After a long absence from posting, the Lady Minto Hospital medical staff feel it might be time to update the community on all things COVID. While all cases on Salt Spring have long since recovered, we are entering a new phase of risk as more and more visitors arrive and each of us starts to expand our “bubble.”
First, thank you so much to all the businesses and individuals who have clearly made a huge effort to put in place precautionary measures as recommended by our provincial leaders to keep all of us safe.
Second, please do not allow all the hard work and sacrifices go to waste. As all of us start to socialize more, please do NOT meet with friends or go to work if you feel ill. Remember to wash your hands, do not touch your face, and if you need to sneeze or cough, cover your face with your elbow. Masks should be worn in any situation where it is difficult to maintain the required six feet of separation from anyone not in your bubble.
Finally, thank you to the Capital Regional District and the coordinators of the Saturday market who have been working hard to sort out the safest way to re-open. We know that many people are desperate to see the Saturday market. If you are attending any of the markets in the park, please be aware that this is potentially a high-risk event, even though it is outdoors. Should there be a COVID-positive person in the crowd, contact tracing will be almost impossible in this scenario. Please wear a mask, carry hand sanitizer and continue to respect social distancing.
A tribute to the man, wild child, VP, Mr. Jamaica, mentor, athlete, track & soccer coach, motorcycle lover, gardener, son, brother, husband, father & grandfather.
Jim grew up on a small farm in Richmond BC where he picked blueberries with his siblings to help make ends meet.
He had a long and substantial travel career working his way up to VP of Operations & Product Development at Air Canada Vacations.
Jim was highly respected by his coworkers, associates, and friends in the travel industry. He was smart, interesting, always ready for a good time and definitely a bit of a character whose exploits could engender much amusement and laughter. He truly was nature’s gentleman and will be sorely missed by everyone who had the good fortune to know him.
Jim had the kindest soul, the hardest work ethic, the most discipline, the wittiest sense of humour and the greatest love for the people in his life. ~ We’ll kick it into high gear for you always.
He took his last flight on Saturday July 11th, surrounded by his wife Diane Tremblay, twin daughters Sarah & Michelle Proctor, son in law Mark Brown, brothers Gary & Brian Proctor and his sisters in law. He was 72 years old.
You will forever be our sunshine, our North Star and the wind in our sails. We love you.
Don, age 92, passed away peacefully on July 19, 2020 at Lady Minto Hospital on Saltspring Island.
Don was born on March 28, 1928 in Prince Rupert to Elmer and Sarah Hartwig and was the eldest of three children (Don, Rose Marie, Alan).
Don leaves behind: his wife of 65 years, Joyce (Wright); children Jo Ann, Janet, Susan (Rick) and Gary (Cathy); grandchildren Brad, Ryan, Chris, Emma, Natalia and Gabriel; great grandson, Jaydon; and nephews, Fred, Scott and Pete. His brother Alan predeceased him.
Don attended Western Washington University and returned to Prince Rupert with a teaching degree (major in history) where he began his teaching career in the same schools he had attended as a student. Don was a sport enthusiast with a particular fondness for basketball and he coached the Prince Rupert Rainmakers and Rainettes for the duration of his time in Prince Rupert. At Western Washington University Don was an excellent competitive tennis player, and continued to play regularly well into his 80s.
In 1967 the family relocated to Saltspring Island where Don began the next stage of his career in education as the principal of both the Saltspring Elementary School and Gulf Islands Secondary School. He continued coaching basketball as well as organized the first band program to be offered at the secondary school. He went on to become a Director with the B.C. Ministry of Education and after retiring, he worked as consultant well into his 80`s, auditing private schools around the province.
When it came to family, Don was happiest when many of his children, grandchildren and nephews were together. He was an ardent traveller who enjoyed museums, theatre and visiting family overseas, especially Jennifer, a recently discovered cousin residing in Italy. Don was a lifelong learner and great raconteur, who loved a good conversation; however, when a subject got heated or off track, he was quick to change topics with his well-known phrase “while, anyways…” He also had a sharp wit which held him in good stead as both a father and a principal.
Don was a kind person who touched the lives of many friends, colleagues, students and especially his extended family. Dad, you will be so missed and we hope you are off playing tennis, shooting hoops or drinking a beer.
A celebration of life may be arranged at a later date.
