Editing the Wilfred Watson Archive

Editing the Wilfred Watson Archive is the core project for the EMiC UA team. We are currently in the process of scanning Wilfred Watson’s archival papers, which we will upload to the internet along with transcriptions.  Interface design and development are taking place alongside the scanning. Our work is funded by SSHRCC as well as by a Killam Cornerstone Grant from the University of Alberta; it is made possible through our partnership with the University of Alberta Library. Our lead project in this initiative is an edition of Wilfred Watson’s play, Cockcrow and the Gulls, produced by the University of Alberta’s Studio Theatre in March 1962. Gordon Peacock directed the play; Norman Yates served as set designer. Watson began work on Cockcrow as early as 1949 and was awarded a Canadian Government Overseas Fellowship with which he funded a year-long trip to Paris in 1955-56 to work on the play within an environment steeped in avant-garde and absurdist theatrical production and theorization.

Project leader: Paul Hjartarson