Janice Walsh-Cruddas
BIOGRAPHY
“Play” is one of Janice Walsh-Cruddas’ favourite words and learning tools and she incorporates it in her writing, teaching, and performance for children and young adults. Her book, Bird’s the Word!, has elicited giggles and yays from thousands of budding wonders. She has written and directed over 20 plays, including the NS Human Rights Commission’s award-winning project ARC (Action, Responsibility, Choice), The Kerplunk in the Kingdom, and the Atlantic Fringe Festival hit, A Wee Drop of Aesop. As a children’s programmer with Halifax Public libraries for over 20 years, a former co-host of the radio show “Music for Young Earth Citizens” (with her 6-year-old son), and the founder of MITE Theatre, “Jan-Jan” has helped youth discover delight in Shakespeare, singing, theatre games, and the joyful act of communicating. She is humbled and grateful to be a Treaty person who reads, sings and plays in K’jipuktuk (Halifax, Nova Scotia), the ancestral and unceded territory of Mi’kma’ki, the traditional land of the Mi’kmaq people.
PUBLICATIONS
Read-A-Jig-Jig Presents: Bird’s the Word! (illustrated by Emily Coll)
AWARDSNS Human Rights Commission Award (2015) and others for her touring educational production, project ARC (Action, Responsibility, Choice)