About the Play:
HARD TO FIND BOOK, only a very limited
number of copies are still available.
Maiden Voyages is an anthology containing three full-length plays that premiered at the Ship's Company Theatre in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia. For over 20 years, Ship's Company Theatre has played an integral
role in the cultural life of Nova Scotia's picturesque Fundy Shore.
The mission of the company is to be a centre for the production and
development of Canadian and Atlantic theatre. Ship's Company has
built a reputation for innovative theatrical staging of some of the
finest original theatre on the East Coast. All this in a unique and
remarkable performance venue – under a bright blue tent aboard the
M.V. Kipawo, last of the Minas Basin ferries. This volume
includes Miles from Home: The story of Johnny Miles, Nova
Scotia's Marathon King; a child-miner and grocery cart delivery boy
who won the Boston Marathon twice and rose to the pantheon of
all-time sports heroes.
Chairmaker by Scott Burke, with lyrics by W. Edgar Fisher
and music by Alastair Macdonald. The action takes place in the final
assembly room of the Dominion Chair Company in Bass River, Nova
Scotia in the 1940s. Chairmaker is a heart warming and
hilarious hit musical comedy about life, young love, growing up and
growing old, going down the road, making chairs, making do and making
fun. (Premiered in 2002; Cast: 1 woman, 4 men)
What people say:
"Here's something to ‘chair'
about." — Truro Daily News
"A magical night of theatre
that leaves audiences rolling in the aisles." — The
Record
Miles From Home is the incredible true-to-life story of
Johnny Miles, a child coal miner who not only survived some of the
worst privations and brutality in the history of Canadian industry,
but survived and escaped to win the Boston Marathon in 1926 in World
Record Time, beating the reigning Olympic Champion. All this without
ever having even seen a marathon before. With his trademark humour
and heart, Michael Melski tells an epic story on a small
stage, about the power of determination, the endurance of family, and
the miracle of human possibility in an inhuman time. (Premiered in
2001; Cast: 2 women, 4 men)
What people say:
"Miles triumphs on the stage."
— The Halifax Chronicle Herald
Sole Survivors by Donna E. Smyth. Pulitzer Prize
winning poet Elizabeth Bishop was born in Massachusetts, but was
raised by her grandparents in Great Village, Nova Scotia. Her
lifestory has all the ingredients of an artist's biography: struggle
with adversity, financial challenges, public versus private life, a
passion for beauty and truth and how to distill her experience of
them into art. (Premiered in 2000; Cast: 3 women, 2 men)
What people say:
"Well-crafted, inspirational
and gutsy." — The Citizen
"Sole Survivor
satisfies." — Halifax Daily News
About the Playwright:
Scott Burke is an award-winning artistic producer, festival
curator, administrator, playwright and director with a distinguished
career in theatre and not-for-profit management. He has served as
Artistic Producer for Eastern Front Theatre, Theatre New Brunswick,
and Ship's Company Theatre, and as Executive Director of the East
Coast Music Association.
Michael Melski is an award-winning playwright,
screenwriter, and filmmaker from Cape Breton whose work has been
staged and screened across Canada and the U.S. He has served as past
playwright-in-residence at the renowned Shaw Festival in
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. His published plays include The
Fly Fisher's Companion.
Donna E. Smyth is a Canadian fiction writer and playwright.
She was born and grew up in Kimberly, BC, but has lived and worked on
the west coast, in Britain, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and for over 15
years, in Nova Scotia. She is the founding editor of Atlantis: A
Women's Studies Journal and teaches English and Creative Writing at
Acadia University.