Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
Rebar, Kelly
Playwright, born 1956 in Lethbridge Alberta, and grew up in Calgary, where her first play, Chatters was produced in 1974 at Factory Theatre West. She graduated from York University in Film Studies in 1978, and returned to Alberta to write Checkin’ Out, commissioned by Northern Light Theatre, produced in 1981. It subsequently played across Western Canada.
She is best known for Bordertown Café which was commissioned by Blyth Festival and premiered there in 1987. Set in a café on the Canadian side of the Alberta/Montana border, it features a hybrid American/Canadian family whose members are torn between their unrealized hopes and dreams and family loyalties. The teenage son finally opts to stay in Alberta with his struggling young single mother, to help his Canadian grandfather harvest the wheat, instead of joining his freewheeling truckdriving father in the US. It won the 1990 CAA for Drama, and was made into a feature film by Cinexus/Famous Players, directed by Norma Bailey from a screenplay by Rebar, who received a Genie Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. Bordertown Café has been widely produced in its revised version in theatres across Canada, including Theatre New Brunswick, Centaur Theatre, Grand Theatre, London, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Globe Theatre, Theatre Calgary, Arts Club Theatre, Belfry Theatre (2009) and again at the Blyth Festival with a new cast in 2010. It is published by Talonbooks.
Rebar’s other plays include Cornflower Blue (Memories From A Prairie Childhood), commissioned by the Blyth Theatre Festival and toured throughout Ontario and Manitoba. First Snowfall was written when Rebar was playwright in residence at Alberta Theatre Projects and was produced by Theatre Network. Her plays are notable for their colloquial dialogue, and voluble characters.
Photo by Terry Manzo.
Rebar also writes for television and film, including the television series Wind at My Back and Jake and the Kid. She has adapted several of Alice Munro’s short stories, including the television feature based on Lives of Girls and Women (1994).
She currently lives in Nelson, BC.
Sources: Talonbooks website
Jerry Wasserman. “Kelly Rebar,” in Modern Canadian Plays Vol. II, 4th ed. Vancouver: Talon, 2001.
Last updated 2021-08-25
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