Never the Last

Delinquent Theatre is based on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations. We are an independent theatre company that creates, develops, and produces new Canadian plays.  Our work explores the figure of the Delinquent as the resilient other – telling narratives of survival, ingenuity, and subversive action in the face of a hostile status quo. We strive to create working spaces that challenge and re-examine traditional hierarchies in order to allow artists to grow and thrive.  We ask ourselves and our collaborators to imagine new ways of working instead of re-creating the systems we know, in order to respond to the needs of each production’s ensemble, and to push our work forward into new and uncharted territory.  Delinquent Theatre is run by Christine Quintana and Laura McLean as co-Artistic Producers, and is funded on a project basis with no operational funding.

Since incorporating in 2012, the company has had a strong focus on pursuing presentation opportunities at festivals like the rEvolver Festival and Gabriola Island Theatre Festival, and presentation opportunities like Presentation House, Talk-is-Free Theatre in Barrie ON, and The Cultch. Over the course of 3 years the company developed Stationary: A Recession-Era Musical, which started as a 10-minute short and went on to a national tour and a Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Outstanding Musical (Small Theatre).

Following that large-scale production activity, the company has been working hard to thoughtfully incubate new work for presentation and touring. Never The Last, an interdisciplinary collaboration between violinist Molly MacKinnon and playwright Christine Quintana, has been developed at the 2016 rEvolver Theatre Festival, the 2016 Banff Playwrights Lab, the 2016 Gabriola Island Theatre Festival, a 2017 residency at the Anvil Centre, and a 2018 workshop at Tarragon Theatre, and premiered at the Annex Theatre as part of the See More Theatre series, garnering 5 Jessie Richardson Award nominations and one win. Our 2016/2017 Playwrights in Residence unit yielded a script that moved ahead to further development and production with us: Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen’s The Seventh Fire, which is set to premiere as an immersive audio experience in January of 2023.

Christine Quintana 

Born in Los Angeles to a Mexican-American father and a Dutch-British-Canadian mother, Christine is now a grateful visitor to the unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh people. Christine is an actor, playwright, and co-Artistic Producer of Delinquent Theatre. In these various capacities, she has worked with Tarragon Theatre, the Arts Club Theatre Company, Bard on the Beach, The Cultch, Neworld Theatre, Electric Company Theatre, Rumble Theatre, Boca Del Lupo, Zee Zee Theatre, Caravan Farm Theatre, Ruby Slippers Theatre, Playwrights Theatre Centre, Pi Theatre, Gateway Theatre, Nightswimming Theatre, Belfry Theatre, Stratford Festival, and Young People’s Theatre. Her writing has been translated and performed in Spanish, French, ASL, and German.

Creation/performing highlights include Espejos: Clean (translated and adapted by Paula Zelaya Cervantes), premiering with Neworld Theatre and South Coast Repertory; Never The Last (co-created with Molly MacKinnon), produced by Delinquent Theatre, recipient of 5 Jessie Richardson Theatre Award nominations including Outstanding Production and Outstanding New Script and winner of Significant Artistic Achievement; Selfie (commissioned by Théâtre la Seizième in French, and Young People’s Theatre in English, Governor General’s Award nominee, winner of the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding TYA Play, the Sydney Risk Prize for Outstanding Script by an Emerging Playwright, and the Tom Hendry award for TYA); Good Things To Do(rEvolver Festival and FoldA). As an actor, Christine has recently played in Made In Canada (rice & beans theatre), Anywhere But Here (Electric Company Theatre), The Coyotes (Caravan Farm Theatre), Marine Life (Ruby Slippers Theatre), Yoga Play (Gateway Theatre), East Van Panto: The Wizard of Oz (Theatre Replacement and The Cultch). She was honoured with the 2017 Siminovitch Protege Prize for Playwriting from Marcus Youssef, and is a proud co-founding member of the Canadian Latinx Theatre Artist Coalition.  She holds a BFA in Acting from the University of British Columbia.

