LITERARY LOCATION: Summerland Library, 9533 Main St, Summerland

A wall plaque to commemorate George Ryga was installed in the newly-opened Summerland Library in October of 2015, in conjunction with a temporary George Ryga exhibit, as a permanent feature of the 8,000 sq. ft. facility that was built across the street from the previous library for an estimated budget of $4.5 million.

George Ryga lived at 5109 Caldwell Street in Summerland from 1962 until his death in 1987 at the age of 55. The majority of George Ryga's plays, screenplays and novels were written in the large, Caldwell Street house that was designated as a heritage site in February of 1996. With a live-in caretaker, George Ryga House functioned as a cultural centre and occasional writers' retreat until early 2012 when the George Ryga Centre Society put the house up for sale and reluctantly disbanded. The house is now privately owned. Subsequently the annual George Ryga Award for best book contributing to social awareness by a B.C. author has been fully managed by B.C. BookWorld.

QUICK REFERENCE ENTRY:

George Ryga is British Columbia's greatest playwright. "More than any other writer," said theatre director John Juliani, "George Ryga was responsible for first bringing the contemporary age to the Canadian stage." The published version of Ryga's most famous play, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (1970), helped Talonbooks grow into the country's leading publishing house for drama.

The play dramatizes the story of a young aboriginal woman named Rita Joe who comes to the city only to die on skid row. Commissioned as a work for Canada's centennial celebrations, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe has a circular structure with the Brechtian use of a singer outside of the action. Ultimately the integrity of its central character demands self-destruction. "In a perverted way," noted critic R.B. Parker, "her [Rita Joe's] rape and death are the ecstasy of a martyr."

The Ecstasy of Rita Joe premiered in 1967 at the Vancouver Playhouse starring Frances Hyland as Rita Joe, Chief Dan George as her father, Ann Mortifee as the singer, Robert Clothier as the priest and August Schellenberg as Jaimie Paul. It was the first play in English to be presented in the National Arts Centre Theatre in Ottawa in 1969.

Ryga's Grass & Wild Strawberries, its follow-up at the Vancouver Playhouse, was a greater commercial success in B.C. with original music from The Collectors (who later became Chilliwack). The Vancouver Playhouse then commissioned another play from Ryga slated for presentation in February of 1971. Ryga's political drama Captives of a Faceless Drummer closely paralleled the events of the October Crisis in 1970, dramatizing conflicting ideologies. The Playhouse board of directors reversed their decision to produce the play. Neil Simon's Plaza Suite was produced instead. Although this led to the outright dismissal of artistic director David Gardner, it also caused Ryga to be regarded as being "too radical." The repercussions for Ryga were devastating. "The potentially greatest playwright in this country was blacklisted," theatre director Richard Ouzounian has claimed, "as carefully and as thoroughly as any one of the Hollywood Ten were under McCarthy."

George Ryga was born in Deep Creek, Alberta, in 1931. He was raised by poor immigrant Ukrainian parents on a farm in northern Alberta. After seven years in a one-room school, he left to work at a variety of occupations. Despite success writing for television and radio, money was always scarce. Ryga persevered with a series of hard-edged and increasingly political novels published by Talonbooks.

Ryga died in 1987 at age 55. James Hoffman produced a comprehensive biography in 1995. In 2003, John Lent of Okanagan College and Alan Twigg of B.C. BookWorld conceived an annual George Ryga Prize for the best book by a B.C. author that exemplifies George Ryga's passion for addressing social issues. His house in Summerland, known as the George Ryga Centre, was managed by Ken Smedley until the George Ryga Society was disbanded in 2014.

FULL ENTRY:

GEORGE RYGA: AN APPRECIATION BY ALAN TWIGG:

George Ryga is British Columbia's greatest playwright.

Only Eric Nicol, who had the first production of an original play by a B.C. writer at the Vancouver Playhouse, could begin to lay equal claim to the title of the Father of B.C. Playwriting in the modern era.

"More than any other writer," said theatre director John Juliani, "George Ryga was responsible for first bringing the contemporary age to the Canadian stage."

Ryga was, as playwright Charles Tidler once put it, "Canadian theatre's eloquent plea for the defence."

The turning point for Ryga--and for Canadian drama--was his lyric documentary play about a young Indian woman named Rita Joe who comes to the city only to die on Skid Row. Commissioned as a work for Canada's Centennial celebrations, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe is easily one of the most moving plays that Canada has ever produced.

With its circular structure and Brechtian use of a singer outside of the action, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, for Ryga, was more than a reflection of a local case of racial prejudice. It was his attempt to express his universal disdain and intolerance for injustice. "This issue is the burning issue of our time," he said. "It is what the Congo, Bolivia, Vietnam are about. People who are forgotten are not forgetting. To overlook them is a dangerous delusion."

