The Theatre of Linda Griffiths

Linda Griffiths, actor and playwright, is a charismatic and vital presence on the Toronto theatre scene from the early 1970s until her untimely death in 2014. She travels across Canada and to Broadway, performing Maggie & Pierre after it premiers in the Backspace of Theatre Passe Muraille in 1980. She performs in her final play, Heaven Above, Heaven Below, with Layne Coleman in this same intimate space in 2013. Between these two shows, Griffiths works in theatres across Canada all the while maintaining her dedication to Theatre Passe Muraille. Her beginnings in collective creation lead her to experiment with process and with the formal composition of her plays, as well as to continuously navigate between her roles as actor and playwright. This dissertation studies the arc of Griffiths's career in order to reposition her in the field. It explores Griffiths's experiments with form as well as her embodiment and continuation of the spirit and enthusiasm of the alternative theatre movement in Canada. I trace the development of her uvre as that of a playwright whose creative process travels the arc from collective, to collaboration, to writing solo for backspaces and mainstages, for both intimate venues and large national theatres, ultimately establishing her as one of Canada's most original and vibrant playwrights. This dissertation analyzes Griffiths's career as she discovers her actor-playwright identity, develops her own distinct creative process, and using her own unique methods writes and performs meaningful, powerful pieces which imagine new possibilities in women's representation. I draw on original archival research from the Linda Griffiths fonds held at the University of Guelph as well as archives and papers in the private possession of Layne Coleman, Griffiths's long-term fellow theatre practitioner. As a kaleidoscopic creator, Griffiths's work necessitates a kaleidoscopic study. The methods of analysis, however, remain focused on archival research into her process. Because of her tendency to write from lived experience and to thoroughly research her subjects, who are often derived from real people, I investigate Griffiths's alchemical methods of transforming truthful material into illusory, fantastical, ephemeral, yet poignant and impactful performances.