Stage Write Globe Theatre (Regina, Saskatchewan)

Sierra Haynes wanted to know “How do you write a play?”  Globe Theatre’s Artistic Director, Jennifer Brewin thought it was a good question and commissioned her to create Stage Write: The Playwrights’ Podcast. Sierra interviewed 5 playwrights who inspired her and shaped her dedication to Canadian Theatre. Then she flipped the script and asked them to interview the playwright that got them writing. For our final episode of season one, Rex Deverell has invited fellow playwright, Marcia Johnson to join us.



Marcia Johnson Marcia Johnson is a theatre artist based in Toronto. Serving Elizabeth, in which she also acted, had its world premiere at Western Canada Theatre (co-produced with Thousand Islands Playhouse) in February 2020 and published by Scirocco Drama. The TIP production was pandemic-delayed by a
full year in October, 2021. It had other productions at the Stratford Festival and Belfry Theatre. The play had its US premiere in July 2022 at Peterborough Players in Peterborough, New Hampshire and another production at Hamilton, Ontario’s Theatre Aquarius.



Marcia Johnson is honoured to be the 2022 Cayle Chernin Woman of the Year and recipient of the Playwrights Guild of Canada Life Membership Award, 2021.



The Globe Theatre is located in Regina, Saskatchewan and has a mission to entertain, educate and engage in the art of professional theatre. Globe Theatre is located on Treaty 4 territory, the traditional lands of the nêhiyawak, Anihšināpēk, Dakota, Nakoda, Lakota, and the homeland of the Métis/Michif Nation.

Sierra Haynes wanted to know “How do you write a play?”  Globe Theatre’s Artistic Director, Jennifer Brewin thought it was a good question and commissioned her to create Stage Write: The Playwrights’ Podcast. Sierra interviewed 5 playwrights who inspired her and shaped her dedication to Canadian Theatre. Then she flipped the script and asked them to interview the playwright that got them writing. This episode, Sierra welcomes back Christine Quintana who invited her friend and inspiration, Donna-Michelle St. Bernard.



Donna-Michelle St. Bernard aka Belladonna the Blest is an emcee, playwright and agitator. Her main body of work, the 54ology, includes: Cake, Sound of the Beast, A Man A Fish, Salome’s Clothes, Dark Love, Gas Girls, Give It Up, The Smell of Horses, Diggers and The First Stone. Other offerings include TYA (Reaching For Starlight, Geordie Productions) libretti (Oubliette, Forbidden and Nucleosynthesis, Tapestry Opera) collaborative works (They Say He Fell with Nir Bareket for Pandemic Theatre, The House You Build with Circle of Voices for Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company) and weird reflections (Thought Residency, Spiderwebshow). DM is currently the emcee in residence at Theatre Passe Muraille, associate artist at lemonTree Creations, artistic director of New Harlem Productions, coordinator of the AD HOC Assembly, and of play development at Nightwood Theatre and Theatre Aquarius. 



The Globe Theatre is located in Regina, Saskatchewan and has a mission to entertain, educate and engage in the art of professional theatre. Globe Theatre is located on Treaty 4 territory, the traditional lands of the nêhiyawak, Anihšināpēk, Dakota, Nakoda, Lakota, and the homeland of the Métis/Michif Nation.

Sierra wanted to know “How do you write a play?”  Globe Theatre’s Artistic Director, Jennifer Brewin thought it was a good question and commissioned her to create Stage Write: The Playwrights’ Podcast. Sierra interviewed 5 playwrights who inspired her and shaped her dedication to Canadian Theatre. Then she flipped the script and asked them to interview the playwright that got them writing. When Sierra first approached Beth Graham and Daniela Vlaskalic about joining Stage Write, she asked them to pick another artist or writing duo like themselves, trying to be conscious of their time. To her great surprise, they offered to sit down twice more with two playwrights! This next conversation is with Mieko Ouchi.



Mieko Ouchi works as a freelance actor, writer, director and dramaturg and is the Associate Artistic Director at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton. She is also a co-founder and an Artistic Associate at Concrete Theatre, where she held artistic leadership roles for 31 years. Recently completed projects include dramaturging The Fiancée and directing A Brimful of Asha for The Citadel, Alberta Kitchen Party for ATP, She Kills Monsters for the U of A and Parts & Labour for Field Work. Next season, Mieko will be directing Pride and Prejudice at the Citadel as well as her own play Burning Mom at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. 



The Globe Theatre is located in Regina, Saskatchewan and has a mission to entertain, educate and engage in the art of professional theatre. Globe Theatre is located on Treaty 4 territory, the traditional lands of the nêhiyawak, Anihšināpēk, Dakota, Nakoda, Lakota, and the homeland of the Métis/Michif Nation.

Sierra Haynes wanted to know “How do you write a play?”  Globe Theatre’s Artistic Director, Jennifer Brewin thought it was a good question and commissioned her to create Stage Write: The Playwrights’ Podcast. Sierra interviewed 5 playwrights who inspired her and shaped her dedication to Canadian Theatre. Then she flipped the script and asked them to interview the playwright that got them writing. Beth Graham and Daniela Vlaskalic, the dynamic duo, are back and they’ve invited Karen Hines to join Stage Write.



