About the Play:

Whereverville is a full-length drama by Josh MacDonald. Between 1954 and 1975, Newfoundland's outpost communities were encouraged to abandon themselves and relocate in exchange for financial aid and the promise of better services in centralized "growth" towns. Set in a one-room school house during the decisive evening of the community's vote on whether to stay or leave, it is Loam Bay's schoolteacher, Abby Shea, who holds the deciding vote.

Whereverville is a life-or-death grudge match for the future of Loam Bay, Newfoundland – a tiny fishing outport community facing government relocation in 1969. The local schoolteacher, Abby Shea, herself "from away," finds herself fighting an emotional battle for the survival of "home". She holds the deciding vote as she struggles with her own phantom attachment to the community, its citizens and its ghosts of times past, and it is she who must learn that sometimes, in order to keep what we hold most dear, we must give it away – that "nothing lasts." Relocation was a carrot-and-stick approach to depopulating the province's fishing outports as then-premier Joey Smallwood decided to drag Newfoundland "kicking and screaming into the 20th century." Hardly anyone kicked or screamed. Between 1954 and 1975, the Federal and Provincial governments brought about the move of over 300 communities and 30,000 people. First and foremost, Whereverville is a work of fiction and its setting, the imaginary community of Loam Bay, does not appear on any map – tellingly, however, neither do many of the 300 communities by which this play was inspired.

Whereverville premiered in 2002 by Two Planks and a Passion Theatre at Ross Creek Centre for the Arts in Canning, Nova Scotia and was shortlisted for the The National Arts Centre's On The Verge Festival. It went on tour and was produced by successive theatre companies. Whereverville is a curriculum title in high schools and universities across Canada.

Cast: 1 female, 4 male

What people say:

"Whereverville is highly engaging." — The Royal National Theatre, Great Britain

"[Whereverville is] emotional, poetic, humourous and character-rich." — The Mail Star, Halifax, N.S.

"An intelligent playwright with a love of humanity, MacDonald has a gift…." — The Chronicle Herald, Halifax, N.S.

"Appearances are deceptive [in Whereverville], no less in the play's form than in its plotting. A well-crafted and multilayered script." — University of Toronto Quarterly

"Josh MacDonald is one of Nova Scotia's theatrical young Turks … crafting highly compelling theatre that cuts close to the bone." — The Globe and Mail

About the Playwright:

Josh MacDonald is an award-winning Canadian playwright, screenwriter, and teacher. He graduated from Concordia University in Montréal where he specialized in theatre performance. He has written for CBC Television and Radio, the National Film Board, the Smithsonian Channel, Reelz, Blue Ant, and others. He has taught creative writing at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) and the Fountain School of Performing Arts at Dalhousie University. Also a professional actor for stage and screen, he is based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.