Irene N. Watts
Irene N. Watts (born 1931) is a German-born Canadian writer and educator.[1]
She was born in Berlin and lived there for seven years. She moved to the United Kingdom by way of Kindertransport and was educated in England and Wales.[1] Watts earned degrees in English literature and modern history at Cardiff University. She married, had 4 children and taught elementary school. In 1968, she came with her family to Canada.[2] She taught at the Ermineskin reserve in Hobbema, Alberta for a year[1] and then began directing plays for young audiences. In 1977, the family moved to Vancouver.[2]
Watts served as head of Citadel on Wheels/Wings, an outreach program of the Edmonton Citadel Theatre, which visited schools and communities in northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories.[3] In Halifax, she started the Young Neptune touring company[4] and helped Tom Kerr establish the Neptune Theatre School.[5] Watts was the founding director of the Vancouver International Children's Festival. In 2001, she was named a life member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada.[6]
Her play Lillie, about Home Children in Canada, received first prize at the International Playwright's Forum of the International Theatre Institute.[1] Watts has also received an Alberta Achievement Award for outstanding service to drama.[6]
Selected works[2][6]
- Good-Bye Marianne (1998), received the Geoffrey Bilson Award, also adapted for the stage as a one act play
- Tapestry of Hope An anthology of Holocaust Writing for Young People (2003), compiled with Lillian Boraks-Nemetz, received the Yad Vashem award for Holocaust studies
- The Golem of Prague (2009)
- Munsch at Play, Eight stage Adaptations for Young performers (2010)
- Munsch at Play Act 2: Eight More Stage Adaptions (2010)
- No Moon, young adult novel (2010), finalist for the American Library Association Book of the Year, named one of the ten best young adult historical novels by Booklist magazine
References
- 1 2 3 4 "Irene N. Watts". Playwrights Guild of Canada.
- 1 2 3 "Irene N. Watts". Annick Press.
- ↑ "Citadel Theatre". Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia.
- ↑ Watts, Irene N (1990). "Forward". Just a Minute: Ten Short Plays and Activities for Your Classroom. ISBN 0921217536.
- ↑ "Neptune Theatre fonds". Memory NS.
- 1 2 3 "Irene N. Watts". Children's Writers and Illustrators of British Columbia.