Norm Foster

Ed Mullaly (University of New Brunswick, Fredericton)

Ed. by Glen Nichols, Mount Allison University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.1.2: Canadian Writing and Culture (Anglophone): The Twentieth Century and beyond, 1900-present.
Vol. editors: Sarah Henzi (Simon Fraser University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Glen Nichols (Mount Allison University), Wendy Roy (University of Saskatchewan), Denis Salter (McGill University), Karis Shearer (University of British Columbia)

Dates

Born 14 Feb 1949
Activity 1981-ongoing

Places

Born in Canada
Active in Canada

Activities

Primary

Playwright / Dramatist
Theatre actor

Resources

Foster's Works

Save to Bookshelf

Norm Foster (b. 1949) is generally recognized as Canada's most produced playwright. In a

Globe and Mail

article, theatre commentator Richard Ouzounian linked the Fredericton writer with Alan Ayckbourn (England) and Neil Simon (United States) as the three most talked-about playwrights of their respective countries. Significantly, producers, especially of summer stock, now speak about “doing a Norm Foster” just as they used to talk about “doing a Neil Simon”. Foster's humour does indeed contain echoes of the plot-driven comedies of Simon and Ayckbourn, but his writing also reflects the work of comic, character-driven playwrights such as Woody Allen and television comedians such as Jerry Seinfeld, combining the virtues of traditional stage plays with those of popular electronic…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1185 words

Citation: Mullaly, Ed. "Norm Foster". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 April 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5318, accessed 21 November 2024.]