Collection search - John Michael Meiklejohn fonds [sound recording, textual record]
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John Michael Meiklejohn fonds [sound recording, textual record]
Hierarchical level:FondsContext of this record:Fonds includes:7 lower level description(s)View lower level description(s) -
Finding aid Sound recordings (Electronic) See Film, Video and Sound database for item-level descriptions. (90: Open)Textual records (Electronic) This finding aid describes volume 1 at the file level. MSS2705 (90: Open)
http://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf002/p000003577.pdf -
Record information John Michael Meiklejohn fonds [sound recording, textual record]
Date:[193-?] to [198-?]; predominantly 1980-1983.Reference:R9094-0-3-E, MG30-D377Type of material:Sound recordings, Textual materialFound in:Archives / Collections and FondsItem ID number:190414Date(s):[193-?] to [198-?]; predominantly 1980-1983.Bilingual equivalent:Place of creation:CanadaExtent:7 audio cassettes (ca. 7 h, 32 min).
4 audio reels (ca. 4 h).
0.1 m of textual records.Language of material:EnglishScope and content:Fonds consists of sound recordings of interviews with or by Meiklejohn on the subject of drama in Canada, including the Ottawa Little Theatre and the Dominion Drama Festival. Included are manuscript memoirs on the state of theatre in Canada as well as the Dominion Drama Festival. The fonds contains research notes and sources compiled by Dr. Denis Johnston pertaining to Meiklejohn and the history of amateur theatre in Canada. A typescript of Miklejohn's play entitled The Galilean is also found in the fonds.Provenance:Additional name(s):Biography/Administrative history:Meiklejohn, John Michael, 1906-1989 : John Michael Meiklejohn (1906-1989). Canadian theatre historian and leading figure of Canadian community theatre and theatre education from the 1930s to the 1980s. Meiklejohn was educated at Gresham Public School in Norfolk, England, and the University of St Andrews, in Scotland, where he received a bachelor's degree in marine zoology. Following graduation, he immigrated to Canada, taking a position as a schoolteacher at Ashbury College, a private school in Ottawa. In the mid-1930s, he became involved in amateur theatre in Ottawa, joining the Ottawa Drama League (ODL) (which became the Ottawa Little Theatre (OLT) in 1951). In the ensuing years, he was instrumental in establishing an annual Canadian playwriting competition (now known as the Ottawa Little Theatre National Playwriting Competition); and with Julia Murphy and Marion Taylor began OLT's Children's Theatre and its offshoot Drama Classes for Children.
After marrying Barbara (Hilda) Eason, a fellow ODL member, in 1940, Meiklejohn returned to England at the outbreak of the Second World War. He joined the Shropshire Light Infantry as a second lieutenant, and thereafter the British General Staff, with whom he served in Italy, Greece, Yugoslavia and Austria. In 1946, the Meiklejohns returned to Ottawa. Meiklejohn resumed his pre-war position as a minor administrator with the British Ministry of Pensions, and also returned to the OLT.
From 1948 to 1955, he was a full-time theatre consultant with the Physical Fitness Division of the Department of National Health and Welfare. As a consultant, he adjudicated drama festivals, gave speeches, taught workshops, published training materials, and consulted informally with other leaders in theatre education in Canada and abroad. From 1948 to 1958, Meiklejohn was governor of the Dominion Drama Festival, the umbrella organization of small theatres across Canada.
He received the Canadian Drama Award in 1950, for outstanding contributions to Canadian theatre. In 1965, Meiklejohn moved to Victoria, B.C., where he became involved in the local theatre scene. He became interested in documenting Canadian theatre history, and taped interviews with many of the pioneers in Canadian theatre. This work notably resulted in his memoir on theatre in Ottawa in the 1930s, written in 1981, as well as his memoir "Theatre Education in Canada After World War II: A Memoir," edited and annotated posthumously by Denis W. Johnston (Theatre Research in Canada, Vol. 12 No. 2 (Fall 1991)).
John Michael Meiklejohn died on March 24, 1989.Additional information:General note:Received in 1981 and 1983 from Michael Meiklejohn. Accruals received from Dr. Denis Johnston in 2020.Associated material note:Associated material can also be found within the Ottawa Little Theatre fonds held at the City of Ottawa Archives.Related material:Related materials can also be found in the Dominion Drama Festival/Theatre Canada fonds held at LAC.Subject heading:Source:PrivateFormer archival reference no.:MG30-D377 -
Ordering and viewing options Conditions of access:Sound recordings[Consultation Open]Audio-visual item no. assigned by LAC [R9094][Consultation Open]53291AV;[Consultation Open]53625AV;[Consultation Open]Textual records[Consultation Open]Volume [R9094] 1[Consultation Open]Terms of use:Sound recordings Reproduction and use in any form requires the written permission of the copyright holder, Dr. Denis Johnston.You can order materials in advance to be ready for you when you visit. You will need a user card to do this.
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