Ned Dickens

Ned Dickens (born 1959 in British Columbia) is a Canadian playwright. He authored 16 plays,[1] including the City of Wine series, a seven-play cycle which "traces the rise and fall of the ancient city of Thebes, from its founding by Cadmus and Harmonia to its demise at the siege of Troy."[2]

Ned Dickens
Born1959
British Columbia
NationalityCanadian
OccupationPlaywright
Years active1994 — present
Notable work
City of Wine series

Life

Dickens was born in 1959[3] in British Columbia and raised in Ontario.[4] His father was a teacher who taught in boarding schools.[4]

For 10 years, he worked in architecture.[1] He was the director for the Kensington Youth Theatre and Employment Skills program in Toronto, using theatre as a training tool for street youth.[1]

Dickens lives in Kingston and has three children.[4]

Playwriting career

In 1994, Dickens turned to playwriting from acting when he developed advanced glaucoma.[4] He was commissioned to write a new version of Seneca's Oedipus.[2] After writing the piece and winning a Dora Award, Dickens wanted to further explore the story of Jocasta, Oedipus's mother. He then became fascinated by "the aftermath of Oedipus's downfall."[4] After six years, Dickens had expanded Oedipus to become a trilogy and decided to "dramatize the entire history of Thebes."[4] In total, the series took 15 years to write.[5] To support himself during this time, Dickens taught public speaking to politicians and worked in construction, injuring his hand in an accident.[5]

In May 2009, Dickens's seven-play cycle, City of Wine, debuted at Toronto's Theatre Passe Muraille.[6][7] The play involved 233 student actors, 172 professional actors, and 110 theatre artists[6] and was produced by Nightswimming, an independent theatre company.[5] In its entirety, the play's running time is 12 hours. Robert Kushman, in the National Post, described it as a "dizzyingly ambitious feat of producing and a dizzying achievement."[6]

References
  1. "Kingston Life". www.kingstonlife.ca. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  2. "Preview: City Of Wine". NOW Toronto Magazine - Think Free. Retrieved 2016-05-11.
  3. "Ned Dickens - Presentation and Communication Services". Ned Dickens. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  4. "A playwright's marathon in ancient Greece". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  5. "Living with Oedipus for 15 years - Macleans.ca". Macleans.ca. 2009-02-19. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  6. nurun.com. "'A wonderful blend of stage production and rock..." The Kingston Whig-Standard. Retrieved 2016-05-06.
  7. Fallis, Alex (2010). ""Without our past, we are just any town, no town at all": City of Wine". Canadian Theatre Review. 142 (1): 90–94. doi:10.1353/ctr.0.0021. ISSN 1920-941X. S2CID 143717622.
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