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Waiting for the Parade
Waiting for the Parade
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Author: John Murrell Publisher: Talonbooks (cover image may change) Format: Softcover # of Pages: 101 Pub. Date: 1980 ISBN-10: 0889221839 ISBN-13: 9780889221833 Cast Size: 5 female
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About
the Play:
Waiting for the Parade has long been a favourite of acting
teachers for Female Monologues and Female/Female Scenes.
Waiting for the Parade is a full-length comedic drama by
John Murrell. The Home Front, World War II, Calgary. Five very
different women band together to deal with a war they didn't start
and want no part of. A charming, funny, and touching drama, Waiting for the Parade is one
of Canada's best-loved plays.
Waiting for the Parade is set in Calgary in the 1940s. Five rich and varied female characters band together to work for the Second World War effort
for a conflict they had no part in causing. This Canadian classic
shows the walking wounded are not always at the front. Tragedy and
humour interweave as each of them copes with the impingement of war
on her daily life. As they entertain the troops, they cope with
shortages, politics, each other, and their menfolk – both those who
went overseas and those who stayed behind. They struggle, argue,
sing, drink and dance. And in the process, they come face to face
with themselves. Together, they find a way to survive a defining
moment in Canadian history, when a national identity based on working
together and accepting difference was born. The play developed out of
interviews with actual Calgary women who had managed to live through
the war. Incorporating the lifestyles and prejudices, and the songs and dances that inspired a generation through war time, Waiting for the Parade opens a multi-faceted window onto Canadian society at
the time.
Waiting for the Parade premiered in 1977 by Alberta
Theatre Projects, at the Canmore Opera House in Heritage Park,
Calgary and touched a chord with audiences. Theatres across Canada picked it up, a 1979 production at Ottawa's National Arts Centre toured the country, and versions were broadcast by the CBC both on radio and television. The play has
become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and
workshops and has been performed many times in
high school, college, and community theatre productions across
Canada, the US, the UK, and has become a classic repertoire piece in
theatres in the English-speaking world.
Cast: 5 female
What people say:
"You follow these women …
with a rapt empathy seldom elicited in world theater." —
New York Magazine
"Waiting for the Parade
demonstrates the old theatrical law that a play that is local,
detailed and specific often has the capacity to reach out beyond its
immediate environment. Set in Calgary, Alberta, Waiting for
the Parade deals with the way five women coped with the
pressures of World War II. Geographically, the conflict may have been
remote, but it still impinged on individual lives. Waiting
for the Parade is an honest play that captures precisely
the texture of ordinary hopes and despairs." — The
Guardian (London)
"A small masterpiece."
— The Ottawa Citizen
About the Playwright:
John Murrell (1945-2019) is one of Canada's best known
international playwrights. His dramas focus on real people and
cultural icons. His plays have been translated into 15 languages and
produced in more than 35 countries around the world. He headed the
Banff Playwright's Colony and the Theatre Section of the Canada
Council, was Associate Director of the Stratford Festival and
Artistic Director of the Banff Centre for the Arts, and is a multiple
Chalmers Award winner. For his enormous contributions to the arts in
his adopted province and country, the Texas-born Murrell received the
Alberta Order of Excellence and was appointed an Officer of the Order
of Canada.
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Edmond Rostand, Translated by John Murrell
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