Cherie Thiessen
Cherie Thiessen graduated from the University of British Columbia with an M.A. in Creative Writing and Theatre. She was awarded a scholarship for studies in fields relating to television, and so was soon involved in adapting her one act plays to radio and television as well as writing scripts for Madison Pacific (Huckleberry Finn and his friends), CBC Toronto (King of Kensington), and CBC Vancouver as a regular writer for The Beachcombers as well as an adaptation of Mr. Noah and the Second Flood for The Magic Lie.
A founding member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada in 1967, (then called the Playwrights Co-op Union), she was then awarded a dream grant to study theatre in Europe. Some years later, a second grant enabled her to adapt her television play Who’s Pauline? for stage and radio. The play was recognized at the first Clifford E Lee playwriting competition in 1978 and also won the Toronto-based Canadian Multicultural Award in the same year, as well as being aired on CBC radio.
Her one-act plays continue to be staged nationally, notably Elevator and One Spring Morning, two comedies which have become very popular with amateur groups. Other one acts include The Extroverted Suicide, The Fall of Man, Willie and The Watchers, and Revolutions, as well as a children’s play dealing with recycling before it became mainstream, called Ben and the Boxes.
