mysterious entity: act on it!

For Mysterious Entity:
Board of Directors:
Dianne Latchford, Kate Story, Susan Newman, Em Glasspool, Jill Walker
Taking Off Project Manager: Judy Wilson
Special Thanks:
Jill Walker and the Mental Health Services team of clinicians and clients at PRHC, Don
White, Bill Kimball, Cal Coons, Peg Town, Leah Buck, Patti Shaughnessy, Emily
Shaughnessy, Ian Osborn, John MacEwan, Dianne Latchford, Catalina Motta, Sadleir
House, The Gordon Best Theatre, The Market Hall
Mysterious Entity gratefully acknowledges the generous support of…
The Ontario Trillium Foundation, The Ontario Arts Council, The Canada Council for the
Arts, The City of Peterborough, and the support of our friends in the community,
without whose generosity we would cease to exist.
Our aim is to foster positive social change
through the creation and production of theatre.
mysterious entity: act on it!
www.mysteriousentity.com
send feedback to m.entity@gmail.com
visit mysterious entity at www.mysteriousentity.com
Tara Beagan (Playwright) A proud halfbreed of Ntlakapamux and Irish Canadian heritage, Tara is the
Artistic Director at Native Earth Performing Arts. She is the 2011 playwright-in-residence at the National
Arts Centre. Tara’s plays include Thy Neighbour’s Wife (UnSpun Theatre, three Dora Award nominations,
win for New Play), Dreary and Izzy (NEPA), Here, Boy! (halfbreed productions), Miss Julie: Sheh’mah (KICK
Theatre, five ’09 Dora nominations), Quilchena (halfbreed productions), Foundlings (Summerworks and
imagineNATIVE), BLUEBEARD’S WI7E (Caravan Farm), TransCanada, (NEPA at Harbourfront), Anatomy of
an Indian (Wrecking Ball), The Mill: The Woods (Theatrefront). free as injuns, inspired by Eugene O’Neill’s
Desire Under the Elms and “the Canadian Experience” debuts at Native Earth in the 2011/12 season,
directed by Ruth Madoc-Jones.
Beside Herself
Written by Tara Beagan
Directed by Em Glasspool
Performers:
Catherine/Roberta..........Patti Shaughnessy
Orson/Beth..........Michaela Washburn
Patti Shaughnessy (Catherine/Roberta) works as an actor, arts programmer and producer. Patti’s
theatre training began at the Centre for Indigenous Theatre and at the Banff Centre for the Arts. She has
toured throughout Canada and internationally with Red Sky Performance in Drew Hayden Taylor's Raven
Stole the Sun and has appeared on a few Canadian stages in Tomson Highway’s The Rez Sisters (Theatre
NorthWest, Magnus Theatre and Market Hall Theatre). This June/July, she will be acting in 4th Line
Theatre's 20th Anniversary season in Drew Hayden Taylor's Berlin Blues. Patti is festival director of
Peterborough’s annual Ode’min Giizis Festival in Peterborough, ON.
Artistic Personnel:
Costume & Set* Designer..........Martha Cockshutt
(*we are performing in front of the installed set for Marie Josee Chartier’s “Stria”,
designed by Trevor Schwellnus)
Physical Theatre Consultant.......Ker Wells
Michaela Washburn (Orson/Beth) will be appearing this summer in Soulpepper Theatre’s production of
White Biting Dog. Past stage credits include: Such Creatures (Theatre Passe Muraille); Salt Baby, Death of
a Chief, Dreary and Izzy, The Unnatural and Accidental Women (Native Earth Performing Arts); Spirit Horse
(Roseneath Theatre); Three Little Birds (Workshop West Theatre); The Rez Sisters (Theatre North West);
Quilchena (halfbreed productions); Saskatchewan Rebellion (VideoCabaret); FareWel (Magnus Theatre).
Film & television credits include: Breakout Kings; By The Rapids (animation); The Thaw; Rez Bluez;
Hockeyville; Stepping Out; Only The Devil Speaks Cree. Michaela was recently nominated for 2011 K.M.
