Michael O'Brien

James McKinnon (Victoria University of Wellington)
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Canadian playwright Michael O'Brien was born in 1965 on Salt Spring Island, in British Columbia, Canada.  He grew up in Ontario, Canada and London, England, and is a citizen of both Canada and the United States.  After graduating from the University of Ottawa in 1987 with an Honours BA in Theatre and English, he was accepted into Canada's National Theatre School in Montreal, Quebec, where he trained as a playwright and director.  A prolific writer, O'Brien has written 17 plays for stage and radio since 1991.  A number of his works have been nominated for major awards, most notably

Mad Boy Chronicle

, a radical adaptation of

Hamlet

, which was short-listed for the 1996 Governor-General's Literary Award for Drama, Canada's highest literary honour. 

O'Brien is a versatile dramatist who

980 words

Citation: McKinnon, James. "Michael O'Brien". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 April 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=11708, accessed 19 March 2024.]

11708 Michael O'Brien 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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