George Ryga was a Canadian playwright and novelist.
Early years
Ryga was born in Deep Creek near Athabasca, Alberta to poor Ukrainian immigrant parents. Unable to continue his schooling past grade six, he worked at a variety of jobs, including radio copywriter. Ryga continued to study, taking correspondence courses, and winning a scholarship to the Banff School of Fine Arts. In 1955, he traveled to Europe, where he attended the World Assembly for Peace in Helsinki and worked for the BBC. The following year he returned to Canada.
Career
While living in Edmonton, he published his first book, Song of My Hands, a collection of poems. Ryga's first play, Indian, was performed on television in 1961. He achieved national exposure with The Ecstasy of Rita Joe in 1967. The work, considered by many to be the most important English-language play by a Canadian playwright, is the story of a young native woman arriving in the city who finds that she has no place with either her own people or the white man. It was performed in Vancouver, at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and in Washington state. In 1971, the work was performed as a ballet by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Other plays by Ryga include:
He made a significant contribution to popular music when he wrote lyrics for a series of songs composed by the members of the Vancouver-based band The Collectors for the soundtrack of his 1969 play Grass and Wild Strawberries. Early Morning, the single release from the resulting Grass & Wild Strawberries album, became a minor local hit, and the showstopping album track Seventeenth Summer'' was re-recorded by the band after it underwent a membership change and changed its name to Chilliwack. The distinctive track, strongly influenced by First Nationsmusical forms, became a signature tune in live shows by Chilliwack for many years afterward.
A biography, The Ecstasy of Resistance, by James Hoffman, was published in 1995. Since 2004, the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature has been presented to a British Columbian writer who has published a book with significant social themes. A wall plaque to commemorate George Ryga was installed in the newly-opened Summerland Library in October of 2015.
Film
2009 - Hungry Hills
2018 - Just a Ploughboy:A film about George Ryga, written and directed by Gina Payzant
