John MacLachlan Gray | |
|---|---|
| Born | John Howard Gray 1946 (age 78–79) |
| Occupation | Writer, composer and performer |
| Alma mater | Mount Allison University; University of British Columbia |
| Website | |
| johnmaclachlangray | |
John MacLachlan Gray,OC (bornJohn Howard Gray, 1946) is a Canadian writer-composer-performer for stage, TV, film, radio and print. He is best known for his stage musicals and for his two seasons as asatirist onCBC TV'sThe Journal, as well as an author, speaker and social critic on cultural-political issues.
John MacLachlan Gray was born in 1946[1] inOttawa,Ontario, and was raised inNova Scotia.[2]
He obtained a B.A. degree atMount Allison University, and an M.A. at theUniversity of British Columbia (UBC).[2]
While attending UBC, Gray foundedTamahnous Theatre,[2] and served as its director from 1971 to 1974. He then joinedTheatre Passe Muraille inToronto, Ontario, where he began writing and composing for the stage. His first musical was18 Wheels, about truck drivers.[2]
In 1978, withEric Peterson, he wrote and composedBilly Bishop Goes to War,[3] which appeared onBroadway in New York City in 1980, produced byMike Nichols, and inLondon's West End. It has since been performed in more than 150 independent productions in Canada and the United States. The play appeared on television in aBBC-CBC co-production, and in aGerman version,Billy Bishop Steig Auf.Billy Bishop Goes to War was the winner of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award in 1981, theGovernor General's Award for Drama, and the 1982 Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award.[citation needed]
In 2009, Peterson and Gray returned to their roles at Soulpepper Theater in Toronto, in a re-mounting where Bishop tells his story, wearing pajamas and dressing-gown, near the end of his life. Directed by Ted Dykstra, the production received rave reviews, and continues to be performed at Soulpepper and at other venues across Canada.[citation needed]
In 2010, the play was shot for CBC Television in partnership with Strada Productions, directed by Barbara Willis-Sweete.[citation needed]
Gray has written and composed six other musicals including18 Wheels,Rock and Roll,Don Messer's Jubilee,Health, andAmelia: The Girl Who Wants to Fly (2011).Rock and Roll won aDora Mavor Moore Award in 1982, and became an award-winning feature video entitledKing of Friday Night.[citation needed]
Gray's most recent musical isTheTree. TheTower. TheFlood,[2] three Bible stories for the age of information, commissioned by CBC Radio Drama.[citation needed]
In the late 1990s, Gray became a newspaper columnist, contributing weekly pieces on cultural politics to theVancouver Sun andThe Globe and Mail. In the early 2000s, he contributed a column toWestern Living Magazine called "O For the Love of Dog", in which he wrote about his dog Gus.[citation needed]
Gray then abandoned the theatre in favour of the novel – in a series of thrillers set in post-modernVancouver, mid-19th-century England and the United States before the Civil War. As withBilly Bishop Goes to War, Gray casts an ironic contemporary eye on imagined historical events.[citation needed]
Gray is the recipient of aGolden Globe, as well as theGovernor General's Medal.[3]
In 2000, he was made an Officer of theOrder of Canada[3] for "his contribution to Canada's cultural landscape". He holdshonorary doctorates fromDalhousie University andMount Allison University.[citation needed]
Other awards received by Gray include:[citation needed]
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