Play

Janice Walsh-Cruddas

“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. 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 (a musical commissioned by the Children’s Wish Foundation), 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. Her book, Bird’s the Word!, has elicited giggles and yays from hundreds of budding wonders. 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.

Jan Morrison

Jan Morrison’s poems have appeared in literary journals such as Grain, Pottersfield Portfolio, and Newfoundland Quarterly. Her plays, States of Grace; Death, the Musical; Shroom!; Fields of Crimson; and Mrs. Finney’s Hat have been staged at The Chester Playhouse; Neptune Theatre; The Halifax Fringe Festival; and Eastern Front Theatre. She has recently had her debut novel published by Boulder Books – The Crooked Knife. When not writing Jan likes to garden and ramble the shore near her home in Prospect, NS.

Bethany Lake

Bethany Lake is a playwright, novelist, and freelancer from Nova Scotia. As a playwright, she has had three of her plays produced in Halifax. Her play, No Animal, has been published in The Furious Gazelle, a literary magazine based in New York City.

She is a regular contributor to Rue Morgue magazine, where she has conducted interviews with artists such as Mark Soper (1987’s Blood Rage) and Damien Leone (Terrifier, Terrifier 2). Bethany’s work has also appeared in The Big Takeover, PRISM international, and Write magazine.

Her recently completed novel, Walk On (publisher TBD), began its development in the Alistair MacLeod Mentorship Program.

Bethany received a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Studies from Dalhousie University before continuing her playwriting education at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, ON.

Brenda MacLennan-Dunphy

Writer, director and producer, Brenda MacLennan-Dunphy has had two novels published by Pottersfield Press as well- Never Speak of This Again (2018) and The Silence of the Vessel (2020), which was nominated for an Atlantic Book Award. Four of Brenda’s plays have been on the stage at Strathspey Place, a 500 soft seat theatre in Mabou, Cape Breton- John Allan Cameron’s Last Show (November 2021), John Archie and Nellie (2016, 2012) , The Weddin’ Dance (2013), and Displacement (2014). Her play The Reiteach was put at two small stages in 2020. She was a featured writer at the 2021 Cabot Trail Writers Festival and also won the HR Bill Percy Novel Prize in 2017 for Never Speak of This Again. Born and raised in Inverness County, the mother of four is a teacher by trade, but a gypsy by nature. She loves to find characters along the way in life. Brenda lives in Skye Glen, Inverness County, with her wonderful and patient husband, Ed.

Andrew Wetmore

Andrew Wetmore was born in Digby, spent many years away, and now lives in Clementsport. He was a development officer in the early days of the WFNS, working on the Dramatists’ Coop project to improve the quality and increase the visibility of plays written in Nova Scotia.

As a playwright and screenwriter, Wetmore has written over 60 scripts, many of which have had productions across Canada and the US.

Since 2019, Wetmore has been the editor at Moose House Publications, which publishes books written in, or about, rural Nova Scotia.

Elizabeth Glenn-Copeland

I am an author, theatre artist and arts educator with more than four decades of professional experience. As a theatre artist, I have toured with Second City doing improv comedy, played the Witch in Hansel and Gretl with the Honolulu Symphony and told my original stories at the Toronto International Storytelling Festival. My arts education credits include work with Learning Through the Arts, World Vision, and the Storytellers School of Toronto.

I served as Artistic Director of KPH Theater Productions in Miramichi, N.B. from 2012 to 2016, and along with my husband, Beverly Glenn Copeland, completed half a dozen artist residencies* in N.B. schools. I was honoured to serve as Writer-in-Residence* for James M. Hill High School in 2015. (*Funding support through NB Department of Tourism, Heritage and Culture.)

In February 2016 I was part of the faculty at the San Miguel Writers Conference (San Miguel de Allende, Mexico), and led the creative writing workshop at the Knowlton Literary Festival in Knowlton, Quebec in October.

