Ken Garnhum

Ken Garnhum is a Canadian playwright, performance artist and theatrical designer.[1] He is most noted for his performance piece Beuys, Buoys, Boys, which was a shortlisted finalist for the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play in 1989,[2] and his play Pants on Fire, which won the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award in 1995.

Career

Originally from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island,[3] Garnhum worked in art and theatre in Charlottetown before moving to Toronto in 1981.[1] His other plays and performance pieces have included Building a Post-Mortem Birdhouse,[4] How Many Saints Can Sit Around? (1987),[5] Twenty Minute History of Art (1987),[6] Surrounded by Water (1991),[1] The Incredible Red Vase (1991),[7] one word (1997)[4] and The Hermits (1998).[8]

In 1992, Beuys, Buoys, Boys was included in Making Out, the first anthology of Canadian plays by gay writers, alongside works by David Demchuk, Sky Gilbert, Daniel MacIvor, Harry Rintoul and Colin Thomas.[9] Pants on Fire, one of the early AIDS-themed plays in Canadian literature, was the first play Garnhum wrote after himself being diagnosed HIV-positive in 1993.[10]

He has also regularly worked as a set and costume designer, both on his own shows and for other playwrights;[4] he garnered Dora Award nominations for set design in 1994 for a production of The House of Martin Guerre,[11] and for both costume and set design in 1996 for Gloria Montero's Frida K.[12]

References
  1. "Surrounded by Water: Will Garnhum walk on water this time?". Toronto Star, January 4, 1991.
  2. "And the Dora nominees are...". The Globe and Mail, May 13, 1989.
  3. "Writer feels strong pull of P.E.I. home: Ken Garnhum uses past family generations as the starting point for many of his works". The Guardian, March 15, 1999.
  4. "Garnhum returns with his challenges for the ear and eye: Writer, performer, designer mixes literary allusion, inventive sets". Toronto Star, February 6, 1997.
  5. "One-man show a search for grace through art". The Globe and Mail, January 30, 1987.
  6. "New slant on art history". Toronto Star, April 20, 1987.
  7. "Tarragon opens doors". The Globe and Mail, April 13, 1991.
  8. "A plague of success". Toronto Star, December 3, 1998.
  9. "Book symbolizes gays' advances". The Globe and Mail, June 4, 1992.
  10. "The art of the positive". The Globe and Mail, August 1, 2000.
  11. "Miss Saigon leads in race for Doras". The Globe and Mail, May 18, 1994.
  12. "Harbourfront Centre tops Dora list: Captures 23 nominations, Canadian Stage is second with 17". The Globe and Mail, May 17, 1996.


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