March 14, 2022

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Working in Northern Ontario
Live ZOOM presentation
March 14 7PM/EST POP-UP

Click HERE to Register

Join us for a Zoom presentation where we discuss everything about working in theatre in Northern Ontario, with our 3 visiting PlaySmelter Artists from Sudbury.

The Madonna-Whore Project by Jessie Bergeron
The Painted Birds by Kim Fahner
Calling the Rock Home by Karen Thistle

The Madonna-Whore Project is an exploration of women’s sexuality as it evolves through motherhood. The concept is to have actors who are also mothers of young children perform with their offspring in tow. Mother-actors will unabashedly share stories of female sexuality all while they nurse, pump, soothe, change diapers, chase toddlers, kiss bobos, etc. Through the juxtaposition of the Madonna (virtuous, pure and maternal) and the Whore (carnal, erotic, desirable), this piece of devised theatre will debunk those constructs and the idea that they are mutually exclusive.

The Painted Birds: During FFF 2022, I’ll be working on finishing this novel. It’s about a visual artist in her 40s who loses her mother to breast cancer, but who uses that loss as a catalyst to her own evolution. Moving from Sudbury, to Newfoundland, to the West of Ireland and then back again to Canada, the novel traces Bronagh O’Brien’s journey to honour her mother’s final wishes, while documenting her own transformation at mid-life. Woven throughout the novel is the Irish legend of The Morrigan, a tale that dovetails Bronagh’s own story in the most woven and elemental of ways.

Calling the Rock Home: A story of three men who leave their homes in Newfoundland to work in the mines of Sudbury, Northern Ontario in the late 1960’s. Loosely based on the experiences of my father and uncle, I am interested in exploring the idea of “home”. Is home where you come from, where you are now, or where you decide to go?

ARTIST: Jessie Bergeron is a theatre creator and performer from Northern Ontario. Trained in acting at George Brown Theatre School and with a degree in Theatre from the University of Ottawa, she temporarily left the theatre scene to pursue an altogether different vocation: motherhood. As a queer artist-mother with an invisible disability, she seeks to empower these underrepresented groups through her art.

ARTIST: Kim Fahner lives and writes in Sudbury, Ontario. Her latest book of poems is These Wings (Pedlar Press, 2019) and her new book, Emptying the Ocean, will be published by Frontenac House in Fall 2022. Kim is the Ontario Representative for The Writers’ Union of Canada, a member of the League of Canadian Poets, and a supporting member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada.

ARTIST: Karen Thistle has been a producer with the PlaySmelter Festival after participating in the 2017 inaugural Producer’s Unit. As a playwright she participated in the 2nd annual STC Playwrights’ Junction where her play “The Intermediaries” was first drafted and later included in the Public Reading Series of the 2nd annual PlaySmelter festival. She is a founding member of Inklings which has grown into the Playwright/Screenwriters special interest group with the Sudbury Writers Guild. Outside of writing she has enjoyed a career in Northern Ontario working with public libraries and non-profit arts organizations.

ARTIST: Caitie is a dramaturg, arts educator, playwright, and emerging screenwriter who is as excited about telling stories as she is about empowering others to do the same. Over her career, Caitie has facilitated several playwriting programs for youth and young-in-craft artists across Toronto in schools and through arts organizations like Expect Theatre (KidCAST), and Scarborough Arts (Youth Playwrights Hub). From 2017 – 2020 she was Program Director of the Young Playwrights Unit at Tarragon Theatre. In 2021, she received a mentorship opportunity through Soulpepper Theatre’s Her Words Festival, as a Rising Star Dramaturg. She is now the Company Dramaturg at Driftwood Theatre Group, and has been working with the Beyond the Bard’s Playwrights Unit and Playwright-In-Residence since 2020. Select writing credits include PARADISE COMICS (Filament Incubator) and GASH (Ergo Pink Festival). She is currently working on a feature-length animation script called BOXED IN: A SERVICE DOG STORY. It’s exactly what you think it’s about.”

