About the Play:

Play Memory has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues, Male Monologues, and Female/Male Scenes.

Play Memory is a full-length drama by Joanna McClelland Glass. Jean recalls her Canadian salesman father's years of success, the years of failure accompanied by alcoholism and abuse, and the scars they left behind, in this memory play.

Play Memory is an examination of the decline and fall of Cam MacMillan, who considers himself a "Canadian aristocrat". He is full of pride in his heritage as a descendant of the Scottish laird who originally settled the prairie area and for his success as a salesman. His downfall begins when he is chosen as the scapegoat during a World War II gas-ration scandal. Although he does not go to jail, he loses his job and spends the rest of his life waiting for the world to come to him and apologize. We watch the effects of his alcoholism on his wife and daughter, and journey with them on their voyage toward survival. The background of both parents is present in the most autobiographical of author's works, Play Memory.

Play Memory premiered in 1984 at the McCarter Theatre, Princeton, New Jersey, directed by the legendary Harold Prince, with Donald Moffat starring as a Canadian salesman and father determined to drink himself to death. It transferred to Broadway at the Longacre Theatre and was nominated for a Tony Award that year. Its Canadian premiere was in 1986 at the 25th Street Theatre in Saskatoon. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and has enjoyed productions in community theatres.

Cast: 3 female, 8 male

What people say:

"A drama of searing vitality and power." — New York Post

"Utterly moving. The piece is almost a nightmare of serenity that is touched by poetry, illuminated by perception and cleansed by tears." — New York Times

"One of the most touching… plays I can remember." — CBS Radio

About the Author:

Joanna McClelland Glass is a Tony-nominated Canadian playwright. Born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, she studied theatre in high school and developed her abilities in community theatre. Shortly after moving to Calgary to work for a radio station, she won a scholarship to study acting at the Pasadena Playhouse. She then moved to New York, where she began to write. Her plays have been produced on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in many North American regional theatres, as well as in England, Ireland, Australia, and Germany.