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{{short description|Canadian playwright and theatre director}}
{{About|the playwright|others|John Herbert (disambiguation)}}
{{About|the playwright|others|John Herbert (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox writer <!--For more information, see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]].-->
{{Infobox writer <!--For more information, see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]].-->
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| caption =
| caption =
| birth_name = John Herbert Brundage
| birth_name = John Herbert Brundage
| birth_date = {{birth date|1926|10|13}}
| birth_date = {{birth date|1926|10|13}}
| birth_place =
| birth_place = [[Toronto]], [[Ontario]], Canada
| death_date = {{death date and age|2001|06|22|1926|10|13}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|2001|06|22|1926|10|13}}
| death_place = [[Toronto]], [[Ontario]]
| death_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| resting_place =
| resting_place =
| occupation =
| occupation =
| language =
| language =
| nationality = [[Canadian]]
| ethnicity =
| education =
| education =
| alma_mater =
| alma_mater =
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}}
}}


'''John Herbert''' was the pen name of '''John Herbert Brundage''' (13 October 1926 – 22 June 2001), a [[Canada|Canadian]] playwright and theatre director best known for his 1967 play ''[[Fortune and Men's Eyes]]''.
'''John Herbert''' was the pen name of '''John Herbert Brundage''' (13 October 1926 – 22 June 2001), a [[Canadians|Canadian]] playwright, [[drag queen]], and theatre director best known for his 1967 play ''[[Fortune and Men's Eyes]]''.


==Background==
==Background==
Herbert was born in Toronto on October 13, 1926.<ref name=canenc>[http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/john-herbert/ John Herbert] at [[The Canadian Encyclopedia]].</ref> After completing high school he worked in the advertising department of [[Eaton's]] and began competing in [[drag (clothing)|drag]] pageants.<ref name="theatre" /> In 1947, at the age of 21, Herbert was the victim of an attempted robbery while he was dressed as a woman. When the police arrived his assailants falsely claimed that Herbert had solicited them for sex. Their lie resulted in Herbert, himself, being arrested and charged under Canada's laws against [[LGBT rights in Canada|same-sex sexual activity law]], which were not repealed until 1969. Herbert was sentenced to 6 months in a youth [[reformatory]] in [[Guelph|Guelph, Ontario]].<ref name="BodyPolitic" /><ref name="Dickinson" />
Herbert was born in Toronto on October 13, 1926.<ref name=canenc>[https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/john-herbert John Herbert] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826053534/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/john-herbert/ |date=2016-08-26 }} at [[The Canadian Encyclopedia]].</ref> After completing high school, he worked in the advertising department of [[Eaton's]] and began competing in [[drag (clothing)|drag]] pageants.<ref name="theatre" /> In the 1940s, Herbert was the victim of an attempted robbery while he was dressed as a woman.<ref name="theatre" />{{refn|group=nb|One source asserts that the attack occurred in 1947,<ref name="theatre" /> another is vague on the timing,<ref name="BodyPolitic" /> and ''The New York Times'' obituary of Herbert asserts that it occurred during Herbert's teens.<ref name=nyt>[https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/27/theater/john-herbert-dies-at-75-wrote-of-prison-life.html "John Herbert Dies at 75; Wrote of Prison Life"]. ''[[The New York Times]]'', June 27, 2001.</ref> The cause of the confusion may be the conflation of this arrest with Herbert's subsequent arrest for gross indecency. He served another sentence for indecency at reformatory in Mimico in 1948.<ref name="theatre" />}} His assailants falsely claimed that Herbert had solicited them for sex,<ref name="theatre" /> and Herbert was accused and convicted of indecency<ref name="theatre" /> under Canada's [[LGBT rights in Canada|same-sex sexual activity law]], which was not repealed until 1969.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=2017-10-23|title=Rights of LGBTI persons|url=https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/rights-lgbti-persons.html|access-date=2021-02-11|website=Government of Canada}}</ref> After being convicted, Herbert served time in a youth [[reformatory]] in [[Guelph]], Ontario.<ref name="BodyPolitic">{{cite journal|title="That Man's Scope" John Herbert Now|journal=The Body Politic|date=1973|volume=10|pages=12–13, 25|url=https://archive.org/stream/bodypolitic10toro#page/12/mode/2up|accessdate=2 August 2016}}</ref><ref name="Dickinson" /><ref name="litenc" />{{refn|group=nb|One source states that Herbert was imprisoned for six months at Guelph,<ref name="BodyPolitic" /> while another states that he spent four months there.<ref name="theatre" />}} Herbert later served another sentence for indecency at reformatory in Mimico.<ref name="theatre" />


