Djanet Sears

James McKinnon (Victoria University of Wellington)

Ed. by Glen Nichols, Mount Allison University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.1.2: Canadian Writing and Culture (Anglophone): The Twentieth Century and beyond, 1900-present.
Vol. editors: Sarah Henzi (Simon Fraser University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Glen Nichols (Mount Allison University), Wendy Roy (University of Saskatchewan), Denis Salter (McGill University), Karis Shearer (University of British Columbia)

Dates

Born 1959
Activity 1979-ongoing

Places

Born in England
Active in Canada; Africa - West; United States

Activities

Primary

Playwright / Dramatist
Theatre actor
Theatre Director

Resources

Sears' Works

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Djanet Sears is a Canadian playwright whose plays have been produced across Canada and in the United States. Although she is best known as a playwright, Sears is accomplished in a number of fields: she has extensive experience in acting for stage and screen, is a prominent director and producer of African Canadian theatre, and teaches at the University of Toronto. Sears emerged as an important new playwright in 1987, when

Afrika Solo

became the first play staged in Canada by a woman of African descent. Her best-known work,

Harlem Duet

, won the 1998 Governor-General's Literary Award for Drama, Canada's highest literary honour, and will be revived in 2006 at the Stratford Festival, North America's largest theatre festival. At the time of writing, her most recent play is

The

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1011 words

Citation: McKinnon, James. "Djanet Sears". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 April 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5368, accessed 18 April 2024.]

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