Background
His father, Doctor Arthur Voaden, pioneered vocational teaching in Ontario. His mother, Luisa Bale Voaden, was also a teacher.
His father, Doctor Arthur Voaden, pioneered vocational teaching in Ontario. His mother, Luisa Bale Voaden, was also a teacher.
He also studied at the University of Chicago and at Yale University. Voaden studied modern drama at Queen's University, 1920–1923, and wrote his 1926 Queen's Master of Arts
Born in London, Ontario, he received a Bachelor of Arts () degree in 1923 and a Master of Arts degree in 1926 from Queen"s University. thesis on Eugene O’Neill. He lost each time. As president of the CAC, he was one of several Canadian representatives to the first United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization conference, held in Paris in 1946.
In 1974, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada, Canada"s highest civilian honor, "in recognition of his contribution to the performing arts as a playwright, producer and teacher, and his services in fostering support for all the arts and crafts". He was made a Fellow in the Royal Society of Arts in 1970. Following his death, Queen"s University created the Herman Voaden Playwriting Competition to honour new works by emerging playwrights.
A member of the Company-operative Commonwealth Federation, he ran for the Canadian House of Commons in the western Toronto riding of Trinity in the 1945 elections, 1949 elections, 1953 elections, and a 1954 by-election. Voaden was a member of Toronto"s Arts and Letters Club, the Dominion Drama Festival, and a founding member and first president of the Canadian Arts Council (which became the Canadian Conference of the Arts in 1958).