Hunter Artist Award (Theatre); and received a Dora Nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female
in a Principal Role (Such Creatures).
Em Glasspool (Director) is the Artistic Director of Mysterious Entity, and has directed all of the company's
productions to date, excluding Taming of the Shrew, in which Em had the great joy of taking to the stage as
"Petruchio". Original works created by Glasspool and Mysterious Entity include: Skirting the Edge, The Black
Diamond and My Gender Assignment. Recently, teaming up with choreographer Bill James and designer
Martha Cockshutt, Em re-directed Skirting the Edge, creating a 3-person show. Em is excited to be touring
the newly-adapted Skirting the Edge to Toronto's Workman Arts this summer.
Ker Wells (Physical Theatre Consultant) was a founding member of Primus Theatre from (‘89 to ’97)
and Number Eleven Theatre (‘98 to ’06). His new solo performance, Swimmer (68), will premiere in Toronto
in May. Wells is director of Exilio, a Canada/U.S./Mexico collaboratively-created performance which will
premiere at HERE Arts Center in NYC in December. As an actor, director and teacher Wells has toured
across Canada, and to the U.S., Mexico and Europe. He is a returning guest faculty member at the National
Theatre School of Canada and the Humber College School of Performing Arts. His most recent work in
Peterborough was as director of Kate Story’s new work, Performances May Be Permanent.
Martha Cockshutt (Costume & Set Designer) has designed and built costumes for all but one of the
entity’s productions and designed sets for many of them. Through 25 years and 100+ shows, Martha
remains committed to the creation of locally based performance work. Recent design credits include Skirting
the Edge (Mysterious Entity), Performances May be Permanent (Kate Story), Oskorai (Ryan Kerr), A Dress
on the Deck (Nauni Parkinson), and Atlas Moves Watching (Bill James), How to Wrestle an Angel (MarieJosee Chartier), and Canticles (David Earle) for Old Men Dancing.
Nicky Gibeault (Stage Manager) is from Wasauksing First Nation and is a graduate of Trent University’s
Indigenous Studies/Cultural Studies program. She has worked behind the scenes in various capacities at
Nozhem: First Peoples Performance Space. She has participated in writing and performance workshops
presented through O'Kaadenigan Wiingashk/Public Energy/PND with both Tomson Highway and Ker Wells.
Special thanks to her daughter, Kole, for being generous with her time and assistance. Nicole currently
freelances as a writer and editor.
Technical Personnel:
Stage Manager..........Nicky Gibeault
Technical Director (Market Hall)..........Don White
Video Documentation..........Michael Morritt
Mysterious Entity poster template.....Nadé Nixon
Beside Herself poster design.....Judy Wilson & Dianne Latchford
From the Playwright…
A creation workshop is a funny thing. The collaborators work together to arrive at a first draft of a thing – a
draft full of questions – and then we ask a gathering of people to respond. It’s a barenaked show and tell
before a room of leap-of-faithfuls. This one is especially nude and vulnerable, due to the subject matter at
hand. I know no single person who has not been affected by struggles with mental health in some way. Still,
the stigmas around such things mean that we all have a hearty handful of friends who don’t let anyone
know that they take meds and/or partake in therapy to help balance out their lives. I would like to dedicate
my part in this night to the courageous survivors. To my grannie who suffered through my grandfather’s
illness in isolation. To my grandfather who spent the last days of his life in what was then termed an
“asylum.” To your family members who struggle, and yet have the good fortune of having someone like you
– someone willing to let it live in the open. Finally, to you – for being here. There is so much we don’t yet
know – in this brief work, and more importantly in the complex world of mental health – but coming
together to figure it out is a big move toward betterment.
Special thanks to Em Glasspool, for taking the first leap of faith by asking me to work with her. Thanks to
Kate Story for making the work possible, and to Jill Walker and all of the generous staff and clients of the
Mental Health Services (Adult Outpatient Program) at the Peterborough Regional Health Centre for sharing a
part of their lives with Beside Herself.
~ Tara Beagan