More information about The Ryga Initiative at Okanagan College is available online at www.ryga.ca

George Ryga Week

November 1-7, 2009

George Ryga Week has been proclaimed by the Provincial Government and the Office of the Lieutenant Governor to honour the contribution Ryga made to the creative community. A gala celebration will be held November 7 at 7pm in the Okanagan College Theatre. The first issue of Ryga: A Journal of Provocations will be launched with readings by the editor, Sean Johnston, and some of the contributors. Ken Smedley of the George Ryga Centre in Summerland will present the Ryga Award, and the winner will read from the book. The adjudicator of the 2009 Ryga Award is Robert MacDonald, Publisher in Residence of Okanagan College, who will also give a brief presentation on the winning book.

The George Ryga Award

for Social Awareness in Literature

The criteria for the award are: 1. social awareness ­ in keeping with Alberta-born George Ryga's status as a marginalized Ukrainian Canadian who was deeply concerned with justice, the judges will select an outstanding work of both literary and social value that opens up discussion of social and cultural issues. 2. bc writer ­ a writer who has lived in BC for three of the last five years. 3. book ­ a full-length book (not a chapbook) published during the preceding calendar year.

THE AWARDS

I kiss and embrace the revolutionary, for his is the eternal half of the human will! I hold in my hands the kneeling man planting a tomato bush, for he speaks to God as wisely as an astronaut, flying into the eye of heaven! I sing the jingle-jangle songs of today's children, for they are more beautiful than we might ever have been! I breathe deeply the growl and hum and bangle of life, for it redeemed me from the silent despair that once threatened me.

­ George Ryga, Notes from a Silent Boyhood, 1967

Ryga: A Journal of Provocations

Metaphors guide us, as artists, and if we're at work at two in the morning when there is milk to deliver at dawn, it's to tell a story to take that young boy home, to bend and break the metaphors, to discover new ones, or new uses for old ones. The railroad is a symbol of our national construction, and of the domination of the centre, but the boy used it for himself. But the young man torn from his community must find his way back. George Ryga knew that. We cannot let the roles we play determine our vision. We cannot become the magistrate from The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, who glimpses briefly the solitary child by the road and then cannot find her again. Claiming to not see the questions of our time does not answer them.

George Ryga wrote about this world now and that currency, that urgency is what we want to carry on here. Ryga will seek the best stories, essays, poems and plays in this tradition ­ the literature that our country is so rich in: literature that writes its way home without giving in to nostalgia; literature that celebrates all our competing traditions and resists any safe homogeneity; but literature that refuses to romanticize the voices of the past in a way that denies them a life in the present or the right to presume a central role in the future.

We will not look away. This is art that may entertain but more often challenges. It exists in the call centres, in the kitchens, in the studios, the harvests, the factories. It's building a road somewhere, finding a new way into community. As George Ryga wrote:

An artist in our time can turn and flee from all this ­ rush away to some patch of earth reasonably insulated from the drumbeats of ongoing history [ ... ] but that is not the only choice. There is another method of approaching this uncompromising dilemma. And that is to continue on into the desert [ ... ] to allow new language and metaphor to filter into oneself through osmosis of food, climate, pacing, humour, fear.

We will avoid art that flees. We will avoid art that describes but does not take a stand. We will celebrate prose, for instance, that contains what Steven Milhauser calls the "secret aggression" to contain the whole world. We will publish poems that, to paraphrase Seamus Heaney, are born from an impulse to answer, and, in that answer, to provoke a continuing response.

All art is response. It cannot exist outside the political no matter how hard it tries. If it describes a flower, it describes a flower as the artist sees it, depending on her bravery, her fear, her humility, her arrogance, but she describes it as it must be also. Its place in the world depends upon it. Art responds to the world with its own provocations. It demands new answers. It never ends the conversation.

The basic question we will ask is: What is at stake? If we fail, what happens? And here, again, George Ryga is our model. What is at stake is Rita Joe's life. If she fails, she dies, and she does. If the world fails in its response to Rita Joe, what is at stake is our humanity. It is the world as it is in conflict with the world as it should be.

We take our name from Ryga, a political writer, to honour his commitment to his art and to his world. His legacy is this: he was a human living in a community and that community was living in a nation, that nation in a world. He wrote without nostalgia about the world that lived around him. He believed the artist had a responsibility to write counter-narratives, to treat the marginalized among us fairly, to challenge the formal boundaries of his art without losing the humanity of the characters that drive it. These characters live and move according to a complex, tentative political agreement that must not be taken as natural, but must be interrogated in every way.