The play first starred Frances Hyland as Rita Joe; Chief Dan George as her father; Ann Mortifee as the singer; Robert Clothier as the priest; and August Schellenberg as Jaimie Paul. It was directed by George Bloomfield. It premiered on November 23, 1967 at the Vancouver Playhouse. Ultimately the integrity of its central character demands self-destruction, a reflection perhaps of Ryga's early Catholic upbringing that he rejected in favour of socialist politics. In a perverted way, notes critic R.B. Parker, "her [Rita Joe's] rape and death are the 'ecstasy of a martyr."

The Ecstasy of Rita Joe was also the first play in English to be presented in the National Arts Centre Theatre in Ottawa in 1969. For several years afterwards it shook the nation. Less acclaimed nowadays, its follow-up at the Vancouver Playhouse, Grass & Wild Strawberries, was a greater commercial success in B.C. with original music from The Collectors (who later became Chilliwack). In keeping with the communalism of the Ryga household in Summerland, where artists were continuously welcome, Grass & Wild Strawberries was a genuine 'happening' that boldly embraced the zeitgeist of Vancouver's volatile street scene and B.C.'s back-to-the-land hippie movement.

Spurred by these two remarkable hits, the Vancouver Playhouse then commissioned Ryga for another play slated for presentation in February of 1971. Ryga's political drama Captives of a Faceless Drummer closely paralleled the events of the October Crisis in 1970, dramatizing conflicting ideologies. The Playhouse board of directors reversed a decision to produce the play. This led to the outright dismissal of artistic director David Gardner and to the reputation of Ryga as being 'too radical'. Neil Simon's Plaza Suite was produced instead.

The repercussions for Ryga were devastating. "The potentially greatest playwright in this country was blacklisted," theatre director and impresario Richard Ouzounian has claimed, "as carefully and as thoroughly as any one of the 'Hollywood Ten' were under McCarthy."

Ryga was born in Deep Creek, Alberta in 1931. He was raised by poor immigrant Ukrainian parents as a Catholic on a farm in northern Alberta. After seven years in a one-room country school, he left to work at a variety of occupations. In 1949, his writings for various competitions earned him a scholarship to Banff. He studied with Dr. E.P. Conklin of the University of Texas, Jerome Lawrence and Burton James. His first play broadcast on television, Indian (1961), was based on his experiences working with Cree Indians on his father's farm during a period when Ryga was recovering from a bout of pneumonia. He understood how the Crees could view white man's society as a prison. "Indian emerged out of the soil and wind of a situation in which I was painfully involved," he later wrote.

George Ryga credited the intervention of Daryl Duke for the successful launching of Indian and, with it, his professional career. Plays for television that followed included The Storm (1962), Bitter Grass (1963), For Want of Something Better To Do (1963), The Tulip Garden (1963), Two Soldiers (1963), The Pear Tree (1963) and Man Alive (1965). At the same time he was writing 12 short stories for radio and stage plays that included A Touch of Cruelty (1961), Half-Caste (1962), Masks & Shadows (1963), Bread Route (1963), Departures (1963), Ballad for Bill (1963), Indian (1964) and an adaptation of Margaret Laurence's The Stone Angel (1965).

This frenzied burst of activity included drafts for at least six unpublished novels, The Bridge (1960), Night Desk (1960--later published in 1976), Wagoner Lad (1961), Poor People (1962), Sawdust Temples (1963) and Old Sam (1963). The volume of work attests to the passion within the man. Ryga was proud to think of himself as a commercial writer. In 1977, for example, he wrote a script for the American TV show The Bionic Woman entitled Garden of the Ice Palace--and it was bought and produced after several rewrites. But money was always scarce. George Ryga persevered from the Okanagan with scores of radio and television plays, plus a series of hard-edged and increasingly political novels published by Talonbooks.

The published version of Rita Joe had helped Talonbooks grow into the country's leading publishing house for drama, but Ryga never prospered. "We were always broke and we couldn't afford paper," his wife Norma Campbell once said. "So George did most of his writing in his head and only produced two drafts, a first and a final." Ryga was also an avid songwriter and banjo player; his son Campbell Ryga has since become a highly respected saxophonist.

George Ryga died of cancer on November 18, 1987 at age 55. For several years afterwards his wife Norma remained in their home, just off Happy Valley Drive, overlooking Lake Okanagan, beneath Giant's Head, where George Ryga sometimes went hiking. The house become the George Ryga Centre, mostly overseen by Ryga's longtime friend and sometimes director Ken Smedley, until relations between Smedley and the George Ryga Society became fractious. The property was sold and the Society disbanded in 2014.

In 1993, when the B.C. Book Prizes ceremonies were held for the first time away from the coast, in Penticton, on April 24, a George Ryga Memorial Gathering was held to celebrate his spirit at Okanagan College. Coincidentally Talonbooks released a final volume of Ryga's posthumous writing, Summerland ($19.95), edited by Ryga's sister Ann Kujundzic. This final book is a collection of essays and excerpts that reflects Ryga's deeply political nature and his abiding sympathy for the downtrodden. James Hoffman produced a comprehensive biography in 1995.

