Local actor featured in Cabaret of Monologues

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This article was published 30/01/2020 (2418 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If all the world is indeed a stage, for Taesia Scratch, Sarasvàti Productions’ upcoming Cabaret of Monologues presents an opportunity to try something a little different.

“I don’t want to give away too much,” the Glenelm-based actor and mother of four told The Herald. “But I’m inviting my children, but they might not recognize me.”

The annual production, which has run in conjunction with International Women’s Week since 2003, features local actors, playwrights, stand-up comedians and more presenting 10-minute performances.

“A lot of these monologues are written about women about issues that happen to women, young and old,” Scratch explained.

A full performance of all of the cabaret monologues will take place on Sat., March 7 with performances at 4 and 8 p.m. at the Asper Centre for Theatre and Film (400 Colony St.). Tickets for that show are $15. Additionally, performances will be held at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights and a number of community venues, as well as a performance in Steinbach, Man., between March 2 and 8.

Scratch will be performing in Ping, a piece written by playwright Larissa Hikel in the cabaret. Although it is the first time the two have worked together, after they got talking they determined they’d both lived in the same apartment building in Vancouver, B.C., 25 years ago.

“All roads lead to Winnipeg,” Scratch laughed.

Onstage, Scratch will perform as a character who works in a bar who is groped in an elevator.

“You could laugh or cry,” Scratch said of her performance, in which she admits to channelling her inner Dolly Parton. “There’s a lot of physical humour, but it’s a touching story that’s all too common a story for women. There’s a strength that comes from the character, she works at a bar and is strong and beautiful and all that. Just because somebody looks a certain way doesn’t mean that they’re up for grabs.”

For Scratch, this year marks the first time she will perform at the Cabaret of Monologues, though for years she has attended the performances as a member of the audience. She said that she’s excited to see what the other performances will be doing.

“I have no idea what nobody else is presenting. It’s a big mystery, right now.”

For more information on Sarasvàti’s Cabaret of Monologues, visit www.sarasvati.ca

Sheldon Birnie
Managing editor

Sheldon Birnie is the managing editor of the Free Press Community Review. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca or call him at 204-697-7112

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