The Playwrights Database
VICTOR POWER
(1930 - 1987)Nationality: Irish
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"Born in Dublin, Ireland, on October 16, 1930. Educated St. John's College, Watertord, Ireland; University of Iowa, M.A. (Journalism); M.F.A., University of Iowa (Writers Workshop); Ph.D. course completed (in Drama). Taught at the University of Iowa Drama Department, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia, and Loyola University, Chicago. Employed as broadcaster and producer by Radio Eireann, WSUI Educational Radio, Iowa City and WMT-TV (CBS for Eastern Iowa). Fiction and scholarly articles appeared in North American Review, Drama & Theater, Educational Theatre Journal, the New Statesman, Eire-lreland, Novella, the Rugged Rascal Ran, in Ohio Journal, Winter 1974 (Ohio State University). Novella, Lackendara, in Ohio Journal, March, 1976. Novel, Circle of Knives (1976), presently in process of negotiation European publication. Recipient: Shubert Playwriting Fellowship, University of Iowa, 1968; Norman Felton doctoral Playwriting Fellowship, 1969, Oireachtas prizes for Gaelic plays, 1959,1961; ""All Ireland"" prize for best new play in 1964, 1965; First Prize in the U.S. and Canada for the Mudnest in Story, the Yearbook of Discovery, 1969; the Escape awarded the Illinois Arts Council-WTTW ChAnnel 11 Drama Contest prize in 1974; Illinois Arts Council Creative Writing Fellowship for fiction; Illinois Arts Council Literary Award; NEA Playwright-in-Residence Grant; Translation Center Award, Columbia University, Apple on the Treetop. 1946: Patrick Victor Power writes his first play. 1954: Ordained a Catholic priest. Early-1960s: At the request of the Bishop of Waterford, Fr Power agrees to develop his writing skills by undertaking a formal study of communications. He opts to go to Iowa because his brother Richard (a writer) was already working at University of Iowa (U of I) and the University offered courses in journalism as well as playwrighting. September, 1966: Arrives in Iowa. 1967: Graduates in journalism from U of I. While attending U of I Writers Workshop, meets Marybel Killian (1931-1992), a native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Marybel, who graduated from U of I with two masters degrees, was previously married to Joseph A Goldsberry. 1968: Victor leaves priesthood saying, For me, it became publish or parish. November 4, 1968: Victor and Marybel marry. 1971-1972: Victor and Marybel teach at King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. 1973: Victor co-originates panel show for Iowa television. The thirteen-week entertainment series Tell it to the Judge invited people to act as pretend plaintiffs and defendants. Victor acts as a judge. While working as a reviewer and columnist for The Daily Iowan and for The Cedar Rapids Gazette, Victor became a speechwriter for Richard Daley, Mayor of Chicago. They first met in 1963 when Daley was visiting Waterford where Victor was a parish priest. 1978: Victor receives Columbia University Translation Center Award for translating Richard Powers Ull i mBarr an Gheagain (Apple on the Treetop) from Irish to English. First award of its kind for a Gaelic translation. 1980: Victor awarded $5,000 by Illinois Arts Council Creative Writing Fellowship for Fiction. Interviewed at his Cedar Rapids home in 1980, he said, Maybe my exile from Ireland is an advantage. I carry Ireland in my head with me. Im trying to work out my own feelings about the Ireland I know. . .In Ireland, Im regarded as an American, while in America Im considered an Irishman . Favourite writers: Sean O Faolain, Frank OConnor and Brian Moore. Sources: Every Other Person a Writer, The Cedar Rapids Gazette, May 23, 1967, p. 203. He Carries Ireland With Him, The Cedar Rapids Gazette, October 26, 1980. Deaths/Linn County, The Cedar Rapids Gazette, January 31, 1992, p. 2b. Eugene Dunphy, August 2017. "
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below is a list of Victor Power's plays - click on a Play Title for more information
Blood Brothers Don't Tell Mother I'm Living In Sin Escape, The Johnnie Will Mother Jones Mr Dunne & Mr Dooley Mudnest, The Who Needs Enemies ? Young Men In A HurryBlood Brothers
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Wfmt, Chicago Radio Players
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Top of PageDon't Tell Mother I'm Living In Sin
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Top of PageEscape, The
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the play is set in Ireland in 1968, on a southern seashore. A young priest, Peter McCann, is contemplating doing away with himself. As he stands on the water's edge, the various stages of his priestly life, various parishes he has been in and characters he has met, flash before his eyes. A hilarious episode in England ends in a showdown between McCann and his anglicized pastor, Occasioned by the visit of Queen Elizabeth to the parish. His friend, the Dean, a father-figure, represents his conscience-type alter ego. there is humor and comedy in this play which on another layer deals with serious issues. there are two texts - the published multi-media version as staged by the University of Iowa, and the professional version as performed in the Happy Medium theater, Chicago, in which the role of the Dean is strengthened. This play received national attention in the National Catholic Reporter, and was hailed by Protestant and Jewish groups who saw a relevance in the theme to their own religious dilEmmas.
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1st Produced:
University Of Iowa; Happy Medium Theater, Chicago, Il
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State College of New York at Fredonia, NY,
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Genre:
Play/Drama
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Male: 8 Female: 1 Other: doubling
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Top of PageJohnnie Will
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Concerns the family problems which arise in a modern Irish rural household when the Northern Ireland political situation impinges on the tranquility of an Irish backwater. the play concerns change . - - the old ways versus the new, the application of modern scientific farming to old-fashioned ways of doing things. Martin Tierney, the head of the house, is appalled by the threat of hoof and mouth disease to his prize herd of cattle, and wishes to use the skills of a quack doctor rather than those of his future son-in-law, a veterinarian. His two daughters are in conflict, his son cannot abide him,.and arrives with a divorcee from Belfast, and there is what Gary Houston, book editor of the Chicago Sun Times, describes as "some excellent characterization and some exquisite conflict." there is wit, Drama and suspense with a strong story line.
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1st Produced:
Equity Showcase, Victory Gardens Theater, Chicago, Il
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Play/Drama
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Male: 4 Female: 4 Other: -
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Top of PageMother Jones
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1st Produced:
Body Politic Theater, Chicago, Il
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Top of PageMr Dunne & Mr Dooley
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Chicago, Il
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Genre:
Play/Drama
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Male: 1 Female: - Other: -
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Top of PageMudnest, The
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Based on a news story of a middle-aged Irish bachelor, one of the sixty-thousand unmarried farmers west of the River Shannon, who answers an advertisement from a middle-aged female teacher who, now that her mother has passed away, is jolted intO the reality of her aloneness. the play opens as she arrives at the farmhouse in County Waterford, and the play is a comic, often pathetic, unfolding of their courtship. the forces arrayed against their alliance are not only within them, but also externally, from the bachelor uncle but also from an embittered "other" woman who had her eye also on the prize.
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1st Produced:
Wsui; University Of Iowa Radio Players
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1st Published:
Four Winds Press,
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: 4 extras
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Top of PageWho Needs Enemies ?
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1st Produced:
University Of Iowa; Happy Medium Theater, Chicago, Il
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Genre:
Play/Drama
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Top of PageYoung Men In A Hurry
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1st Produced:
Taidhbhdhearc Theater, Galway (In Gaelic)
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Genre:
Play/Drama
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