In Yvette Nolan’s play The Unplugging we are presented with a vision of a possible future which begins bleak and moves through survival and resilience, towards abundance and hope. In a theatre season built around the revolutionary spirit, this play has generosity as its activating principle.

Yvette’s play and Katey Wattam’s production invite us to come to stillness, to pay attention to  the land, water and animals, to be present as time unfurls, to watch the moons change. We are in matriarchal time and there is no rush, though there is much to be done. 

Yvette asks us what kind of world we want to live in, and reminds us in no uncertain terms that we are the makers of our world, even as we must shed our impulses to dominate. Generosity is the only way forward. 

The entire creative team have embodied this value in the show that they have made, and it has been beautiful watching this production come to life.

Sarah

As we face the challenges of the climate crisis and pandemic, it is increasingly clear that turning to Indigenous knowledge and ways of knowing is essential for creating more sustainable, resilient, equitable, and culturally rich societies. Indigenous communities have a long history of developing sustainable practices that allow us to live in harmony with the land and have shown remarkable resilience in the face of environmental and health crises, despite being disproportionately impacted by these challenges.

Storytelling is a powerful tool for learning about our history, cultural practices, and the relationship between humans and the natural world. It reinforces a sense of community and belonging, while also teaching us to respect and care for the land–its abundance and gifts–as well as how to live in alignment with our more-than-human-kin.

The story we present is a testament to the power of traditional knowledge and wisdom in the face of adversity. Despite being shunned by their community, Elena and Bern draw on their skills and vitality to survive and thrive, supported by their relationship with each other. This is further complicated by the arrival of Seamus.

This story highlights the importance of keeping people in the circle, emphasizing the value of community and the need to honor our Elders by keeping them at the center. We must respect their experience and wisdom to promote intergenerational learning, preserve culture, and promote healing and reconciliation. “People need people”, and connection is essential to our ability to heal. As Yvette Nolan emphasises, “good medicine creates community; in this sense, theatre is medicine” (Nolan, 2015).

~ Katey Wattam

Ali Berkok

Sound Designer

Ali Berkok is a pianist, composer and theatrical sound designer. His credits include Carol Shields' 13 Hands (Alumnae), What I Call Her (Crows) and Unsafe (Canadian Stage). He has produced six albums as a leader including two for electroacoustic outfit Aurochs, and a solo piano album, Never Get Lost for Long, which features reinvented jazz standards such as “Cheek to Cheek,” Coltrane's “Giant Steps,” as well as spontaneously extemporized compositions. Chief amongst his music research interests is polytemporality, the simultaneous presence of two or more asynchronous rhythmic layers. Berkok holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Toronto.

Billie Nell

Production Design Intern

Billie (they/them) is an arts organizer, spoken word artist, and is the director of Urban Legends Poetry Collective. You may also remember them as Joshua in Forever Young: A Ghetto Story at GCTC this past November, or from the box office on your way into the theatre. Billie is grateful for the opportunity to work and learn at GCTC again—to be a part of this team and to learn from and work alongside all of the brilliant people on this show has meant the world. Thank you to Vanessa, Seth, Kyle, The Unplugging team, and everyone at GCTC. <3

Emily Fink-Jensen

Assistant Stage Manager

Emily is an Ottawa-based artist completing a Bachelor of Arts in theatre. Working also as an assistant technical director and venue technician for the University of Ottawa, she is an avid lover and practitioner of every aspect of theatre. She has worked numerous local dance shows, drag shows, film screenings, aerial shows, and local plays, including the Ottawa Fringe Festival, as well as being the stage manager for Odaabaanag in 2022.  She is honoured and excited to do her first apprenticeship as a part of The Unplugging. 

Heather Majaury

Elena

Heather Majaury is originally from the Ottawa Valley. She grew up on the Elm Grove Road between Otty Lake and Big Rideau Lake. She comes from Anishinaabe and Settler roots and is the proud daughter of Bob Majaury and Sharon Brigden. She is mother to Myrriah Xochitl Gomez Majaury and sister to Vicki Majaury. She dedicates her performances to her grandma Frances McDonald. She is thrilled to give the role of Elena life a second time. She first performed the role with Gwaandak Theatre in 2018. Heather currently lives in Kitchener with her life partner Jack Cooper where she focuses her energies on unsheltered advocacy and coordinates the Festival of Neighbourhoods. She will be presenting a first reading of a new play by Lisa O’Connell at FemFolk Fest upon return to regular life in Block 2 of the Haldmant Tract where she is also Artistic Director of Kaleidoscope Productions.

Jackie McCormick

Stage Manager

Jackie McCormick has been proud to call Ottawa home since 2014.  Working primarily in Morrisburg, ON since 2005, Jackie has been on the SM Team for over 40 productions at Upper Canada Playhouse and been fortunate to Stage Manage shows in Alberta, New Brunswick, and throughout Ontario.  Huge thanks to her family: J, Q & B.

