Director/ Translator Notes

Francophone playwrighting is a uniquely Canadian form. Born from different circumstances and cultural needs, there is nothing quite like it in Western English Language practice. The poetic, abstract and expressionistic live side by side with gritty realism and the mundane often becomes the fantastical.

It is no secret that older artists might face age-related physical and cognitive changes. However, far greater impediments to their successful participation in the arts are the social stigmas of ageism and ableism. No matter what their age or their physical or mental abilities maybe, older artists can and must have their place in the arts respected and supported.

On this project, we explored forms and aesthetics specifically from tools to support Senior artists and in performance in festival touring. We asked “what new is created when we make access integral to creation, design, rehearsal, and presentation processes?” And by doing so – draw attention to the needs of our ageing population in an intergenerational conversation and illuminate the experience of seniors’ day to day living.

A great joy of developing this translation was bringing artists together across cultural, lingual, and physical distances in an intergenerational creative conversation. It would not have been possible without the generosity of playwright Martin Bellemare, insight of translation dramaturg Johanna Nutter, and the input by remarkable senior artists Paul Beckett, Jay Brazeau, Micheal Grinter, Allan Morgan, John Innes, and Charles Roe.