Digitally-staged play an act of reconciliation

A group of Magnus Theatre in Education Collective Creation Project students recently performed in the digitally-staged online reading of the Stolen, Azhen play presented in partnership with the Thunder Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre on June 11.

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY — Reconciliation was the focus of Magnus Theatre’s Stolen, Azhen digitally-staged online reading of a Collective Creation Project play presented in partnership with the Thunder Bay Indigenous Friendship Centre on June 11. The play is posted online and on Magnus Theatre’s Facebook and YouTube pages.

“To have the opportunity to not only share knowledge about reconciliation with others but to learn more about the histories and experiences and to hear firsthand about the experiences of my peers was very important to me,” says Keira Essez, an urban Indigenous youth from Thunder Bay and one of the Collective Creation Project participants. “We are seeing efforts towards reconciliation and that’s very important, but a lot of the time some of the reconciliation we see demonstrated is a still a bit more surface level so I’m really hoping this project encourages people to think deeper about reconciliation and not just think about it as boxes to be checked off.”

Essex says the play is a call to action for people to think more deeply about reconciliation and to work harder to achieve it. Set in the present day about a teenager who leaves her First Nation to pursue secondary school studies in a large urban centre, the story explores themes of racism, colonization and cultural appropriation and highlights the issue of violence against Indigenous women and girls.

“This play — which in itself is an act of reconciliation — highlights a few of the struggles Indigenous people face because of the colonial attitudes and violence that has been ingrained into our society for hundreds of years,” Essex says. “Reconciliation is the responsibility of everyone. It is something Indigenous and non-Indigenous people must work on together so that we can begin healing.”

Danielle Chandler, theatre in education director at Magnus Theatre, says the online performance went well, noting the play was originally scheduled to be staged before a live audience in 2020 but was delayed and changed to an online format due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic.

“I’m really proud of the work that the students did because it has been such a rollercoaster with COVID-19,” Chandler says. “There’s been so many changes and the students demonstrated so much resilience in staying with the project and maintaining their enthusiasm about it.”

Chandler says there has been “really positive” feedback from the community in response to the online reading of the play.

“I spoke to one of the mothers of a participant yesterday and she was telling me that she’s been inundated with positive feedback — her daughter is Indigenous and she’s telling me that she’s been getting so many Facebook messages and texts and calls, and people are just really embracing what they’re hearing,” Chandler says. “And I’m hearing that from educators as well that it’s being used in classrooms and the students are really embracing the material and they are taking the message to heart and starting to think about reconciliation, which is exactly what we were aiming for this project to do.”

Chandler, who is a qualified English, drama and social sciences teacher, also created a study guide for the project, which is available online.

“We think it is really important that these materials can be used in the school system,” Chandler says. “We want to make it as accessible for teachers to do that as possible. It ties into the Ontario curriculum and they can feel comfortable and free to discuss the themes in the play with their classes.”