The family thanks Dr. Leon and the wonderful staff at Lady Minto Hospital Extended Care for their compassionate care of Don during his short stay.
In lieu of flowers the family would like to ask that a donation be made to the charity of your choice in his name.
The Capital Regional District, in consultation with Island Health, has issued a Boil Water Advisory for the Highland part of the Highland-Fernwood water service on Salt Spring Island (click here for map).
As a result of a recent watermain break and subsequent repairs, the CRD says water quality may have been compromised in the system. As a precaution, the Boil Water Advisory will be in effect until flushing and water samples indicate the water quality no longer poses a risk to public health. Residents in the impacted area should boil their drinking water until further notice.
The Boil Water Advisory will be removed when Island Health is satisfied that the drinking water does not pose a health concern and issues an ‘ALL CLEAR’ notice, at which time the customers of the Highland Water Service Area will be notified as soon as possible. During the Boil Water Advisory, household tap water may be disinfected by boiling it vigorously for one minute.
Salt Spring market vendors will start returning to Centennial Park as soon as Saturday, July 18, with a limited number of spaces to be opened up along the promenade.
A temporary arrangement will see vendors able to rent 20 market spaces in the Capital Regional District park every day of the week, aside from Tuesdays and Sundays, with a Salt Spring Parks and Recreation park use permit.
Ganges Alley will also be hosting a privately run market on its adjacent property this Saturday, with a 60-vendor limit.
Salt Spring Parks and Rec manager Dan Ovington explained the temporary arrangement is in place at Centennial Park through Aug. 1 until a new market coordinator can begin working. Each day permit will allow operation between the hours of 10 a.m and 4 p.m. Permits will be made available on a first come, first served basis with submission of a COVID-19 safety plan.
“This will give vendors the opportunity to get into the park more often than usual, so that will help them supplement their income,” Ovington said.
Okanagan-based artisan Dawn Larden has been offered the coordinator position. Ovington said she has experience as a vendor and with organizing markets. She helped create the COVID-19 safety plan for a Kelowna craft market.
The CRD will implement its phased approach to restarting a larger scale market with vendors spread between Thursday and Friday dates at Centennial Park after Larden begins work in August.
“Once we’ve established we’re able to meet our COVID-19 health and safety protocols on Thursday-Fridays, we’d be looking to transition to Saturdays, providing everything goes well,” Ovington said.
The limited number of 10-foot-wide stalls are being used for the short term since there is not a coordinator to supervise the configuration of space or the usual vendor line-up to get in. Vendors will be assigned a specific numbered space with their park use permit. Each vendor will be responsible for ensuring health guidelines are met at their booth. Alcohol and cannabis products will not be permitted in the interim period.
Ovington said five vendors had signed up by noon on Friday for the following date. He expected the 20 slots to be mostly filled by the end of the day.
A petition calling for the CRD to immediately restart the market on Saturdays and skip the phased approach had gained 370 signatures as of Friday afternoon.
The names that local First Nations gave to significant Salt Spring landmarks will soon be better known to the settler community with two complementary projects now underway.
Information panels and signage are being developed for Ganges, Fernwood and the Burgoyne Bay area — a place that has already become familiar to many islanders as Xwaaqw’um thanks to ongoing cultural reclamation work by the Stqeeye’ Learning Society. Penelakut First Nation is informing creation of the Fernwood panel, which is being produced by the new Donna Martin Legacy Fund in partnership with the Salt Spring Archives and will be designed by Phil Vernon. A third panel site is planned near Ganges Alley.
Stqeeye’ Learning Society spokesperson Joe Akerman explained the Xwaaqw’um signage project has been in development for three years and will likely be ready for public viewing in August. The cedar panels will show Hul’q’umi’num’ words and information describing important information and resources in the former Xwaaqw’um village area around Burgoyne Bay.
“It will give visitors a better sense of place and honour the ancestors the Cowichan and Coast Salish people that continue to use the land, despite continuing challenges and lack of access and resources to do so,” Akerman said.
Akerman said the three-year journey was needed to ensure the information and the interpretation were correct. The society didn’t want to just create the material in English and then ask someone to translate it. Content came “through the leadership of Tousilum, Sulsameethl and other Cowichan leaders and knowledge keepers” as part of the larger Bringing Home the Elders project.
