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Colleen Murphy was born in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec in 1954 and grew up in northern Ontario. Her first play, Fire Engine Red (1985), was written for radio and won the CBC Literary Competition. She won the competition a second time with her radio play Pumpkin Eaters (1990).

The same year she completed her first radio play she joined Tarragon Theatre's playwrights unit. Two years later Tarragon produced her first stage play, All Destinations are Cancelled. So bad was her experience from the critical response to the play and her disagreement about how the play was interpreted for the stage that she left the theatre for a decade. During that time she turned to film-making. Over the next decade Murphy produced eight films including five shorts all exploring intimate, difficult personal situations and social justice issues notably pertaining to homelessness, Indigenous rights, and sexuality, and war: Putty Worm (1993; silent film/directed/wrote); The Feeler (1995; directed/co-wrote), War Holes (2002; directed/wrote), Girl with Dog (2005; directed/wrote), and Out in the Cold (2008; directed).

Like her shorts, her feature length films also tackle difficult subjects. Described as a “raw love story,” Termini Station (1989), written by Collen Murphy and directed by her husband Alan King (they had married in 1987), explores the highly troubled relationship between an alcoholic opera-loving mother and her daughter, a retail clerk and part-time prostitute, both of whom have dreams of escaping the trap of small town life. The film received six Genie Award nominations in 1990: Best Picture, Best Actress (Dewhurst, Follows), Best Original Screenplay (Murphy), Best Overall Sound (Sal Grimaldi, Joe Grimaldi, Dino Pigat and Peter Shewchuk) and Best Sound Editing (Terry Burke, David Templeton, Ralph Brunjes, and Brian Ravok). Her next two feature films Shoemaker (1996) and Desire (2000) amongst them garnered another five Genie nominations.

Although she went back to work on stage plays with the writing of Down in Adoration Falling (1994), this play has yet to be produced. Her 1998 drama Beating Heart Cadaver when she was playwright-in-residence at Necessary Angel Theatre. The play was directed by Richard Rose and nominated in 1999 for both a Chalmers Award and Governor General’s Award. She followed this success with another in the 2002 musical production of The Piper, a satiric or allegorical interpretation of the Pied Piper of Hamelin set within a political context. And shortly after that with The December Man (2007), her most award-winning play about the gut-wrenching guilt suffered by a young male student ordered out of the engineering classroom during the Montreal massacre at the École Polytechnique in 1989. It won the 2007 Governor General's Literary Award for Drama, the 2008 Carol Bolt Award and the 2006 Enbridge Playwrights Award.

Not shying away from difficult subjects, Murphy took on another major Canadian tragedy in her award-winning play Pig Girl, which presented a fictionalized rendering based on the horrific murders of Indigenous women by Robert Picton. Premiering at the Theatre Network in Edmonton in 2013, it stirred up deep controversy about cultural appropriation. Some, though, see it as Alex Ramon did after its production at Fidborough Theatre, London, England in 2015: “The play is constructed, essentially, as two interwoven two-handers. Murphy juxtaposes the torment of a woman held in a barn by a volatile captor with the ordeal experienced by the woman’s sister, as she attempts to convince a police officer to begin the investigation of her missing sibling. These two separate male/female encounters posit a parallel between the horrific crimes occurring in the barn and the wider cultural abuses of a society that seems indifferent to the fate of drug-addicted sex workers, especially those from non-white backgrounds” (Ramon, The Public Review, 2015).

In 2013, Murphy came out with yet another heart-wrenching play, Armstrong’s War, about a young girl reading to a wounded young veteran of the Afghanistan war. She continues to produce for both stage and film.

Murphy has a distinguished career served as playwright-/writer-/artist-in-residence at a variety of institutions including: Necessary Angel (1996-2002); University of Regina (2006-2007); Tapestry New Opera, Toronto (2008); McMaster University (2010); Finborough Theatre, London, UK (2010-2012); University of Guelpg (2011); Playright’s Retreat Stratford Festival (2011); Factory Theatre (1911-1912); The NotaBle Acts Theatre Festival, Fredericton, NB; Berton House Writers’ Retreat, Dawson City YK (2013); Edna Staebler Laurier Writer in Residence, Wilfrid Laurier University (2014); Lee Playwright in Residence, University of Alberta, AB (2014-2017); National Theatre School of Canada, Montreal (2016); Orion Visiting Artist, University of Victoria BC (2017-2018); University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB (2018).

Award-winning Canadian cookbook author. Born Elizabeth Rose Varty in 1941, Murray grew up on a farm close to Duntroon, Ont., before attending Trinity College at the University of Toronto. She graduated in 1964. Working first as an English school teacher, she transitioned to freelance work shortly thereafter, writing for the Toronto Star newspaper and other Canadian publications. Her earliest training as a cook came as a child helping her mother prepare meals on the family farm. She later supplemented these formative experiences with culinary-informed visits to Paris, Costa Rica, Thailand, and Hong Kong. But it was her love of Canadian cuisine and emphasis on local ingredients through which she created a name for herself. Her first cookbook, “Rose Murray’s Canadian Christmas Cooking: The Classic Guide to Holiday Feasts,” came out in 1979. She would go on to publish ten more, including “Rose Murray's Comfortable Kitchen” (1991), “A Taste of Canada: A Culinary Journey” (2008), and “Canada’s Favourite Recipes” (2012), co-written with fellow food writer Elizabeth Baird, which won a 2013 Taste Canada Award. She also wrote an introduction to the 2007 edition of her friend Edna Staebler’s popular cookbook, “Food that Really Schmecks: Mennonite Country Cooking.” In addition to her successful publishing career, Murray was a frequent guest on Canadian radio and television shows, and an occasional lecturer at the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University. She died in 2023.

