Vancouver’s New Play Centre led the way in developing and producing the work of playwrights from Western Canada for the emergent Canadian theatre in the 1970s. The New Play Centre has been a major force in Canadian cultural life for two decades; it retains its dual role as playwrighting workshop and production company and remains an important facility for dramatists to reach national and international audiences.

To mark the New Play Centre’s twentieth year, Talonbooks presents a collection of eight of the finest plays produced by the company from 1975 to 1989: Herringbone by Tom Cone; Ned and Jack by Sheldon Rosen; Something Red by Tom Walmsley; Dreaming and Duelling by John Lazarus and Joa Lazarus; War Babies by Margaret Hollingsworth; Under the Skin by Betty Lambert; The Idler by Ian Weir; and The Wolf Within by Alex Brown. All of these plays have been produced throughout Canada, and often abroad, and remain in active production today. Each script appears in its most current form, with the playwright’s latest revisions, along with biographical and production data and photos.

Jerry Wasserman's profile page

Jerry Wasserman
Professor of English and Theatre at the University of British Columbia, Jerry Wasserman has written and lectured widely on Canadian theatre, modern fiction, dramatic literature, theatre history and blues music; edited the two-volume anthology Modern Canadian Plays, a standard course text now in its fourth edition; made more than two hundred appearances on stage, film and television; and served for more than fifteen years as a drama critic on CBC Radio. He is currently the editor of Vancouverplays.com, an informative website that provides up-to-date listings and reviews of local theatre performances.