George Ryga
George Ryga
Writer & Playwright
George Ryga, considered by many as Canada’s most important English language playwright, lived in Summerland from 1963 until his death in 1987.
Learn More About George RygaSummerland’s Ryga Arts Festival is a multi-day arts festival featuring live music, play readings and artistic workshops, symposiums, and more – all with a connection to – or that are inspired by – internationally performed Canadian playwright, novelist, poet, and Summerland resident George Ryga. Considered by contemporary critics to be Canada’s greatest playwright, George Ryga was born in rural Alberta in 1932 and spent much of his life in Summerland where he died in 1987. The Ryga household was always full of music, discussions, poetry and theatre, and the love of language, learning, and expression – and the Ryga Festival continues that tradition.
George Ryga, considered by many as Canada’s most important English language playwright, lived in Summerland from 1963 until his death in 1987.
Learn More About George Ryga
Heather Davies was appointed artistic director of the Ryga Arts Festival in 2017. Born in Winnipeg, she trained as a dancer, singer, actor and musician. Heather spent 18 years in Britain, studying, acting and directing, including three years as a resident director with the Royal Shakespeare Company. She has directed for several theatres and festivals, large and small, and has made her own adaptations of Canadian novels, including Night Desk by George Ryga.
The Ryga Festival Society is a registered charitable society. Our purposes are to advance the
public’s appreciation of the arts by organizing and staging an annual arts and cultural festival
in Summerland, BC, that honours George Ryga; and to advance education by providing instructional
seminars, workshops, and other educational events to the public, on the contributions of George
Ryga to Canadian culture.
The Society aims to follow Ryga’s inspiration to foster creativity and creative expression in any
art form. Most of George Ryga’s plays as well as “The Ecstasy of Rita Joe,” deal with social issues.
There was always music, discussion, and a lively exchange of ideas in the Ryga family home, and the
Ryga family always welcomed visitors from near and far to their home surrounded by orchards in
Summerland. Inspired by this, the Ryga Festival includes storytelling, singing, creative writing,
acting, playwriting, and more.
This enduring creative spirit inspired a group of people to create the
George Ryga Award for Social
Awareness in Literature, which is now in its 15th year, open to BC authors, with a book award
administered by the BC BookWorld and the Pacific Bookworld News Society.
The Ryga Festival Society celebrates George Ryga in Summerland in much the same way as Stephen
Leacock is honoured in Orillia, Ontario, and more recently Alice Munro is commemorated in Wingham,
Ontario – small communities celebrating one of their own. We believe that these communities – just
like Stratford and Niagara-on-the-Lake, which host the Shakespeare and Shaw festivals in Ontario –
have found a way of combining culture with economic benefits. The Ryga Festival Society hopes to
attract many more people to attend our cultural events and be inspired by George Ryga.
