Showdown
Written & Directed by Michelle Clemens
Produced by Principals Productions
Stage Directions: Aedon Young
Designer & Marketing: Bridget Rickets
Cast:
JOAN, YOUNG JOAN - Jill Kennedy
LUCY, SISTER MARY - Anastacia Hopkins
DONNA - Claire Monstrose
ROBERT - Leo Converse
JERRY - Chad Furlong
ERNIE - Peter Jones
MR. PETTEN, MR. WHITE - Jody Rideout
RADIO ANNOUNCER, BANK OFFICER - Janet O’Reilly
Runtime: 90 Minutes
Synopsis:
The play examines the NAPE Strike of 1986 from both a political and a personal perspective. The main character in this piece is Joan, a woman and union leader, who is struggling to manage in two worlds - the traditional world of a housewife and mother, and an empowering world as a union leader. Joan’s husband Robert wants the order and peace of a home life, with Joan managing the children and taking care of it all. Ernie’s wife wants to remain at home to care for her children and both men find their relationships at a breaking point. Donna, Joan’s daughter, is confounded by her mother, who fights for equity in the workplace but expects her to tend to her brothers at home. Of course it is only love that carries them all through the political, institutional, family, and personal struggles that all push at each other in this very human drama.
About the playwright:
Michelle is a writer, director and actor born in St. John’s. Her script Showdown won the 2023 Arts and Letter for Dramatic Script. Michelle was selected by the Playwriter’s Guild of Canada for their Craft Bite International, 2023. In 2022 her play, Boomerang made its debut in St. John’s and in December 2023 her three act play, Mummering, Mischief and Murder: A Tibbs Eve Farce premiered at the Barbara Barrett Theatre. Michelle’s debut novel, The Girls from Belvedere will be published by Flanker Press in 2025.
Recently, she wrote and directed The Odds of That, a short film released in May 2023. It was selected Best First Time Film Short by 4Theatre and selected for screening at the Nickel International film Festival (2024), the Parrsboro Film Festival (2023), and the Smith Sound Film Festival (2023). She wrote screen plays for several film challenges and Its’s All Fun & Games was selected for screening at the Smith Sound Film Festival. She also won an Arts and Letters in 2022 for her poetry.
Michelle also explores the short story genre with both written and oral storytelling. Her short story Murder on Milbank won a place at the Memorial University’s/WritersNL Storytelling event in May of 2021. Her essay, The Christmas Stocking, was published in the Writer’s Alliance of Newfoundland and Labrador’s E-Zine. Michelle has hosted events for St. John’s Storytelling and has performed her own works The Ruin and Bra Burning at their 2022 fall festival and she presented her “Jill Tale” in their 2023 festival. She wrote several plays for the Children’s Theatre company, Zoo & the Moose.
Michelle’s most recent stage performances were Greta in An Unmarked Door, Kate in Boomerang, and Clariee in Steel Magnolias. She has acted in several 48 Hour film challenges, including It’s all Fun and Games as Wifey. She is a member of ACTRA and has performed in local TV productions. Michelle directed Shrek: The Musical in February 2024 and Bridey’s Birth Control at the Short Play Festival in 2023.
She is a proud member of the Playwriter’s Guild of Canada, the Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre, Newfoundland Independent Film Cooperative and WritersNL.
Sponsored By:
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