Photo credits: Katherine Fleitas
East of Tarragon
Intergenerational Stories
This season we are thrilled to be partnering with The Community Arts Guild, Scarborough Arts, and Milliken Mills High School to engage youth and seniors in meaningful connection through storytelling.
Over this three month program students from Milliken Mills drama class interviewed members of The Community Arts Guild’s Senior’s Community Choir about their concept of “home”. Supported by expert facilitators and educators Beth Helmers, Naguib Keval, and Jeff Ho, the students created scenes inspired by the senior’s life stories.
These scenes will be presented and shared with friends, family and the wider community at The Community Arts Guild in May.
Special thanks to Ratna, Lady, and Jothy for their contributions to this project.
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The East of Tarragon program also provided free tickets to students of Albert Campbell Collegiate Institute to attend two Tarragon plays, Feast and Benevolence.
Meet the creative teams
Photo featuring (top left to right) – Jacob Lin, Beth Helmers, Eric Siu
(bottom left to right) – Edison Poon, Ratna Bhuvanaratnam, Henry Lin
Participating students not pictured – Stephen Marchello & Damon Du
Passport
(inspired by Ratna’s stories of “home”)
A father and son are faced with a difficult circumstance in Sri Lanka. They must continually maintain a level of secrecy in order to surviving external factors including civil unrest. Their journey leads them to confront some difficult choices and reflection. Will their bond be enough for them to able to survive?
Photo featuring (top left to right) – Matthew Chen, Daniel Ou, Yanny Su, Kristen Pang
(bottom left to right) – Heather Caplap, Alan Lin, Lady Pearline H. Morris, Tristin Tran
Participating students not pictured – Thivashan Anpalagan.
Between The Well
(inspired by Lady’s stories of “home”)
A journey of a young boy in Jamaica who has to overcome many obstacles in search of better understanding the world. Through different trials and challenges he is able to see the true meaning of what it means to support his community. The story shows how it does truly take a village to raise a child.
Photo featuring (top left to right) – Naguib Keval, Jia Wei Chen, Colin You, Hou Wang Lam
(bottom left to right) – Ahmed Hegazy, Ratnajothy Paramjothy, Aish Umaganesh, Shirley Chen
Participating students not pictured – Stephy Ip
Mayuri’s Bakery
(inspired by Jothy’s stories of “home”)
A local bakery that is filled with a colourful group patrons that is a hub for the community is suddenly faced with challenge. The effects of external factors wanting to use the land start to put the owners in a tough situation. Will the power of the community banding together make a difference or will it be too late?
Meet the seniors
Ratna Bhuvanaratnam
“It was indeed a pleasure working with the high school students. They are very enthusiastic to learn. I wish them all the best.”
Lady Pearline H. Morris
“This group of students, they inspired me, and they actually pulled something out of me. With them I could feel some kind of emotion that I could talk to them and realize that life – life is so sweet and important, even though you go through rough edges.”
Ratnajothy Paramjothy
“I enjoyed working with the students. It was interesting, and they were fun to speak with. I encourage them to speak up more.”
Meet the volunteers
Kammie Lai
Student at University of Toronto Scarborough
Nanli Zhuang
Student at University of Toronto Scarborough
Archived Projects
Learn more about the many phases and offerings of the this innovative initiative.
East of Tarragon 2024
Building Theatrical Connection
This season we were thrilled to be welcoming our partner schools and community groups to Tarragon Theatre for preview week performances, student matiness, and artist-led skill-building workshops. These visits to the theatre are many participants’ first encounter with professional theatre and are an opportunity to see diverse stories on stage and learn about the art form.
Participating schools and groups include: Albert Campbell C.I., R.H. King Academy, Sir Oliver Mowat Public School, University of Toronto Scarborough, & Scarborough Arts.
Sponsored by:
East of Tarragon 2023
Meet The Program Facilitator
Zahida Rahemtulla is a playwright and short story writer whose first two plays, The Wrong Bashir, and The Frontliners, will premiere on stage next year. The Frontliners received the Playwrights Guild of Canada RBC Emerging Playwright Award, Theatre BC’s Play of Special Merit Award, and was runner-up for the national Voaden Literary Prize.
The Wrong Bashir is being developed for the stage by Touchstone Theatre. Her stories have been shortlisted for the Alice Munro Award and long-listed for the CBC short story prize.
Zahida has worked for several years in the immigrant and refugee non-profit sector in the areas of housing, employment, and literacy.
She especially enjoys teaching and working with new playwrights, and is really honoured to be working with East of Tarragon this year.
