. Montgomery's Rilla of Ingleside.

Summer of the Piping Plover

Series contains materials relating to the development, publication and production of Summer of the Piping Plover, Catherine Banks' first published play, produced by UpStart Theatre in 1991. Materials include scripts and a proposal.

The Mountain and the Valley

Series consists of records, primarily manuscripts, notes and correspondence, regarding The Mountain and the Valley, a play adapted by Catherine Banks from a novel by Ernest Buckler.

Three Storey, Ocean View

Series contains records that document the development and production of Three Storey, Ocean View, a play by Catherine Banks. First produced in 2000 by Mulgrave Road Theatre in Guysborough, Nova Scotia, the play was a silver medalist in du Maurier National Play Competition and was published in 2003 by the Playwrights' Guild of Canada.