After being released from the reformatory, he spent some time travelling across North America, doing odd jobs to support himself, before returning to Toronto in 1955 where he studied at the [[National Ballet School of Canada]] and at [[Dora Mavor Moore]]'s New Play Society.<ref name=canenc /> Herbert co-founded the Garret Theatre with his sister Nana Brundage in 1960.<ref name=nyt>[http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/27/theater/john-herbert-dies-at-75-wrote-of-prison-life.html "John Herbert Dies at 75; Wrote of Prison Life"]. ''[[The New York Times]]'', June 27, 2001.</ref> {{refn|group=nb|The decision to drop Brundage from his professional name was made to avoid brother-sister associations with as Nana who had already established a name for herself using the family name.<ref name="Shirley">{{cite news|last1=Shirley|first1=Don|title=John Herbert; His Play Exposed Prison Life|url=http://articles.latimes.com/2001/jun/28/local/me-16051|accessdate=10 August 2016|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=28 June 2001}}</ref>}}
Later, Herbert travelled across North America doing odd jobs to support himself before returning to Toronto in 1955. He studied at the [[National Ballet School of Canada]] and at [[Dora Mavor Moore]]'s New Play Society.<ref name=canenc /> Herbert co-founded the Garret Theatre with his sister Nana Brundage in 1960.<ref name=nyt>[https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/27/theater/john-herbert-dies-at-75-wrote-of-prison-life.html "John Herbert Dies at 75; Wrote of Prison Life"]. ''[[The New York Times]]'', June 27, 2001.</ref>{{refn|group=nb|The decision to drop Brundage from his professional name was made to avoid brother-sister associations with Nana, who had already established a name for herself using the family name.<ref name="Shirley">{{cite news|last1=Shirley|first1=Don|title=John Herbert; His Play Exposed Prison Life|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-jun-28-me-16051-story.html|access-date=10 August 2016|work=Los Angeles Times|date=28 June 2001}}</ref>}}


⚫
Herbert wrote ''[[Fortune and Men's Eyes]]'' in 1964 based on his time behind bars.<ref name=litenc>[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5246 John Herbert] at [[The Literary Encyclopedia (English)|The Literary Encyclopedia]].</ref> He included the character of Queenie as an authorial [[self-insertion]].<ref name=theatre>[http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=John%20Herbert John Herbert] at the Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia.</ref> The play was first staged as a [[Stratford Festival]] workshop directed by [[Bruno Gerussi]], in 1965, but Herbert was unable to find a theatre company willing to mount a full production in Canada.<ref name="BodyPolitic"/> It ultimately premiered as an [[off-Broadway]] play in [[New York City]], produced by [[David Rothenberg]] and Mitchell Nestor, on February 14, 1967 at the Broadway Actor's Playhouse.<ref name="McLeod">{{cite book|last1=McLeod|first1=Donald W.|title=Lesbian and gay liberation in Canada: a selected annotated chronology, 1964-1975|date=1996|publisher=ECW Press/Homewood Books|location=Toronto|page=29|url=https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/4397/55/Donald%20W.%20McLeod,%20Lesbian%20and%20Gay%20Liberation%20in%20Canada.1967.pdf|accessdate=2 August 2016|archive-date=30 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120830205142/https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/4397/55/Donald%20W.%20McLeod%2c%20Lesbian%20and%20Gay%20Liberation%20in%20Canada.1967.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> Because of his past conviction, Herbert faced difficulties entering the United States to attend productions of his work.<ref name=nyt/>
[[File:Fortune and Men's Eyes.jpg|thumb|VHS cover for the film]]
⚫
Herbert wrote ''[[Fortune and Men's Eyes]]'' in 1964 based on his time in jail.<ref name=litenc>[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5246 John Herbert] at [[The Literary Encyclopedia (English)|The Literary Encyclopedia]].</ref> He included the character of Queenie as an authorial [[self-insertion]].<ref name=theatre>[http://www.canadiantheatre.com/dict.pl?term=John%20Herbert John Herbert] at the Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia.</ref> The play was first staged as a [[Stratford Festival]] workshop directed by Bruno Gerussi, in 1965, but Herbert was unable to find a theatre company willing to mount a full production in Canada.<ref name="BodyPolitic">{{cite journal|title="That Man's Scope" John Herbert Now|journal=The Body Politic|date=1973|volume=10|pages=12–13, 25|url=https://archive.org/stream/bodypolitic10toro#page/12/mode/2up|accessdate=2 August 2016}}</ref> It ultimately premiered as an [[off-Broadway]] play in [[New York City]], produced by [[David Rothenberg]] and Mitchell Nestor, on February 14, 1967 at the Broadway Actor's Playhouse.<ref name="McLeod">{{cite book|last1=McLeod|first1=Donald W.|title=Lesbian and gay liberation in Canada: a selected annotated chronology, 1964-1975|date=1996|publisher=ECW Press/Homewood Books|location=Toronto|page=29|url=https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/4397/55/Donald%20W.%20McLeod,%20Lesbian%20and%20Gay%20Liberation%20in%20Canada.1967.pdf|accessdate=2 August 2016}}</ref> Because of the 1947 conviction, Herbert frequently faced difficulties entering the United States to attend productions of his work.<ref name=nyt/>


