Sprouts 2013

Sprouts returns for our 12th Festival with a fresh bouquet of brand new short plays for kids and their families.  Four local playwrights from diverse cultural backgrounds will share their latest works in these staged readings.  Bring a picnic lunch and enjoy storytelling, music, art and theatre – all for kids. After the plays you can write or draw your thoughts in our special art garden plot.

Letters by Tracy Carroll
Tracy Carroll is a longtime friend of the SproutsFestival — she has been the mentor to many writers and helped to shape their plays over the years. But this is the first time she has written for the festival itself. Her play is about a little girl who struggles with dyslexia, based on her own daughter’s experiences… and most surprisingly… Richard Branson!

The Wonderful Wizard Wangari by Minister Faust
Journalist, educator, and novelist Malcolm Azania, also known as Minister Faust, first thought about writing about his father’s Kenyan heritage. He eventually came to write about Wangari Maathai, the Kenyan woman who founded the Green Belt Movement and received the Nobel Prize for her environmental and human rights work. With music, rhythm, and movement, Azania shows a woman doing extraordinary things.

Old Nettie and Little Bern by Vern Thiessen
Sprouts commissions writers with all kinds of experience: Vern Thiessen is both a Governor-General’s award-winning playwright for adults, as well as a seasoned writer of plays for children who used to live in Edmonton and now calls New York home. Old Nessin, is based on a story his father told him and is set in a Russian village, where Thiessen’s Mennonite family originated. It explores what happens when a young boy gets caught in a snowstorm, and he saved by a surprising hero.

Kuya by Michelle Todd
Sprouts is a festival for kids, from toddlers to early elementary age. That’s a wide range, and that’s part of what Michelle Todd wants to play with in her new play, Kuya. In her story, a young boy Alex must stay with his aunt and cousins, who are younger, while his mom has a baby. This sets up a relationship where Alex must act as a kuya and help take care of them and be a good example.

Credits

Featuring:
Letters by Tracy Carroll
The Wonderful Wizard Wangari by Minister Faust
Old Nettie and Little Bern by Vern Thiessen
Kuya by Michelle Todd

Directed by Mieko Ouchi
Dramaturg Caroline Howarth
Stage Managed by Dawn Friesen

CAST:
Patricia Cerra
Julie Golosky
Mathew Hulshof

Production Design by Lisa Hancharek
Sound Design & Composition by Jason Kodie

Seeds generously donated for Sprouts 2013 by Wellington Garden Centre