Karen Hines’ multi-prize-winning plays offer keen musings on modern life, combining such disparate elements as magical realism, pink-brand feminism and environmental disarray. Her solo performances and ‘little’ films featuring her darkly comic character ‘Pochsy’ have traveled the globe. Hines has collaborated as a director and dramaturg with many fellow artists such as Linda Griffiths, Michelle Thrush, and adult horror clowns Mump & Smoot since their inception. Hines was a 2020 Siminovitch Finalist, and twice finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award and her productions, plays and performances have seen venues such as One Yellow Rabbit, Joe’s Pub (Public Theatre), Astor Place Off-Broadway, Tarragon, Videofag, Factory, Canadian Stage, Soulpepper, NAC. For Montreal’s Festival du Jamais Lu 2022, Hines’ All the Little Animals I Have Eaten was translated and staged (Tous les petits animaux que j’ai dévouré) and her real estate horror Crawlspace continues to micro-theatres across Canada in French and English. Crawlspace is being adapted as screenplay, and is now a CBC podcast (PlayMe; Radio One). Upcoming, Pochsy IV in 2023. 



The Globe Theatre is located in Regina, Saskatchewan and has a mission to entertain, educate and engage in the art of professional theatre. Globe Theatre is located on Treaty 4 territory, the traditional lands of the nêhiyawak, Anihšināpēk, Dakota, Nakoda, Lakota, and the homeland of the Métis/Michif Nation.

Sierra Haynes wanted to know “How do you write a play?”  Globe Theatre’s Artistic Director, Jennifer Brewin thought it was a good question and commissioned her to create Stage Write: The Playwrights’ Podcast. Sierra interviewed 5 playwrights who inspired her and shaped her dedication to Canadian Theatre. Then she flipped the script and asked them to interview the playwright that got them writing. Jennifer Dawn Bishop has invited playwright Keith Barker to Stage Write.



Keith Barker is a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario. He is a playwright, actor, and director from Northwestern Ontario. Keith is the Director of the Foerster Bernstein New Play Development Program at the Stratford Festival, and the former Artistic Director at Native Earth Performing Arts in Toronto. He is the winner of the Dora Mavor Moore Award and the Playwrights Guild’s Carol Bolt Award for best new play. Keith was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for English Drama in 2018 for his play, This Is How We Got Here. He received a Saskatchewan and Area Theatre Award for Excellence in Playwriting for his play, The Hours That Remain, as well as a Yukon Arts Award for Best Art for Social Change.



The Globe Theatre is located in Regina, Saskatchewan and has a mission to entertain, educate and engage in the art of professional theatre. Globe Theatre is located on Treaty 4 territory, the traditional lands of the nêhiyawak, Anihšināpēk, Dakota, Nakoda, Lakota, and the homeland of the Métis/Michif Nation.

Sierra Haynes wanted to know “How do you write a play?”  Globe Theatre’s Artistic Director, Jennifer Brewin thought it was a good question and commissioned her to create Stage Write: The Playwrights’ Podcast. Sierra interviewed 5 playwrights who inspired her and shaped her dedication to Canadian Theatre. Then she flipped the script and asked them to interview the playwright that got them writing. These are exceptional conversations, uncovering a wealth of knowledge about the people who shape our stories for the stage. The fourth episode features a conversation with Rex Deverell.



Over a long and productive career in Canadian Theatre, Rex Deverell has pursued a fascination with issues of social justice and conviction. He holds arts and theology degrees from McMaster University and from Union Theological Seminary, New York City. In 1971, Rex began to write plays at first for Regina’s Globe Theatre school company and ultimately became the Globe's first long term Playwright-in-Residence. Deverell's first work for the Globe main stage was Boiler Room Suite, the story of two sad transients dreaming an afternoon away in the boiler room of an old hotel. Since then, Boiler Room Suite has received international productions, including translations in French and Japanese. The Banff Centre toured an operatic version of the play in the U.K. (music by Quentin Doolittle.)



Honours and awards: McMaster Honour Society; Playwright's Award, University of Western Ontario, (The Invitation); Ohio State Award, (radio adaptation of The Mule); Canadian Authors Award, (Boiler Room Suite); McMaster University Alumni Gallery; Major Armstrong Award, (The Riel Commission); Chalmers Award (Belonging); The Short Circuit was nominated for a Chalmers in 1994; Margaret E. Woodward Hall of Fame (Theatre Saskatchewan) 2005; life membership in the Guild of Canadian Playwrights.



He has written libretti and lyrics with composers Quentin Doolittle, (Boiler Room Suite, Leviathan Hook), Andrew Ager, (Ellis Portal), Tom Schudel, (Oresteia), Rob Bryanton (Globe Theatre Revues and Plays with Music).



The Globe Theatre is located in Regina, Saskatchewan and has a mission to entertain, educate and engage in the art of professional theatre. Globe Theatre is located on Treaty 4 territory, the traditional lands of the nêhiyawak, Anihšināpēk, Dakota, Nakoda, Lakota, and the homeland of the Métis/Michif Nation.