The three plays in Making Waves are all centred on characters who have made waves by taking a moral stand rooted in an unshakable belief. Drawn from national headlines that caused passionate debates across the country, the stories in Making Waves go beyond the facts of the stories to explore the human soul.

Mourning Dove - inspired by the first trial of Robert Latimer - tells the story of Doug Ramsay’s decision to kill his disabled daughter, Tina, who has known nothing but pain. Doug is forced to reconsider his decision when it is viewed through the prism of his relationship with Keith, a friend with Down’s syndrome.

Mourning Dove won the Gold Medal at the New York Festivals, 1997.

Rochelle Pittman captured the nation’s heart when she sued the Red Cross, her family doctor and a hospital for negligence in the death of her husband due to tainted blood. In Denial is a River, Hannah Kane (based on Rochelle) is determined to chronicle her first-hand experience with the medical establishment’s paternalism before she dies.

Denial is a River was shortlisted by the Writers Guild of Canada as one of the Top Ten Scripts of 1996.

Past Imperfect goes beyond the incidental details of the Jean-Louis Roux affair - the former lieutenant governor of Quec who resigned his post when it was revealed that he had worn a Nazi swastika as a youth in a rally. The drama explores the boundaries of forgiveness as it unearths a dark moment from the past and asks whether the cry for justice should fade or reverberate.

Emil Sher
a grandi à Montréal. Il a enseigné dans une école secondaire au Botswana et
aujourd'hui, il écrit des livres pour enfants, des scénarios, des pièces de
théâtre et des livres documentaires. Son premier roman, Young Man With Camera, a été mis en nomination pour le Prix du
Gouverneur général. Il a adapté au théâtre l'oeuvre à succès de Karen
Levine, La valise d'Hana. Cette pièce a été jouée dans toute
l'Amérique du Nord et en Israël. Emil vit à Toronto avec sa famille.

EMIL SHER writes prose and plays for the young and the once-were-young. His first novel, Young Man with Camera, was published by Scholastic in Fall 2015 and has received numerous awards and honours. Emil is a laureate of the 2014 K.M. Hunter Artist Award in Literature. His picture book Mittens to Share, illustrated by Irene Luxbacher, was published in 2016. Emil has written the stage play adaptations of Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine and The Boy in the Moon by Ian Brown, and the script and lyrics for a stage musical of Roch Carrier’s The Hockey Sweater. He was also the writer for The Book of Ashes, inspired by the true story of an Iraqi librarian who saved tens of thousands of books in the midst of war, which premiered at the International Children’s Festival in St. Albert, Alberta, in spring 2016. Emil lives in Toronto, Ontario. Visit him at www.emilsher.com.

Emil Sher's profile page

"The boundaries of forgiveness are effectively examined in this sensitive and thought-provoking play."

Canadian Book Review Annual