Questions about identity and the vast mosaic that makes up the Canadian experience have always been integral to the works of Cambridge-based playwright Taylor Marie Graham.
"I've always been really inspired by those questions," says Graham about her characters who range from a south-Asian teenager to a drag queen.
Those themes will be apparent to audiences who get to experience the debut of Graham's children's opera Frog Song this week in Stratford, and again this fall when the "local horror" Corporate Finch hits the stage as part of the Impact 23 festival in Kitchener.
To get a sense of the imagination and wit Graham brings to her plays, consider The Virgin Charlie, the Dora Award winning comedy written with composer William Rowson about a drag queen who performs as the Virgin Mary on stage and later finds out he's pregnant with the Second Coming of Christ.
"I like to start with images and let them become the playground," Graham says of her creative process.
For Frog Song that image was a wall of frogs envisioned by a teenage girl as she recites a fairy tale.
Described as "a joyful, funny, and thoughtful new children’s opera about facing your inner fears and discovering your inner song," the production follows two pubescent teens, who are paired together for a "fairytale-inspired singing competition at the magical Camp Songbird."
Graham found a kindred spirit with Pam Patel in her goal to give more exposure and opportunities to marginalized and racialized artists and performers.
Before becoming the artistic director of Kitchener-based theatre company MT Space (Multicultural Theatre Space), Patel starred as the teenage protagonist in Frog Song when it debuted at Impact 2019.
The Galt Collegiate Institute grad says she discovered her love of performing when she found her way into a Grade 9 course in vocal music taught by Bob Houghton.
"He just saw something in me, I guess," Patel says of his words of encouragement and the "pivotal moment" that led her to private vocal coach Cherry Fraser where a love of singing, performing and the arts began to blossom.
She was soon performing in the Ontario Vocal Festival and nurturing her relationship with music simply by being "surrounded by these really inspiring musicians."
Originally planning a career in physics, Patel was encouraged to follow her passion and chose the music program at Wilfrid Laurier after being accepted in every school she applied to.
"I didn't even realize I could do that," Patel admits. "The whole time I was planning to go into physics because I also enjoy doing that, but I loved performing more."
When cultural differences sometimes made it a challenge at Laurier, Patel wondered if others felt the same.
Later on, it was those feelings that attracted her to MT Space, a theatre company with a goal to "fill the gaps in the talent pipeline."
Founded by the late Majdi Bou-Matar in 2004, MT (Multicultural Theatre) Space was created to remove some of the barriers he'd experienced as a new immigrant trying to enter the Canadian arts scene.
Bou-Matar was a trained actor, dancer, director from Lebanon who immigrated to Waterloo region with his wife so she could attend the PhD program at the University of Waterloo. He thought he could continue his craft locally, but came up against a lot of hurdles, Patel says.
"He was constantly told he didn't look the part, he didn't sound the part, he didn't understand the Canadian way of doing things. So, he decided to establish MT Space recognizing that there are other artists who were professionals back home, who can't make a go of it here, and create this incredible platform for not only immigrant artists, but also racialized artists, Indigenous, Black artists, to really show their cultural practice and their own narrative."
"I was finding a lot of similar hurdles," Patel admits.
Those obstacles began at Laurier where she would "butt heads" with a lot of her teachers.
That's when she realized the institutional way of doing things didn't always mesh with her own ingrained cultural practice.
"That was my kind of drive toward improvisation and new music."
Patel started with the company as an actor in 2008 after she saw their show Seasons of Immigration, directed by Bou-Matar.
"I had never seen anything like that in the region. It was very physical, it was interdisciplinary, there were live musicians on stage, there was dance there was mime, there was even a painter who was painting throughout the performance. And I remember thinking, that's what I want to do."
So, she connected with Bou-Matar through her friend and musician Nick Storring, who told him Patel wanted to audition.
"Majdi just looked me up and down and said, well, can you act?," she smiles. "I went to school for music, so I said, I can try."
The audition went well and Patel was cast in The Last 15 Seconds, with what she calls "an incredible team of creative artists" and they premiered the show at the first Impact Festival in 2009.
"Believe it or not, the show is still touring internationally today," she says, adding she's aged out of performing in the role she originated.
For Taylor Graham and other artists and writers, Impact 23 has become a vital part of the southwestern Ontario "theatre ecology" for its efforts to spotlight diversity in every aspect of the theatre.
Graham grew up in a small town in Huron County and considers the rural experience among the underrepresented in Canadian theatre.
Currently doing her PhD at the University of Guelph, she says it will explore Canadian identity through the productions of the Blyth Festival.
It is central to her latest play Corporate Finch, which came about after Graham experienced a bout of writer's block.
She sought help with Kitchener theatre company Flush Ink Productions and their "write or flight" challenge, which takes writers to disturbing places for 22 hours with the goal of inspiring them to write a one-act play.
For Graham, that meant being driven to an abandoned factory in St. Jacobs to soak up the creepy atmosphere and imagine the types of characters that might inhabit the space.
The result was an urban exploration horror tale that debuted at the Toronto Fringe Festival earlier this month and will make its way to Kitchener in September as part of Impact 23.
Rainbow Kester and Matthew Ivanoff play two teens who break into an abandoned factory in St. Jacobs and discover the terrifying danger that lurks inside.
Graham calls Kester, who is getting raves for her performance, a wonderfully talented creator.
Before local audiences have a chance to check out Corporate Finch, The Here For Now Theatre production of Frog Song will make its world premiere at the Stratford-Perth Museum July 26, running to Aug. 12 and is co-produced with the Stratford Symphony Orchestra.
Impact 23 runs from Sept. 26 to Oct. 1 in various venues in Waterloo region.
The biennial theatre festival is returning to its full offering of national and international performances from Australia, Chile, Cuba, Tunisia, and cities across Canada including Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Waterloo Region.
For more information, check out the website.