''Fortune and Men's Eyes'' remains the most widely produced play in the history of Canadian theatre, both in Canada and internationally.<ref name=canenc /> It has been translated into more than 40 languages and staged internationally. A motion picture version of the work, based on a screenplay by Herbert, was directed by [[Harvey Hart]] in 1971.<ref name="McLeod" /><ref name="Dickinson">{{cite journal|last1=Dickinson|first1=Peter|title=Critically Queenie: The Lessons of ''Fortune and Men's Eyes''|journal=Canadian Journal of Film Studies|date=2002|volume=11|issue=2|url=http://www.filmstudies.ca/journal/pdf/cj-film-studies112_Dickinson_queenie.pdf|accessdate=10 August 2016}}</ref> The play had a profound impact on producer David Rothenberg who went on to found the [[Fortune Society]], a nonprofit advocacy organization that supports incarcerated and formally-incarcerated people reintegrate into society.<ref name="nyt" /><ref name="FortuneSociety">{{cite web|title=Our Founder David Rothenberg to be honored by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation!|url=http://fortunesociety.org/2015/06/17/founder-david-rothenberg-to-be-honored-by-the-greenwich-village-society-for-historic-preservation/|website=The Fortune Society|accessdate=10 August 2016|date=17 June 2015}}</ref><ref name="BodyPolitic" />
''Fortune and Men's Eyes'' remains the most widely produced play in the history of Canadian theatre, both in Canada and internationally.<ref name=canenc /> It has been translated into more than 40 languages and staged internationally. A motion picture version of the work, based on a screenplay by Herbert, was directed by [[Harvey Hart]] in 1971.<ref name="McLeod" /><ref name="Dickinson">{{cite journal|last1=Dickinson|first1=Peter|title=Critically Queenie: The Lessons of ''Fortune and Men's Eyes''|journal=Canadian Journal of Film Studies|date=2002|volume=11|issue=2|pages=19–43|doi=10.3138/cjfs.11.2.19|url=http://www.filmstudies.ca/journal/pdf/cj-film-studies112_Dickinson_queenie.pdf|accessdate=10 August 2016}}</ref> The play had a profound impact on producer David Rothenberg. Rothenberg went on to found the [[Fortune Society]], a nonprofit advocacy organization that supports incarcerated and formerly-incarcerated people reintegrate into society.<ref name="nyt" /><ref name="FortuneSociety">{{cite web|title=Our Founder David Rothenberg to be honored by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation!|url=http://fortunesociety.org/2015/06/17/founder-david-rothenberg-to-be-honored-by-the-greenwich-village-society-for-historic-preservation/|website=The Fortune Society|accessdate=10 August 2016|date=17 June 2015}}</ref><ref name="BodyPolitic" />


Although none of Herbert's other plays were as successful as ''Fortune and Men's Eyes'',<ref name=canenc /> Herbert remained active as a dancer, a theatre director, an acting teacher and a theatre lecturer at [[Ryerson University]], [[Glendon College]], [[York University]] and the [[University of Toronto]].<ref name=theatre />
Although none of Herbert's other plays were as successful as ''Fortune and Men's Eyes'',<ref name=canenc /> Herbert remained active as a dancer, a theatre director, an acting teacher and a theatre lecturer at [[Ryerson University]], [[Glendon College]], [[York University]] and the [[University of Toronto]].<ref name=theatre />