In 2015, in honour of her brother George Ryga, Anne Chudyk, along with her husband Ted Chudyk, established two annual $1,000 Anne & Ted Chudyk Memorial Awards in Memory of George Ryga open to fulltime Okanagan College students interested in creating awareness of social issues. The first recipients were Chelsea Grisch and Teagan Phillips. "The award is meant to inspire students to follow in George's footsteps," Anne Chudyk told the Capital News, "but they need not be writers. It is more important that they demonstrate a strong interest in promoting social justice in some way that will benefit the community."

In 2003, John Lent of Okanagan College and Alan Twigg of B.C. BookWorld conceived an annual George Ryga Award for Social Awareness for the best book by a B.C. author that exemplifies George Ryga's passion for social issues. This award continues to be presented and is now administered solely by BC BookWorld, as of 2014.

BOOKS:

Song of My Hands & Other Poems (privately published, 1956)
The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (Talonbooks 1970)
The Ecstasy of Rita Joe and Other Plays (General Publishing, 1971). Includes Indian; Grass and Wild Strawberries.
Sunrise on Sarah (Talonbooks, 1973)
Hungry Hills (Talonbooks 1974). Originally published by Longman's Canada in 1963.
Night Desk (Talonbooks 1976)
Ballad of a Stonepicker (Talonbooks 1976). Originally published as Ballad of a Stone-Picker (London: Michael Joseph Limited, 1966).
Ploughman of the Glacier (Talonbooks 1977)
Seven Hours to Sundown (Talonbooks 1977)
Beyond the Crimson Morning (Doubleday, 1979)
Two Plays: Paracelsus and Prometheus Bound (Turnstone, 1982)
A Portrait of Angelica & A Letter to My Son (Turnstone, 1984)
In the Shadow of the Vulture (Talonbooks 1985)
The Athabasca Ryga (Talonbooks 1990)
Summerland (Talonbooks 1992)
George Ryga: The Other Plays (Edited by James Hoffman) (Talonbooks, 2004)
George Ryga: The Prairie Novels (Edited by James Hoffman) (Talonbooks, 2004)

SELECTED PRODUCTIONS:

The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (1967)
Grass and Wild Strawberries (1969). With music by The Collectors.
Captives of a Faceless Drummer (1971)
Sunrise on Sarah (1972)
Portrait of Angelica (1973)
Paracelsus (1986).

ABOUT RYGA:

The Canadian Dramatist, Vol. 1, Politics and the Playwright: George Ryga, by Christopher Innes (Simon & Pierre, 1985)

The George Ryga Papers (University of Calgary, 1995)

The Ecstasy of Resistance: A Biography of George Ryga, by James Hoffman (ECW Press, 1995)

[Other authors pertaining to British Columbia who have also published works for theatre in book form, as of 2010, include Aguirre, Carmen; Angel, Leonard; Armstrong, Gordon; Armstrong, Michael; Atkey, Mel; Austen-Leigh, Joan; Blackley, Stuart; Bossin, Bob; Botting, Gary; Brennan, Kit; Brinkman, Baba; Bruyere, Christian; Bushkowsky, Aaron; Carlson, Tim; Carson, Linda; Chai, Camyar; Clark, Sally; Clarke, Denise; Clements, Marie; Cone, Tom; Conlon, Christopher; Cowan, John; Crossland, Jackie; Dawe, T..J.; Diamond, David; Dumaresq, William; Evans, Chad; Fairbairn, A.M.D.; Frangione, Lucia; Gale, Lorena; Garrard, Jim; Grace, Sherrill; Gray, John MacLachlan; Gregg, Kevin; Highway, Tomson; Hoffman, James; Hollingsworth, Margaret; Hoogland, Cornelia; Hull, Raymond; Irani, Anosh; Irvine, Andrew; Kalsey, Surjeet; Kaplan, Beth; Kerr, Kevin; Lambert, Betty; Langley, Rod; Leiren-Young, Mark; Lill, Wendy; Loring, Kevin; Lowe, Lisa; Loyie, Larry; MacLean, David; MacLeod, Joan; Manuel, Vera; McNicoll, Susan; Mercer, Michael; Moore, Mavor; Murphy, John; Page, Malcolm; Panych, Morris; Parkin, Andrew; Payton, Brian; Quan, Betty; Ratsoy, Ginny; Rhys, Captain Horton; Richmond, Jacob; Ringwood, Gwen; Roberts, Kevin; Roberts, Sheila; Russell, Chester; Russell, Lawrence; Seelig, Adam; Seng, Goh Poh; Shiomi, Rick; Simons, Beverley; Skinner, Constance Lindsay; Snukal, Sherman; Stearn, Sharon; Sumter-Freitag, Addena; Szanto, George; Thomas, Colin; Tidler, Charles; Verdecchia, Guillermo; Wade, Bryan; Walmsley, Tom; Warre, Henry James; Wasserman, Jerry; Weiss, Peter Elliot; Williams, Tennessee; Wilson, Sheri-D; Wyatt, Rachel; Yates, J. Michael; and Youssef, Marcus.]

[Alan Twigg / BCBW 2014] "Classic" "Theatre" "Fiction" "First Nations"