Les Filles du Roi | 2018

A new musical by Corey Payette and Julie McIsaac

*WINNER 2019 Jessie Awards – Outstanding Direction, Set Design, Costume Design, Sound Design & Original Composition

*WINNER 2018 BroadwayWorld Vancouver Awards – Best New Work

*WINNER 2018 Ovation Awards – Outstanding Set Design, Costume Design and Lighting Design; shortlisted for the Playwright Guild of Canada’s 2017 Stage West Pechet Family Musical Award

Production Design by Marshall McMahen

Les Filles du Roi is a gorgeous new trilingual musical from the creators of the groundbreaking Children of God. The powerful story of Kateri, a young Mohawk girl, and her brother Jean-Baptiste whose lives are disrupted upon the arrival of les filles du roi in 1665. They forge an unlikely relationship with young fille Marie-Jeanne Lespérance – whose dreams of a new life are more complicated than she could have imagined. Over the course of a year, Mohawk, French and English journeys collide, setting the stage for the Canada we know today. Payette’s music connects the heartbeat of the drum and the soaring voices of our female ancestors in a thrilling contemporary score, weaving three languages and rivalling the beauty of Canada’s most stunning landscapes.

A Fugue Theatre & Raven Theatre production in association with Urban Ink and The Cultch

Music by Corey Payette. Book & Lyrics by Julie McIsaac and Corey Payette. Directed by Corey Payette. Featuring Kaitlyn Yott, Julie McIsaac, Raes Calvert, Laura Di Cicco, Andrew Cohen, Chelsea Rose Tucker, Synthia Yusuf, Kayla Dunbar, Lisa Goebel, Cecilly Day, Merewyn Comeau. Production Designer Marshall McMahen. Music Director/Piano Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa. Movement Director Patrice Bowler. Co-Orchestrators Elliot Vaughan and Martin Reisle. Lighting Designer Jeff Harrison. Sound Designer Kyra Soko. Co-Fight Directors Mike Kovac and Ryan McNeil Bolton. Associate Movement Director Lisa Goebel. Musicians Molly MacKinnon, John Kastelic, Rebecca Wenham. Videographers Markian Tarasiuk and Ryan McDonald.

FOR DETAILS ON THE UPCOMING FEATURE FILM ADAPTATION OF LES FILLES DU ROI, CLICK HERE. 

The Out Vigil | 2016

A new play by Julie McIsaac

*WINNER 2016 Jessie Award for Outstanding Sound Design & Original Composition – Julie McIsaac & Jay Clift; nominated for 5 Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards including Outstanding Production

World Premiere by Twenty Something Theatre (now Firepot Performance) presented at the Firehall Arts Centre, March 2016. 

Subsequent productions at the Evergreen Cultural Centre (April 2017) and the Gros Morne Theatre Festival (Summer 2017).

Hours before the opening of the perilous king crab fishing season, Danny, a young Newfoundlander, arrives in Alaska, desperate for a job.  A local fisherman, Cal, grudgingly agrees to help him out, but past and present collide when Lizzie, a feisty young woman from home, shows up.  A modern fable steeped in maritime lore, The Out Vigil questions our ability to accept the natural world for all that it is, both beautiful and terrifying.

Written by Julie McIsaac. Presented by Twenty Something Theatre (now Firepot Performance). Directed by Sabrina Evertt. Dramaturgy by Peter Boychuk. With Alison Jenkins, Stephanie Izsak, Christina Cuglietta, Zac Scott and Matthew MacDonald-Bain.* Music Direction, Original Music & Arrangements by Julie McIsaac.* Set & Lighting Design by Ian Schimpf. Sound Design by Jay Clift* and Julie McIsaac* Stage Management by Melanie Thompson. Photos by Emily Cooper. (*2016 Jessie award winners)

“The birth of not only a new play, but that of a promising new playwright … a uniquely Canadian love story filled with the sounds, dreams and superstitions of both a people and a nation.” ~Mark Robins, Vancouver Presents

“The Out Vigil is a love story that spans the entirety of our country and spills just over our borders … it speaks of ‘home’ in such a clear, honest and magical way.” ~Stephen Drover, Associate Artistic Director, Arts Club Theatre