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New West audiences invited to play reading at Plaskett Gallery

Five different Indigenous love stories form the basis of a new play that's being introduced to New West audiences this coming week.
Massey Theatre
The Massey Theatre is offering new, Massey Unlimited programming that's designed to provide barrier-free access to the arts.

Five different Indigenous love stories form the basis of a new play that's being introduced to New West audiences this coming week.

Local audiences are welcome to turn out for a reading of You Used to Call Me Marie, by Tai Amy Grauman, on Thursday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. in the Plaskett Gallery. It’s the first in a series of play readings produced and presented by Savage Society in partnership with Massey Theatre. Savage Society tells contemporary Indigenous stories sourcing myth, tradition and contemporary Indigenous perspectives.

You Used To Call Me Marie follows two souls in five different Indigenous love stories, at five distinct periods in history. Moving through five different lives, the souls begin their journey in the Plains Cree community in pre-colonial times and spend their final life as two young Métis people where the man marries a non-Indigenous woman, disrupting the bloodline.

“Through alternate forms of theatrical structure, the piece explores ancestors’ history and the ways in which a young woman inherits trauma from the matriarchs in the family,” a press release says.

It’s directed by Mindy Parfitt and performed by Tai Amy Grauman and Aaron Wells.

The reading is part of the theatre's new Massey Unlimited programming, which is working to help provide barrier-free access to the arts for all members of the community.

The Plaskett Gallery is at Massey Theatre, 735 Eighth Ave. See www.masseytheatre.com or call 604-517-5900 for information.