Paul David Power is a Canadian actor, playwright and theatre director from Newfoundland and Labrador,Paula Gale, "N.L. playwright a finalist for Governor General's Literary Award". CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador, October 21, 2021. whose play Crippled was a nominee for the Governor General's Award for English-language drama at the 2021 Governor General's Awards."Rachel Cusk among fiction finalists for Governor General's Literary Awards". Toronto Star, October 14, 2021.
Crippled, about a gay disabled man coping with grief following the death of his partner, was based in part on his own experiences following the death of his partner, Jonathan, in 2013.Paul David Power, "I learned to change a light bulb, and many other things, after my partner died". CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador, February 13, 2019. Power himself has a disability which requires him to use leg braces and crutches to walk."N.L. play about disabilities stopped at United States border". CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador, February 17, 2019.
The play was first produced for the stage in 2018, with Power performing the lead role himself,Paul David Power, "I've hit a wall. And I may not get over it". CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador, February 24, 2019. and was published by Breakwater Books in 2021. A planned production in San Francisco in 2019 was halted under complicated American rules which require foreign theatre artists to have their work bureaucratically judged as "culturally unique" before they can be granted a work permit. In 2022, the play was mounted at Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto, with Power playing the lead role.Peter Knegt, "Crippled is a love story from the darkest moment in Paul David Power's life". CBC Arts, May 13, 2022.
Power is the artistic director of his own theatre company, Power Productions, which specializes in stage plays about disability."Meet the 6 Newfoundlanders speaking at TEDxStJohns". CBC News, April 2, 2019.
Plays Power's plays include:
Crippled Roomies Last Chance The View from Down Here In Your Eyes
References