John Douglas

John Douglas was born in Toronto in 1935 and was educated at Victoria University (B.A. 1957), where he performed in many Hart House Theatre productions. After studying drama production and theatre history in West Germany on a scholarship he returned to Canada in 1959 to work as a freelance actor. He joined the Neptune Theatre, Halifax, in 1963, becoming its dramaturge (literary manager) in 1965, and writing three plays there before spending 1968–1970 in Europe on a Canada Council Scholarship, studying dramaturgy. Douglas returned to Canada to become dramaturge of the Toronto Arts Production Company at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts in Toronto.

In 1971 he began his CBC radio production career as a drama producer in Halifax. He was one of three authors of the 1976 CBC report on “Radio Broadcasting in Arts, Music and Drama,” and the same year became Area Executive Producer for CBC radio network drama in Toronto. Co-winner (as director) of the international Variety broadcasting prize in 1979, he went on to produce radio drama at the CBC, including his own creation, “Festival Theatre.” In addition to his production work he wrote radio dramas, programme proposals and stage plays, including the 1986 script “The Bruce Curtis Case” from the “Scale of Justice” series, which won the Best Radio Drama Award. John Douglas died in 1991.