Arthur Milner

Milner was born in Germany, and is Jewish.[https://www.theatrevoice.com/audio/canadian-playwright-arthur-milner-discusses-his-controversial-facts/ "Canadian playwright Arthur Milner discusses his controversial Facts,"] Theatre Voice. His parents were Polish Jews who survived the Holocaust in World War II by escaping to Russia. After several years in a Displaced Persons Camp, the family emigrated to Montreal in 1951. He is the brother of political scientist {{ill|lt=Henry Milner|Henry Milner (political scientist)|fr|Henry Milner}}.

Milner was a student at Carleton University in Ottawa when friends and colleagues founded the Great Canadian Theatre Company(GCTC) in 1975. He soon joined GCTC as an actor and Board member. He was appointed resident playwright in 1984 and Artistic Director in 1991.{{Cite web |title=Profile |url=https://playwrightsguild.ca/presspoint/ |access-date=2022-03-20 |website=Playwrights Guild of Canada |language=en-CA }}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{Cite web |last=Staff |first=Centretown |date=2005-11-25 |title=Artistic director promises new era for GCTC |url=https://capitalcurrent.ca/archive/centretownnews/1997-2016/2005/11/25/artistic-director-promises-new-era-for-gctc/ |access-date=2022-03-20 |website=Centretown News |language=en-US}}{{Cite news |last=Zekas |first=Rita |date=2008-01-19 |title=Play's the thing with Hannah Moscovitch |language=en-CA |work=The Toronto Star |url=https://www.thestar.com/news/2008/01/19/plays_the_thing_with_hannah_moscovitch.html |access-date=2022-03-20 |issn=0319-0781}}{{Cite web |first= |date=April 27, 2005 |title=Shakeup at Great Canadian Theatre Company |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/shakeup-at-great-canadian-theatre-company-1.569360 |access-date=March 18, 2022 |website=CBC News}} He was elected president of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres in 1993. He has worked as a dramaturge at the Banff Playwrights Colony, the Manitoba Association of Playwrights, and Playwrights Workshop Montréal. He has taught at Concordia University, Carleton University, Algonquin College, the National Theatre School in Montreal. Recently, he taught courses in political theatre at the University of Calgary and the University of Regina.{{Cite web |title=Arthur Milner – Marquis Literary |url=https://mqlit.ca/playwrights/arthur-milner/ |access-date=2022-03-20 |language=en-US}}

He has directed his own work as well as Criminals in Love by George F. Walker; Odd Fish by Pamela Boyd; Stephen and Mr. Wilde by Jim Bartley; Brothers of the Brush by Jimmy Murphy; Bedtime Story by Seán O’Casey; The London Vertigo by Brian Friel; Our Country's Good by Timberlake Wertenbaker; On the Razzle by Tom Stoppard; and, in 2014, the world premiere of George F. Walker's The Burden of Self-Awareness.{{Cite web |last1=Meng |first1=Connie |last2=Ottawa |first2=in |last3=ON |title=Theatre Review: "The Burden of Self Awareness" at the Great Canadian Theatre Company |url=https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/25086/20140609/theatre-review-the-burden-of-self-awareness-at-the-great-canadian-theatre-company |access-date=2022-03-20 |website=NCPR}}{{Cite web |last=McFarlane |first=Brie |date=2014-06-08 |title=Mo' Money, Mo' Problems: The Burden of Self Awareness |url=https://newottawacritics.com/2014/06/08/mo-money-mo-problems-the-burden-of-self-awareness/ |access-date=2022-03-20 |website=The New Ottawa Critics |language=en}} Since its founding in 1992, he has written on arts and politics for Inroads, the Canadian Journal of Opinion.{{Cite web |title=Arthur Milner – Inroads |url=https://inroadsjournal.ca/author/arthur-milner/ |access-date=2022-03-20 |language=en-US}}

