(TORONTO, ON) Playwrights Guild of Canada member Erin Shields is the winner of the 2011 Governor General’s Literary Awards (English Language Drama). Erin has received this award in recognition of her outstanding play If We Were Birds. The announcement was made this morning at the Enwave Theatre at Harbourfront Centre, Toronto. 

 

If We Were Birds is Erin’s first play. It premiered at SummerWorks 2008 and was part of Tarragon Theatre’s 2009/2010 season. The play has also been translated into German.

 

Erin Shields is a playwright and actor who trained at Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in London, England.  She is a founding member of Groundwater Productions through which she creates, develops and produces much of her work including If We Were Birds. Erin’s other works include: The Epic of Gilgamesh (Groundwater/SummerWorks), the Dora-nominated The Unfortunate Misadventures of Masha Galinski (Groundwater/Canadian Tour), and Dance of the Red Skirts (Theatre Columbus). Earlier this year Erin remounted Montparnasse (Groundwater in Association with Theatre Passe Muraille), winner of the Alberta Theatre Projects Enbridge Emerging playRites Award.

 

The other finalists of the 2011 Governor General’s Literary Award (English Language Drama category) are: Brendan Gall (Minor Complications: Two Plays), Johnathan Garfinkel (House of Many Tongues), Donna Michelle St-Bernard (Gas Girls), and Vern Thiessen (Lenin’s Embalmers).

 

The Governor General Literary Award will be presented by His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada at Rideau Hall on November 24th, 2011. This award is conferred annually, through the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA). For more information on the awards, a list of this year's winners and the CCA visit www.canadacouncil.ca.