S.T.O.P. by Santiago Guzmán (Elementary School)

Written by Santiago Guzmán
Directed by Sharisee LeBrun
Featuring Santiago Guzmán, Jillian Hanson, and Lucas Gutiérrez-Robert.
Set and Props Designer | Zach Faye
Costume Designer | Sherry Kinnear
Sound Designer | Carlos (Vitta) Morales
Stage Manager | Teagan Keith

Bruno is new to Canada and hasn’t made any friends on his first day of school and is playing all alone. His new classmates, Charlie and Alex, want to play with him but they realize that Bruno doesn’t speak any English. After failed attempts to communicate with signs and noises and a looming sense of defeat, the kids will have to find another way of communicating and playing with each other. Magical candy, anyone?

S.T.O.P. focuses on themes of Cultural Exchange, Language & Communication, Friendship and Immigration.

ALTAR by Santiago Guzmán (High School & Middle School)

Written by Santiago Guzmán
Directed by Sharisee LeBrun
Featuring Santiago Guzmán, Jillian Hanson, and Lucas Gutiérrez-Robert.
Set and Props Designer | Zach Faye
Costume Designer | Sherry Kinnear
Sound Designer | Carlos (Vitta) Morales
Stage Manager | Teagan Keith

Eugenio is a queer young immigrant living in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador. Less than a year has passed since his move from Mexico, but in that time, he experienced deep love and deeper heartbreak when his new boyfriend, Benjamin, inexplicably “ghosted” him. No, Benjamin isn’t dead; he just stopped calling and texting. And the thing is…Eugenio’s still not over it. Looking to the traditional Mexican holiday Día de Muertos (The Day of The Dead) and his father's previous experience with paranormal activities, Eugenio decides to build an altar (a central part of the Día de Muertos ritual) in the hopes that he will be able to summon his boyfriend’s ‘ghost’ to sort out the end of their relationship once and for all. Through the altar, Eugenio realizes that he has been something of a ghost himself to the loved ones he left behind in Mexico. Will setting up an altar be enough for Eugenio to forgive, forget, and love again? Or enough to help him heal the relationships with his friends and family far away?

Santiago Guzmán’s ALTAR focuses on themes of Cultural Diversity, Loss, Familial Relationships and 2SLGBTQQIA+ relationships.

Santiago Guzmán - Actor and Playwright

Santiago Guzmán (he/him/they) is an award-winning playwright, dramaturge, performer, and director originally from Metepec, Mexico, now based in St. John’s, NL. He is the Artistic Director of TODOS Productions & the Artistic Associate for Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre.

Santiago's work is very gay, very brown, and very real. Representation matters.

www.sguzman.ca

Sharisse LeBrun

TNB Young Company Director

Sharisse LeBrun (she/her) is a theatre educator, director and actor. Having grown up in New Brunswick, she has long been involved with the local theatre community with companies including Theatre St. Thomas, Theatre UNB, Bard in the Barracks, Theatre New Brunswick, Notable Acts, and Solo Chicken. After completing her MA in drama, theatre, and performance studies at the University of Toronto, she returned home to take on the role of Director of the Theatre School, and now Director of the Young Company, for Theatre New Brunswick where she gets to spend her days sharing her love of theatre with young people.

Jillian Hanson

Actor

Jillian Hanson (she/her) is a Fredericton-based actor. Originally from Woodstock, Jilly lived in Fredericton for four years while attending STU ('13 grad) before moving to Toronto to attend George Brown's Theatre School. After graduating from GB in 2016, she helped co-found the theatre company Kindling Collective, a company that strived to put an intersectional-feminist spark into classic works. In October 2018, Jilly moved back to Fredericton for a work contract that ended up being a transition into being a permanent New Brunswick resident again. Jilly made her Theatre New Brunswick debut as Mary Bennet in Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley back in December of 2021 and returned in 2022 to play Elizabeth Darcy in TNB's production of The Wickhams: Christmas at Pemberley.

