John Murrell, playwright, librettist, arts administrator, translator, director, actor, and teacher, was born 15 October 1945 in Lubbock, Texas, and died 12 November 2019 in Calgary, AB. John Murrell was one of Canada’s most successful and respected playwrights. His plays Waiting for the Parade, Farther West and The Faraway Nearby all won the Chalmers Award for best Canadian play of the year. He was an accomplished librettist for operas and earned an international reputation for translating plays into English. He also served as associate director of the Stratford Festival, head of the Banff Playwrights Colony, head of the theatre section of the Canada Council for the Arts and artistic director of theatre arts at the Banff Centre for the Arts. He was a Member of the Alberta Order of Excellence and an Officer of the Order of Canada. He received the Canada Council’s Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts and the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement.

- from The Canadian Encyclopedia