Beverley Cooper
Beverley Cooper is an award-winning playwright, dramaturge and teacher. Her plays have been produced widely across Canada and include Thin Ice (co-written with Banuta Rubess, Chalmers/Dora Award), Clue in the Fast Lane (co-written with Ann-Marie MacDonald), The Eyes of Heaven, The Lonely Diner, Janet Wilson Meets the Queen (nominated for a Prix Rideau Award) and If Truth Be Told. Innocence Lost: A Play about Steven Truscott was finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award. In the summer of 2024, she had two new plays produced: The Trials of Maggie Pollock (Blyth Festival) and Jim Watts: Girl Reporter (4th Line Theatre). Until 2022, Beverley was the coordinator of The CASA Project, a charitable arm of the Playwrights Guild of Canada supporting women playwrights in South Africa and a recipient of the Bra D’or Award, an award that recognizes an individual for their efforts in supporting women playwrights. She holds an MFA from the University of Guelph and has presented her work at Women Playwrights International conferences in Mumbai, Stockholm, Cape Town and Santiago. She also directs audiobooks for Penguin Random House including titles by Margaret Atwood, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Miriam Toews and Tanya Tagaq. Beverley’s plays are published by Scirocco Drama. beverleycooper.com Two Stories of Injustice: Looking at History Through the Lens of a Playwright. The trials of Steven Truscott and Maggie Pollock.
Beverley Cooper is an award-winning playwright, dramaturge and teacher. Her plays have been produced widely across Canada and include Thin Ice (co-written with Banuta Rubess, Chalmers/Dora Award), Clue in the Fast Lane (co-written with Ann-Marie MacDonald), The Eyes of Heaven, The Lonely Diner, Janet Wilson Meets the Queen (nominated for a Prix Rideau Award) and If Truth Be Told.
Innocence Lost: A Play about Steven Truscott was finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award. In the summer of 2024, she had two new plays produced: The Trials of Maggie Pollock (Blyth Festival) and Jim Watts: Girl Reporter (4th Line Theatre).
Until 2022, Beverley was the coordinator of The CASA Project, a charitable arm of the Playwrights Guild of Canada supporting women playwrights in South Africa and a recipient of the Bra D’or Award, an award that recognizes an individual for their efforts in supporting women playwrights. She holds an MFA from the University of Guelph and has presented her work at Women Playwrights International conferences in Mumbai, Stockholm, Cape Town and Santiago. She also directs audiobooks for Penguin Random House including titles by Margaret Atwood, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Miriam Toews and Tanya Tagaq. Beverley’s plays are published by Scirocco Drama. beverleycooper.com
Two Stories of Injustice: Looking at History Through the Lens of a Playwright.
The trials of Steven Truscott and Maggie Pollock.
Playwright Beverley Cooper shares two incredible stories of injustice and resilience and how they both became hit plays for The Blyth Theatre Festival. In 2008, Beverley wrote Innocence Lost, a play about the wrongful conviction of fourteen-year-old Steven Truscott, sentenced to hang in 1959 for a crime he did not commit. This past summer, Blyth produced Beverley’s newest play The Trials of Maggie Pollock. Maggie Pollock was the last person to be charged and convicted of witchcraft in Canada. The year was 1919. Beverley will talk about the facts of these two unusual cases and how research inspires her work as a playwright. She will also talk about the hard creative decisions a writer must face when writing a play so it is illuminating yet also entertaining. Beverley would love to answer questions about Steven Truscott and Maggie Pollock as well as any queries you may have about playwriting or the current state of Canadian theatre.
Playwright Beverley Cooper shares two incredible stories of injustice and resilience and how they both became hit plays for The Blyth Theatre Festival. In 2008, Beverley wrote Innocence Lost, a play about the wrongful conviction of fourteen-year-old Steven Truscott, sentenced to hang in 1959 for a crime he did not commit. This past summer, Blyth produced Beverley’s newest play The Trials of Maggie Pollock. Maggie Pollock was the last person to be charged and convicted of witchcraft in Canada. The year was 1919. Beverley will talk about the facts of these two unusual cases and how research inspires her work as a playwright. She will also talk about the hard creative decisions a writer must face when writing a play so it is illuminating yet also entertaining.
Beverley would love to answer questions about Steven Truscott and Maggie Pollock as well as any queries you may have about playwriting or the current state of Canadian theatre.
This event is part of the Winter 2025 Speaker series.
Founding Members
Governance & Compliance - Bylaws
Speaker Events
7 Great Reasons to Join
.JPG)