Herbert died in 2001.<ref name=nyt/> The manual typewriter on which he composed ''Fortune and Men's Eyes'' is in the possession of the [[Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives]].<ref name="Richardson">{{cite web|last1=Richardson|first1=Gordon|title=What's in the Archives? John Herbert's Typewriter {{!}} CLGA Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives|url=http://www.clga.ca/whats-archives-john-herberts-typewriter|website=www.clga.ca|accessdate=2 August 2016}}</ref>
Herbert died in 2001.<ref name=nyt/> The manual typewriter on which he composed ''Fortune and Men's Eyes'' is in the possession of the [[Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives]].<ref name="Richardson">{{cite web|last1=Richardson|first1=Gordon|title=What's in the Archives? John Herbert's Typewriter {{!}} CLGA Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives|url=http://www.clga.ca/whats-archives-john-herberts-typewriter|website=www.clga.ca|accessdate=2 August 2016}}</ref> A selection of manuscripts, letters and personal papers were donated to the University of Waterloo Library in 1982.<ref name="Chronicle1982">{{cite news |title=UW acquires Herbert archives |url=http://images.ourontario.ca/waterloo/3547952/page/18?n= |accessdate=10 February 2019 |work=Waterloo Chronicle |date=2 June 1982 |page=17 |language=en}}</ref>


==Selected works==
==Selected works==
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* {{IMDb name|name=John Herbert|id=0378572}}
* {{IMDb name|name=John Herbert|id=0378572}}
* [http://www.lortel.org/lla_archive/index.cfm?search_by=people&first=John&last=Herbert&middle= John Herbert] at the [[Lortel Archives|Internet Off Broadway Database]]
* [http://www.lortel.org/lla_archive/index.cfm?search_by=people&first=John&last=Herbert&middle= John Herbert] at the [[Lortel Archives|Internet Off Broadway Database]]
* {{cite web|title=John Herbert fonds|url=https://uwaterloo.ca/library/special-collections-archives/collections/herbert-john|website=University of Waterloo Library|publisher=Special Collectins & Archives|accessdate=4 August 2016|date=21 July 2014}}
* {{cite web|title=John Herbert fonds|url=https://uwaterloo.ca/library/special-collections-archives/collections/herbert-john|website=University of Waterloo Library|publisher=Special Collections & Archives|accessdate=4 August 2016|date=21 July 2014}}


{{Authority control}}
{{Authority control}}
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[[Category:2001 deaths]]
[[Category:2001 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Gay writers]]
[[Category:Canadian gay writers]]
[[Category:LGBT writers from Canada]]
[[Category:Writers from Toronto]]
[[Category:LGBT dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Canadian LGBTQ dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Canadian theatre directors]]
[[Category:Canadian theatre directors]]
[[Category:LGBT directors]]
[[Category:LGBTQ theatre directors]]
[[Category:Canadian male dancers]]
[[Category:Canadian male dancers]]
[[Category:Canadian drag queens]]
[[Category:Canadian drag queens]]
[[Category:Canadian male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Canadian male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people]]
[[Category:Gay dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Glendon College]]
[[Category:Drag performers from Toronto]]

Latest revision as of 02:49, 25 September 2024

This article is about the playwright. For others, see John Herbert (disambiguation).
John Herbert
BornJohn Herbert Brundage
(1926-10-13)October 13, 1926
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
DiedJune 22, 2001(2001-06-22) (aged 74)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Notable worksFortune and Men's Eyes (1967)
Website
www.npconsultants.com/johnherbert/johnherbert/index.html

John Herbert was the pen name of John Herbert Brundage (13 October 1926 – 22 June 2001), a Canadian playwright, drag queen, and theatre director best known for his 1967 play Fortune and Men's Eyes.

Background

[edit]

Herbert was born in Toronto on October 13, 1926.[1] After completing high school, he worked in the advertising department of Eaton's and began competing in drag pageants.[2] In the 1940s, Herbert was the victim of an attempted robbery while he was dressed as a woman.[2][nb 1] His assailants falsely claimed that Herbert had solicited them for sex,[2] and Herbert was accused and convicted of indecency[2] under Canada's same-sex sexual activity law, which was not repealed until 1969.[5] After being convicted, Herbert served time in a youth reformatory in Guelph, Ontario.[3][6][7][nb 2] Herbert later served another sentence for indecency at reformatory in Mimico.[2]

Later, Herbert travelled across North America doing odd jobs to support himself before returning to Toronto in 1955. He studied at the National Ballet School of Canada and at Dora Mavor Moore's New Play Society.[1] Herbert co-founded the Garret Theatre with his sister Nana Brundage in 1960.[4][nb 3]

