Ann Snead was born in India, grew up in Vancouver, and presently lives in St. Catharines, Niagara, Canada. After a career teaching ESL, she started writing plays such as The Jigsaw Puzzle (adoption reunion), Choices (genetic engineering) and An Ordinary Guy (the environment). Four of her plays have been produced and one anthologized.
Ann has a B.A. (Honours English, UBC), an M.A. (Medieval History, Kent, UK) and a BEd (UBC). She studied playwriting at Humber College, Toronto, and Brock University, St. Catharines.
Plays
Jeff's an ordinary guy, not interested in causes or protests, but he knows as well as anyone the environment's in trouble. What bothers him most is when field-grown tomatoes, his favourite food, disappear. Except for one, in his neighbour's garden.Will he let it, and its superior, disease-resistant genes, be, or will temptation be too much for him?
Mira wants to die, but beautifully. Pity Suri won't cooperate. Can she change his mind, when she changes hers, and make him see what a touch of beauty could do for business?
It's a quiet morning at Choices, but not for long, as Adam and Emily come in to design their child; Frank, a businessman, drops by to replace some workers; and Ruth arrives to dispose of her rival, Tiffany. Three stories intertwine as Henry and Heather are kept busy satisfying the customers while finding a little money on the side. In a world where children are a product you pay for, what's the price?
Who am I? Well. Different things to different people. I keep my masks close at hand. I have them for all occasions. Which one shall I put on for you?
Now that her son's gone, Celia, a woman with a passion for family pictures, has a room for rent. Bill, a homeless man, needs one. So do George and Dottie, a yuppie couple from around the corner. Not to mention Serenity, new to town, whose attempt to do a good deed brings the police to the door. An engaging comedy of inner city life.
A dying man smokes opium. As his mind and body disintegrate, the real blossoms and bloats into the surreal. Exotic India at the turn of the 20th century. Two brothers fall in love with the same woman, a beautiful temple dancer. Only one can have her. Trial by cobra will determine which. (Story adapted from The Blind Owl, by Sadegh Hedayat.)
Fran believes in life after death. She also believes she can channel, so when John comes to tell her Tony's dead, she agrees to try and contact him. What was intended to be a harmless seance turns serious when Tony, brought back to life, refuses to return to the Great Beyond and wants to live through her. But can we change the past?
Ruby, a widow, ran a B & B in small-town Stratford until a year ago, when Gracie's alzheimer's forced her to give it up. When a man calls to say he's coming for the theatre and needs a place to stay, money no object, she's persuaded to let him in. Over the weekend, as pieces of a jigsaw are put in one by one, she's forced to confront her past and decide whether she'll allow it to change her future.