Katey Wattam

Director

Katey Wattam is a director, creator, and community helper of mixed English, Irish, Franco-Ontarian, and Anishinaabe ancestry. She has worked with many communities across Turtle Island, and each one holds a bit of her heart. She is drawn to stories that connect with her ways of knowing while allowing space to explore and experiment with theatrical forms through a mixed-blood/Indigenous lens. Through her corporeal-based practice, she is guided by her own blood memory and how it attunes with others to uncover ancestral knowledge to reclaim and decolonize bodies, minds, and spaces. They are an alum of McGill University, MAI Alliance Program, Black Theatre Workshop’s Artist Mentorship Program, and Why Not Theatre’s ThisGen Fellowship.

Katey is currently developing a theatrical adaptation of Katherena Vermette’s poetry book, river woman. As an artist-researcher, she works with Project Humanity, creating trainings on care practices in theatre processes. She is pursuing her Master’s in Indigenous Trauma and Resiliency at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto.

Lo Sirois

Seamus

Lolo Sirois is an artist, designer and performer, engaged in work that weaves together personal and collective practices across a wide array of mediums, like: part time drag (kingin'), plant reverence, restorative circle processes, seed-sowing, intuitive movement, and healing & health advocacy. They do so in a spirit of heartfelt world-building towards compassionate futures and a commitment to honouring womxn and land. They are genderfluid and of european descent, living, working and resting in the spaces surrounding Tio'tia:ke/Montreal and Ottawa.

Miali Buscemi

Bern

ᒥᐊᓕ ᕗᓯᒥ ᑭᒻᒥᕈᒻᒥᐅᑕᑦᓴᔭᐅᔪᖅ ᓄᓇᕗᒻᒥ.

Currently living in the Ottawa area, Miali Buscemi, an Inuk, grew up in Kimmirut, Nunavut. She was introduced to acting in film in 2007 debuting in a poignant role in the film Necessities of Life/Ce Qu’il Faut Pour Vivre, where it all began.

The most valuable takeaways for Miali have been from playing the lead role in Aviliaq, a short film commissioned by ImagineNative, and as Billy Naittuq, a character from the Inuktitut comedy TV show Qanurli?

Miali spent one season with the Stratford Festival acting company in 2017, North America’s largest classical repertory theatre. Most recently, she had the pleasure of performing in Colleen Murphy’s The Breathing Hole, at the National Arts Centre in December 2022.

With a combination of fluency in Inuktikut and a talented actor she brings a powerful presence to the screen and stage.

Patrice Forbes

Set Designer

Patrice is thrilled and grateful to design in the beautiful GCTC theatre space, and to collaborate with the incredible team of The Unplugging. Having worked as a set, costume and prop designer in theatres across Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and touring shows, Patrice thrives in textures, details and experimenting with technical elements within their designs. Alongside design, Patrice operates their own theatre company, Dead Unicorn Ink, which focuses on bringing Comics, B-Movies and pop culture to theatre stages. Patrice has won and been nominated for various design awards throughout their career, but none of it would be possible without the support of partners Ted and Josh and daughter Moira. Thank you to the staff and crew at the GCTC, whose support has made this design a dream come to life.

Megan Piercey Monafu

Intimacy Director

Megan Piercey Monafu is a director, facilitator, producer, and playwright, and the Artistic Director of the Ottawa School of Theatre. Recent work with the GCTC has included facilitating sound design workshops for youth, and intimacy coaching for Heartlines (TACTICS Ottawa co-production) and Lo (or Dear Mr. Wells). Selected directing credits: Strata Inc. (Strata Inc. Collective/undercurrents), This is the August (Young Prince Collective/Summerworks), A Little Fire (Abalone Productions/Theatre of the Beat/TACTICS), Grain of Salt redux, and Mabel’s Last Performance (Abalone Productions, Atlantic Fringe Festival Award for Best Female Performance 2014, Prix Rideau nomination Outstanding Female Performance 2012).

Spike Lyne

Lighting Designer

Spike is a Metis Lighting Designer and is Production Manager for Theatre as well as Technical Director for the Indigenous Theatre Department the National Arts Centre here in Ottawa. Previous selected credits in Montreal include Triplex Nervosa, Motherhouse, God of Carnage and With Bated Breath for Centaur Theatre and Secret Annex, Forever Plaid, Educating Rita and My Old Lady for Segal Centre Theatre. Other credits include The Herd at The Citadel and Tarragon Theatre as well as Daisy and Behaviour for GCTC.

Chi Miigwetch and Maarsii to all my relations past, present and future.

Vanessa Imeson

Costume Designer

Vanessa Imeson is an award winning Theatre Artist holding a combined BA Honours degree in Dramatic Art and English from UofW, MFA in Theatre Design from UBC and diploma for Makeup Design for Film and Television from VFS.  The costume design for this production of The Unplugging was based on hand crafts.  As we moved through the design process our unplugging became a realm of reuse. The necessity of fixing and dealing with limited resources spawned a world of patchwork utility which we have been referring to as the pastel apocalypse.  All the pieces contain elements of visual mending, quilting, embroidery and hand dying. Much of the show is quilted together from thrifted materials including bedspreads, vintage fabrics and clothing. See more of her work @ www.vanessaimesondesign.com