“We’ve also been working closely with some of the few Hul’q’umi’num’ speakers left in Cowichan, including T’uwahiye’ (Philomena Williams) and Merle Seymour (Tth’ulsul-t-hw),” Akerman said.
Akerman worked closedly with the Elders and language speakers and with Vernon to design panels that feature striking Coast Salish designs by Cowichan artist Stuart Pagaduan and watercolours illustrating traditional harvesting activities by Salt Spring’s Briony Penn.
Collaboration between the Salt Spring Historical Society/ Salt Spring Archives and local First Nations for the Interpretive Panels Project in Ganges began after a presentation by elders at the Salt Spring Public Library in January 2018 inspired the organization to act. The Salt Spring Island Foundation and the Capital Regional District provided grants toward Phase One of the project: consultations with local First Nations. The working group consulted with members of both the historic Cowichan Nations and the WSÁNEC Language Advisory Group, as well as the Penelakut elders. Tousilum and Sulsameethl from Cowichan also looked at the Ganges sites and gave recommendations.
Penelakut elders visit Ganges Harbour to inspect siting for Indigenous interpretive panels being produced by the Salt Spring Historical Society and Archives with the Donna Martin Legacy Fund.
“These meetings have resulted in meaningful relationship building and have helped greatly to bridge our knowledge gap,” said Salt Spring Archives project coordinator Christina Marshall. “At present the archives has little specifi c First Nations history except for what has been recorded by the pioneers and settlers. Transcripts and other material gathered for the signage project will be added to the archive, as deemed appropriate by the First Nations involved.”
Ganges sites have been approved thanks to Ganges Alley property owner David Grayson and the CRD. The working group is putting forward a request to the CRD parks commission for placement at Fernwood. Funding to actually create the Ganges panels and the expansion of the project to include Fernwood comes through the newly created Donna Martin Legacy Fund.
Martin died earlier this year after a short battle with glioblastoma (an aggressive brain cancer). Her daughter Tara Martin, who grew up on Walker Hook and is a professor of conservation science at the University of British Columbia, said creating the $10,000 fund was one way to find closure after her mother’s death, since pandemic rules made it impossible to hold a celebration of life. The Indigenous Panel Project also fits perfectly with Donna’s ideals.
“Donna was really passionate about supporting building Indigenous relationships and supporting the resurgence of Indigenous rights and culture in the islands, and she really saw that that needed to happen in tandem with conservation,” Martin said. “She was a hard-core conservationist, and she really recognized those things go hand in hand.”
Martin described an ongoing relationship between her mother and the Penelakut people that began through shared activism about a development on Walker Hook that proposed to cut right through archaeological sites. Their relationship only strengthened through the years with events like the campaign to protect Grace Islet burial sites.
Marshall said the historical society is very happy to gain the partnership.
“Penelakut elders have already visited the Fernwood site and are very enthusiastic about the ongoing collaborative process that we are committed to,” she reported.
Vernon is the senior designer of the Ganges and Fernwood panels as well as the project’s First Nations liaison. He is building on his ongoing relationships with local Indigenous groups and employing extensive work experience in sharing and presenting sensitive cultural information. His commitment to process means continuous consultation and implementing the feedback returned for additional rounds.
“Because of the work I’ve done over the years there’s a trust that’s built up, and we’re getting conversations that go to a deeper level because of that trust. Then there’s the responsibility of bringing the information forward properly. It’s a burden we take very seriously,” Vernon said.
The Donna Martin Legacy Fund is being supported by a GoFundMe campaign. Donations can also be made by cheque or directly to an Island Savings account. See the online campaign site for more information. Martin said there will be money left over after the Fernwood and Ganges panels are completed, which could go toward the Xwaaqw’um project or other similar ventures.
“Donna Martin was a shining example of prioritizing relationships and support of local Indigenous elders and families,” Akerman said.
Partners in the Indigenous signage projects recognize their work is important but just the first step in the much bigger project of reconciliation.
“First Nations are grappling with huge issues daily and educational signage such as what we’re proposing is just a small but respectful piece of much larger ongoing work,” Marshall said.
“It’s a nice entry point, but we want to go much deeper into welcoming Coast Salish people back home,” Akerman added, noting the Stqeeye’ Learning Society has been advocating toBC Parks for the past five years to bring Cowichan Hereditary Chief and elder Tousilum home to Xwaaqw’um.
