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Shadows in the Nooks: Women in Canadian Theatre
The collective play “Shadows in the Nooks” combines 14 original monologues into one immersive theatrical experience celebrating some of the key women behind Canadian theatre’s early development. Each monologue, written by a different woman playwright, focuses on one female creative (now deceased) as they re-live “decisive moments in their lives, moments that shaped their innovative, creative, and daring contributions to Canadian theatre” (Co-producer Nicole Arends).
Production history
Production Dates: 8-9th October 2024; Feb 11-14, 2025
Location: Alumnae Theatre, Toronto, ON
Co-producers: Nicole Arends, Kristine Greenaway
Linda Griffiths segment playwright: Mel Stevenson
Linda Griffiths segment director: Barbara Larose
Stage Manager: Robyn Shepherd
Assistant Stage Manager: Bini Shah
Producers Nicole Arends and Kristine Greenaway describe the purpose behind the project:
“The women depicted in these monologues found welcome and refuge in the theatre when they faced some of the most significant moments of their personal and artistic lives. These are women on whose shoulders Canadian theatre makers stand today, yet they are at risk of being forgotten since their death. We are proud to bring their stories out of the shadows in a setting which is a life source for creative women – the theatre.”
The 2024-2025 production focused on early creatives who are now deceased. In future iterations, Arends and Greenaway plan to expand the list of women celebrated to reflect further, diverse developments, languages, and traditions in Canadian theatre.
I wrote and performed the monologue about ground-breaking Canadian playwright and actor Linda Griffiths (b. Montreal 1953; d. Toronto 2014).
Melanie Stevenson as playwright Linda Griffiths
Why Linda Griffiths?
I’ve been fascinated by Linda Griffiths since I was 13-years-old, and her one-woman show "Maggie and Pierre" became a Canadian cultural phenomenon. It was a ground-breaking play: set in Canada (not London or New York), about our own political celebrities, written by a woman, and starring the author, who dared to play all the parts. Griffiths bravely occupied artistic space in a way I’d never seen a woman do, especially a Canadian woman. I wanted to be like her.
Linda Griffiths, Globe and Mail
Bravery was a theme throughout Griffiths’ career. When she started out in the 1970s, many critics claimed Canada was “too young” to create its own theatre. Griffiths stormed right over that idea and created plays about everything: farming in Saskatchewan, disgraced royalty, Victorian typists, Métis activists, and Canadian poets. She did so both solo and in collaboration with artists like Paul Thompson, Layne Coleman, and Maria Campbell. Griffiths also experimented with theatrical process and form. While Griffiths could have pursued a more lucrative career in Hollywood, she chose to stay in Canada, creating interesting plays in an increasingly underfunded Canadian theatre scene. Even when she was ill with the cancer that claimed her life, she continued to create: an artist to her core.
Other monologues in the show were written by Bini Shah (Guide), Hande Gülcan (actor, playwright, director, & Yiddish Theatre founder Dora Wasserman), Anne Tait (casting agent & actor Diane Polley), Krystyna Hunt (actor, producer, & director Jackie Burroughs), Carol Libman & dramaturg Carolyn Zapf (New Play Society founder Dora Mavor Moore), Anne Martin (playwright Patricia Joudry), Nicole Arends (director, actor, & Young People’s Theatre founder Susan Douglas Rubes), Alison Smith (musician, singer La Bolduc), Kristine Greenaway (costume designer Martha Mann), Diane Forrest (actor, director, producer, & Actors’ Fund founder Jane Mallett), Jean Sheppard (drama educator & director Betty Mitchell), Joan Burrows (director, actor, & playwright Gina Wilkinson), Mary Barnes Amoroso (playwright, director, actor, & artistic director Sharon Pollock), Lori Delorme (critic Audrey Ashley).