In 2017, I returned to Mount Allison University to indulge myself in two years of full time study of eco-poetry, feminist philosophy, sustainability in education and medieval studies. Thanks to MTA, in the summer of 2017 I completed a residency to research and create a one-act spoken-word play entitled, “Bearing Witness”.

During my tenure as 2018 Writer-in-Residence at Joggins Fossil Institute, I researched and wrote — “Daring to Hope at the Cliff’s Edge: Pangea’s Dream Remembered”: an art/science collaboration and conversation between myself and the three-hundred million year old rock. The theme: how to find what Buddhist eco-philosopher, Joanna Macy calls Active Hope as we stand at this cliff’s edge in our evolution as a species. The book was launched in Sackville, N.B. on Sept. 29, 2019 by Chapel Street Editions.

Due to covid, my cross country tour to promote this book was cancelled, but late 2020 saw a resurgence of interest in the work and its message of hope. I participated in the Writing for Change series launched by The Rose Theater in Brampton, ON. An exciting variation on this theme will be happening virtually on March 21 at The Rose with spoken-word artist extraordinaire, Ian Keteku.

Since moving to Spencers Island in Jan. 2021, I am making new writing and peforming friends and will be part of the Shipwright Sessions (Ships Company Theater) in Aug. 2021.

Peter Counter

Thibault Jacquot-Paratte

From the Annapolis Valley. Travelled across North Amrica, Europe, India, Japan, Cameroon, Tunisia. Bachelor’s of Nordic studies from the Sorbonne in 2015, Master’s in sociology in 2017; year of study in Tromsø, Norway, Study certificates from the University of Vaasa (Fi.), and The Askov Folkehøjskole (DK.).

Started publishing poetry in 2010, has since published poetry, short stories, essays, and theatre in both English and French, in Canada, Europe and India. His first three plays were published in Paris in 2016-2017; first poetry collection in Allahabad in 2020. In 2017, co-directed and co-wrote one film (Danish-Estonian coproduction). Also a musician and a songwriter, has had the opportunity to play in Canada, France, Germany, Norway, Denmark, India and japan, and has produced multiple recordings. He has also been invited as an official poet to certain events, such as one of the official poets of the SNA at the 2019 CMA, in Moncton. His published work ranges across almost all genres – realism, fantasy, absurdism, abstract prose, poetry…

Thibault Jacquot-Paratte – Wikipedia

David Wimsett

Marcia Harding

BIO: Marcia Pierce grew up in Lockeport, N.S. When she was fifteen, her family moved to Liverpool where she met her future husband, Craig Harding. After completing their university education, they returned to Liverpool where they raised two children and lots of lab puppies.

Education: Acadia University – B.Sc. in Psychology (1970) B.Ed. (1971) Honours

Mt. St. Vincent University – Masters of Education (1993) Senate Medal of Distinction

During her 33 years as an elementary school teacher, she enjoyed writing, directing and producing plays with her students.

While serving as a board member for The Astor Theatre, Winds of Change (Drama Group) and Liverpool ‘s International Theatre Festival, she co-produced several stage plays, including Mermaid’s Tale (winning entry in LITF 2014).

Helping to organize and promote fundraisers for the Astor Theatre, her proudest achievement was A TRIBUTE TO SABLE ISLAND. Zoe Lucas held the audience spellbound with her amazing SLIDES of wild horses projected on the BIG screen. Performances included sea-themed songs by soloists and the Girls Choir, readings, displays of photographs and paintings and a reception – something for everyone. Full house!

To honour her cherished friend, Joyce Barkhouse, author of Pit Pony, Marcia produced the Pit Pony Audio Book in cooperation with actor/narrator Richard Donat.

As a certified fitness instructor, Marcia taught a variety of exercises classes in Queens County over the years. Her interests include dancing, hiking, skating, swimming, sailing, and best of all, walking Summerville Beach with her family and their dogs.