When Edward Connell Powers suffers a stroke, he must turn over the running of his furniture factory, the townâ??s largest employer, to his son James. When he comes home from hospital, James hires the only caregiver he can find, Gloria Delaney, a single-mom, high school drop-out whose hair is bigger than her sense of worth. It seems a doomed relationship but little by little over Edwardâ??s long convalescence, she wins his respect for her humour, spirit and intelligence while she sees beyond his intimidating, crusty exterior. Gloria helps him as he seeks to rebuild his strength so he can return to work, even though it will thwart his sonâ??s global ambitions for the family business. Each boosts the other in their times of doubt and need, crossing barriers that would normally divide people from the opposite ends of the social spectrum.

After growing up on a farm near Lucknow, Ontario, Keith Roulston decided he wanted to write. He studied journalism at Ryerson Polytechnical Insitute (today Ryerson University) where he also fell in love with theatre. When he returned to his home region and purchased a newspaper in Blyth with his wife Jill, he discovered the village had a beautiful theatre in Blyth Memorial Hall. After meeting Paul Thompson of Theatre Passe Muraille in 1972 and attending the first production of The Farm Show in Ray Birdâ??s barn near Clinton, he began working with Thompson to establish a professional theatre in the building. The relationship led to James Roy and Anne Chislett arriving to found the Blyth Festival in 1975. Since then, Roulston has split his life between journalism and the theatre. Powers and Gloria was his sixth play to be produced by the Blyth Festival and he co-authored Another Seasonâ??s Promise and Another Seasonâ??s Harvest with Chislett. In his other life he is editor and publisher of The Rural Voice, and publisher of The Citizen, a community-owned newspaper in Blyth and Brussels.

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