Forty-Seven

by Deanna Kruger

One birthday. Two sisters. Forty-seven photographs. A decades-long family tradition is coming to an end. Forty-Seven is a funny and tender new play about grief, sibling love, nocturnal animals, surviving the saddest year of life, and figuring out who you really are.

 

Cast and Creative 

Written by: Deanna Kruger

Dramatugy by: Joanna Falck

Directed by: Rebecca Cuthbertson

Cast: Martha Farrell and Kristin Gauthier

Stage Management: Patrice Bowler

Lighting and Sound Design: Stephen Degenstein

Costume and Set Design: Bonnie Deakin

Deanna Kruger

Deanna is as a Guelph-based playwright. She has received playwright-in-residence support from both the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. She’s also an alumnus of Nightwood Theatre's Write from the Hip. Deanna has shared her love of theatre by serving as a mentor and facilitator of several regional playwriting circles. Last year, she mentored teen playwrights in partnership with the Guelph Arts Council and the Guelph Public Library. Her play Janet and Louise premiered during last year's Here For Now season. Deanna is excited and honoured to be part of Here For Now’s 2022 season. 

Rebecca Cuthbertson

Rebecca is a theatre practitioner with 17 years’ experience working predominantly as a Voice & Text teacher and coach with young, in-training actors, as well as seasoned professionals. In 2003 she moved to the U.K. to complete her MA in Voice Studies at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. Since then, she has taught at LAMDA, East 15 Acting School, and Drama Studio London in the UK, and has coached productions at the Royal National Theatre, Shakespeare’s Globe, the RSC, the Donmar, the Young Vic, Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre, and the Hampstead, among others, and provided voice support for numerous West End productions. She has also directed productions of Pericles and Twelfth Night, well as serving as co-director, assistant director or dramaturg on numerous productions. She is thrilled to be returning to Canada to work with such a brilliant theatre company directing this wonderful new play.

Martha Farrell

After nine seasons in the Stratford Festival’s acting company, Martha is now furthering her craft of teaching and coaching voice through the Stratford Festival’s Professional

Development Program under the mentorship of Janine Pearson.  She is currently working as an assistant Voice Coach on Richard III and Little Women for the 2022 season.  Prior to this, Martha worked with the University of Waterloo as a voice teacher and accessibility designer specializing in voice. This is her third year as co-instructor for the Shakespeare in Performance: Voice and Text Course in connection with five participating Universities (Western, Guelph, Brock, Waterloo and Windsor).  Martha has performed in theatres across the country. Stratford highlights include Coriolanus, Misanthrope, Camelot, Peter Pan, Don Juan, As You Like It, The Tempest and The Winter’s Tale. 

She is a graduate of Sheridan College’s Music Theatre Performance Program and the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre.

Martha is delighted to have this opportunity to work with Here For Now, and this talented creative team of women.

Kristin Gauthier

Kristin has performed across Canada from Charlottetown to Vancouver: Eliza in MY FAIR LADY (Stage West Calgary & Stage West Mississauga), Anne in A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (Canadian Stage Company & The Grand Theatre, London), The Baker’s Wife and Rapunzel in INTO THE WOODS (Theatre Calgary & Canadian Stage Company), Aunt Laura in EMILY (Charlottetown Festival), Cosette in LES MISÉRABLES (2nd National Tour, Mirvish Productions), Elaine, Bobbi & Jeanette in LAST OF THE RED HOT LOVERS (Georgian Theatre Festival & Showboat Festival Theatre), Fiona in BRIGADOON (Kawartha Summer Theatre & Huron Country Playhouse), Annelle in STEEL MAGNOLIAS (Huron Country Playhouse), and Sister Mary Amnesia in both NUNSENSE & NUNSENSE II (Theatre Collingwood), Anita in WRONG TURN AT LUNGFISH (First Stages), Billie Dawn in BORN YESTERDAY (Port Hope Festival Theatre). She has both a Bachelor of Music and a Bachelor of Education from the University of Ottawa, and enjoys composing choral music, knitting, good books, and homemade pie.

 

Joanna Falck

Joanna Falck has been a dramaturg for nearly 20 years, working across the country with playwrights and organizations developing new work. Most recently she was the Literary Manager at the Tarragon Theatre. Previously, she spent 10 seasons as Literary Manager at the Shaw Festival Theatre (2007-2016) and was the Tarragon Theatre’s first Literary Manager (2003-2007). As a freelance dramaturg, she has worked with companies including Blyth Festival Theatre, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, fuGen Asian Canadian Theatre, Nightwood Theatre, Tapestry New Opera Works, Studio 180, Banff Playwrights' Colony and Canadian Stage Company. She currently teaches at X University and has taught at Sheridan/UTM, York University and University of Alberta. In 2021, she was awarded the Honorary Membership Award from the Playwrights Guild of Canada.

Patrice Bowler

I am a multi-disciplinary artist hailing from the west coast of British Columbia. Recent credits include Les Filles Du Roi (Raven Theatre/Fugue Theatre), The Annual Walk of Terror (Caravan Farm Theatre), Stories That Transform Us (Urban Ink), and Corey Payette: Live in Concert (Intrepid Theatre.) I have worked as a puppeteer on two parallel productions where giant sea goddess puppets educated the audience on the urgent topic of ocean health and climate change: Sedna (Urban Ink/Caravan Farm Theatre), and Storm (Vision Mechanics). This is my first summer living in Stratford, and to spend it working at the Here For Now Festival on all of these new productions is absolutely dreamy! Enjoy!

Stephen Degenstein

Stephen is thrilled to be on board with Here For Now Theatre as lighting and sound designer. Stephen has more than 600 production credits across Canada over the past 35 years; his theatre design credits include Stratford Festival, Drayton Entertainment, National Arts Centre, Native Earth Performing Arts and Neptune Theatre. Credits in Stratford include resident lighting designer for INNERchamber, set and lighting designer for Alternative Theatre Works where credits include lighting for The Wind in the Willows, set and lighting for The Bear, Yalta Game, Afterplay, Jewel, and A Tender Thing. In addition to creating multiple set designs for Off The Wall at Factory 163, Stephen has been the technical director for SpringWorks over the past 10 years and was the designer/technical director for The International Children’s Festival held in Stratford in 2016. Stephen has taught in various technical theatre programmes including The Performing Arts Prep Program at Sheridan College, Humber College and Fanshawe College. Stephen resides in Stratford with his wife, singer/songwriter Pamela Jane Gerrand.

Bonnie Deakin

Bonnie is very happy to be working and designing with Here For Now. Bonnie spent many years in the Design Department at The Stratford Festival and is grateful for all she learned working with some of the world’s greatest designers. She has designed many productions including “Hedda Gabler”, “Man of La Mancha”, “Mamma Mia!”, “Oklahoma”, “Les Miserables”, “Fiddler on the Roof”, and “Elf, the Musical” . She recently designed (pre pandemic) “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” for Persephone Theatre in Saskatoon, after designing many of their mainstage shows. She has designed for Neptune Theatre, The Charlottetown Festival, Theatre Northwest, and The Globe Theatre, to name a few. Bonnie lives in Stratford with her actor husband, Ian Deakin and son Robin.