Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Gordon Armstrong fonds
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Fonds
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Physical description area
Physical description
1.8 m textual records and other material 18 photographs ca. 260 sketches, predominantly graphite 14 posters
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Playwright Gordon Armstrong was born in 1960 in New Westminster, B.C. He majored in Theatre Arts at Douglas College and Vancouver Community College and attended one semester at Concordia University as an English major. He then held various positions, as a teaching and administrative assistant, theatre poster and leaflet designer, puppeteer, sound co-ordinator and sound technician. His first hit was Hashisch (1985), produced at the Vancouver Fringe Festival. Other plays followed: The Mona Lisa Toodle-oo (New Play Centre, Vancouver, 1989), Blue Dragons (Canadian Stage Company, Toronto,1993) and Scary Stories (Martha Cohen Theatre, Calgary, 1995). A Map of the Senses (1992, later retitled Ultravista) received a Jessie Richardson Award and the Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance’s Sydney Risk Award. Armstrong also created material for the performance art troupe, Talent Hut, for shows at the Western Front and the Grunt Gallery in Vancouver. He was a founding member and president of The Betty Lambert Society for the development of playwriting, and publicist for the O.H. Lettuce B. Fools of: Society, a charitable organization founded to promote interest and participation in all aspects of clowning. In addition, he was a theatre and music critic for eleven years. Armstrong died in 1996. An annual Playwright’s Rent Award in his name, honouring the hard work of playwrights, is sponsored by Origins Theatre Projects in Vancouver.
Custodial history
Scope and content
Fonds consists of script, poetry and prose drafts, house programs, publicity materials, reviews and articles, grant applications, business and personal correspondence, interviews, clippings and magazines, relating to the life of Vancouver playwright Gordon Armstrong (1960-1996). Fonds also includes business records of the Betty Lambert Society and the O.H. Lettuce B. Fools of: Society, as well as the contents of six sketchbooks, from grade school art to professional design work.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Donated by the estate and family of Gordon Armstrong, September 2000.
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Script of material
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Restrictions on access
Access is open.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Copyright, normally, is held by the creator. Materials cannot be published without the permission of the copyright holder. Single copies can be made for research, study and publication purposes.
Finding aids
Associated materials
Tarragon Theatre Canadian Stage Theatre Archives
Accruals
No further accruals are expected.