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Who Is Carol Libman |
Libman on Libman
 Carol Libman with Roy Higgins, 1973 |
ANSWER: I was born in Montreal in 1928. (A quick application of your calculator will indicate that I am now among the ancients, but still remember how to tie my shoelaces and hit the keyboard, not necessarily at the same time.) My writing career began at Simpson's Department Store, in the advertising department, then the Gazette...and it's been uphill, downhill and sideways ever since. I married Syd Libman (who later became an actor..see how the plot develops_) and moved to Sault St. Marie where, out of equal parts desperation and inspiration, we joined the Sault Theatre Workshop. Seven years later, in 1957, with two kids (a third was born in Montreal), and a couple of plays and a win at the Ottawa Little Theatre Playwriting Competition, we returned to Montreal.
By 1962, English theatre in Montreal was barely breathing. As part of a regeneration process, the Quebec Drama Festival, under the championship of Justice Edouard Rinfret, dispatched Robert Russel of the National Theatre School, veteran actress/director/producer Norma Springford, and actress Doris Malcolm to a meeting in December, 1962 at National Theatre School. Forty-one groups and individuals interested in theatre were contacted (my invitation came from Powys Thomas, then head of NTS), and there were probably 100 people at the meeting. To describe the proceedings as chaotic is the understatement of the year. When calm eventually prevailed another meeting was scheduled for January 1963. We met among the sagging sofas in a small anteroom at National Theatre School (then located at 1911 Mountain Street). In attendance: Norma Springford and Doris Malcolm of Quebec Drama Federation, myself; John Whelan sent regrets but joined soon thereafter. From this, Playwrights' Workshop was born.
In 1991, Ron Curtis submitted A HISTORY OF PLAYWRIGHTS' WORKSHOP MONTREAL 1963-1988 to the Department of English, McGill University, as his Master's Thesis. There is a copy at the Carol Libman Resource Centre. Any one who wants to know from whence we came, and how we did it is advised to read it.
A lot of people have worked very diligently through the years to bring Playwrights Workshop to its present state but, with no modesty whatsoever, I submit that if I hadn't poured years of energy, resilience, stubbornness and (yes!) vision, into the birth and growth of Playwrights' Workshop, you folks would have had to do it several times over. After 21 years the kid had grown up and, in 1984, I left home. The Workshop honoured me - and it is an honour - with what eventually became the Carol Libman Resource Centre. (Don't forget to dust the shelves from time to time, people!)