Since completing her degree in 2012, Molly has developed a strong passion for theatre and interdisciplinary work. She has been featured in a number of productions including The Idiot (Neworld Theatre/VMT), STATIONARY: A Recession-Era Musical (Delinquent Theatre), The Tempest (Bard on the Beach), The Night’s Mare (Caravan Farm Theatre), Les Filles Du Roi (Urban Ink), Double Happiness (Music on Main), and most recently, a digital run of Good Things To Do (Rumble Theatre).

Molly MacKinnon

Molly MacKinnon is a violinist and collaborative artist based on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish people. Fortunate to grow up in the thriving arts community of Nelson BC, Molly studied with former Vancouver Opera Orchestra and CBC Radio Orchestra violinist Wendy Herbison before moving to the coast in 2008 for the Bachelor of Music Performance program at the University of British Columbia, where she studied with Jasper Wood and Dale Barltrop.

Molly MacKinnon is the co-Artistic Director of Seagrass Music Society, founded in 2020 with Heather Beaty. The non-profit seeks to demystify and modernize the modes in which Vancouver audiences engage with classical music. Molly and Heather’s first major project was Sounding the Sophia, a concert centred around the historic sinking of the 1918 SS Princess Sophia. The show featured 3 world premiers by local Vancouver composers Kathleen Allan, Mishelle Cuttler, and Nancy Tam, and was developed, supported, and presented by The Little Chamber Music Series That Could.  Also under the umbrella of Seagrass Music is Concerts on Tap, a series that collaborates with local craft breweries to create a program that pairs 4 pieces of music with a flight of beers or spirits.  Up next for Seagrass Music: the Piano Diaries, a free to the public series featuring local concert pianists in East Van parks.

Along with playwright Christine Quintana, Molly is the creator of Never The Last, a genre-bending theatre/concert piece based around the life and work of 20th century Canadian composer and violinist Sophie-Carmen Eckhardt-Gramatté. The show recently received 5 Jessie Richardson Theatre award nominations, and won in the Special Achievement Award category for outstanding interdisciplinary collaboration. Molly is a member and co-founder of the Quarantettes, a singing quartet (and sometimes sextet!) brought into being in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The roving group has performed in parks all around Vancouver, Burnaby, and Surrey, as well as at doorsteps of many neighbours throughout East Van.

Molly’s extensive orchestral experience includes playing with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Island Symphony, the Plastic Acid Orchestra, the Vancouver Film Orchestra, and the Allegra Chamber Orchestra, an all-female ensemble dedicated to celebrating women composers and performers.  Molly is a member of the Black Dog String Quartet, who in 2018 were ensemble in residence for Vancouver New Music’s international quartet festival, Quartetti. The group was honoured to perform in the company of renowned groups such the JACK, Penderecki, and Mivos quartets, and to play two works by composer Raven Chacon.

To schedule an interview with the artist, or staff members at Theatre Passe Muraille regarding this production, please email Red eye media at Suzanne@redeyemedia.ca. We will try out best to accommodate your media requests, however they are not guaranteed.

Click here to be directed to the media page.

Death of loved ones; Grief

Delinquent Theatre acknowledges the assistance of the 2016 Banff Playwrights Lab – a partnership between The Banff Centre and the Canada Council for the Arts. Never The Last was part of the 2016 rEvolver Theatre Festival, produced by Upintheair Theatre. Special thanks to the Eckhardt-Gramatté Foundation, the Electric Company Theatre, the Anvil Centre, Tarragon Theatre, and Young People’s Theatre.

prelude — Sunday, April 2, 2pm

• A brief biography of Eckhardt-Grammatté from The Canadian Encyclopedia
  
  
• A 3-part YouTube video series about Eckhardt-Grammatté created by The Eckhardt-Gramatté Foundation
   
• Caprice No.VII (Le départ d’un train) by S.C. Eckhardt-Gramatté performed by Molly MacKinnon for Redshift Music Society