Stqeeye’ Learning Society says its work requires an elder in residence at Xwaaqw’um for direct oversight and support of its cultural plan, including continual advising and curriculum enhancement work with the Gulf Islands and Cowichan school districts, along with continuing partnerships with BC Parks and BC Wildlife Federation wetlands restoration, salmon, trout and stream monitoring, future native plant nurseries, and infrastructure improvements and maintenance. Current planning involves research and concept designs for a cultural centre at Xwaaqw’um to better host Cowichan people — adults, kids, youth and elders — and the general public.
“Elders currently travel from the Cowichan Valley to Salt Spring Island regularly, which is not sustainable physically and financially. The core goal of Stqeeye’ Learning Society is to provide opportunities for Indigenous youth to continue to re-engage with local culture and ways of life that have been forcibly removed from Indigenous communities, and educate the broader community about these ways,” Akerman said.
Donations can be made to aid the Stqeeye’ Learning Society projects at www.xwaaqwum.com. Look for more information on the society’s work in the coming months.
Salt Spring Islanders are fortunate to be living in prime circumstances for witnessing the NEOWISE comet as it transits through this stretch of our solar system.
The NEOWISE comet was first discovered by NASA’s Near Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer telescope on March 27. It became bright enough to see in the night sky by July, and especially so after passing its shortest distance to the sun on July 3.
The comet is now fading as it becomes closer to the Earth than the sun. Astronomers say there is around one week left to get a good view. The next time it will be back this way after its long orbit will be in 6,800 years.
Salt Spring resident Olivier Lardiere has taken several good photos of the comet in the past week, visiting north island beaches between 11:30 p.m. and midnight on July 13 and 14. Although he is an optical engineer working at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Saanich, he has been taking photos purely for his own interest.
“You don’t need a telescope to photograph the comet because it’s a fairly large object,” Lardiere explained, while adding, “A longer lens is better to gather more light in less time. The rotation of the Earth blurs the sky if your exposure is too long [so] you don’t want to exceed 10 seconds.”
Lardiere’s first two shots were taken at the Hudson Point boat ramp, with his 16-year-old son Nanook. He went to Bader Beach the following night. He has a Canon Rebel SL2 camera mounted on a tripod, and got his shots using a 60mm f/2.8 EF-S lens, with an eight-second exposure and 3200 ISO.
NEOWISE comet seen over Wallace Island at twilight on July 13. Photograph by Olivier and Nanook Lardiere.
A tripod is necessary to stabilize the camera for the length of exposure needed. However, Lardiere said even an iPhone can capture a shot. In that case, the phone should be propped up on a rock or a log to remain stable. Manual settings are a good idea if available, with an exposure time of at least five seconds.
Lardiere made sure to include the horizon in his photos to give context for the scene. He said that’s not difficult to do because the comet is located low in the sky. The only challenge is to get a view north without having any big trees or hills in the way and to find somewhere dark. Because the comet is found in the same direction in which the sun sets, that means it needs to be at least 11 p.m.
Lardiere found Fernwood Dock was not suitable because of the mounted light, and other locations that look toward the light pollution from Vancouver should also be avoided.
Those people who are not worried about capturing an image but would just like to witness the event will be able to see the comet with the naked eye, but Lardiere strongly recommends taking binoculars so that both tails can be seen. He explained there is one bright feathery tail made of dust, and a second straight blueish tail made of gas that is not visible to the naked eye.
“It’s probably the comet of the decade, if not two decades, so people should make an effort to stay awake a bit longer. There are some nice quiet places on the island,” Lardiere said.
“It looks like people are enjoying it,” he added. “And it’s an easy target for beginners. You don’t need a lot of gear.”
A. White’s contribution to the Driftwood, “Store practices questioned” (June 24), points to some shortcomings in the way Country Grocer operates during this perilous pandemic.
One gets the sense that White was traumatized by her experience at CG, and with good reason: despite limiting the number of people allowed in the store at any one time and providing protection at check-out, management appears to have neglected other basic precautions.
Let’s start at the front door, where one or often two CG employees, presumably monitoring the flow of people in and out, appear rather oblivious to social distancing as they merrily chat away with customers on their way in, often at close quarters (more like two feet rather than the required two meters). Nor are they wearing masks to protect those entering as well as themselves. Should one of these guardians be an unsuspecting asymptomatic carrier, they might unwittingly infect hundreds of islanders in a single day.