­ Sean Johnston, Editor

The Life & Works of George Ryga

The turning point for Ryga ­ and for Canadian drama ­ was his lyric documentary play about a young Indian woman named Rita Joe who comes to the city only to die on Skid Row. Commissioned as a work for Canada's Centennial celebrations, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe is easily one of the most moving plays that Canada has ever produced. With its circular structure and Brechtian use of a singer outside
of the action, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, for Ryga, was more than a reflection of a local case of racial prejudice. It was his attempt to express his universal disdain and intolerance for injustice. "This issue is the burning issue of our time," he said. "It is what the Congo, Bolivia, Vietnam are about. People who are forgotten are not forgetting. To overlook them is a dangerous delusion." The play starred Frances Hyland as Rita Joe; Chief Dan George as her father; Ann Mortifee as the singer; Robert Clothier as the priest; and August Schellenberg as Jaimie Paul. It was directed by George Bloomfield. It premiered on November 23, 1967 at the Vancouver Playhouse. Ultimately the integrity of its central character demands self-destruction, a reflection perhaps of Ryga's early Catholic upbringing that he rejected in favour of socialist politics. In a perverted way, notes critic R.B. Parker, "her [Rita Joe's] rape and death are the ecstasy of a martyr."

The Ecstasy of Rita Joe was also the first play in English to be presented in the National Arts Centre Theatre in Ottawa in 1969. For several years afterwards it shook the nation. Less acclaimed nowadays, its follow-up at the Vancouver Playhouse, Grass & Wild Strawberries, was a greater commercial success in B.C. with original music from The Collectors (who later became Chilliwack). In keeping with the communalism of the Ryga household in Summerland, where artists were continuously welcome, Grass & Wild Strawberries was a genuine 'happening' that boldly embraced the zeitgeist of Vancouver's volatile street scene and B.C.'s back-to-the-land hippie movement. Spurred by these two remarkable hits, the Vancouver Playhouse then commissioned Ryga for another play slated for presentation in February of 1971. Ryga's political drama Captives of a Faceless Drummer closely paralleled the events of the October Crisis in 1970, dramatizing conflicting ideologies. The Playhouse board of directors reversed a decision to produce the play. This led to the outright dismissal of artistic director David Gardner and to the reputation of Ryga as being 'too radical'. Neil Simon's Plaza Suite was produced instead. The repercussions for Ryga were devastating. "The potentially greatest playwright in this country was blacklisted," theatre director and impresario Richard Ouzounian has claimed, "as carefully and as thoroughly as any one of the 'Hollywood Ten' were under McCarthy."

Ryga was born in Deep Creek, Alberta in 1931. He was raised by poor immigrant Ukrainian parents as a Catholic on a farm in northern Alberta. After seven years in a one-room country school, he left to work at a variety of occupations. In 1949, his writings for various competitions earned him a scholarship to Banff.
He studied with Dr. E.P. Conklin of the University of Texas, Jerome Lawrence and Burton James. His first play broadcast on television, Indian (1961), was based on his experiences working with Cree Indians on his father's farm during a period when Ryga was recovering from a bout of pneumonia. He understood how the Crees could view white man's society as a prison. "Indian emerged out of the soil and wind of a situation in which I was painfully involved," he later wrote. He credited the intervention of Daryl Duke for the successful launching of Indian and, with it, his professional career. Plays for television that followed included The Storm (1962), Bitter Grass (1963), For Want of Something Better To Do (1963), The Tulip Garden (1963), Two Soldiers (1963), The Pear Tree (1963) and Man Alive (1965). At the same time he was writing 12 short stories for radio and stage plays that included A Touch of Cruelty (1961), Half-Caste (1962), Masks & Shadows (1963), Bread Route (1963), Departures (1963), Ballad for Bill (1963), Indian (1964) and an adaptation of Margaret Laurence's The Stone Angel (1965). This frenzied burst of activity included drafts for at least six unpublished novels, The Bridge (1960), Night Desk (1960 ­ later published in 1976), Wagoner Lad (1961), Poor People (1962), Sawdust Temples (1963) and Old Sam (1963). The volume of work attests to the passion within the man. Ryga was proud to think of himself as a commercial writer. In 1977, for example, he wrote a script for the American TV show The Bionic Woman entitled Garden of the Ice Palace ­ and it was bought and produced after several rewrites. But money was always scarce. George Ryga persevered from the Okanagan with scores of radio and television plays, plus a series of hard-edged and increasingly political novels published by Talonbooks. The published version of Rita Joe had helped Talonbooks grow into the country's leading publishing house for drama, but Ryga never prospered. "We were always broke and we couldn't afford paper," his wife Norma Campbell once said. "So George did most of his writing in his head and only produced two drafts, a first and a final." Ryga was also an avid songwriter and banjo player; his son Campbell Ryga has since become a highly respected saxophonist.