Lucas Gutiérrez-Robert

Actor

Lucas Gutiérrez-Robert (They/Them) is an Argentinian-Canadian actor and an alumnus of the TNB theatre school and St. Thomas University. Though they have long been known for their comedic character roles such as Aldolfo in The Drowsy Chaperone and Mr Wormwood in Matilda, they have recently gotten the chance to break out into darker, more dramatic parts like the eponymous Sweeney Todd and Mark Antony in Julius Caesar. As both a Latinx and Nonbinary performer, they are thrilled to be taking part in projects so closely related to their people and experiences.

Sherry Kinnear

Costume Designer

Sherry is the costume designer at Theatre New Brunswick and serves as Head of Wardrobe for all branches of the company. Sherry most recently designed costumes for Heroine, A Brief History of the Maritimes and Everywhere Else, A Christmas Carol, Fortune of Wolves, The Boat, The Snow Queen, A Sunday Affair, Marion Bridge, Vigil and The Eighth Fire, as well as The Wizard of Oz, Beauty and the Beast, Mary Poppins, The Drowsy Chaperon, Guys & Dolls, West Side Story, Les Misérables for TNB’s musical theatre, and has created costumes for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Frankenstein, Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life, Little Shop of Horrors, Gifts of the Magi, The Dollar Woman, Treasure Island and many other TNB productions over the past several years.

Vitta Morles

Sound Designer

Carlos (Vitta) Morales is a Montreal based musician, educator, and playwright. Originally from Fredericton, New Brunswick, Vitta moved to Montreal to attend the Schulich School of Music where he graduated with a concentration in jazz drumming. During his studies, Vitta would also develop an affinity for theatre having his work staged at the Halifax Fringe Festival, the McGill Drama Festival as well as a public reading by Home Theatre Productions. From then on, Vitta has happily had his foot in each discipline.

Zach Faye

Set and Props Designer

Zach Faye (he/him) is a performer, designer, and maker based in Punamu’kwati’jk/ Dartmouth, NS. Zach has worked with many Nova Scotian theatre companies and is thrilled to be joining the team at TNB to support their 2023 Young Company tour. Recent theatre credits: videographer, The Archive of Missing Things (Zuppa) Brad Majors, Rocky Horror (Neptune Theatre), set design, The Crevice (Bus Stop Theatre Writer’s Circle/ Phyllis Rising Productions).

Teagan Keith

Stage Manager

Teagan (she/her) is delighted to be working with TNB for the first time! After graduating from Humber College's Theatre Production program, she returned home to Saint John to pursue a career in stage management; she's still in awe that she gets to travel around the Maritimes creating theatre and call it work. Some favourite past credits include Dear Rita (Savoy Theatre), No Man Is An Island (Atlantic Repertory Company), and Little Shop of Horrors (Saint John Theatre Company).

Jena McLean

Young Voices Instructor

Jena McLean (she/they) is a queer playwright with roots in New Brunswick and Alberta. A recent graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s playwriting program, she also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Drama studies from Mount Allison University and is Leo Hayes High School alumni. Her plays explore life’s grey areas, personalize the political, and aim to empower people to feel seen in theatre.

Her plays include: MFG, Who Wants to Survive High School, Bonus Points if You Have Air Conditioning (dir. Andrew Kushnir, NTS, 2021), A Canyon Contained (dir. Neomi Iancu Haliva, St. Thomas University, 2021), Until Tenth Grade (staged reading, dir. Dean Fleming, Geordie Theatre, 2021), An Ocean of Evergreens (digital reading, dir. Yvette Nolan, Theatre New Brunswick, 2020), Missing Her Mother, The Freeze-Dried Groom, Paradoxes (commissioned and produced by Mount Allison University, 2017), and I Am (Notable Acts Theatre Festival, 2015).

Watch for it this fall.

Booking information will be posted in late August.