Nor is there any justification for the situation one encounters once inside. While measures have been taken to protect cashiers from direct contact with customers, one still experiences unnervingly close encounters with employees, who continue to dart around in all directions with seemingly little regard for social distancing or for wearing masks and gloves. Apparently, as White asserts, management leaves it up to staff whether or not they choose to wear masks and gloves to protect the health of the community. The B.C. government strongly recommends mask wearing for everyone when in enclosed spaces for extended periods of time. As this measure is not mandatory, CG cannot force customers to wear masks — although they could undoubtedly remind them often of the importance and social responsibility of doing so. And they could most definitely request that staff who are in contact with customers, especially staff handling our produce and food supplies, wear masks and gloves at all times.
I raised some of these concerns with CG management back in March, urging them to take more precautionary steps during this crisis. They replied that CG lacks the personnel to ensure in-store social distancing, and further that some of their staff were recent hires, so they would review the rules with them again. They also informed me that one-way aisles are not “practical” within CG — which I find curious, as they are in place in other essential hubs both on and off island.
While this suggests that CG is taking some measures in the interest of public health, there appears to be many a slip between the cup and the lip. It has been my observation over the past two months that there has been little perceptible improvement. If anything, the situation appears to have become even more lax. While the employees may have been given gloves, as A. White points out, many of them are not using them — not even those in charge of fresh produce. While staff may have been given more instructions on social distancing, many of them are not following those instructions, routinely coming within close range of shoppers.
Let’s not mince words: the situation is serious, both globally and in Canada. With over 12.5 million cases and over 560,000 deaths worldwide as of July 10, this is the deadliest global pandemic in a century. And although Canada has fared relatively well so far, and especially B.C. — in part owing to the cautious approach taken by public health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry — this situation could easily change overnight if we let our guard down.
New research, just published, shows that “silent spreaders” — infected people who have no symptoms, or who have contact with others during the few days before symptoms appear — are a primary driver of COVID-19 spread. There is also mounting evidence that small droplets emitted by an infected individual can remain airborne for extended periods of time in enclosed spaces. It might only take one silent spreader in our midst to spark an outbreak on island. That would certainly burst our bubble — and in the worst-case scenario might result in a complete island lockdown.
Under such circumstances, caution is of the essence. One can hope that the seemingly “relaxed” attitude at CG stems from lack of deeper understanding of this emergency and of the health risk it poses to our community, rather than from other considerations. If so, hopefully CG management will now recognize that those who serve as an island hub for essential services also have essential responsibilities. If their casual approach persists, fortunately there are alternatives on the island.
The writer has served as an honorary professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Western University (London, Ont.), and as an international consultant to UN agencies and the government of Vietnam on pandemic spread and pandemic planning.
Last weekend we had the amazing opportunity to spend some time with Qwiaqwulthw (Robert George) and other elders of the Quw’utsun peoples of this territory. Invitations had gone out to community leaders within the Black, Indigenous, people of colour community, including settler supporters, to take part in an anti-racism camp with about 30 others from Salt Spring and the Cowichan Valley at Xwaaqw’um (Burgoyne Bay) for the weekend.
Lea: As a woman of colour in this community, and in the world, it is immensely challenging to understand where I fit in this journey of reconciliation that is the work of the human species at this time. It was a truly beautiful thing to sit in the presence of these wise elders and look around a circle of faces of people — Quw’utsun (Cowichan), Japanese, African, Indian, European descendants of all ages — who are all wondering the same thing: how to find their place and do this healing work well. With the incredibly kind and immensely generous guidance of the Quw’utsun elders we were able to move deeper and deeper into a place of understanding and connection.
Melanie: After setting up the kitchen and making a fire, all were welcomed and brushed off with medicine shared by Qwiaqwulthw. Seairra, one of the facilitators, started the circle by asking what is needed for everyone to feel safe. How can we make a container for everyone to speak and be heard? This discussion was well thought out by all and led to safety agreements which were revisited on a few future occasions as the weekend unfolded. The time, patience and care it took to create safety and opportunities for connection with each other was at the heart of this workshop. Often, we don’t truly ask of ourselves and others for the time and space required to feel safe in our lives. When safety is overlooked to accommodate productivity, our consumption and destruction relationships between each other and the environment occurs much more frequently.