The Museum Children's Theatre was founded in 1964 by Susan Rubes.

Native Earth Performing Arts (NEPA) is an Indigenous Theatre Company founded in Toronto in 1982. It is Canada's longest running professional Indigenous theatre company. In its early days (1982-1986), the company’s productions were collaboratively written and performed by the actors. The focus of this Company was to provide opportunities for Indigenous people to have success in the arts as well as to bring attention to Indigenous creators, actors and artists.

In 1984, the company held a workshop to discuss how to bring the “trickster” role back into the theatre, and by 1985, NEPA produced Trickster’s Cabaret. Soon after, in 1989, the Company created the “Weesageechak (Cree for Trickster) Begins to Dance” Festival which encouraged the development of works that often ran for a full season afterwards.

Success in obtaining government funding in 1986 helped stabilize the company, allowing it to establish its own office and hire its first full-time Artistic Director, Tomson Highway. That year also saw the production of Tomson Highway’s The Rez Sisters which quickly became hugely popular, spurring NEPA to take it on a national tour. It drew the attention of the preeminent Edinburgh Fringe Festival and was invited to participate there. At home it won the Dora Mavor Moore Award and Chalmers Award.

In 2012, NEPA announced its permanent home at Aki Studio in Toronto. This venue has also hosted many other multicultural and independent theatre companies including fu-Gen, Cahoots, Obsidian, Acting Up Stage, Paper Canoe, and Agokwe Collective.

Previous Artistic Directors include founding members Dennis Lacroix and Bunny Sicard (1982-1983); Monique Mojica (1983-1986); Tomson Highway (1986-1992); Floyd Favel (1992-1994); Drew Hayden Taylor (1994-1997); Pamela A. Matthews (Interim 1997-1998); Alejandro Ronceria, Sandra Laronde and Daniel David Moses (Artistic Directorate 1998-2000); Alanis King (2000-2002); Doris Peltier, Glenn Shea, and Marion De Vries (Interim) in 2002; Yvette Nolan (2002-2010); Tara Beagan (2011-2013); Ryan Cunningham (2013-1017), and Keith Barker, acclaimed Métis theatre artist (2017-2022). In 2022, Joelle Peters was appointed Interim Artistic Director.

NDWT (Ne`er-Do-Well-Thespians) was organized in 1975 in Toronto by playwright James Reaney, Director Keith Turnbull, and a number of actors. The company occupied the Bathhurst Street Theatre for most of its existence. It was dedicated to producing original Canadian plays and eventually organized a native theatre group called Northern Delights under the direction of Jim Morris. NDWT left the Bathurst Street Theatre in 1980, and Turnbull closed the company in 1982 with plans to reopen the following year, but NDWT did not resume operations.

Necessary Angel, the name being inspired by a Wallace Stevens poem, was founded in 1978 by Richard Rose. Based in Toronto, Necessary Angel has dedicated itself to creating original works with the goal of creating original works designed to challenge and engage audiences. The company has been the source of premiering works by Michael Ondaatje, Richard Rose, Timothy Findley, and many other notable playwrights. Daniel Brooks was artistic director from 2003 to 2012 and Jennifer Tarver from 2013 to 2018.

John Baxter “J.B.” Nelson was a graduate of the Ontario Agricultural College (1924). He later served as Agricultural Representative in Grey County, Huron County, and Peterborough County, and was also active on the Milk Control Board, Farm Products Marketing Board, the Ontario Credit Union, and the Farm Economics Branch.

The New Hamburg Manufacturing Company was located in New Hamburg, Ontario. The company was known to manufacture steam traction engines, portable steam engines, and threshers. The company closed in 1917.

In New Holland, Pennsylvania in 1895, Abram Martin Zimmerman (1869-1944) opened a blacksmith shop and began repairing and making farm machinery for the local farmers. Zimmerman also began retailing the Otto four-cycle engine and the Columbus single-cylinder dual-flywheel stationary engine. Around 1900, he started manufacturing his own stationary freeze-proof cylinder engine as well as feed mills and grinders. In 1903, Zimmerman incorporated his business as the New Holland Machine Company. In 1912, the company began manufacturing its own rock crusher and by 1914 it had also added a wood saw to its line of farm machinery. The New Holland Machine Company was purchased by the Sperry Rand Corporation in 1947, to form Sperry New Holland, and began manufacturing the maybine mower conditioner. In 1964, Sperry New Holland bought a major interest in Claeys (Clayson), one of Europe’s largest combine manufacturers. In 1975, Sperry New Holland introduced the world's first twin-rotor combine.

The New Holland brand continued to grow in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. The company manufactured tractors, combine harvesters, balers, forage harvesters, self-propelled sprayers, haying tools, seeding equipment, hobby tractors, utility vehicles and implements, and grape harvesters. In 1986, the farm equipment line of Sperry New Holland was acquired by Ford to form Ford New Holland Inc. Fiat purchased an 80% interest in the company in 1991, and in 1999, New Holland N.V. and Case Corporation merged to form CNH Industrial.