Welcome to Equity in Theatre

Shirley Barrie is a playwright based in Toronto. She was born in Tillsonburg, Ontario, and graduated from the Universities of Western Ontario and Carleton. She went to London, England in 1972 and with Ken Chubb co-founded and was Associate Director of the Wakefield Tricycle Company and the Tricycle Theatre until 1984. It was during this period that she began writing plays for radio and theatre for young and family audiences. In Toronto in 1989, she founded Straight Stitching Productions with Lib Spry, and won two Chalmers Awards and a Dora for Straight Stitching and Carrying the Calf, two of the plays she wrote for the company. With Emil Sher she co-edited Prepare to Embark: Six Theatrical Voyages for Young Audiences for Playwrights Canada Press. Her award winning one-act Revelation is one of a series of short plays that have been produced and published widely. She has also developed scripts through the collective process, and written several plays about fascinating women from history. Beautiful Lady, Tell Me... was produced by 4th Line Theatre in 2007 and Queen Marie, about the great comic actress, Marie Dressler, was produced at 4th Line in 2012. Measure of the World was at the Alumnae Theatre Fireworks Festival of New Work in 2013 and I am Marguerite, the incredible story of a Frenchwoman abandoned in the New World, premiered on the main stage at the Alumnae in 2015. Shirley is currently writing a play about LM Montgomery’s eventful years in the tiny village of Leaskdale Ontario during which time she wrote The Blue Castle. Shirley was president of PGC from 2009-2011 and became a Lifetime Member of the Guild in 2015. For more information visitwww.shirleybarrie.ca and follow @shirleyplays on Twitter.