George Ryga died of cancer on November 18, 1987 at age 55. For several years afterwards his wife Norma remained in their home, just off Happy Valley Drive, overlooking Lake Okanagan, beneath Giant's Head, where George Ryga sometimes went hiking. The house has since become the George Ryga Centre, mostly overseen by Ryga's longtime friend and sometimes director Ken Smedley. In 1993, when the B.C. Book Prizes ceremonies were held for the first time away from the coast, in Penticton, on April 24, a George Ryga Memorial Gathering was held to celebrate his spirit at Okanagan College. Coincidentally Talonbooks released a final volume of Ryga's posthumous writing, Summerland, edited by Ann Kujundzic. His final book is a collection of essays and excerpts that reflects Ryga's deeply political nature and his abiding sympathy for the downtrodden. James Hoffman produced a comprehensive biography in 1995. In 2003, John Lent of Okanagan College, Ken Smedley of Ryga House and Alan Twigg of B.C. BookWorld conceived an annual George Ryga Prize for the best book by a B.C. author that exemplifies George Ryga's passion for social issues.

­ Alan Twigg, BC BookWorld

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS:
The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (Talonbooks 1970)
The Ecstasy of Rita Joe and Other Plays (General Publishing, 1971). Includes Indian; Grass and Wild Strawberries.
Sunrise on Sarah (Talonbooks, 1973)
Hungry Hills (Talonbooks 1974). Originally published by Longman's Canada in 1963.
Night Desk (Talonbooks 1976)
Ballad of a Stonepicker (Talonbooks 1976). Originally published as Ballad of a Stone-Picker (London: Michael Joseph, 1966).
Ploughman of the Glacier (Talonbooks 1977)
Seven Hours to Sundown (Talonbooks 1977)
Beyond the Crimson Morning (Doubleday, 1979)
Two Plays: Paracelsus and Prometheus Bound (Turnstone, 1982)
A Portrait of Angelica & A Letter to My Son (Turnstone, 1984)
In the Shadow of the Vulture (Talonbooks 1985)
The Athabasca Ryga (Talonbooks 1990)
Summerland (Talonbooks 1992)
George Ryga: The Other Plays (Edited by James Hoffman) (Talonbooks, 2004)
George Ryga: The Prairie Novels (Edited by James Hoffman) (Talonbooks, 2004)

SELECTED PRODUCTIONS:
The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (1967)
Grass and Wild Strawberries (1969)
Captives of a Faceless Drummer (1971)
Sunrise on Sarah (1972)
Portrait of Angelica (1973)
Paracelsus (1986).

ABOUT RYGA:
The Canadian Dramatist, Vol. 1, Politics and the Playwright: George Ryga, by Christopher Innes (Simon & Pierre, 1985)
The George Ryga Papers (University of Calgary, 1995)
The Ecstasy of Resistance: A Biography of George Ryga, by James Hoffman (ECW Press, 1995)
Summerland ($19.95), edited by Ann Kujundzic

A Typographer by Trade

Robert was the Director of the Publishing Workshops at the University of Toronto and the Banff Centre for fifteen years. This unique professional development initiative motivated a generation of publishers, and fostered an aggressive new approach to print and digital publishing in Canada. He managed all aspects of the well-regarded programs, and was praised for his energy, dedication, creativity, and practical knowledge of the media industries. He was also the founding Director of the Arts Journalism program at the Banff Centre, and the Media Studio at the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

