Gratien Gélinas, playwright, actor, and director, may accurately be called a founding father of the contemporary French-Canadian theater. His lovable gamin, Fridolin, was the first authentically Quebecois dramatic character; his 1948 play, Tit-Coq, was the first literary work to limn the urban, as distinct from the rural, Quebec environment; and his Bousille et les justes (1959) first used the Quebec stage as a forum for social criticism. In 1957 he founded the Comédie-Canadienne, a Montreal playhouse dedicated to the production of native drama, where a generation of fledgling Quebecois playwrights found inspiration, support, and a showcase for their talents. Gélinas's commitment to Quebec culture, however, has never vitiated his robust Canadianism. Through extensive tours of his plays in English translations, stage and film roles in both languages, and service to national cultural organizations (including as president of the Canadian Theatre Centre and chairman of the...