Writer: Emily Dallas
Director: Valmai Goggin
Musical Director: Joe Slabe
Designers: Kathryn Smith (Scenic and Lighting) Rebecca Toon (Costumes);
Actor Pictured: Tara Jackson
Photo: Benjamin Laird
Writer: Emily Dallas
Director: Valmai Goggin
Musical Director: Joe Slabe
Designers: Kathryn Smith (Scenic and Lighting) Rebecca Toon (Costumes);
Actor Pictured: Tara Jackson
Photo: Benjamin Laird
Love and Chance in Central Alberta By Richard Beaune As I write these words, I’m sitting in the Scott Block Theatre in Red Deer, taking a short break from rehearsing The Games of Love and Chance. This classic play is being rediscovered by an ensemble of artists who are living
Postmarginal Edmonton – Reflections of a Year By Shrina Patel, Soni Dasmohapatra, and Lucy Lu A little over a year ago, 40 artists, scholars, and cultural workers gathered at the Fringe Theatre Arts Barns in Edmonton to tell stories, dialogue, move, and practice together. Led by Walterdale Theatre with funding
Hate Based Crimes in Relation to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Unless I am casted as a killer in a play, murder is not a part of my career of job description. Until then, I am not a murderer. However, for people in positions of power such as the police, murder
Frission, or the Unbearable Virtue of Molecules Gathering I wanted—needed—the show to happen in person this year. The profound connection that we form by physical presence in theatre, in partnership, in place, to be together as humans was an experience sorely, painfully missed. What does it mean to be in
Curiosity Liberated The Cat Kijo Eunice Gatama Curiosity didn’t kill the cat, I think it actually liberated it and gave it the satisfaction of learning something new whether that was pleasant or not. Hello, I am Kijo, and I am a huge cat lover and so this play on the
The Artwork and Its Compassions Simone A. Medina Polo When I had an opportunity to write the first essay for this year’s run of Who Are We Now?, I was considering how my own position as an arts manager is symptomatic of a number of concrete socio-political conflicts – something
Three years ago, I started writing a show called Wastelands. In creating that piece, I studied the plastic waste and climate crises. I went in feeling that we were in trouble, that was the reason for writing the show, but as an artist I didn’t see what I could do. This was a job for policy-makers, scientists, and industry. My skills weren’t useful here.
I feel like I have experienced a sort of winter in our industry. Where some things must die so that new growth can emerge. I saw the sudden death of my frantic schedule. A full stop that was pleasant at first, but soon challenged our ‘the show must go on’ sensibility to ‘I guess the show doesn’t have to go on… can’t go on” sobriety
I was directing Five Women Wearing the Same Dress by Alan Ball for Canmore’s Pine Tree Players when the second round of COVID restrictions hit Alberta. Even though there were bigger-picture things to get worked up about, I was upset.
We are children of the wind, we are children of the water, the fire, and the light. These are the things that make us who we are. Our voices sing the memories. The sound of mahbash – coffee ground by a father’s hand and the smell of khubz – bread kneaded with a mother’s heart.
The following essay was brought to our attention by University of Calgary School of Performing Arts Sessional Instructor Léda Davies. We’re thrilled to get this insight into what post-secondary theatre students are thinking about, researching, and writing about right now. Thank you Sofia Huarte Aguilar for sharing this excellent essay!
MOVING TO A BIGGER STAGE – Chris Dodd Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses
WHAT I WOULD LEAVE AND WHAT I WOULD KEEP I’m a designer during a pandemic. I’ve been trying to write an essay about the experience of designers, technicians, and production staff during COVID, but admittedly (and unsurprisingly) it’s not easy. There is no succinct phrase or line of dialogue to
LOOKING TO THE PAST TO SEE THE FUTURE: A LEBANESE-CANADIAN MANIFESTO – Luay Eljamal The following essay pulls from research I conducted in 2016 for a paper entitled “The Manipulation of Collective Memory Through Art in Post-Civil War Lebanon”, which can be read in its entirety here. When I first
FORGING A NEW PATH – Suzanne Hermary The thoughts herein are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations with whom I work. I’m fairly new to the Board of the group I work with, so most observations are coming from the perspective of a community
WHO ARE WE NOW, AND WHERE ARE WE GOING – Lebogang Disele Pandemic Round 1: Nextfest goes online. I submit my performance in the form of a video excerpt. Pandemic Round 2: Antidote to Violence as Care, a collaborative project led by Brandon Wint, shifts from a live performance to
FACING FORWARD, LOOKING BACK A Letter To (and From) Sue Goberdhan, for you Well Homeslice, we made it. 28. Holy shit. Almost don’t have the audacity to believe it, but we’re here. When you really stop and think about it, it’s kind of a miracle, isn’t it? Our dumb ass
IT IS NOT JUST TO HAVE A MESTIZO TRANS WOMAN IN POWER – Simone A. Medina Polo At the beginning of October 2020, I took on the role of Festival Producer for the Nextfest Arts Company. Though it is most certainly exciting and a significant personal achievement, it is not
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