The George Ryga Papers
George Ryga fonds, Renée L. Paris fonds,
George Ryga & Associates fonds

Juanita Walton and Sandra Mortensen, compilers; Marlys Chevrefils and Apollonia Steele, editors

About the Book

George Ryga is the author of Canada's best known English-language play, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe. He is also one of Canada's most prolific authors. Having embarked on a career as a professional writer in 1962, he has maintained a taxing work program as a short story writer, novelist, radio and television dramatist, poet and film scenarist, not to mention ventures into the world of ballet and opera. Fourteen years of this disciplined regimen have resulted in 190 plays, two cantatas, five screenplays, two long-playing albums, three novels, and a book of poetry, as well as a considerable body of unpublished and unproduced work.

His controversial Ecstasy of Rita Joe was commissioned by the Vancouver Playhouse for Canada's Centennial Year, and was the first play performed in the new National Arts Centre in Ottawa in 1969 before an audience which included Prime Minister Trudeau and the assembled provincial premiers. It has been broadcast and televised by the CBC. Commissioned by the Manitoba Indian Brotherhood to mark the centenary of the signing of Indian Treaties 1 and 2, a ballet version of Rita Joe was presented by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet at the Centre's Opera House in 1971. Since its debut, this outstanding Canadian play has been frequently produced both abroad and across Canada and always to acclaim. Furthermore, it has achieved the remarkable distinction of crossing the Canadian cultural barrier, having been translated into French by Gratien Gelinas. This translation, "the sole occasion on which Quebec's leading playwright has translated the work of an English-Canadian playwright," demonstrates the stature of Ryga's talent and his place in contemporary Canadian culture.

George Ryga was born to immigrant parents in the farming community of Deep Creek in Northern Alberta. His family had arrived in Canada from what Ryga calls "medieval Ukrainian villages" and this uprooting no doubt lies behind "the sense of spiritual homelessness [that] is common in his work," and explains the need of "many of the characters [to] define themselves by their relationship to a country they have lost or one they never find."

His formal education consisted of several years in a one-room schoolhouse, followed by some desultory secondary school correspondence courses, and by "hanging about some lecture rooms at the University of Alberta...." At the age of 16, Ryga's competitive writing won him two IODE scholarships to the Banff School of Fine Arts, which in turn led to study at the University of Texas. Before turning to writing as a full-time career, following the 1962 success of Indian on CBC television, Ryga worked variously as a farmhand, construction worker, janitor, postal worker, advertising copy writer, and "in other essential and some dismal occupations."

George Ryga feels strongly that Canadians would consider "themselves capable of creating a national culture," part of which must be the presentation of Canadian drama, which is "an accurate reflection of our life-condition," and which accepts "the language and human qualifications of the people to whom and of whom it speaks." Ryga believes that indigenous theatre is as essential "as potatoes and electricity" to the positive growth of a nation, and to this end, has been a vociferous supporter of a Canadian quota system for government-subsidized theatres in order to "open the doors wide to opportunities for [Canadian] playwrights...." His own success with drama designed to "sear both the social and cultural conscience of the nation" provides resounding evidence that it is not necessary for any Canadian theatre to rely solely on imported fare.

The exciting talent of George Ryga must be accorded recognition as a "formidable dramatic presence" on the Canadian cultural scene, and the acquisition of his papers an important milestone in that culture's documentation. The papers cover Ryga's activities from 1944 to 1988, and include poetry, short stories, novels, feature film screenplays, radio and television scripts, stage plays, musical works, essays and public addresses. The manuscript of the first work Ryga ever sold to the CBC is included - a short story entitled High Noon and Long Shadows (1960). There are various drafts of all three of his published novels, and manuscripts of his unpublished ones. Also included here are the typescripts and CBC production scripts for the many radio and television dramas by Ryga that the national corporation has produced in a multitude of dramatic series - Late Night Theatre, Matinee Theatre, Drama Special, Bush and Salon Series, CBC Stage, Mid-Week Theatre, Tales of the West, Studio Pacific, Quest, Shoestring Theatre, The Clients, and Festival. Scripts sold to the Canadian Television Network and the National Broadcasting Corporation in the United States also appear. The titles also appear under the category of stage plays and include major theatrical hits like The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, Grass and Wild Strawberries, Captives of the Faceless Drummer, Sunrise on Sarah, and Portrait of Angelica. Included are outlines, various draft stages, rehearsal scripts, revised scripts for productions subsequent to the first, music, lyrics, and reviews. There is a collection of tapes, including a live performance of A Feast of Thunder. Particularly valuable are Ryga's correspondence and financial files, which cover the years 1960-75, and, perhaps unique in a collection such as this, a set of the files of Ryga's literary agent, Miss Renée Paris, which rounds out Ryga's career in a remarkably full and useful manner.

This inventory is accompanied by a biocritical essay by James Hoffman

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