GIVING BACK TO FEMALE MENTORS
Playwright talks about inspiration behind latest work
There’s a noticeable glow in Calgary playwright Tara Beagan’s voice when she talks about the upcoming world premiere of her latest work Honour Beat.
“When I left Calgary for Toronto 20 years ago I couldn’t even get an audition at Theatre Calgary and now they came to me to write a play for them. I’m honoured and grateful because it was always my intention to live and work in Calgary,” says Beagan, who recalls that it was Shari Wattling, as TC’s artistic associate and interim artistic director, who approached her to see what she was working on.
“I told Shari I had ideas for five different plays and she was caught up by the themes in Honour Beat.”
Honour Beat, which runs Sept. 4-29 at Theatre Calgary, is a story about families, how they break apart and how they come back together. In this case, the matriarch of a small family is in a palliative hospital awaiting and accepting her impending death. Her two daughters from different husbands arrive and immediately begin arguing over little things and then larger issues.
“An impending death of a parent causes us to acknowledge how much we owe them. We experience profound grief knowing they are on their way out, but we are also filled with a sense of gratitude that we can be there for them as they were there for us so many times in our lives.”
Beagan says she chose to give the sisters different fathers to show the roles that men can play in a family.
“The one father is remembered fondly, but there is no fondness at all for the other. He was, at the most, a necessary means for survival.”
Though they were happy living with their mother, the sisters went their separate ways “primarily because of the way they practised their spirituality. The older sister has found a way to practise her spirituality. The younger has not. We see how this has affected who they are.”
An Indigenous playwright, Beagan is proud that the focus in Honour Beat is on women.
“All of my mentors have been women. I had great blood aunties in my life as well as innumerable aunties of the heart. I had dear cousins, honoured elders, an older sister and her daughter, but most of all my mother Pauline.
“The play celebrates the role of women from earliest histories to the present. My play is my way of giving back to all of them.”
Beagan acknowledges the vital mentoring role of actress Monique Mojica, who plays the older sister Anna-Rae in Honour Beat.
“I knew Monique’s work but then I got to take a Shakespeare workshop with her at Stratford and from that time she has helped guide me in my career. I had Monique in mind the whole time I wrote the role of Anna-Rae. It helped immensely in fashioning the character because I knew what Monique was capable of bringing to the role.”
In Theatre Calgary’s production of Honour Beat, under the direction of Michelle Thrush, the mother is played by Paula-Jean Prudat, a young actress.
“Most of us think of our mothers as they were when we were children. We may age but our memory of them keeps them young. At least this is the case for me. Even in my dreams, I still see my mom in her 30s.”
There is another reason Beagan wanted the mother to be played by a young actress. “The mother is in the final hours of her life. She has let go of all her earthly worries and pains. She’s not old any more.”
When Beagan moved to Toronto in the late 1990s it was to pursue an acting career. In 2007 she created and starred in a play called Thy Neighbour’s Wife, which earned her nominations for best actress and best playwright.
“I was elated but shocked by the nomination for playwright. I didn’t consider myself a playwright, but my father told me I’d been writing plays ever since I was a young girl.
“I grew up in Lethbridge and my father would take us to the library each week. I became intrigued by plays and started checking them out instead of novels so, I guess my father was right ... It’s certainly what I prefer to call myself today.”
Not to be outdone, the National Music Centre is back this fall with its monthly concert series, Alberta Spotlight. It kicks off on Sept. 29 as part of Alberta Culture Days.
The program includes:
Sept. 29: Lucette with Hermitess at Studio Bell. The Edmonton singer-songwriter has toured with the likes of Joe Ely, Sturgill Simpson and Alejandro Escovedo.
Oct. 17: Cartel Madras, a female Indian hip-hop duo together with DJ Egglad, play at the King Eddy. Their music mixes Dirty South rap, house and trap.
Nov. 22: The Dungarees at the King Eddy. This Edmonton country group takes the traditional sound from a twangy telecaster and steel guitar and infuses them with a modern sensibility.
Dec. 6: Ellen Doty, an Okotoks singer-songwriter who will play at Studio Bell, is looking forward to coming home.
“I’ve been on the road a lot lately, but wherever I go, Calgary
Things could completely go off the rails at Model Milk next week. Canadian culinary star Matty Matheson is bringing his mad skills, and we mean that in all sense of the word, to an immersive four-course dinner in collaboration with Model Milk’s Justin Leboe. The dinner will highlight locally sourced “farm to table” food.
Big and burly and covered in tattoos, Matheson is known for a wild approach to food and cooking. He makes frequent appearances on Munchies and hosts the Viceland series Dead Set on Life. This spring he tried to teach Seth Rogen how to make cheeseburgers from scratch in an episode the comedian likely won’t forget anytime soon (“I’m like a wild dog here. Ah, just raw beef everywhere.”)
The Sept. 6 dinner is one of several arts and cultural events put on by Never Jaded and diners looking for an expletive-filled night can register to win a seat at the table at neverjaded.ca.
Matheson will also be talking up his new cookbook, out Oct. 9.
I had dear cousins, honoured elders, an older sister and her daughter, but most of all my mother Pauline.