Meet The Assistant dramaturg and Stage manager
Infamous for wearing many hats, Sara Currie is a multi-hyphenated artist specializing in comedic and new media creations. With humble beginnings acting as an unnamed Lost Boy in Peter Pan Jr., she has gone on to write, direct, and produce her own stageplays (Where You Can’t Find Me, ImagiMation), screenplays (Go Live!), and sketch shows (Shape of a Sketch Show) — in addition to acting in the occasional role as well. She is set to graduate from the University of Toronto this summer with an Honours Bachelor of Arts with high distinction, after majoring in New Media and double-minoring in Theatre and Performance and Literature and Film. Her passion for the art of storytelling is coupled with her skill in video production, as she continues to create content for organizations such as the Royal Ontario Museum, the York Region, HIP (Honouring Indigenous Peoples), the McMichael Art Gallery, and the Aga Khan Museum.
Meet The UTSC student director
Shannora Lankanathar is a fourth-year student doing a double major of Theatre and Performance along with Mental Health Studies at the University of Toronto. She’s excited to be a directing consult with the East of Tarragon Project. In addition to directing, she also has interest in theatre production and acting. Recent directing experience includes The Last Time I Saw You with the UTSC Drama Society. Recent acting credits include The Refugee Hotel with UTSC TAPS and The Last Time I Saw You. She hopes you enjoy the show!
2023's Playwrights
Alina Habtian
Hello everyone, my name is Alina Habtian. I am a young, Armenian writer who works on short stories, plays, and hopefully some films in the future! I thank all of you for coming to watch my play, thank my friends who are like my second family for supporting me during the making of this play, Tarragon theater for their lovely playwrighting program, my fellow playwrights who have helped me along my journey, and of course, my own Mother. I love you so much mom, thank you for always and forever being supportive about what I do!
Ahd Abdel Kayoum
I am an English Major and Media studies minor soon to graduate. I love coming of age movies, I think they shed light on the mundane is such a lovely way. I wanted to write this play to shed light on immigrant stories, because as an immigrant to Canada I am familiar with the pressure immigrants feel. On a separate note, I love cooking, baking, walks, watching movies (and I will end it here because it is starting to sound like a dating Bio)
Sajal Moin Metla
I’m a highschool student from Scarborough. The most important thing in my life is my family, without whom I quite literally wouldn’t be who I am today. I also love reading, to be able to lose myself in a world of words at any time, and writing, because it gives me a chance to create a little bit of that magic myself.
Thara Majid Shamji
Thara is a student enrolled at the University of Toronto Scarborough, she has a double major in Women and Gender Studies and Theatre Performance. She wrote this play in the hopes that it would raise awareness on the impacts of how patriarchal powers creates a negative effect on a woman’s success. She is of South Asian heritage and enjoys implementing her culture into her works, that way she represents her community and sheds light on the ongoing struggles faced.
2023’s PUBLIC PERFORMANCE’S
The Plays:
“Մայրիկս” by Alina Habtian
“Մայրիկս” is an Armenian Play written by Armenian playwright Alina Habtian. It follows the story of an aspiring student novelist, Anoush Sarinian and her mother Garni, who is less approving of Anoush’s choices. After a big fight about their differences, they must learn how to finally confront their own feelings, and learn how to connect with one another.
Featuring:
Emily Fang – Garni
Stephy Ip – Aunosh
Kelly Wuw – Tantig Noor
Miya Rose – Tantig Ani
Aidan Moir – George
A Ride with Hope by Ahd Abdel Kayoum
Mostakable graduates University and on his way home finds Ameel.
Featuring:
Lana Shao – Mom/A&W employee
Evan Deng – Mostekable
Sophie Ding – Ameel
Matthew Hu, Shao Wu – The Friends
A Twist of an Arm by Sajal Moin Metla
Nina comes home one day to receive some shocking news about her sister. Now she has some issues to solve—and some things about herself to discover.
Featuring:
Carmen Cao – Nina
Island Chen – Mom
Jia Wei – Dad
Dexter Yang – Matt
education is her right by Thara Majid Shamji
A young South Asian woman’s quest for success in higher education, she constantly battles with her father’s misogynistic beliefs and notions. Her narrative sees a positive outcome through her persistence and courage.
Featuring:
Kelly Wu – Mother
Quinnton Hynde – Father
Lucas Rose – Son
Miya Rose – Daughter
Aidan Moir – Margaret/Mark
Sponsored by:
East of Tarragon 2022
Playwright and facilitator, Chelsea Woolley, led a series of “Write Your Own Adventure,” text-based video game design workshops for members of the Scarborough Arts community and high school students from R.H. King Academy, Milliken Mills, Mary Ward, and Albert Campbell Colligate.
