Robert Chafe

Robert Chafe is a St. John’s based playwright and has worked in theatre, dance, opera, radio, fiction and film. His stage plays have been seen in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and in the United States, and include Oil and Water, Tempting Providence, Afterimage, Under Wraps, Between Breaths, and The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (adapted from the novel by Wayne Johnston.) He has been shortlisted twice for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama and he won the award for Afterimage in 2010. He has been guest instructor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, and The National Theatre School of Canada. In 2018 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is the playwright and Artistic Director of Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland. Mr. Chafe’s roles in the FOCI’s IWP4 will be to gather original stories related to the collapse of the fishery, the impact of offshore oil development, and the effects of climate change from people living in coastal communities in the province and work with Neis to place them in conversation with FOCI and OFI themes and research findings. Chafe will develop the stories and conversation into a play for which original music - informed both by his text and the rich traditional music from these specific regions of the province will be commissioned by composer Randolph Peter.