NEW THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES PLAYWRIGHTS UNIT
PERSEPHONE THEATRE IS PROUD TO ANNOUNCE THE LAUNCH OF NEW THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES PLAYWRIGHTS UNIT
About the Persephone Theatre for Young Audiences Playwrights Unit
The TYA Playwrights Unit was founded to develop relevant new plays for young audiences written by exciting, emerging, Saskatoon-based playwrights.
This year’s TYA participants include Erin Brophy, Yulissa Campos, Mitchell Larsen, Danielle Roy, and Megan Zong.
Led by Artistic Associate Jennica Grienke, working in partnership with Program Consultant Curtis Peeteetuce, the 2021 Unit meets bi-weekly to discuss and develop their plays in a mutually supportive and collaborative environment. Each playwright also receives direct, one-on-one consultation from an established playwright of their choosing, as an added method of supportingtheir unique voices and creation processes.
The TYA Unit culminates in the world premiere of these writers’ works through our digital tour to schools in fall 2021. Following premiere, Persephone will be proactively connecting the new scripts with other producing organizationsto support the playwrights in receiving subsequent productions of their work.
About the Playwrights
Erin Brophy (She/ Her) holds a BFA Honours in Acting from the University of Saskatchewan, and works as an emerging actor, playwright, theatre educator, stunt performer, actor combatant, and fledgling fight and intimacy director. Erin has kept busy during the pandemic by working toward a Bachelors’ in Gender Studies and Culture. Past acting credits include The Beaux’ Stratagem, Bronte, Spirit Wrestler (Greystone Theatre), Crowsworld: The First (Myriad Productions). She is grateful for a community that works to cultivate the arts, and for the opportunity to live and work on Treaty Six territory.
“I am so excited to be working with this unit! Since many of us find a home in theatre as young people, Theatre for Young Audiences is something that I believe should be cultivated at every opportunity. It is so important for Saskatchewan youth to see Saskatchewan artists living, working, and succeeding in the province, and I hope that the results of this unit will help to show young people that it is possible to be a theatre artist on the prairies (and during a pandemic to boot)! I’m looking forward to collaborating with such an incredible team of artists, and I’m thankful for the opportunity to lend some words to this awesome initiative.“
Yulissa Campos
Yulissa Campos is an Ecuadorian theatre artist and founder artistic director of Ay, Caramba! Theatre, currently based in Saskatoon. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Saskatchewan. Yulissa loves to write stories that resonates with the underrepresented voices when she is not acting, teaching or producing. Yulissa celebrates her Latinx heritage in her plays and her podcast on Spotify “Latinas in Stoon”. Moreover, she debuted internationally with her play I, Frida at the M1 Singapore Festival in January 2021. Selected theatre credits: Turn, Turn, Turn; Earth Diver (SUM Theatre), Prairie Nurse (Station Arts Centre) I, Frida (Ay, Caramba! Theatre), The Penelopiad (FerrePlay). Playwriting credits: The Ungrateful Immigrant (25th Street Theatre), Trapped (National Theatre School 2020, Short Cuts Festival 2020) I, Frida (MF1 Singapore Fringe Festival 2021, Saskatoon Fringe 2019). You can find more about her work in www.aycarambatheatre.com and social media @yuliecampos/ @aycarambatheatre. Yulissa is beyond excited to be part of Persephone’s TYA Playwrights Unit!
“I have always liked children stories, I love kids! After the international acclaim of my play I, Frida, I fell in love with the idea of creating plays for young people. This time I am playing with the idea of creating a story for the little ones and not so little ones, something for elementary school. This is a story about the meaning of colour, ethnicity and inclusion… because we have all been there before. I am thrilled to explore these concepts through the lens of the young ones, and of course bring it to you!“
Mitchell Larsen
I grew up across Saskatchewan, the child of a pastor, learning a love for performance from my parents: music, puppetry, acting. Throughout my life, art has been my passion, my lifeblood, my expression, a place that I can go to feel safe, explore, expand. I am grateful to people who have and continue to encourage me, to amazing artists with whom I have had the privilege to collaborate. I am grateful for Saskatoon, my home, and the people who make it that. I am grateful for the high points that art has given me: walking across a staircase as it rotates end over end, held by a cast of friends; belting Sia’s Chandelier from atop a wooden box as I wail away at a guitar; and sliding fireman-style down the pole of a fire-escape after perching gargoyle-like from a buttress.
“My heart is sparked and I am humbled by this opportunity to create with this incredible group of artists. I respect and admire each of them. It means a great deal to be able to create a new play for the community I grew up in and to hopefully pass on a part of what I needed growing up but didn’t find till later in life. I hope to share the blaze of joy that performance has brought to me and to create something as nuanced and beautiful as the people for whom I am writing. I know that is an impossible goal and I am inspired and driven on by the pursuit of it. Thank you for being a part of my community. I hope I can do you proud.“
Danielle Roy
Danielle is an actor, director, producer, playwright, and instructor based in Martensville, Saskatchewan. In 2011, she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting from the University of Saskatchewan, and in 2014 she completed her extended training at the Globe Theatre Conservatory Program. Danielle is the founder of Gumshoe Productions, a theatre school based in Martensville thats sole mission is to empower youth through story telling. Danielle has appeared in several theatre productions in Saskatoon, including The Wild Dog Waits on the Concrete Path (Embrace Theatre/Theatre Howl), Dr. Frightful Presents: Dead Air (Buttered Ghost Theatre) Unboxed Nightmare Tours (Buttered Ghost Theatre). She is also a writer, performer and proud member of the Sketchy Bandits, Saskatoon’s sketchiest sketch comedy group. Her recent writing credits include: Peach (Gumshoe Productions), 51 Pumpkin Patch Lane (ButteredGhost Theatre), Picture in a Frame (Sketchy Bandits), Toots (Sketchy Bandits).
Megan Zong
Megan Zong is a Chinese-Canadian theatre artist born and raised in Saskatoon on Treaty 6 Territory homeland of the Metis. Having graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with her BFA in Acting, she has continued to perform and create all over the province. She will be debuting her show Unmasked in the fall of 2021 as an emerging playwright and producer. Select acting credits include: Pride & Prejudice, Boeing Boeing (Persephone Theatre); Mamma Mia, The Hobbit, Chicago (Globe Theatre); Earth Diver, Queen Seraphina and the Land of Vertebraat, The Young Ones (Sum Theatre); Short Cuts Festival 2017 (Hardly Art Theatre).
“...so excited to be working to create theatre for young audiences for the first time ever! Having been a performer on #Consent with Sum Theatre she could see the direct impact and influence theatre had for these young kids. She looks forward to creating a story that will be able to provoke some thought and hopefully bring some joy into their lives.“