In addition to this year’s provincial tour of Santiago Guzman’s S.T.O.P and ALTAR, TNB’s Young Company will continue to offer our Young Voices Playwriting Workshops from our 2022 Young Voices Tour.

Workshops will once again be led by New Brunswick playwright, Jena McLean. Available workshops include:

Playwriting 101- Learn the basics of what goes into writing a play.
Creating a Character- Learn how to create rich, complex characters. Students will leave this workshop with a fully fleshed out character.
Monologue Writing- Learn about the use and purpose of a monologue and gain the tools to write your own.
The Story Within- Turning Your Own Story into Script - This workshop gives students the tools to express their own stories and interests through script writing.

We are offering our Playwriting Workshops in a one hour virtual format at the price of $75. We will also be offering the choice of in-person versions workshops for schools that book performances of S.T.O.P or ALTAR.

All 1 hour workshops come with a study guide that offers activities and writing exercises to encourage students to take their writing further outside of the workshop for those who are eager and hungry for more.

How to Book
For more information or to book a workshop, email youngcompany@tnb.nb.ca.
Please include date options. Workshops will be booked on a first come, first served basis and subject to availability.

About Jena McLean
Jena McLean (she/they) is a queer playwright with roots in New Brunswick and Alberta. A recent graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s playwriting program, she also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Drama studies from Mount Allison University and is Leo Hayes High School alumni. Her plays explore life’s grey areas, personalize the political, and aim to empower people to feel seen in theatre.

Her plays include: MFG, Who Wants to Survive High School, Bonus Points if You Have Air Conditioning (dir. Andrew Kushnir, NTS, 2021), A Canyon Contained (dir. Neomi Iancu Haliva, St. Thomas University, 2021), Until Tenth Grade (staged reading, dir. Dean Fleming, Geordie Theatre, 2021), An Ocean of Evergreens (digital reading, dir. Yvette Nolan, Theatre New Brunswick, 2020), Missing Her Mother, The Freeze-Dried Groom, Paradoxes (commissioned and produced by Mount Allison University, 2017), and I Am (Notable Acts Theatre Festival, 2015).

The 2023 TNB Young Company invites the public to join them for performances of this year's touring plays.

This year's plays are S.T.O.P. (Elementary School) and Altar (High School & Middle School), both by Santiago Guzmán.

About S.T.O.P.
Bruno is new to Canada and hasn’t made any friends on his first day of school and is playing all alone. His new classmates, Charlie and Alex, want to play with him but they realize that Bruno doesn’t speak any English. After failed attempts to communicate with signs and noises and a looming sense of defeat, the kids will have to find another way of communicating and playing with each other. Magical candy, anyone?

About Altar:
Eugenio is a queer young immigrant living in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador. Less than a year has passed since his move from Mexico, but in that time, he experienced deep love and deeper heartbreak when his new boyfriend, Benjamin, inexplicably “ghosted” him. No, Benjamin isn’t dead; he just stopped calling and texting. And the thing is…Eugenio’s still not over it. Looking to the traditional Mexican holiday Día de Muertos (The Day of The Dead) and his father's previous experience with paranormal activities, Eugenio decides to build an altar (a central part of the Día de Muertos ritual) in the hopes that he will be able to summon his boyfriend’s ‘ghost’ to sort out the end of their relationship once and for all. Through the altar, Eugenio realizes that he has been something of a ghost himself to the loved ones he left behind in Mexico. Will setting up an altar be enough for Eugenio to forgive, forget, and love again? Or enough to help him heal the relationships with his friends and family far away?

Performance Times:
S.T.O.P. | 3 -3:45 p.m. | For Elementary School audiences and the families.
Altar | 4:30 - 5:15 p.m. | High School & Middle School audiences and their families.
Both performances will include a talkback/Q&A with the cast and playwright.

Tickets are limited and free to reserve. Admission by donation.

Reserve your seats HERE