Lea: Most, if not all, participants recognized that respect, understanding and reconciliation is the groundwork, the base upon which all anti-racism work rests. Racism is all about building up false barriers, and anti-racism, so much of it, is about taking the time to tear those down with time and integrity. In fact, integrity was the word that kept ringing in my head the whole weekend.
Melanie: Daily meals and stories occurred around the sacred fire from Friday through Sunday. The Xwaaqw’um cedar dugout canoe was a central part of the weekend. The big canoe was paddled with a small crew from Xwaaqu’um over to Maple Bay on Thursday night before the gathering. The next morning a full group of paddling camp participants steered the dugout canoe back towards Xwaaqw’um. The carving of the canoe, led by master carver Joe Martin, was worked on by many hands over the two previous years. At the end of the weekend we all worked together once again with the canoe by lifting it out of the ocean back onto the waiting trailer. Everyone agreeing to take a little bit of the weight of the canoe achieved a larger shared goal. Qwiaqwulthw reminding us to work together as one throughout the weekend was reminiscent of how in our own small community — by sharing our unique gifts and practising care of heart and mind — together we can achieve lasting moments of inclusivity and integrity.
Molly: There were magical flashes that have been etched in our minds forever. There was a moment when Joe Akerman had taken all the young ones out on the big canoe for a paddle around the bay. We adults, deep in our reflection, were sitting around the fire by the sea. The tide was low, the canoe came towards us, and all the paddlers had their oars vertically in the air. It was like time stopped. To see our children out there paddling together in the same old ways of the first people of these lands was powerful, heavy and surreal. Then watching from shore, we heard the paddlers thump the handles of their paddles on the bottom of the canoe with the cascading sound filling the bay. It was a glory to behold.
Another profound moment of the gathering was the healing ceremony that took place as a result of a young girl who burned her foot on a hot rock from around the fire after the last workshop of the day had finished. A decent-sized blister was developing and she was in a good amount of pain. After the immediate medical needs were taken care of, Qwiaqwulthw gathered everyone around to share his teachings of ensuring no hard feelings were felt by anyone, child or parent. A blanket was wrapped around the girl and witnesses were brought to the front to observe what was taking place, to remember the teachings shared over the next half hour and to ultimately oversee the care offered and received. The young girl wore that blanket for the rest of her stay, she felt special, held and looked after.
Group: Being and staying on the land as the classroom was important to this process of integrity. This land that was stolen from Quw’utsun people is slowly and carefully being restored with the leadership of Quw’utsun elders and knowledge keepers, including Tousilum (Qwiaqwuthw’s older brother), Sulsameethl, T’uwaxwiye’ and many others. Indigenous plant and animal habitats, water ways and human relationships are all being healed at Xwaaqw’um. In fact, it is good to be reminded of the relationship between the land and people by local Indigenous folk that lasting reconciliation and healing needed in today’s world must come from our deeply woven relationship between all species who inhabit the earth. Showing daily respect to each and every living being, including humans, regardless of race, genders and other diversities, we realize the very complex relationships we weave throughout time are firmly held up by our dependence on and responsibility to the land and each other.
Right now we are immersed in some extremely potent times. With the pressing realization that race relations in so-called Canada are not as advanced as some of us liked to imagine, the climate crisis and the unsettling and even the uncertain future of the COVID-19 pandemic, we all have a lot we can choose to stay engaged with. It was also a compelling weekend, where people of all ages, skin colours and backgrounds sat, listened, learned and shared. Receiving local Indigenous guidance and leadership from the small island we live on is a great honour. This unique anti-racism camp has encouraged us to keep learning the truth of the past and present here on Turtle Island, and motivated us to look forward to the healing work we have in front of us all. We can continue building a much stronger community. We have the resilience needed to get through what is to come.
Thank you to Qwiaqwuthw, Joe Akerman, Seairra Courtemanche and all the volunteers and participants that put on this incredible by-donation gathering.
