by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard | A Theatre Passe Muraille production
Collage and poster design by Emily Jung | Photo by Tanja Tiziana
“Compassion is good, but it’s just motivation. Cars need engines. Movements need mobilization.”
Through spoken word, storytelling and hip hop, acclaimed wordsmith Donna-Michelle St. Bernard illuminates racial discrimination, the suppression of expression and the trials of activism. Her experience as a Canadian emcee is woven through with allusion to Tunisian emcee Weld El 15’s unjust imprisonment for rhymes against a regime. This story creates a space to reflect on how we are connected to the systems that oppress us, and how we can empower each other to rise up.
Show Dates
Jan. 20th – Jan 25th, 2024, at PuSh International Performing Arts Festival
Jan 26 – Feb 1, 2024, at Salmon Arm Arts Centre, Salmon Arm and Vernon, BC
Running Time: 75 minutes
Accessibility
Please visit presenters’ websites for more information.
PuSh Festival – Low Vision Friendly
Location
Theatre Passe Muraille (16 Ryerson Avenue)
Tickets
Pay-What-You-Can-Afford
$12 | $35 | $65
Swearing, descriptions of violence, police brutality, and grief.
Sound of gunshots and violence.
If you would like information on the topics or themes in our productions, or to determine the suggested age for attending a performance, please reach out to our Box Office staff at 416.504.7529 or by email at info@passemuraille.on.ca.
Credits
Written and Perofrmed by
Donna-Michelle St. Bernard
Direction/Dramaturgy by
Andy McKim
Jivesh Parasram
The PuSh Festival held in January and February each year in the lower mainland remains a place for audiences to encounter work that is innovative and surprising, for artists to showcase for an international audience and for new work to emerge.
Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, aka Belladonna the Blest, is an emcee, playwright, and arts administrator. She is an associate artist at lemonTree creations, and Emcee in Residence at Theatre Passe Muraille. Her works for the stage include A Man A Fish, Cake, The House You Build, Salome’s Clothes, and Gas Girls. DM’s work has been recognized with a SATA nomination, Herman Voaden Playwriting Award, Enbridge PlayRites Award, Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, and a nomination for Governor General’s Literary Award. Interdisciplinary co-creation includes 501:Toronto in Transit with Bob Naismith and Justin Manyfingers, Bag of Stones with Clare Preuss, and On The Hill with Pulga Muchochoma and Vivine Scarlett. She has contributed as a director to Yvette Nolan’s Job’s Wife and Perfect Storm, Wanda Fitzgerald’s Practising Art and Fall From Grace, and John Feld’s OOPS!; as a dramaturge to Keith Barker’s The Hours That Remain, Tyler Pennock’s Al and the Snake, and Joseph Tisiga’s Evening with Grey Owl. Independently released recordings include All Riot on the Western Front (with the Red Menace), off my chest, and the bridge/is over. DM has performed at such events as the Western Canadian Music Awards (Moosejaw), Bayimba International Festival (Kampala, Uganda), Summerworks Theatre Festival (Toronto), Arcane Freestyle Competition (New Jersey), Vancouver Folk Festival, and Scream in High Park Literary Festival. She is honoured to have been a playwright in residence at Obsidian Theatre Company, Dynamo Theatre, and the National Arts Centre, a participant in the Stratford Festival’s playwrights’ retreat, the Banff Centre’s 2014 Playwrights’ Colony, and the 2015 Spoken Word Program, as well as a 2010 DiverseCity Fellow with the Maytree Foundation/Greater Toronto Civic Action Alliance. Publications include contributions to Eric Walters’s Tell Me Why: How Young People Can Change the World (Penguin), Refractions: Solo co-edited with Yvette Nolan for Playwrights Canada Press, various published plays and articles for alt.theatre magazine, Canadian Theatre Review, and NOW Magazine. In her ongoing efforts to advance dialogues on diversity, DM has partnered with Ad Hoc Assembly, Stratford Festival, Impact Festival, Prismatic Festival, Summerworks Festival, Toronto Fringe, and Diaspora Dialogues. Donna-Michelle St. Bernard is the former general manager of Native Earth Performing Arts, artistic director of New Harlem Productions, and a vocalist with folk/funk/hip hop trio, ergo sum. She is a true believer.
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.
Coming Soon.