Sunil Kuruvilla is a Canadian playwright from Waterloo, Ontario.[1] He is most noted for his play Rice Boy, which was a shortlisted finalist for the Governor General's Award for English-language drama at the 2003 Governor General's Awards.[2]
Educated at Wilfrid Laurier University, the University of Windsor and Yale University,[3] he first emerged as a playwright in the early 1990s when he won a Shaw Festival competition with his play Fight of the Century.[3] His plays Bulldogs and Firetrucks (1994)[4] and Ears to Glass, Glass to Ground (1996)[5] were both selected for the prestigious Vancouver New Play Festival.
Rice Boy was first staged by the Yale Repertory Theatre in 2000 while Kuruvilla was a student there,[6] and received a production in Los Angeles by The Actors' Gang in 2001.[7] In 2001, his play Fighting Words was staged by Toronto's Factory Theatre,[8] and his play Minus 1 was staged at the Toronto Fringe Festival.[9] In 2002, his play Snapshot was staged in Louisville, Kentucky.[1]
Rice Boy was produced by Canadian Stage in 2003,[10] and was a Governor General's Award nominee that year following its publication by Playwrights Canada Press.
In 2009, Rice Boy was staged by the Stratford Festival, the festival's first-ever production of a play about the immigrant experience.[11] At that time, Kuruvilla was named one of Wilfrid Laurier University's .[12] top 100 graduates in the university's 100 year history. Since then, he has become a television writer and college professor.
References edit
- ^ a b "Kuruvilla, Sunil". encyclopedia.com, 2009.
- ^ "Waterloo playwright makes illustrious literary list". Waterloo Region Record, October 21, 2003.
- ^ a b "Young playwright holds a winning hand". The Globe and Mail, November 17, 2001.
- ^ "A winning play". Waterloo Region Record, December 3, 1993.
- ^ "Playwriting competition". The Globe and Mail, December 9, 1995.
- ^ "Riceboy". Variety, October 26, 2000.
- ^ "Rice Boy". Variety, April 30, 2001.
- ^ "Down for the count". Toronto Star, November 18, 2001.
- ^ "A part of Kitchener is going to The Fringe; Local director, actor bring Minus 1 play to Toronto festival". Waterloo Region Record, June 15, 2001.
- ^ "Play sparkles with warmth, humanity". Toronto Star, April 4, 2003.
- ^ "Beautiful memory play shows its local roots". Waterloo Region Record, August 24, 2009.
- ^ "Setting the scene". Laurier Campus, Summer 2009.