David Eden, U of Toronto
The Winnipeg years of James Reaney

While working at the University of Manitoba as an English professor James Reaney had two interesting students: John Hirsch and Tom Hendry. This pair would go on to found the Manitoba Theatre Centre in 1958, and later work in Toronto, Stratford and on Broadway. In 1963 they commissioned their former professor to write a play, and the result, Names and Nicknames, is an interesting mix of Hirsch’s European esthetic and Reaney’s eclecticism. But who influenced whom, the teacher or the pupil? Did Hirsch’s directing style lead Reaney to found his “Listeners’ Workshop”? This paper will investigate this seminal work and the effect that it would have on Reaney’s later work, from Listen to the Wind to The Donnellys.