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Michael Healey

Michael Healey trained as an actor at Toronto’s Ryerson Theatre School in the mid-eighties. His first play, a solo one-act called Kicked, was produced at the Toronto Fringe Festival in 1996. The Drawer Boy, his first full-length play, premiered in Toronto in 1999, winning the Dora Award for best new play, the Chalmers Canadian Playwriting Award and the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama. Time magazine listed it in its top ten best new plays of 2001, and it continues to be produced regularly across North America and internationally. Healey’s other works include The Road to Hell (co-authored with Kate Lynch), Plan B, Rune Arlidge, The Innocent Eye Test, The Nuttalls, Are You Okay? and 1979. His trilogy focussing on Canadian values and politics, entitled Generous, Courageous, and Proud, have met with great critical success. Healey’s plays have won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for best new play five times. He has also adapted works by Chekhov, Molnar and recently, Dürrenmatt’s The Physicists which premiered at the Stratford Festival. His most recent adaptation is of the classic American comedy The Front Page, which premiered at the Stratford Festival in 2019.  Michael continues to work as an actor occasionally and is a regular contributor to the Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, National Post, Toronto Life, and Walrus.

Books by Michael Healey