Playwright Sunil Kuruvilla earned a M.A. in creative writing from the University of Windsor, and a M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama. His plays have been commissioned and developed at New York Theatre Workshop, The Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and Portland Center Stage. He has also written for television. Rice Boy had its Canadian premiere at CanStage’s Berkeley Street Theatre in Toronto in the spring of 2003. Kuruvilla won two duMaurier Arts awards recognizing Canada’s best one-act plays. A Canadian of South Asian descent, Kuruvilla lives in Waterloo, Ontario.
Drama
Fighting Words
Woodstock, Ill.: Dramatic Publishing, 2003.
PS8571 .U784 F54 2003
Publisher’s Synopsis
Fighting Words focuses on sisters Peg and Nia and their landlady, Mrs. Davies. It is the story of the women who watched the fight [between boxers Johnny Owen and Lupe Pintor] on television back in Wales. As they bake a cake, readying for the gathering of women at the gym, Peg, Nia and Mrs. Davies support and ridicule each other as they reveal thier secrets and dreams. As the cake rises in the kitchen, so do the tempers as the women fight about who knows Johnny best, then about which one of them he loves more. Anger and jealousy split the women, and by fight night, Peg is sitting at ringside in Los Angeles with the men. Suddenly Johnny is down and their dreams are shattered! Weeks later, Peg sits at the kitchen table as if in a coma as Nia delivers the heartbreaking news of Johnny’s death from his injuries.
Drama
Rice Boy
Toronto: Playwrights Canada Press, 2003.
PS8571 .U784 R5 2003
PS8571 .U784 R5 2009
Publisher’s Synopsis
In front of a house in India, 16 year old Tina learns the ancient art of kolam from her grandmother, the creation of elaborate patterns with rice powder, in preparation for her marriage to a man she has never met. In front of a house in Canada, Tina’s cousin Tommy, sits in a tree, trying to make sense of his heritage. As the stories of Tina and Tommy become more intertwined, a pattern of quiet rebellion and enduring love between generations and cultures emerges.
Awards and Honours
2003 Governor General’s Literary Award–English Drama (Nominated)
Selected Criticism and Interpretation
Ty, Eleanor, “”All of Us Are the Same”: Negotiating Loss, Witnessing Disability,” chap. in Unfastened: Globality and Asian North American Narratives. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2010, 43-62.
PS153 .A84 T9 2010 (also available as an e-book)