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English, Carleton University (1975); and a Master of Arts in English and Cultural Studies, Carleton University (2002) — Thesis: “Political Theatre, Modernist Marxism, and the Avant-Garde”; Thesis Advisor: Paul Keen{{Cite thesis |title=Political theatre, modernist Marxism, and the avant-garde |url=https://curve.carleton.ca/8fb4358b-3ed8-4d50-97c2-0811909fd5cc |publisher=Carleton University |date=2003 |degree=Text |first=Arthur |last=Milner}}

Milner now lives in Regina, Saskatchewan, where his wife, Jennifer Brewin, is Artistic director of Globe Theatre.{{Cite web |title=Theatre is an 'opportunity': New Globe artistic director has big plans |url=https://leaderpost.com/entertainment/local-arts/theatre-is-an-opportunity-new-globe-artistic-director-has-big-plans |access-date=2022-03-20 |website=leaderpost |language=en-CA}}

Milner joined GCTC as an actor but soon turned to writing plays. His first plays were adaptations of novels for children. He then worked on several collective creations, including Sandinista! which opened in Ottawa in 1982 and toured Canada. He was appointed resident playwright in 1984 and wrote a new play for GCTC every year until his appointment as Artistic Director in 1991. He has also been commissioned to write plays for Edmonton’s Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre, Vancouver’s Green Thumb Theatre, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Caravan Farm Theatre.

His play Facts, a murder mystery set in the Palestinian West Bank, premiered at GCTC in 2010 and was subsequently produced in Toronto and Vancouver; in London, U.K. (Time Out Critic's Choice), and in Istanbul (in Turkish); and for a 9-city tour through Palestine and Israel (in Arabic).{{Cite web |last=Ruprecht |first=Alvina |date=2010-04-20 |title=Facts at the GCTC: Powerful play by Arthur Milner that will encourage debate on a hot subject. |url=http://capitalcriticscircle.com/facts-at-the-gctc-powerful-play-by-arthur-milner-that-will-encourage-debate-on-a-not-subject/ |access-date=2022-03-20 |website=Capital Critics' Circle / Le cercle des critiques de la capitale |language=en-CA}}{{Cite web |title=Facts – Marquis Literary |url=https://mqlit.ca/plays/facts/ |access-date=2022-03-20 |language=en-US}} Getting to Room Temperature — a one-person play about Milner's mother's polite quest for assisted suicide — toured for several years after it premiered at Ottawa's Undercurrents Festival in 2016.{{Cite web |title=Undercurrents: Arthur Milner offers the theatre of life and death |url=https://ottawacitizen.com/uncategorized/undercurrents |access-date=2022-03-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207163717/https://ottawacitizen.com/uncategorized/undercurrents|archive-date=7 February 2016|website=ottawacitizen |language=en-CA}} In February 2022 it was produced by Regina-based theatre company Curtain Razors with the use of teleprompter technology.

Milner is the recipient of numerous awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the City of Ottawa. He has been awarded an Honorary Membership by the Canadian Association for Theatre Research (1998);{{Cite web |title=Honorary Members and Lifetime Achievement {{!}} Membre honoraire et prix d'excellence pour l'ensemble de la carrière |url=https://catracrt.ca/honorary-and-lifetime-members/ |access-date=2022-03-20 |website=CATR / ACRT |language=en-CA}} the Victor Tolgesy Award for Contribution to the Arts in Ottawa (1993);{{Cite web |title=The Victor Tolgesy Arts Award {{!}} Le Prix Victor Tolgesy pour les arts |url=https://www.ottawaartscouncil.ca/victor-tolgesy-arts-award |access-date=2022-03-20 |website=Ottawa Arts Council {{!}} Conseil des arts d'Ottawa |language=en-US}} and a Canada 125 Medal.

