Locals taking to the stage for cabaret

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This article was published 11/02/2019 (2483 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nine local artists are taking to the stage next month to share the experiences of real and imagined female characters during International Women’s Week.

The performances are part of Sarasvàti Productions’ Cabaret of Monologues event, which was started in 2003 to address a lack of female representation in the theatre community. 

“When we started, women as playwrights and actors were below 30 per cent of what we were seeing on stages,” Sarasvàti artistic director Hope McIntyre said. “By doing a cabaret of monologues we could get multiple women’s experiences into one event.”

The work touches on everything from sexuality to illness to media representation to disability and is connect by the theme, “Here I Am.”

“This notion of identity really tied them all together, being proud of your identity, being confident in who you are and being willing to go against the norm to express yourself,” McIntyre said. 

Wolseleyite Renée Hill and West Ender Lauren Marshall are both performing in the cabaret for the first time.

Hill studied theatre at the University of Winnipeg and decided to return to her theatre roots several years ago as a stay-at-home mother of three.

She plays a data scientist who loses her job after blowing the whistle on her employer in Oracle Jane written by Vicki Zhang. Hill’s character returns home to China to share the bad news with her mother.

“I don’t think we ever want to let anybody down and this woman has to let the one person in her life who has always been on her side down,” she said. “It takes a lot of bravery and courage to do that.”

Hill is excited about the diversity of female experiences presented at the cabaret. Growing up, she noticed there weren’t many actors with Asian heritage on TV or in the theatre.

“It didn’t reflect who I was and I think it’s really good for the general public and young people especially to see themselves on the stage,” she said.

Marshall is a former band teacher and was inspired to get into acting in 2015 after watching Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance in The Imitation Game. 

She performs in Geraldine Sloan Truhill: Mommy’s Going to the Moon, Kids! which is written by Natalie Frijia and based on Sloan Truhill’s real-life experiences as a pilot and member of the female astronaut training group, the Mercury 13, in the ’60s.

In addition to mastering Sloan Truhill’s Texan accent, Marshall has been working on bringing the character’s determination to the fore.

“Geraldine is unapologetic about what she wants,” she said. “I’m different from her in that I didn’t know what I wanted to be right away and I admire that about her.”

Sarasvàti’s cabaret of monologues will be performed in rural and northern Manitoba with 

Winnipeg shows on March 9 at the Asper Centre for Theatre and Film (400 Colony St.) at 4 and 8 p.m. Visit sarasvati.ca for tickets.