The three writers attended the workshop on anti-racism and diversity held on the July 3-5 weekend at Xwaaqw’um. They said, “We chose to write this collectively to honour the teachings of the Quw’utsun who always work together: Nutsamaat Shqwuluwun — “one heart one mind.” Lea Weir is of African/European descent, Melanie Furman is of European descent, and Molly Murphy of Eastern Europe/Guyanese descent.
Island theatre fans suffering the sad loss of live events have something to look forward to at last as exitStageLeft steps in as the first local company to hit the boards since the coronavirus pandemic struck.
Those boards are figurative in this case, since the show is a minimalist production being staged in Centennial Park. The script of “Romeo and Juliet Reimagined” likewise hangs on a pared-down cast — but this original adaptation is anything but simple. Director Christina Penhale and four young women present an all-female take on Shakespeare’s tragic love story that weaves the seed material into modern times and involves each actor portraying multiple characters.
Inspired by an earlier adaptation featuring four boys, the exitSageLeft version sets the drama in a repressive all-girls school.
“The premise is the female voice and how these young women begin to discover what that is for themselves through the playing of this text,” Penhale explained.
ExitStageLeft had planned to put on Pericles for its summer Shakespeare in the Park show this year, while Romeo and Juliet Reimagined was to be scheduled in the spring. The original cast had started rehearsals of that script when provincial health orders against gatherings came into force. The easing of restrictions at the end of June meant the company could use the park space it had pre-booked and get the play already in progress back on track.
Recent Gulf Islands Secondary School graduates Kahlila Ball, Calla Adubofour-poku and Amelia McCluskey co-star along with Lois Warwick, who replaced the Salt Springers’ usual collaborator Jo Gaffney due to a scheduling conflict. Warwick played MacBeth in an all-female production of that tragedy, which exitStageLeft company member Jeffrey Renn directed for Douglas College Studio Theatre last fall.
“We’ve had a short window to pull it off because all of them are off to other theatrical life adventures elsewhere,” Penhale said. “But we’d gone 40 pages into the text with blocking before COVID happened and they remembered almost all of it when we came back, and Lois is a super quick study.”
Penhale said she was inspired to produce the play at first because she wanted to see Ball play Romeo. The actor has been with exitStageLeft every season except for the very first one in 2014, starting when she was 12.
Ball has embraced the challenge with McCluskey playing her Juliet. But each actor has the difficult task of playing several Shakespeare characters and also embodying a character who is doing that.
“I feel like the casting was really smart and by keeping it so small, it makes a very simple but strong statement about femininity that I feel hasn’t been done a lot. In casting four people to play many roles and two stories, almost, it just demonstrates we are more than one thing,” Ball said.
The issue of youth voices striving to be heard and taken seriously is another theme of the play, and one the teen actors can relate to. Adubofour-poku observed it echoes throughout Shakespeare’s original text and the contemporary story.
“I think when we are taking on these roles and playing both adults and children and there’s that balance, there’s a lot that bleeds into our real lives as well,” she said.
Casting against the norm has increasingly become a tool that modern theatre directors are using to interrogate systemic assumptions and power dynamics. Similar to how the hit musical Hamilton casts people of colour to portray America’s founding fathers, gender reversals can highlight problematic issues while still celebrating source material. ExitStageLeft previously produced The Taming of the Shrew with women playing the male roles as men, and vice versa, to terrific effect. Larger-scale companies have started casting The Tempest’s Prospero as a woman in recent years.
In this play, the device is perhaps most prominent in scenes like the one where Juliet’s father threatens to disown her after a violent argument. It takes three of the girls to become Lord Capulet, underlining a very skewed power differential.
“There’s so much power, I think, in young women reclaiming that role,” McCluskey said. “Because we’re all that age that Juliet was in that situation, or just a little bit older. So it feels powerful and it almost feels liberating to be portraying it in that way rather than what is often an over-dramatized portrayal of violence. And sometimes it’s almost written off.”
“You kind of have a moment to understand where the power trip is coming from, but at the same time, it’s terrifying to be in,” Warwick added.
The show runs July 24, 25, 29, 30, 31 and Aug. 1 at 7 p.m. and there will be one 2 p.m. matinee on July 26. To maintain physical distancing rules, only 40 tickets will be offered per show and people must bring their own camp chairs or blankets. There will be no intermission or concession.
Tickets will not be available at the gate; email info@exitstageleftproductions.com to purchase. A few tickets will also be available at Salt Spring Books.
