'Boom Baby!'
An award-winning play written by Dr. Natalie Meisner, PhD, is making its world premiere later this month thanks to a collaboration between Mount Royal and Sage Theatre.
But what really makes the debut of Boom Baby! a show-stopper is that students in Meisner’s directed readings course (ENGL 3199/4199) have been involved in the play’s rehearsals leading up to opening night.
In addition to assisting with the production, students in the course are also expected to produce their own “deliverable,” which is essentially their own creative piece like a stage play or long monologue.
Beyond working with each other and Meisner, the students are also gaining experience with the stage crew and actors from Sage Theatre.
Sage’s Artistic Director Jason Mehmel, who also happens to be directing Boom Baby!, is very well acquainted with both Meisner and MRU. The pair have been working as a writer/director duo for more than 15 years. The last project they worked on together, Legislating Love, was also a world premiere.
Collaborating with Mount Royal students is a bit of a full-circle moment for Mehmel, who happens to be an alum of the Communications, Professional Writing Certificate program (1999).
“I think it's amazing for MRU to be contributing to the cultural landscape with a world premiere play, " Mehmel says. “Not to mention the chance for MRU students to study the process of making the show by attending rehearsals.”
Meisner says the show is a sweet spot for her, with one foot in the academic world and the other in the theatre world.
“I am a prof who teaches creative and script writing, but I also have this other career where I am doing theatre and publishing books, so bringing the two together has been really lovely.”
About the show
Boom Baby! features Iona, a Nova Scotian who ventures west to work in the oilpatch. Her fragile independence is upended when she unexpectedly finds herself pregnant. She is unsettled by the pregnancy and feels all her options involve serious complications, including offering the child for adoption to an infertile couple who work in management.
The intersection of different class cultures in the energy industry meet in the potent, funny and thought-provoking play, which won the Canadian National Playwriting Award as well as the Grand Prize in the Alberta Playwriting Competition presented by Alberta Playwrights Network in Association with Theatre Alberta.
The story is personal for Meisner, who grew up in a Nova Scotia fishing community but moved out west later in life. When asked what inspired her to write it, Meisner says the characters kind of announced themselves to her and from there took on a life of their own.
Mehmel calls it a unique intersection of cultures that shows the struggles with and triumphs of hope. “It's full of interesting and challenging ideas, wrapped around deeply resonant characters. It's also a detailed reflection of our city and province and how we relate to money and people."
Boom Baby runs from Feb. 28 to March 8 at the Pumphouse Theatre. Get your tickets.