Working in Northern Ontario
Live ZOOM presentation
March 14 7PM/EST POP-UP

Click HERE to Register

Join us for a Zoom presentation where we discuss everything about working in theatre in Northern Ontario, with our 3 visiting PlaySmelter Artists from Sudbury.

The Madonna-Whore Project by Jessie Bergeron
The Painted Birds by Kim Fahner
Calling the Rock Home by Karen Thistle

The Madonna-Whore Project is an exploration of women’s sexuality as it evolves through motherhood. The concept is to have actors who are also mothers of young children perform with their offspring in tow. Mother-actors will unabashedly share stories of female sexuality all while they nurse, pump, soothe, change diapers, chase toddlers, kiss bobos, etc. Through the juxtaposition of the Madonna (virtuous, pure and maternal) and the Whore (carnal, erotic, desirable), this piece of devised theatre will debunk those constructs and the idea that they are mutually exclusive.

The Painted Birds: During FFF 2022, I’ll be working on finishing this novel. It’s about a visual artist in her 40s who loses her mother to breast cancer, but who uses that loss as a catalyst to her own evolution. Moving from Sudbury, to Newfoundland, to the West of Ireland and then back again to Canada, the novel traces Bronagh O’Brien’s journey to honour her mother’s final wishes, while documenting her own transformation at mid-life. Woven throughout the novel is the Irish legend of The Morrigan, a tale that dovetails Bronagh’s own story in the most woven and elemental of ways.

Calling the Rock Home: A story of three men who leave their homes in Newfoundland to work in the mines of Sudbury, Northern Ontario in the late 1960’s. Loosely based on the experiences of my father and uncle, I am interested in exploring the idea of “home”. Is home where you come from, where you are now, or where you decide to go?

ARTIST: Jessie Bergeron is a theatre creator and performer from Northern Ontario. Trained in acting at George Brown Theatre School and with a degree in Theatre from the University of Ottawa, she temporarily left the theatre scene to pursue an altogether different vocation: motherhood. As a queer artist-mother with an invisible disability, she seeks to empower these underrepresented groups through her art.

ARTIST: Kim Fahner lives and writes in Sudbury, Ontario. Her latest book of poems is These Wings (Pedlar Press, 2019) and her new book, Emptying the Ocean, will be published by Frontenac House in Fall 2022. Kim is the Ontario Representative for The Writers’ Union of Canada, a member of the League of Canadian Poets, and a supporting member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada.

ARTIST: Karen Thistle has been a producer with the PlaySmelter Festival after participating in the 2017 inaugural Producer’s Unit. As a playwright she participated in the 2nd annual STC Playwrights’ Junction where her play “The Intermediaries” was first drafted and later included in the Public Reading Series of the 2nd annual PlaySmelter festival. She is a founding member of Inklings which has grown into the Playwright/Screenwriters special interest group with the Sudbury Writers Guild. Outside of writing she has enjoyed a career in Northern Ontario working with public libraries and non-profit arts organizations.

ARTIST: Caitie is a dramaturg, arts educator, playwright, and emerging screenwriter who is as excited about telling stories as she is about empowering others to do the same. Over her career, Caitie has facilitated several playwriting programs for youth and young-in-craft artists across Toronto in schools and through arts organizations like Expect Theatre (KidCAST), and Scarborough Arts (Youth Playwrights Hub). From 2017 – 2020 she was Program Director of the Young Playwrights Unit at Tarragon Theatre. In 2021, she received a mentorship opportunity through Soulpepper Theatre’s Her Words Festival, as a Rising Star Dramaturg. She is now the Company Dramaturg at Driftwood Theatre Group, and has been working with the Beyond the Bard’s Playwrights Unit and Playwright-In-Residence since 2020. Select writing credits include PARADISE COMICS (Filament Incubator) and GASH (Ergo Pink Festival). She is currently working on a feature-length animation script called BOXED IN: A SERVICE DOG STORY. It’s exactly what you think it’s about.”