Harry Rintoul

Harry Rintoul (December 9, 1956 - January 14, 2002) was a Canadian playwright and theatre director. He was best known for his 1990 play Brave Hearts,^[1] which was noted as one of the first significant gay-themed plays in Canadian theatre history to address gay themes in a rural setting outside of the traditional gay urban meccas of Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal.^[2]

Early life

Born in Canmore, Alberta, Rintoul moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba in childhood. As a young adult he moved to Regina, Saskatchewan for a time, during which he began writing Brave Hearts,^[3] but then moved back to Winnipeg and founded Theatre Projects Manitoba. He met the woman he'd marry in Winnipeg, and they moved to rural Manitoba and had a daughter before he passed away.

Career

The first production of Brave Hearts was staged by Buddies in Bad Times in Toronto, where it was a Dora Mavor Moore Award nominee for Outstanding New Play, Small Theatre Division in 1991.^[4] In 1992 Brave Hearts was included in Making Out, the first significant anthology of gay-themed Canadian plays, alongside works by David Demchuk, Sky Gilbert, Daniel MacIvor, Colin Thomas and Ken Garnhum;^[5] in 2006, it appeared in the anthology Perfectly Abnormal: Seven Gay Plays, alongside plays by Greg Kearney, Shawn Postoff, Christian Lloyd, Greg MacArthur, Ken Brand and Michael Achtman.^[6]

Rintoul's other plays included Life and Times, Refugees,^[7] Montana,^[8] Jack of Hearts, Between Then and Now, The Convergence of Luke^[9] and Lake Nowhere.

Harry S. Rintoul Memorial Award

Main article: Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival

Following his death in 2002, the Manitoba Association of Playwrights established an annual Harry S. Rintoul Memorial Award, presented to the year's best play by a Manitoba writer at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival.^[10]

References

1. "A brave play and production". Kingston Whig-Standard, January 23, 1992.
2. "Gay play act of courage". Calgary Herald, September 27, 1994.
3. "Threshold begins new series". Kingston Whig-Standard, January 21, 1992.
4. "Music and sex dominate Doras". Toronto Star, May 15, 1991.
5. "Book symbolizes gays' advances". The Globe and Mail, June 4, 1992.
6. Perfectly Abnormal: Seven Gay Plays. Playwrights Canada Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0887548529.
7. "Tough play proves potent ticket: Insight and emotion await at Men's Fest". Vancouver Sun, August 13, 1994.
8. "Western fringe". Winnipeg Free Press, July 23, 2006.
9. "Shields festival opens stage doors". Winnipeg Free Press, May 24, 2007.
10. The Harry S. Rintoul Memorial Award, Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival. http://www.winnipegfringe.com/PerformerArea/The-Harry-Rintoul-Award.aspx