He was a founder of the Canadian Periodical Publishers Association, the Graphic Arts in the Public Service Foundation, and a number of other professional and social service organizations. He started the first workers cooperative in Canada, and has been involved at an executive level in developing nonprofit housing cooperatives in Toronto, Ottawa and New York. He built the first modern handmade paper mill in Canada in Bear River, Nova Scotia. He helped start the first feminist publishing company in Canada, and was a senior advisor to the first native-owned publishing company in Canada. He was the senior advisor to Canadian University Press (the student newspaper association, and the oldest student organization in the world) for 7 years, and directed the formation of Campus Plus, a national newspaper advertising sales agency to enable the organization to be self-sustaining. He started one of the first Internet service providers (isp) in Canada, and developed the first guide for consumer use of the Internet, in 1993. He has beeen directly involved in the launch or repositioning of more than 3 newspapers, 33 magazines, 13 book publishing companies, 3 interactive media companies, and 3 software companies.

Robert has consulted at a senior level, and provided creative and management services, to museums and art galleries, government departments, education institutions, public service organizations and associations, publishing media and software companies, and enterprises in the travel, product distribution, packaged goods, professional services, software and technology sectors.

Some of his clients have included: Random House, McGraw Hill, Penguin Books, Maclean's, Reader's Digest, CBC, United Nations, Government of Canada, Canada Post, SFU, NYU, March of Dimes, Ontario Crafts Council, Canadian Museums Association, MotionWorks, IBM, Unisys, Walt Disney, Foot Cone & Belding, JWT Advertising, TravelCUTS, Fidelity, and Pepsi.

Robert has undertaken a wide range of training and professional development activities in Canada and the United States. He has lectured on technical and professional subjects and skills, and developed and conducted seminars, presentations, symposiums, and workshops. He has also produced curriculum guidelines and materials for professional development, university and college programs, served on advisory boards, and mentored individuals, nonprofit organizations and professional associations in a variety of sectors.

He has lived in the Okanagan Valley for 10 years. He is an active community volunteer, and is currently a director and Treasurer of the Central Okanagan Hospice Association, a leader of Vision North Okanagan and the founding director of the Okanagan Institute.

The Role of the Publisher in Residence at Okanagan College

Robert MacDonald is working with faculty members and various departments in the College as a function of his appointment. He brings extensive national and international experience as publisher, marketer and educator to bear on initiatives with the Okanagan College Foundation and the Kalamalka Institute of Working Writers, among others.

"Okanagan College has long recognized the critical importance of the creative industries ­ especially the literary and communications arts ­ to the College and to the communities it serves," notes Okanagan College President Jim Hamilton. "By creating this position, we are signaling our intention to expand our commitment, and grow our programs and services, addressing an increasingly important sector, the creative economy."

MacDonald is well known in the Okanagan for the active role he has taken in promoting the arts and the creative sector. As publisher, editor and designer of books and magazines, as a founder and director of the Okanagan Institute, and as an advisor and mentor to a number of individuals, organizations and businesses, he has demonstrated a solid commitment to the creative community throughout the Okanagan.

"In addition, his 30-plus years as a creative and business powerhouse in the media and technology sectors in Canada and the United States promise to help us elevate our engagement and ensure our continuing relevance going forward," says Hamilton. "His experience as a publisher and marketer, and his 15 years as director of the Publishing Workshops at the University of Toronto and the Banff Centre, will bolster existing and emerging College initiatives. We look forward to taking full advantage of the many talents that Robert can contribute to our programs and services, and welcome him to the Okanagan College fraternity."

"I am honoured to be considered for this opportunity by the College," says MacDonald. "The creative industries are moving from the margins to the mainstream of our society. The digital age has fostered huge opportunities for creative business. It has reduced costs, given birth to new tools, enabled new business models, facilitated new forms of creative collaboration and generated a new co-creation dynamic between creator and consumer.

"There is also a renewed focus in the education system on how to encourage creative thinking, and on providing opportunities for students and faculty alike to stretch their creative muscles. This is no better expressed than in the dynamic multi-campus, multi-discipline environment of the College, one of the Okanagan's most progressive and valuable institutions. I hope to make a meaningful contribution, and look forward to the challenge."

Contact: Robert MacDonald, 250.870.2690, rmacdonald@okanagan.bc.ca

Number 1, November 2009. ISSN 1920-5848

Copyright © 2009 Okanagan College. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the publisher.
Signature is published in association with the Okanagan Institute.