THEVOICE |

4

Studio 58
alumnus
earns sole
internship

Grad helps script Green
Thumb Theatre plays

= By LISA TANH

angara Studio 58 2016 alum-

nus, Bronwyn Carradine, has

landed an internship with

a Vancouver theatre company for
young audiences.

Founded in 1975, Green Thumb
‘Theatre focuses on creating and
producing plays that explore social
issues relevant to the lives of chil-
dren, youth and young adults. Some
of these issues include bullying,
mental illness, self-esteem, immi-
gration and racism. Each year, they
perform for more than 125,000
children and tour across Canada,
the U.S. and sometimes abroad.
Green Thumb Theatre has seven
full-time employees and Carradine
is currently their only intern.

Artistic director at Green Thumb
Theatre, Patrick McDonald, first
got to know Carradine while di-
recting a play at Studio 58 that she
was stage managing.

“We have only had a handful of
interns over the years,” McDonald
said. “I found Bronwyn smart, curi-
ous and an ideal candidate to learn
the inner workings of a professional
theatre company.”

Carradine cred-
its her success to
Langara’s Studio

| 58 program.
“Everything
that Studio 58

puts out is high-
caliber and they

Bronwyn expect that from
Carradine their graduates.

LANGARA STUDIO58 Td say 70 per cent
ALUMNUS

of working ac-
tors and artists
in Vancouver are from Studio 58,”
Carradine said.

At Green Thumb Theatre, Car-
radine is learning how to write plays
and grants, direct shows and run a
theatre company. Currently, she is
writing Bling, a show geared to high
school students about a boxer deal-
ing with his anger and masculinity,
and assistant directing The Code, a
show also geared to high school
students about friendships, rela-
tionships and the weight of one’s
words in the age of social media.
“It is our belief that Bronwyn will
be one of the next wave of cultural
leaders,” McDonald said.

“There’s nothing that I don't want
to learn because I think to be a
good writer and director, you have
to learn how everything works,”
Carradine said. “[It’s like] how a
well-oiled machine works.”

GREEN THUMB THEATRE

HAS PERFORMED...

» Over 15,000 times to 4,000,000
people across all provinces and two
territories in Canada.

> In 36 states in the U.S., Ireland,
England, Scotland, the Netherlands,
Germany, Sweden, Hong Kong,
Singapore, Australia, New Zealand
and Mexico.

» In multiple languages including
Chinese, French, Spanish, German,
Danish, Hebrew and Japanese.

SOURCE: GREENTHUMB.BC.CA

THURSDAY, OCT. 26,2017 |

centre

EDITOR CASS LUCKE

Arts&entertainment
Matriarchs weave their
wisdom into EMMA Talks

Skwxwu7mesh (Squamish) women bring personal stories to

Squamish Nation speakers and matriarchs at EMMA Talks at SFU’s downtown campus on Oct. 19. iyvr4 DIONNE PHOTO

= By MYRA DIONNE
he voices of Coast Sal-

ish matriarchs from the

Skwxwt7mesh (Squa-

mish) nation resounded
at a free public event last Thursday
evening.

EMMA Talks, a mini-art festival
and speakers series held at SFU’s
downtown campus on Oct. 19, in-
vited guest curator and professional
communicator Michelle Nahanee,
master weaver Chief Janice George
and Indigenous feminist Salia Jo-
seph to share their stories of resis-
tance, survival and belonging.

Indigenous women have fought
and continue to fight for their voic-

es to be heard, said Paisley Eva Na-
hanee, daughter of Michelle Naha-
nee. She said people often mistake
Indigenous women as being victims
which is not true.

“You have these super strong,
super powerful Squamish women
who have beaten so many odds to

longing. She brought the audience
to their feet and to tears.

“It was no shortcoming of my
family, of my mother or of my fa-
ther, that made me move through
the world wondering about my
identity as an Indigenous woman,”
Joseph said. “It's no fault of theirs

get here but only
on this “They represent all the things that the reper-
stage to . , cussions
say hey, people want to turn a blind eye to. of struc-
I'm not — SALIA JOSEPH, INDIGENOUS FEMINIST tures that
a victim, made it so

I'm a hero, I'm a survivor, I'm all
these things,” Nahanee said.
During her speech, Joseph hon-
oured the women who supported
her discovery of identity and be-

hard for us to go home.”

Corin Browne, the co-founder
of EMMA talks, said the goal of
the feminist series was to create an
open and safe space for women to

s

stage at mini art festival and speakers series

= z
am

aif

share.

“T think that there's just so many
women's voices and stories that you
don't hear, right? Not all women
have access to mainstream media or
have people to organize for them,”
Browne said.

According to Joseph, Indigenous
women are often ignored because
they offer a threat to issues like
pipelines, racism and histories the
government has previously disre-
garded.

“They represent all the things
that people want to turn a blind eye
to," Joseph said. "They have to fight
for any time to have their voices
heard because so often people don't
want to listen.”

Local actors strip down for cheeky play

Calendar Girls’ true
story told at South
Van's Metro Theatre

m By LISA TANH

C elebrating female empower-
ment can take many forms —
including a play about mid-
dle-aged women who pose nude for
a calendar.

From Oct. 28 to Nov. 25, the
Metro ‘Theatre will produce Calen-
dar Girls, a true story about eleven,
middle-aged women, who are
longtime friends and part of the
Women's Institute (WI), a women’s
voluntary organization.

When one women loses her
husband to leukemia, they decide
to raise funds for the hospital that
treated him by posing nude for a
calendar doing traditional WI ac-
tivities such as baking and knitting.

To date, the women have raised
millions of dollars for Bloodwise, a
charity dedicated to funding blood-

(L - R) Judy McLellan (Cora), Rebecca Walters (Chris), Peg Keenleyside
(Annie), Yasmin Tayob (Celia), Joan Koebel (Jessie), Helen Martin (Ruth)
rehearse for their roles in Calendar Girls. 11S TANH PHOTO

cancer research, through selling
more calendars, greeting cards, jam
and chocolates.

While the story turned film and
play took place in a small, Yorkshire
town in Northern England, it con-
tinues to have an impact all over
the world. Alison Schamberger, the
theatre’s president and director of
the play, said it’s a “wonderful, feel-

good story” that delivers an impor-

tant message.

“The women in this play are
housewives and not able to do very
much. This is a breaking out for
them into a new venue and it shows
a tremendous amount of courage,”
Schamberger said. “That’s an im-
portant message to be putting out
that women can take charge of their
lives.”

Peg Keenleyside who plays Annie

Baker, one of the real-life calendar
girls who lost her husband to leu-
kemia, said theatre, film and televi-
sion are always reflecting the stage
of the world.

“I think that in recent years, we've
seen a lot of movement in writ-
ing where women are empowering
themselves to make the changes
they want to see in the world,” said
Keenleyside.

Keenleyside said she hopes at-
tendees will come for a great night
of theatre and leave with a feeling
that they can make a difference too.

“The husband
who dies of
cancer is

a horticul-
turalist who
manages to
get sunflowers
to grow in York-
shire. He says 'I don't think there's
anything on this planet that more
trumpets life than the sunflower, so,
it's a symbol of life in the face of
death.” - AL/son SCHAMBERGER