Dennis Foon | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1951-11-18)November 18, 1951 (age 73) |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Occupation(s) | playwright, producer, screenwriter and novelist |
| Years active | 1976–present |
| Spouse | Jane Howard Baker (1975–1984) Elizabeth Dancoes (1984–present) |
| Children | Rebecca Foon, Aliayta-Foon-Dancoes |
| Website | dennisfoon |
Dennis Foon (born 18 November 1951)[1] is a Canadian playwright, producer, screenwriter and novelist.[2]
He was co-founder and artistic director for 12 years ofGreen Thumb Theatre inVancouver, British Columbia. There he wrote and produced a body of plays that continue to be produced internationally in numerous languages. He has received the British Theatre Award, twoChalmers awards, theJesse Richardson Career Achievement Award, a Governor General's nomination forSkin, and the International Arts for Young Audiences Award for these. In 2007, he was made a lifetime member of thePlaywrights Guild of Canada for “his outstanding contribution to Canadian Playwriting and Theatre.”
Foon's screenplays have continued his exploration into the psyche of youth:Little Criminals (1995), produced as aCBC movie about an 11-year-old gang leader, won multiple national and international awards;Life, Above All (2011), is a feature that received a ten-minute standing ovation atCannes; it was shortlisted for a 2011 best foreign languageOscar. He has won aGemini Award, twoWriters Guild of Canada Awards, twoLeos, and numerous other international awards for his screenplays.
Foon was born and raised inDetroit, Michigan, and graduated from theUniversity of Michigan. He has worked and resided inVancouver, Canada since 1973, and has Canadian citizenship.
Foon was born into a Ukrainian Jewish family inDetroit, Michigan, where he was raised. He attended local schools and theUniversity of Michigan, where he studied fiction. In 1972 he won theHopwood Award for fiction there. He moved toVancouver, British Columbia, and has resided in Canada since 1973.
During his early years (1975–1978) in theatre, Foon wrote experimental plays, drawing from common children's genres, such as myth, folktales, and indigenous legends. He and Jane Howard Baker were co-founders in 1975 ofGreen Thumb Theatre, a children's theater based in East Vancouver. He served from 1976 to 1988 as artistic director of the theater, in addition to writing several plays exploring the reality of contemporary children's lives.
In 1978, Foon realized there were few dramatic works that explored contemporary children's lives and reflected their real concerns. He began to write, produce and direct new plays that investigated children's worlds and focused on the concerns of young audiences. As the drama critic Sarah Gibson-Bray states in “The Mirror Game: Reflections of Young Canadians in Dennis Foon’s Child Advocacy Drama”, “Foon’s most significant contribution to the arts in Canada has been as a pioneer playwright who has helped to forge a new, realistic, issue-oriented, dramatic and theatrical genre christened ‘child advocacy theatre.’”[3]
Some of Foon’s most influential works includeNew Canadian Kid (1981) about a young immigrant (“not only a children’s classic, but a Canadian one as well”,Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia),[4]Skin (1984),Invisible Kids (1985),Liars (1986), andMirror Game (1988) while with Green Thumb. He later wroteSeesaw (1993),War (1994),Chasing the Money (2000), andKindness (2008). In these plays, Foon draws from his research, including interviews with hundreds of young subjects, social workers, teachers, and police officers. His works have been enthusiastically received in Canada and around the world. The plays portray with compelling credibility and theatricality the perilous world of children who endure systemic racism, school bullying, the trauma of divorce, and dysfunctional families.
In 1988, Foon left Green Thumb to pursue freelance writing and directing projects. He served as dramaturge and director ofJoan MacLeod’s play,Amigo’s Blue Guitar, which won the Governor General’s Award;Rigtig Dansk Dreng at Taastrup Teater, Denmark; and a production of his ownInvisible Kids for the Unicorn Theatre,London, England. An internationally produced playwright, he has won the British Theatre Award and been nominated for aGovernor General’s award.
Foon wrote the screenplayLife Above All, winner of thePrix Francois Chalais atCannes andshortlisted for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
He wrote the screenplay forIndian Horse (2017), adapted from a 2012 novel of the same name byRichard Wagamese (Ojibwe). HisA Shine of Rainbows (starringAidan Quinn andConnie Nielsen) premiered atTIFF and played at over 30 international film festivals, winning 11 awards.
He co-wroteMina Shum’s featureLong Life (starringSandra Oh, which premiered at TIFF andSundance). Foon has received theGemini Award, two WGC Awards, four Leos, and the Robert Wagner Award for his screenplays, includingLittle Criminals,International Emmy NomineeWhite Lies,Torso (Gemini, Best Movie),The Terry Fox Story, andOn The Farm.
He has also written more than 60 hours of episodic television, includingCracked,Cold Squad, and2030 CE (a series he created for YTV). He was nominated for aDaytime Emmy forMaggie’s Secret.Sawah, winner of the CinemaEuropa Prize, is now onNetflix in 46 countries.
In 2022, Sea to Sky Entertainment and Grinding Halt Films announced that Foon andJules Arita Koostachin were writing the screenplay for a film adaptation of Wagamese's 2009 novelRagged Company.[5]
In the 2000s, wanting to delve still deeper into the psyche of youth, he began to write novels, publishingDouble or Nothing,Skud (winner of the Sheila A. Egoff Book Award), and the trilogy,The Longlight Legacy. The latter has been published in Dutch, German, French, and Russian, and is described as “... a significant work of speculative fiction ... that should be included in any serious collection of such books.” —Resource Links, 02/07[full citation needed] “a remarkably imaginative future time that still manages to be rooted in our own world ... a powerful story...”Quill & Quire, 12/06[full citation needed]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
