Update: Suzie LeBlanc is regrettably no longer able to participate in this event, but we’re delighted to share that Alessandro Juliani has stepped in to be part of this event!
In a television interview for CBC in the mid-60s, Mavis Gallant spoke of her love for mirrors—as objects, and as symbols. She refers to them often in her 120 short stories, almost all of which were published over a fifty year span in The New Yorker. Her legacy was even the inspiration behind Wes Anderson’s female journalist in The French Dispatch. Mavis Gallant was often interviewed; sometimes, she cooperated, sometimes not. Born in Montreal in 1922, Gallant died in Paris in 2014. On the last night of the last day of the last full year of her life, alone in her apartment, age 91, she grants one last interview, this one to herself. Join us for this magnificent staging, with the distinguished collaboration of actors Nicola Cavendish, Gabrielle Rose, and Alessandro Juliani. Curated and written by Bill Richardson.
Event Participants:
NICOLA CAVENDISH has been a cherished stage presence for more than 40 years—whether at the Shaw Festival or on Broadway; whether in the hit one-woman show Shirley Valentine or in her very own It’s Snowing on Salt Spring. This year, she will channel the spirit of Mavis Gallant at the Fest. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)
ALESSANDRO JULIANI (AJ) currently makes his living as an actor, singer, composer and sounddesigner. He has been working at these disciplines off and on for the last 30 years. He is frequently executed, maimed, disemboweled, dismembered, immolated, petrified, crucified and/or air-locked on your favourite locally-shot television programs and films. His work as a composer and sound designer has augmented/detracted from live performances and films seen around the globe. People have occasionally given him trophies for his work. Some of them are transparent, and others more opaque. He makes his home in Vancouver with his partner and frequent collaborator, Meg Roe, and their three children.
BILL RICHARDSON is a former radio host and winner of the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour. He has written acclaimed children's books. After Hamelin won the Silver Birch Award and The Alphabet Thief was named among New York Library's Best Books for Kids. Last Week is his latest middle-grade picture book.
GABRIELLE ROSE is a veteran film, television, and theatre actress with 50 years experience. Most recently she has appeared in television series such as YellowJackets, Chapelwaite, and Away. She has several lifetime achievement awards: The Sam Payne, Vancouver Critics lifetime achievement, and a star in the Vancouver Walk of Fame, among others. (BRITISH COLUMBIA)
