| Canadian playwright Donald Jack's script-writing for stage, radio, and TV |
During the 50s-80s, Donald Jack also wrote a number of stage plays, radio plays, and television scripts, for such programmes as General Motors Presents, On Camera, The Unforeseen, CBC Folio, and Playdate. His science fiction short story "Where Did Rafe Madison Go?" was broadcast on TV in Canada and the US under the title Breakthrough, and his play The Canvas Barricade (which won a 1961 Canadian play-writing competition sponsored by the Globe & Mail) was the first Canadian play to be performed on the main stage at Stratford, and featured Zoë Ada Caldwell as Sonja Downfahl. |
Stage plays by Donald Jack |
| Humbly, for Fyodor (1953) |
| Minuet for Brass Band (1953) A 3-act play first performed at the Canadian Theatre School in Toronto, founded by Sterndale Bennett. |
| Flamacue Serenade (?) |
| The Canvas Barricade (1961) A 2-act comedy about an artist defying materialism. Set on the Quebec-Ontario border, and in Toronto. Performed in 1961 at the Stratford Festival, where it was the first original Canadian play performed. Published 2007. |
| Exit Muttering (1962) A 2-act comedy first performed at the Grenville Street Playhouse, directed by Hugh Webster, with set design by Vincent Vaitiekunas. Published 1974. |
| Reckless (1969/1971) |
| Folly (1985) Alternate titles: Love in Business Hours; Pension Play. |
| Blast (1988) Comedy about espionage at an English country house. |
| Crash (?) A 2-act comedy about a timpanist who inherits a funeral home. First performed at the Ontario Playwrights' Showcase. |
Original Television Scripts by Donald Jack (incomplete list) |
| The Ice Men (?) |
| Secret Catch (?) |
| Undermined (?) |
| The Beard (1958) For the programme On Camera |
| The Proof Machine (1958) For the programme On Camera |
| Break Through (1958) For the programme General Motors Presents. Based on the short story "Where Did Rafe Madison Go?", originally published in Maclean's Magazine in 1958, and republished in the 2006 edition of Hitler Versus Me. |
| The Monument (1958) For the programme The Unforeseen |
| Music in the Wall (1960) For the programme General Motors Presents |
| Surprise, Surprise (1961) For the programme General Motors Presents |
| The Looking Glass World (1962) For the programme Playdate |
| Hatch's Blunder Buss (1966) For the programme Hatch's Mill (First series filmed in colour by the CBC - created by George Salverson, produced & directed by George McCowan). |
| Shivaree (1966) For the programme Hatch's Mill |
| Temperance (1966) For the programme Hatch's Mill |
| Dream of Gold (1979) For the programme The Overlanders |