BIOGRAPHY

WRITING

Taylor began writing plays, poetry, and short stories as a young child, splitting her time between the small Lake Huron community of Port Albert, Ontario, on the Huron Tract and Canada’s south-most border city of Windsor, Ontario, on the traditional territory of Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations.

Taylor’s love of telling stories is what brought her to study theatre, specifically playwrighting and directing, at York University in Toronto/Tkaronto. She established herself as a bright young talent early on when she was accepted into Tapestry New Opera‘s Librettist / Composer Lab. Tapestry produced 4 of Taylor’s opera experiments. Her one act opera The Virgin Charlie created with composer William Rowson and produced by Tapestry was nominated for a Dora Award for Best Opera/Musical in 2009.

Governor general winning playwright Judith Thompson has been a great mentor to Taylor over the years. She was Taylor’s advisor as she completed an MFA in Creative Writing with the University of Guelph. Thompson named Taylor as the up and coming playwright to watch in Playwrights Guild of Canada’s The Playwright Applause campaign. She describes Taylor’s play Cottage Radio as, “a dynamic, complex, and very funny play with fabulous music set in beautiful and historic Goderich. Taylor Graham has written such rich and delicious characters, people who are familiar and yet presented in an utterly unique way. I am thrilled to see such a powerful play set in small town Ontario – true Canadiana, and yet, universal!”

Taylor’s plays and operas have been described as “arresting and funny” (Lynn Slotkin), “an uncommonly cool theatrical experience” (Mooney on Theatre), “charmingly twisted” (John Terauds, Toronto Star), “an ironic edge,” (John Kaplan, NOW Magazine), and “searingly written. . . a significant accomplishment!” (Bill Mandel).

Her play Post Alice received considerable critical acclaim. When it premiered at the Here For Now Theatre Festival in Stratford, Ontario reviewer Lynn Slotkin noted, “Taylor Marie Graham has written an arresting and funny play about women and their friendships, coping with a troubled past and supporting each other” (Read Full Review). Reviewer Joe Szekeres described, “‘Post Alice’ [as] one of those plays that needs to be discussed later to see how others respond to such fine work. Outstanding and true ensemble work” (Read Full Review). Christopher Hoile‘s 5 star review called Post Alice “one of the most exciting new Canadian plays I’ve seen for some time . . . What is so masterful about Graham’s play is how in only an hour she uses the simple reunion of four friends to open up a contemplation of enormous themes . . . This is a profound, beautifully crafted play” (Read Full Review).

Summer 2022, Taylor travelled to Caithness Scotland to the Lyth Arts Centre on an international playwright residency to start work on a new play about rural women and environmental activism supported by the Canada Council of the Arts and the Waterloo Region Arts Fund. At the end of the summer Taylor wrote a one act thriller as part of Flush Ink Production’s 22 hour writing contest. This creepy little play, Corporate Finch, had a workshop production December 2022 and will be on stages in Toronto Summer 2023.

RESEARCH / TEACHING

Taylor is also very lucky to enjoy working as an educator and has taught theatre and English classes at the community, college, and university levels. She holds a BA in theatre from York University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph. She is currently completing her dissertation as a doctoral candidate. Her Taylor’s PhD research is focused on the Blyth Festival Theatre found in Huron Country. Using studies of the Irish literary revival as a methodological apparatus for this research, Taylor’s investigation is focused on the theatre’s relationship to questions of nationhood, identity, decolonization, community engagement, and legacy.

Taylor has taught English / Theatre / Creative Writing courses at the community, college, and university levels for the last eight years. To learn more about Taylor’s teaching journey and read student testimonials click here.

Taylor recently helped organize a new interdisciplinary conference at the University of Guelph focused on Utopias. As part of the fundraising and financial management committee of 2022 Canadian Association of Theatre Research, she is helped to organize Performing Emergence: RePlay, ReCollect, ReExist as well as shared her own research. She is now a graduate representative on the CATR board and the director of communications for the board as well.

Recently, Taylor shared her creative work and scholarly research at FOOT30: Hopeful Positions or Playing in Precarity, CATR 2022 Conference: Performing Emergence: RePlay, ReCollect, ReExist, SETS Utopias Grad Conference, Escape, Moving Away, Moving Towards, Moving Within: The Inaugural Queens Graduate Conference in Literature, and Sexuality Studies Association Conference 2022, and IFTR World Congress 2022: Shifting Centres: In the Middle of Nowhere.

Taylor recently co-wrote an article with digital designer Beth Kates for Canadian Theatre Review and wrote The Art of Not Picking A Lane for Intermission Magazine. She also has a recent publication with Canadian Literature and a Special Issue of Research in Drama Education/The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, entitled Oral History Performance, Listening and Transitional Justice will be published soon.