National Network for Equitable Library Service

These two powerful plays by Ahmad Meree examine the effects of war and the refugee experience. Suitcase considers the lives of refugees and the spaces they inhabit. The play urges the audience to reassess the significance of their possessions, the relationships they value, and all of the things they have left behind. Adrenaline follows Jaber, a refugee getting ready to celebrate his first New Year's Eve in Canada after leaving his war-torn home in Syria.

Anne Frank has survived the war, and at age 25, she's ready to start a new chapter in New York City. Eager to publish a memoir of her time in hiding, Anne is sure it will launch her career as a writer. But when the only interested publisher suggests drastic rewrites, Anne is unsure of what to do. Everyone around her seems to be able to move on and recover from the war, but her inability to make her voice heard forces Anne to question the meaning of her new life. Why did she survive, if not to share stories?

Deep in Simon’s basement, there is a secret world of imagination and adventure. When his new friend Abby comes over after school to work on a class assignment, Simon steers their work toward creating a play. However, Simon’s older brother, Zach, is uneasy with their play-acting and dressing up… because, as he reveals to Abby, Simon wishes to be a girl. As the three characters struggle through their conflicts, they improvise a fairy tale about a magic prince, an evil king, a brave young girl, and a fire-breathing dragon who’s getting more real by the minute.

Canadian Performance Documents and Debates provides insight into performance activities from the seventeenth century to the early 1970s, and probes important yet vexing questions about Canada as a country and a concept. The volume collects playscripts and archival material to explore what these documents tell us about the values, debates, and priorities of artists and their audiences from the past 400 years. Analyses throughout rethink the significance of theatre, dance, opera, circus, and other performance genres and events.

Set in a rural Black Nova Scotian community, The Bridgeexplores the complex relationship between two brothers strained over twenty years of secrecy, deception, and dishonour. Secrets are revealed one by one from the brothers themselves, as well as a trio of community gossips who provide the musical backdrop for this gospel-infused tale. A story of a family torn apart by betrayal, The Bridgeinvites us to consider the roads we choose in life, and to wonder whether we can ever cross back over the bridges we burn along the way.

Slimm, a seventeen-year-old Black boy in a hoodie suddenly finds himself in the first moments of his afterlife. He calls out for God. God does not respond. What happens next is a sacred journey through the unknown, as Slimm grapples with the truth of the life he lived and the death he didn't choose. Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers and Little Brothersis a protest for all Black life beyond headlines and hashtags, a prayer for all families left behind, and a promise to the community that all Black lives matter.

Stories of the Canadian Arctic intersect in this epic five-hundred-year journey led by a one-eared polar bear. In 1535, Hummiktuq, an Inuk widow, has a strange dream about the future. The next day, she discovers a bear cub floating on ice near a breathing hole. Despite the concerns of her community, she adopts him and names him Angu'řuaq. In 1845, Angu'řuaq and his mate Ukuannuaq wander into a chance meeting between explorers from the Franklin Expedition and Inuit hunters. Later, when the explorers are starving, the bears meet them again.

What stories do we tell ourselves to keep our walls up and our privilege intact? What is the cost of revolution? In this contemporary retelling of Antigone, denial of what rages outside of a city's perimeter comes to a head when a young princess named Alison tries to expose the truth of her beloved cousin Henry's death. By night, Henry went as Andy, as together he and Alison scaled the walls of their kingdom to help the migrants who are kept out of sight. Burdened by the weight of the inequality that his future reign represented, he killed himself.

There's no such thing as a secret in Stewiacke. Not when the gossips meet for coffee every day at the local diner. Vi, Rita, Mary Ellen, and Janine are all as close as can be, and they know everybody's business. But when Sean, a heartbroken doctor, moves in to take a temporary job at the clinic, he tips the Maritime town that's famous for being halfway between the North Pole and the equator off its axis. While Sean decides to pursue Janine, it only brings her closer together with her friends, who each have their own messy love lives.

Dom has had a rough go of things so far. At fourteen, he has the hardened look of someone who's had to fight for everything.Fred has just moved to Not-The-City, a new place to try to disappear. But he didn't expect to actually make friends. He just hopes he's accepted for how he looks.When Dom and Fred meet on a hill overlooking a bridge that connects Not-The-City to The City, a place where anyone can be anything they want, the two find a refuge in one another and make a pact: they'll cross the bridge at the end of the school year. They'll be free.