Take Care
by Ellen Denny
“Artist moms are different cause they need lots of sleep, except at night.”
Having paused her career to raise her daughter, 42 year old writer Johanna Dunham is finally plotting her grand return. She’s even one-upped Virginia Woolf and found the perfect 'house of one's own’ where she can write. But when her husband suffers a stroke, Johanna is thrust into life as a caregiver spouse and single mom to Lucy. After a disastrous visit to a caregivers’ support group, Johanna is on the brink of driving off into the night, when she nearly runs over Len, the handsome young firefighter-next-door longing for an escape of his own…
A funny, messy, honest look at surviving life’s curveballs.
Cast and Creative
Written by: Ellen Denny
Directed by: Jan Alexandra Smith
Cast: Tenaj Williams, Sara-Jeanne Hosie and Emma Cuzzocrea
Movement Direction and Stage Management: Patrice Bowler
Lighting and Sound Design: Stephen Degenstein
Costume and Set Design: Monique Lund
Ellen Denny
Ellen Denny (she/her) is excited to return to Here For Now as a playwright, after playing Wenlock in ‘Post Alice’ last summer. Ellen’s debut play 'Pleasureville' premiered at Halifax’s Neptune Theatre in 2019, and was recently produced at The Guild (Charlottetown). During the pandemic, Ellen co-wrote and starred in ‘february: a love story’ with Emilio Vieira, which ran live at Globus Theatre, and digitally with the Stratford Festival (watch at februarytheplay.com). She has created short works for Musical Stage, Driftwood Theatre and Live Bait Theatre, and was a 2020 finalist for the Cayle Chernin Award for her in-development solo show ‘Project Qyzra’. As a performer, Ellen has worked with companies including NAC English Theatre, Mirvish, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Citadel, Drayton, Grand Theatre, Theatre New Brunswick, Sudbury Theatre Centre and the Segal Centre, receiving a Dora nomination for playing Alice in 'Life After' (Musical Stage / Canadian Stage).
Jan Alexandra Smith
Jan Alexandra Smith is an actor, director and instructor based in Stratford, Ontario. She moved here in March 2020 to be close to artistic work and community, and we all know how THAT turned out, so this homecoming to theatre with Here For Now is a tremendous pleasure. As a director, Jan has staged productions ranging from mysteries to musicals, and contemporary to classical. As an actor, she has enjoyed return engagements with the Shaw Festival, Theatre Calgary, The Citadel, The Royal Alex, Charlottetown Festival, Royal Manitoba Theatre Center, The Grand and more.
Beyond theatre, Jan is an accomplished home renovator, yoga student and teacher, dog mum, cat mum, and during the pandemic, she completed culinary training at Conestoga College in Waterloo, Ontario.
Tenaj Williams
Tenaj Williams is a performer and entertainer based out of Calgary, Alberta. Select credits include: Film and Television: JANN (Ctv/Hulu), Wynona Earp (Sci-Fyi), Big Sky (NBC), Meet me at Christmas (Hallmark). Theatre Credits: Clue (Vertigo), The Fiancee (Citadel), Sweat (Theatre Aquarius), The Color Purple (Citadel/RMTC, Neptune Theatre), Charlotte’s Web (ATP), Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Shakespeare Company/ATP) , A Christmas Carol (Theatre Calgary) Touch Me: Songs for a (Dis)Connected Age (Theatre Calgary/Forte Musical Theatre) , Naughty But Nice (Forte Musical Theatre), King Lear, Alls Well that Ends Well (Shakespeare Company), Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Rosebud). @tenajwilliams
Emma Cuzzocrea
Emma is so honoured and excited to work alongside Take Care’s incredible cast and crew. Past productions include: A Christmas Carol (The Grand Theatre), Titanic: the Musical, The Great Grand Road Trip (High School Project), The Wolves, Seussical, Godspell (London Youth Theatre Education). Emma attends H.B Beal Secondary School and practices visual art making in the Bealart program. She would like to thank Sydney Thompson, Ruth Noonan, and her entire LYTE family for their love and support, as well as her parents for their love, their drives to rehearsal, and their short person genes.
