Winner of the Voaden Prize, 2019

Staged readings:
Kingston Writersfest, September 2019, directed by Craig Walker
Village Playhouse, Toronto, November 2019.

Stage Ready script available from Canadian Play Outlet for amateur productions.

Setting

The present.

A modern meeting room in a university: boardroom table, office chairs, AV unit, etc. The action takes place over the course of one afternoon as the final oral examination of Hannah Ward’s PhD thesis – her defence – is ending. In an oral defence the student is questioned about her thesis by her supervisor, committee members, and an external examiner. It finishes with the examiners voting on whether or not the student passes and receives the degree.

At curtain: Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin playing. Images of woods and frozen lakes. Pots and pans upstage, a harmonium and an astrolabe and a samovar and a liquor cabinet, typewriters, other imaginative antiques. Lots of books.

As the play begins, the exam has been going on for about three hours: the chairs have become painful, the air close.

Characters

Hannah Ward, a graduate student, mid 20s On a mission. Insightful, cutting, and vulnerable.

Tom Solloway, a biographer, 50ish. August, well-fed, charming, and elusive.

Barney Patricchio, a young professor, 30ish. Nervous, besotted, smart. (And: Tom when he was decades younger.)

Galina Jackson, a dean, mid 40s.Ambitious, perfectly dressed, and keen to maintain her assurance. (And: Marilyn, a powerful New York literary agent.)

Alfred Whinny, an old professor, 70ish Doddery and narcissistic, but perhaps not such a fool as he appears. (And: Armin, an eccentric Slovenian publisher.)

Janis Chung, a middle-aged professor, mid 50sCaring and honourable, someone who actually listens, a good person. (And: Claudia, an able office assistant.)  

1.

GALINA

If there are no other questions--