• Sandinista! (Collective) — 1982
• 1997 — 1984
• Cheap Thrill — 1985
• Zero Hour — 1986
• Learning to Live with Personal Growth — 1987
• The City — 1990
• Sisters in the Great Day Care War — 1990
• Masada — 1991
• It's Not a Country, It's Winter — 1998
• Crusader of the World — 1999
• Joan Henry: The Musical (with Allen Cole and Estelle Shook) — 2003
• Facts — 2010
• The Vicar of Dibley (Adaptation) — 2015{{Cite web |date=2015-04-22 |title=Stage scenes: George Brown bravos |url=https://nowtoronto.com/stage-scenes-george-brown-bravos |access-date=2022-03-20 |website=NOW Magazine |language=en-US}}
• Getting to Room Temperature — 2016

• Samer Al-Saber, "Arabic Facts in Palestine: Clashing Hybridities in Transnational Cultural Production.” Theatre Research in Canada,{{Cite journal |last=Al-Saber |first=Samer |date=2014-11-25 |title=Arabic Facts in Palestine: Clashing Hybridities in Transnational Cultural Production |url=https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/TRIC/article/view/22392 |journal=Theatre Research in Canada / Recherches théâtrales au Canada |language=en |issn=1913-9101}}
• Aaron Ellis, “Arthur Milner, Two Plays about Israel/Palestine: Masada/Facts,” Journal of Jewish Ethics, Vol. 3, No. 2 (2017), pp. 276–279, Penn State University Press,{{Cite journal |last=Ellis |first=Aaron |date=2017 |title=Review |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jjewiethi.3.2.0276 |journal=Journal of Jewish Ethics |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=276–279 |doi=10.5325/jjewiethi.3.2.0276 |issn=2334-1777|url-access=subscription }}
• Kevin De Ornellas, "Arthur Milner". In Gabrielle H. Cody and Evert Sprinchorn, eds, The Columbia Encyclopedia of Modern Drama, 2 volumes (Columbia University Press, 2007), volume 2, pp. 909-10. {{ISBN|9780231140324}}

{{reflist}}

• "Arthur Milner", Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia,{{Cite web |title=Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia - Milner, Arthur |url=https://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Milner,%20Arthur |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=www.canadiantheatre.com}}
• "Arthur Milner", Marquis Literary,{{Cite web |title=Arthur Milner – Marquis Literary |url=https://mqlit.ca/playwrights/arthur-milner/ |access-date=2024-12-12 |language=en-US}}
• "Arthur Milner", Playwrights Guild of Canada, https://playwrightsguild.ca/paupress/profile/3284/view/
• "Great Canadian Theatre Company", Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia,{{Cite web |title=Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia - Great Canadian Theatre Company |url=https://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=Great%20Canadian%20Theatre%20Company |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=www.canadiantheatre.com}}
• "Arthur Milner", Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada{{Cite book |last=Curtin |first=Matt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mkh2vJ_9GpEC&dq=%22arthur+milner%22+encyclopedia&pg=PA306 |title=Brute Force: Cracking the Data Encryption Standard |date=2005-02-16 |publisher=Springer New York |isbn=978-0-387-20109-2 |language=en}}
• "Interview with FACTS playwright Arthur Milner", Review Vancouver,{{Cite web |title=reviewvancouver: Interview with FACTS Playwright Arthur Milner |url=http://www.reviewvancouver.org/th_arthur_milner2014.htm |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=www.reviewvancouver.org}}
• Facts Review, Time Out, March 1, 2013, “A Deservedly Brilliant UK Premiere”; http://www.timeout.com/london/theatre/facts
• Facts Review, Countercurrents, “The Masterly Intellectual Gravitas of Milner’s Unflinching...”; Dr Vacy Vlazna,{{Cite web |date=2017-03-30 |title=DOUBLE EXPOSURE: Plays Of The Jewish And Palestinian Diasporas{{!}} Countercurrents |url=https://countercurrents.org/2017/03/double-exposure-plays-of-the-jewish-and-palestinian-diasporas/ |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=countercurrents.org |language=en-US}}

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Category:1950 births

Category:Living people

Category:Canadian male dramatists and playwrights

Category:Polish refugees

Category:Polish emigrants to Canada

Category:Jewish Canadian writers

Category:Polish expatriates in Germany

Category:Canadian people of Polish-Jewish descent

Category:Canadian male stage actors

Category:Carleton University alumni

Category:20th-century Canadian male actors

Category:20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights

Category:21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights

Category:20th-century Canadian male writers

Category:21st-century Canadian male writers