Herbert wrote Fortune and Men's Eyes in 1964 based on his time behind bars.[7] He included the character of Queenie as an authorial self-insertion.[2] The play was first staged as a Stratford Festival workshop directed by Bruno Gerussi, in 1965, but Herbert was unable to find a theatre company willing to mount a full production in Canada.[3] It ultimately premiered as an off-Broadway play in New York City, produced by David Rothenberg and Mitchell Nestor, on February 14, 1967 at the Broadway Actor's Playhouse.[9] Because of his past conviction, Herbert faced difficulties entering the United States to attend productions of his work.[4]

Fortune and Men's Eyes remains the most widely produced play in the history of Canadian theatre, both in Canada and internationally.[1] It has been translated into more than 40 languages and staged internationally. A motion picture version of the work, based on a screenplay by Herbert, was directed by Harvey Hart in 1971.[9][6] The play had a profound impact on producer David Rothenberg. Rothenberg went on to found the Fortune Society, a nonprofit advocacy organization that supports incarcerated and formerly-incarcerated people reintegrate into society.[4][10][3]

Although none of Herbert's other plays were as successful as Fortune and Men's Eyes,[1] Herbert remained active as a dancer, a theatre director, an acting teacher and a theatre lecturer at Ryerson University, Glendon College, York University and the University of Toronto.[2]

Herbert died in 2001.[4] The manual typewriter on which he composed Fortune and Men's Eyes is in the possession of the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Archives.[11] A selection of manuscripts, letters and personal papers were donated to the University of Waterloo Library in 1982.[12]

Selected works

[edit]
  • Felice (1955)
  • Pearl Divers (1956)
  • Beer Room (1957)
  • Close Friends (1958)
  • A Ruby Fell (1959)
  • Time To a Waltz (1959)
  • Private Club (1960)
  • A Household God (1961)
  • World of Woyzeck (1963)
  • Born of Medusa's Blood (1965)
  • Fortune and Men's Eyes (1967)
  • Omphale and the Hero (1971)
  • The Dinosaurs (1973)
  • The Token Star (1976)
  • The Power of Paper Dolls (1979)
  • Magda (1981)
  • The Butterfly and the Nightingale (1984)
  • The Biographers (1985)
  • Blanche and Rose's Dream Song (1986)
  • The Primadonna (1988)
  • Broken Antique Dolls (1991)
  • Merchants of Bay Street (1993)
  • Family of a Monster (1995)
  • Marilyn at Seventy (1995)
  • Marlene Richdiet (1998)
  • One Castle Court (1999)

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ One source asserts that the attack occurred in 1947,[2] another is vague on the timing,[3] and The New York Times obituary of Herbert asserts that it occurred during Herbert's teens.[4] The cause of the confusion may be the conflation of this arrest with Herbert's subsequent arrest for gross indecency. He served another sentence for indecency at reformatory in Mimico in 1948.[2]
  2. ^ One source states that Herbert was imprisoned for six months at Guelph,[3] while another states that he spent four months there.[2]
  3. ^ The decision to drop Brundage from his professional name was made to avoid brother-sister associations with Nana, who had already established a name for herself using the family name.[8]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c d John Herbert Archived 2016-08-26 at the Wayback Machine at The Canadian Encyclopedia.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j John Herbert at the Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia.
  3. ^ a b c d e ""That Man's Scope" John Herbert Now". The Body Politic. 10: 12–13, 25. 1973. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  4. ^ a b c d e "John Herbert Dies at 75; Wrote of Prison Life". The New York Times, June 27, 2001.
  5. ^ "Rights of LGBTI persons". Government of Canada. 2017-10-23. Retrieved 2021-02-11.
  6. ^ a b Dickinson, Peter (2002). "Critically Queenie: The Lessons of Fortune and Men's Eyes" (PDF). Canadian Journal of Film Studies. 11 (2): 19–43. doi:10.3138/cjfs.11.2.19. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  7. ^ a b John Herbert at The Literary Encyclopedia.
  8. ^ Shirley, Don (28 June 2001). "John Herbert; His Play Exposed Prison Life". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  9. ^ a b McLeod, Donald W. (1996). Lesbian and gay liberation in Canada: a selected annotated chronology, 1964-1975 (PDF). Toronto: ECW Press/Homewood Books. p. 29. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 August 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  10. ^ "Our Founder David Rothenberg to be honored by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation!". The Fortune Society. 17 June 2015. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  11. ^ Richardson, Gordon. "What's in the Archives? John Herbert's Typewriter | CLGA Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives". www.clga.ca. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  12. ^ "UW acquires Herbert archives". Waterloo Chronicle. 2 June 1982. p. 17. Retrieved 10 February 2019.
[edit]
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