Watts, Irene
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Irene N. Watts was born in Berlin, Germany in 1931 and arrived in Britain via Kindertransport shortly before World War Two. She was educated in England and Wales. She has lived in BC, since 1976.
In 1968 she immigrated to Canada, and after a year teaching on Erminskin reserve, Hobbema, Alberta, continued a thirty year career in Theatre for Young Audiences across Canada.
Irene was made a lifetime member of Playwrights Guild of Canada in 2001. Other Honors include the Government of Alberta Achievement for outstanding service to Drama, The Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical fiction for Young People and the Toronto Jewish Book Award for Good-Bye Marianne and Remember Me. Tapestry of Hope An anthology of Holocaust Writing for Young People, compiled with Lillian Boraks Nemetz, Tundra Books, was awarded the Yad Vashem award for Holocaust studies in 2004. It includes excerpts from plays by Canadian Playwrights. Some scenes and monologues appear in Another Perfect Piece, ed. Tony Hamill. PCP 1995, Two for the Show, edited by Brian Kennedy, published by PC, and in She Speaks monologues for women, compiled and edited by Judith Thompson.
In 2006 Lillie a play about Home Children in Canada was awarded First prize at the International Playwright's Forum of the International Theatre Institute (UNESCO) It has been translated into Greek, and received staged readings in Athens, Greece on National Theatre Day, March 2007. A Terrible Truth Anthology of Holocaust Drama, Volume 1&2 was compiled by Watts.