Drew Hayden Taylor

Open House

An Ojibway from the Curve Lake First Nations in Ontario, Drew Hayden Taylor has worn many hats in his literary career. He has been an award-winning playwright, a journalist/columnist (appearing regularly in several Canadian newspapers and magazines), short-story writer, novelist, television scriptwriter, and Artistic Director of Canada’s premiere Native theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts.

As a playwright, Drew has proudly been a part of what he refers to as the contemporary Native Literary Renascence. An author of more than 20 plays (resulting in almost a hundred productions), his popular plays such as Toronto at Dreamer’s Rock, Only Drunks and Children Tell The Truth, and The Berlin Blue have left their mark on the Canadian theatre scene.

The years of writing have brought him many accolades by his peers, including the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Award, Ontario Premier’s Award for Creative Arts and Design, and Victoria Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement in Theatre, to name a few. Self-described as a contemporary story teller, his exploration of the storytelling tradition has explored many boundaries.

When Lighthouse Artistic Director Derek Ritschel reached out at the beginning of 2020, Drew was happy to share a story idea he had recently come up with that explored, in a comedic sense, the sense of racism and marginalism that exists in Canada. Drew’s new play Open House, takes place at a real estate open house located in the big city. The real estate agent, a white woman, is there making sure the place looks great. One by one, the interested buyers arrive: A Black man, a Chinese man, a Jewish man and his Indigenous wife. Due to an accident in the neighbourhood, the police ask everyone to remain in the house for an extended period of time. As they sit there waiting, conversations about issues in their life pop up, starting an almost comedic contest about who has been the most marginalized people in Canadian history. Tempers and opinions fly.

Knowing Drew’s talent for exposing the humour and humanity in frank explorations of Canadian society from past Lighthouse productions of Drew’s plays, including Buz’Gem BluesalterNatives, and Bootlegger Blues, Derek arranged to commission the play so work on the first draft could start.

“Its so great to return to Lighthouse Festival after such a long absence. I always enjoyed my time working with the theatre and being an active part of Port Dover. Especially in these pandemic times, support like this for us struggling theatre artists is always welcome. Fabulous to know we can count on Lighthouse to keep that light of great theatre alive,” shared Drew. The pandemic has offered the rare benefit of free time for Drew so he can tackle projects like this.

The first draft of Open House has been completed and word spread of this comedic social commentary leading Infinitheatre in Montreal to join with Lighthouse in developing and producing it. Lighthouse is eager for our patrons to come see the finished play when it is ready.

More About Drew Hayden Taylor

During the last thirty years of his career, Drew Hayden Taylor has done many things, most of which he is proud of. An Ojibway from the Curve Lake First Nations in Ontario, he has worn many hats in his literary career, from performing stand-up comedy at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., to being Artistic Director of Canada’s premiere Native theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts. He has been an award-winning playwright, a journalist/columnist (appearing regularly in several Canadian newspapers and magazines), short-story writer, novelist, television scriptwriter, and has worked on numerous documentaries exploring the Native experience. Most notably as a filmmaker, he wrote and directed REDSKINS, TRICKSTERS AND PUPPY STEW, a documentary on Native humour for the National Film Board of Canada, and for CBC, co-created SEARCHING FOR WINNITOU, an exploration of Germany’s fascination with North American Indigenous culture. 2 years later he followed it up with the documentary COTTAGERS AND INDIANS, about Indigenous/non-Indigenous conflicts over land and water issues.

As a playwright, Drew has proudly been a part of what he refers to as the contemporary Native Literary Renascence. An author of more than 20 plays (resulting in almost a hundred productions), his popular plays such as TORONTO AT DREAMER’S ROCK, ONLY DRUNKS AND CHILDREN TELL THE TRUTH, THE BERLIN BLUES, and COTTAGERS AND INDIANS have left their mark on the Canadian theatre scene.

In the world of prose, he enjoys spreading the boundaries of what is considered Indigenous literature.

In 2007, Annick Press published his first Novel, THE NIGHT WANDERER: A Native Gothic Novel, a teen novel about an Ojibway vampire. 2010 saw the publication of his novel MOTORCYCLES & SWEETGRASS (Finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction). More recently, Douglas & McIntyre published a collection of his Native themed science fiction short stories, titled TAKE US TO YOUR CHIEF AND OTHER STORIES. Last fall, a new novel titled CHASING PAINTED HORSES, published by Cormorant Press, brought his publication total to 33 books.

His success as a writer has allowed him the opportunity to travel the world, spreading the gospel of Native literature. Through many of his non-fiction books, from the four volume set titled FUNNY, YOU DON’T LOOK LIKE ONE, to the ME FUNNY, ME SEXY, ME ARTSY series, he has tried to educate and inform the world about issues that reflect, celebrate, and interfere in the lives of Canada’s First Nations.

Self-described as a contemporary story teller, his exploration of the storytelling tradition has explored many boundaries. For example, he co-created and was the head writer for MIXED BLESSINGS, a television comedy series as well as contributed scripts to four other popular Canadian television series including BEACHCOMBERS and NORTH OF 60. In 2007, a made-for-tv movie he wrote, IN A WORLD CREATED BY A DRUNKEN GOD (based on his play which was a finalist for the Governor General Award for Drama) was nominated for three Gemini Awards, including Best Movie. In 2011 and 2012, he wrote the script for the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards, now known as the INDSPIRE AWARDS

The last few years has seen him proudly serve as the Writer-In-Residence at the Berton House in Dawson City Yukon, the University of Michigan, the University of Western Ontario, University of Luneburg (Germany), Ryerson University, Wilfrid Laurier, as well as a host of Canadian theatre companies i.e. Cahoots theatre, Blyth Theatre etc.

The years of writing have brought him many accolades by his peers, including the Floyd S. Chalmers Award, Dora Mavor Moore Award and the Canadian Author’s Literary Award, He has also been the recipient of many other varied honours; an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from Mount Allison University, a Plaque of Honour on the Peterborough Walk of Fame, the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Award, Ontario Premier’s Award for Creative Arts and Design, and Victoria Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement in Theatre, to name a few.

Oddly enough, the thing his mother was most proud of was his ability to make spaghetti from scratch.