Herman Voaden

Born in London, Ontario,[1] he received a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in 1923 and a Master of Arts degree in 1926 from Queen's University.[3] He also studied at the University of Chicago and at Yale University.

His father, Dr. Arthur Voaden, pioneered vocational teaching in Ontario. His mother, Luisa Bale Voaden, was also a teacher. Voaden studied modern drama at Queen's University, 1920–1923, and wrote his 1926 Queen’s M.A. thesis on Eugene O’Neill.[4]

A member of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation,[4] he ran for the House of Commons of Canada in the western Toronto riding of Trinity in the 1945 elections, 1949 elections, 1953 elections, and a 1954 by-election. He lost each time.

Voaden was a member of Toronto's Arts and Letters Club, the Dominion Drama Festival, and a founding member and first president of the Canadian Arts Council (which became the Canadian Conference of the Arts in 1958).[1] As president of the CAC, he was one of several Canadian representatives to the first UNESCO conference, held in Paris in 1946.

In 1974, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honor, "in recognition of his contribution to the performing arts as a playwright, producer and teacher, and his services in fostering support for all the arts and crafts".[5] He was made a Fellow in the Royal Society of Arts in 1970.

Following his death, Queen's University created the Herman Voaden Playwriting Competition to honour new works by emerging playwrights.[6]

• The White Kingdom – 1928
• Northern Storm – 1929
• Northern Song – 1930
• Western Wolf – 1930
• Fragment – 1931
• Wilderness – 1931
• Earth Song – 1932
• Rocks – 1932
• Hill-Land – 1934
• Murder Pattern – 1936
• Ascend As the Sun – 1942
• Libretto for the opera, The Prodigal Son (music by Frederick Jacobi) – debuted 1945

• Herman Arthur Voaden archives at the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University Libraries, Toronto, Ontario