Chickens
Written by Janis Spence
Cast:
STELLA BRIDLINGTON - Wendi Smallwood
DAPHNE BASS - Ruth Lawrence
BARB CALLAHAN - Mary Lewis
NANCY ARBUCKLE - Petrina Bromley
FENTON PLACK - Aiden Flynn
& Mary-Lynn Bernard reading all titles and stage directions
Runtime: 60-70 Minutes
Synopsis:
Several years after a drink-and hijinks--fueled night resulted in a disastrous prank, four friends are reunited in the waiting room of an emergency department. A fifth mural friend is in serious condition. Then her brother arrives, threatening to expose the secret they have sworn never to reveal ... chickens are coming home to roost. Another gem from Janis Spence, whose comic sense was unerring and who never wrote a false or loose line of dialogue.
About the playwright:
Playwright, actor, and director Janis Spence played pivotal roles over decades of NL theatre; writing and performing in the heralded collectives of the 1980s – Terras de Baccalhau, Makin’ Time with the Yanks; co-writing and acting in And This is Bob and Irene with Greg Thomey and Live Soap with Cathy Jones; and scripting and directing her own plays including Chickens, The Best Man, Cat Lover, and Walking to Australia.
She also wrote short stories and recorded a collection of them, On The Beach in Spanish Room, with Rattling Books, which she also narrated for. She crafted and delivered commentaries for CBC Radio’s Weekend Am and Sunday Morning, and that’s her voice featured in Jim Payne and Fergus O’Byrne’s popular song Wave Over Wave. She appeared in the TV series Up At Ours and in the films The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood, Anchor Zone, The Bingo Robbers, and Violet.
Spence’s dialogue was pitch perfect, her comic sense unerring, her opinions strong; on stage she was a generous and formidable colleague and talent, though she suffered from terrible stage fright.
Spence was born in Britian; her parents were from Wales. When she was 11 her father decided to emigrate and selected St. John’s at random with a globe and a pin. When she was just 19 she married playwright Michael Cook; six years later she left the marriage and with their two children, Sebastian and Sarah, moved to Toronto. She worked various jobs, often bureaucratic – and in 1978 Mary Walsh called about Up At Ours.
Chickens debuted at Resource Centre for the Arts in May 1988. The original cast was Elizabeth Pickard, Mercedes Barry, Mary Lewis, Maisie Rillie, and Greg Thomey.
Janis Spence died February 7, 2008, several months after suffering a stroke. She was 61.
Written by Janis Spence
Cast:
STELLA BRIDLINGTON - Wendi Smallwood
DAPHNE BASS - Ruth Lawrence
BARB CALLAHAN - Mary Lewis
NANCY ARBUCKLE - Petrina Bromley
FENTON PLACK - Aiden Flynn
& Mary-Lynn Bernard reading all titles and stage directions
Runtime: 60-70 Minutes
Synopsis:
Several years after a drink-and hijinks--fueled night resulted in a disastrous prank, four friends are reunited in the waiting room of an emergency department. A fifth mural friend is in serious condition. Then her brother arrives, threatening to expose the secret they have sworn never to reveal ... chickens are coming home to roost. Another gem from Janis Spence, whose comic sense was unerring and who never wrote a false or loose line of dialogue.
About the playwright:
Playwright, actor, and director Janis Spence played pivotal roles over decades of NL theatre; writing and performing in the heralded collectives of the 1980s – Terras de Baccalhau, Makin’ Time with the Yanks; co-writing and acting in And This is Bob and Irene with Greg Thomey and Live Soap with Cathy Jones; and scripting and directing her own plays including Chickens, The Best Man, Cat Lover, and Walking to Australia.
She also wrote short stories and recorded a collection of them, On The Beach in Spanish Room, with Rattling Books, which she also narrated for. She crafted and delivered commentaries for CBC Radio’s Weekend Am and Sunday Morning, and that’s her voice featured in Jim Payne and Fergus O’Byrne’s popular song Wave Over Wave. She appeared in the TV series Up At Ours and in the films The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood, Anchor Zone, The Bingo Robbers, and Violet.
Spence’s dialogue was pitch perfect, her comic sense unerring, her opinions strong; on stage she was a generous and formidable colleague and talent, though she suffered from terrible stage fright.
Spence was born in Britian; her parents were from Wales. When she was 11 her father decided to emigrate and selected St. John’s at random with a globe and a pin. When she was just 19 she married playwright Michael Cook; six years later she left the marriage and with their two children, Sebastian and Sarah, moved to Toronto. She worked various jobs, often bureaucratic – and in 1978 Mary Walsh called about Up At Ours.
Chickens debuted at Resource Centre for the Arts in May 1988. The original cast was Elizabeth Pickard, Mercedes Barry, Mary Lewis, Maisie Rillie, and Greg Thomey.
Janis Spence died February 7, 2008, several months after suffering a stroke. She was 61.
Sponsored by Drs. Michael and Annette Staveley.