Sara-Jeanne Hosie
Sara-Jeanne has been a national theatre artist for the last 25 years. She is so pumped to be a part of HFN. She is inspired by Fiona and Siobhan and what they created! Some acting credits include: Miss Stacey in Anne ,Tanya in Mammamia (Charlottetown Festival); 4 seasons as the Villian in the Ross Petty Panto; Bakers Wife Into the Woods (Neptune and 1000 Islands), Velma in Chicago (Mayfield- Sterling Nom); Dr. Charlotte in Falsettos and Kate in the Wild Party (Musical Stage Co.), Rona in The 25th Annual… (Belfry) ;Mary in Mary Poppins, Fantine in Les Miz, and SJ is proud to be the first Canadian Alison Bechdel in Funhome (Arts Club Theatre); SJ has played Patsy in A Closer walk with Patsy Cline in over 12 productions across Canada. SJ directed Alewives for HFN this season and has been an associate at the Stratford Festival for 2 seasons and a choreographer for 1. SJ is a Dora nominated choreographer for Eclipse Theatres production of Kiss of the Spiderwoman in Toronto. During the pandemic SJ opened a small business in Stratford ON www.fawnoveryou.ca 13 York Street.
Patrice Bowler
I am a multi-disciplinary artist hailing from the west coast of British Columbia. Recent credits include Les Filles Du Roi (Raven Theatre/Fugue Theatre), The Annual Walk of Terror (Caravan Farm Theatre), Stories That Transform Us (Urban Ink), and Corey Payette: Live in Concert (Intrepid Theatre.) I have worked as a puppeteer on two parallel productions where giant sea goddess puppets educated the audience on the urgent topic of ocean health and climate change: Sedna (Urban Ink/Caravan Farm Theatre), and Storm (Vision Mechanics). This is my first summer living in Stratford, and to spend it working at the Here For Now Festival on all of these new productions is absolutely dreamy! Enjoy!
Stephen Degenstein
Stephen is thrilled to be on board with Here For Now Theatre as lighting and sound designer. Stephen has more than 600 production credits across Canada over the past 35 years; his theatre design credits include Stratford Festival, Drayton Entertainment, National Arts Centre, Native Earth Performing Arts and Neptune Theatre. Credits in Stratford include resident lighting designer for INNERchamber, set and lighting designer for Alternative Theatre Works where credits include lighting for The Wind in the Willows, set and lighting for The Bear, Yalta Game, Afterplay, Jewel, and A Tender Thing. In addition to creating multiple set designs for Off The Wall at Factory 163, Stephen has been the technical director for SpringWorks over the past 10 years and was the designer/technical director for The International Children’s Festival held in Stratford in 2016. Stephen has taught in various technical theatre programmes including The Performing Arts Prep Program at Sheridan College, Humber College and Fanshawe College. Stephen resides in Stratford with his wife, singer/songwriter Pamela Jane Gerrand.
Monique Lund
Monique Lund is thrilled to be once again collaborating with Here For Now Theatre for the third season of its hugely successful Festival. Past directing credits with HFN include Infinite Possibilities, WHACK! ( associate director) and The Tracks.She has been a professional actor, singer and dancer for over thirty years and has worked from coast to coast in Canada and the U.S. Some career highlights include the Broadway Tour of Mamma Mia in which she played the role of Donna, the original Toronto companies of The Lord of the Rings, Joseph, The Who’s Tommy, and Crazy For You. She has also spent 11 seasons at the Stratford Festival in a variety of plays and musicals, workshops and recordings including The House of Martin Guerre, Kiss Me Kate, The Music Man, Julius Caesar, Crazy For You, Elektra, The Sound of Music, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Camelot, Evita, The Bacchae, and Cabaret. In 2017 she won the Brian Macdonald award for emerging directors at the Stratford Festival Guthrie Awards. She calls Stratford her home – both artistically and physically and is excited to be involved in the shared experience of live theatre once again.