Spit
By Noelle Brown
We can choose our friends, but not our families.
Nicole loves yoga, her sister Jessica loves red wine. Heartbroken at the death of their mother, the sisters lives are suddenly impacted by the arrival of a stranger searching for answers. Unravelling a complex legacy, the sisters are forced to confront their grief against a backdrop of shame. Spit by Noelle Brown, co-writer of the critically acclaimed POSTSCRIPT, is a funny and moving play about siblings, secrets and what it means to be a family.
Cast and Creative
Written by: Noelle Brown
Directed by: Seana McKenna
Cast: Seána O’Hanlon, Siobhan O’Malley and Fiona Mongillo
Stage Management: Patrice Bowler
Lighting and Sound Design: Stephen Degenstein
Costume and Set Design: Bonnie Deakin
Noelle Brown
Noelle has been an actor since 1987 and became a writer and theatre maker in 2013. As an actor, she has worked extensively in theatre, film, television and radio. Drawing on her own experiences of adoption, she co-wrote her first play Postscript with Michèle Forbes.
Postscript toured all over Ireland, played at the Centre Cultural Irlandais Paris, at the Abbey Theatre, and the London Irish Centre. It was nominated for the Fishamble New Writing Award and the Bewley’s Little Gem Award.
Foxy, her play about prejudice towards Irish Travellers premiered at Project Arts Centre Dublin. Creaking, a play about older people, toured Ireland as part of the Bealtaine Festival. In 2018, she became a stand-up comedian, gigging all over Ireland and at the London Irish Centre. Recently, she was lead artist and curator on the Abbey Theatres Home: Part One. Noelle is also a campaigner for Adoption Rights in Ireland. noellebrown.com/
Seana McKenna
Seana is delighted to join Here for Now Theatre again, having directed last season’s The Wonder of it All, which then went on to play at Port Dover’s Lighthouse Theatre. In her 29th season at the Stratford Festival, she is currently playing Margaret in Richard III and the Countess in All’s Well That Ends Well. Recent credits include Yaga in Kat Sandler's Yaga at the Tarragon Theatre, and Shylock for Shakespeare Company/Hit & Myth Productions, for which she received Calgary’s 2020 Critters Award for Best Leading Performance. A year earlier, she directed King Lear for the same company. She has received two Dora Awards for acting (Theatre Plus Toronto's Saint Joan; Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre/ Mirvish Productions' Orpheus Descending), and the inaugural Bluma Appel Dora Award for Direction in Independent Theatre (New Globe's Valley Song). She has a Jessie Award for Wit ( Vancouver Playhouse/ Canstage), a Genie Award for The Hanging Garden, honorary doctorates from the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and Trinity College, U of T., a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and a Stratford Bronze Star. In 2019, she was invested into the Order of Canada.
Seána O’Hanlon
Seána O’Hanlon is honoured to be part of Here For Now Theatre Company’s 2022 season. Seána graduated from the Lir Academy of Dramatic Art in 2016. She worked on many projects in Ireland before moving to Vancouver to continue her career. Some of her credits to date include the character Evvy in Helen and I, a new play written from Druid Theatre Company, Lilly ST. Regis in Annie, a musical produced by the Cork Opera House, Lea in Cora Leah and I, a new play written for the New Theatre in Dublin, and Michelle in Peel, a short film directed and produced by Annika Cassidy. Seána has spent the last number of years travelling, writing and developing her skills as an artist. Spit by Noelle Brown will mark her Canadian theatre debut.
Siobhan O’Malley
Siobhan is the Associate Artistic Director of Here For Now Theatre Company. Selected Theatre Credits: Belle in Post Alice, Rory in A Hundred Words for Snow, Rue in Whack! (Here For Now); Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion (Guild Festival Theatre); Fanny and Mrs. Parsons in Mary of Shanty Bay (Theatre by the Bay); Mary in Mary’s Wedding, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Festival Players of Prince Edward County); Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing (The Secret Shakespeare Series); Catherine Givings in In the Next Room, Martha in Spring Awakening, Rosalind in As You Like It, and Yelena in Uncle Vanya (The Lir). Training: Honours BA in Acting, The Lir National Academy of Dramatic Art (Trinity College Dublin/RADA)
Fiona Mongillo
Fiona is the Artistic Director of Here For Now Theatre Company and this season is playing the Woman in the Canadian Premiere of Girls & Boys and Alannah in Spit. Selected Theatre Credits: Angelina in Whack! (Here For Now), Senta von Schrader in Framed (Lighthouse/ HFN), Louise in The Enchantment (HERE Arts, NYC); Bessie in The Young Ladies of Baddeck (Theatre Baddeck); Rose in Eigengrau, Summer in A Fountain Troubled, Elisabeth in Laundry and Bourbon (Here For Now); title role in Hamlet, Flaminia in The Double Inconstancy, Lady Fancifull in The Provok'd Wife (LAMDA); Hilde in The Master Builder (Yorick Theatre/ UBC). Selected Film Credits: Murdoch Mysteries (CBC). Directing: Post Alice (Here For Now). Training: BFA in Acting, UBC; MA in Classical Acting, LAMDA
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.