Participants explored personal narrative and character development through the choose-your-own-adventure-style video games they created utilizing multiple plot lines for readers to choose from.
Chelsea was assisted by UTSC students Jason Yu, Annie Pei, Gloria Kuang, & Ahd Abdel Kayoum
Sponsored by:
East of Tarragon 2021
Plays Read
Selfless Love by Abinaya Bavananthan
Candyman by Calvin Wong, Emily Lynette Summ, Pak Kwan Chan, Yemeng Wang
Phone of Reality by Hanisha Mistry, Mavrik Sun, Alice Zhiye Chen
A 24/7 Child by Tamae Vassell
Forever and Always by Jathusan Srisathananthan and Amy Vasanth
Untitled Library Scene by Ella Lui, Ricky Ho, Jayden Phu, Laura Almanza
Tree of Knowledge by Manu Narula, Akshajan Navenachandran, and Caleb Wilson
Deer in Starlight by Madeline Hanitijo, Ryan Ambtman, and Ruyi Ru
2 Mans from the Future by Samir Hossei Seyed, Jasraj Jha-ttu, Depainder Sangha, and Stephen Lee
Buttdial by Julia Cho-yi Fung, Teissir Nouren Mahamat, Aryan Sharma
Desires and Pressure by Kassandra Oliver
Confessions by Margot Brighton
There’s Always a Limit by Rishika Shrestha
Ensemble Members
Alp Kurtkapan
Emma / Ruyi Ru
Jake Gunzel
Jefferson Igbinovia
Madeline Hanitijo
Madison Britnell
Mavrik Sun
Ryan Ambtman
Directors
Siena Jang & Olivia Rennie
Dramaturg
Chelsea Woolley
Stage Manager
Emily Pople
Special Thanks to the RH King Academy Arts Management Students who created the posters and the social media campaign for this year’s program.
Sponsored by:
2020 Scarborough Youth Playwrights Hub
The season offered free playwriting workshop series opportunities to high school youth living in Scarborough.
Each participant worked toward developing their own short play that was shared with the public in a spring performance at Scarborough Arts.
These sessions were co-facilitated by Caitie Graham and Charles Marco Diokno Manzo.
“When we write, we trust our paper, in which we give it permission to hold the ink of our memories in hopes that we may never forget them.”
Sponsored by:
Tarragon x Scarborough Arts Free Playwriting Workshops for Youth 2019
Tarragon Theatre partnered with Scarborough Arts to offer a series of 9 playwriting workshops.
Each participant worked toward developing their own short play that was produced by Scarborough secondary schools in May. Plays were be directed by UTSC theatre students, and presented at the Leigha Lee Browne Theatre.
These workshops were led by playwright Caitie Graham. Caitie is co-director of the Young Playwrights Unit here at Tarragon and is a playwright, dramaturg and arts educator with a BFA in Performance: Acting from Ryerson. She’s had work produced by Filament Incubator (Paradise Comics, 2016), and Alumnae Theatre (GASH, 2017). Her newest play was shortlisted for the 2018 Ellen Ross Stuart “Opening Doors” Award.
Sponsored by:
Scarborough Project 2018
Sponsored by:
50+ theatre students collaborated to collectively create, produce and perform a live, site-specific, public theatre event in various locations on Kingston Road as part of Arts on the Road in May, 2018. Made possible through the collaboration between Tarragon, RH King Academy, Agincourt Collegiate, Scarborough Arts Council, and University of Toronto Scarborough Campus.
In the fall and spring, Scarborough youth interested in playwrighting took part in workshops held at Scarborough Arts. The work created through these classes, led by Tarragon artists, was produced and performed by the participating schools under the direction of students from University of Toronto Scarborough.
Scarborough Project 2017
To Celebrate Tarragon’s 45th Anniversary, plays from the early days of the theatre were reimagined and restaged by youth in the context of contemporary Scarborough. The Scarborough Project is a collaborative effort between Tarragon, Scarborough Arts, Scarborough Schools, and The University of Toronto Scarborough, to engage both the community and youth, through theatre.
An early Tarragon script, The Donnellys by James Reaney became new in the hands of Scarborough youth. On a blustery and cold afternoon on May, in a Scarborough lakeside park, a group of over 50 youth performed #TheDonnellyProject for an audience of over 200 people.
The project explored this Tarragon script in the dynamic context of suburban Toronto. Kat Sandler adapted The Donnellys for two secondary schools and students from University of Toronto Scarborough to rehearse and perform. Kat visited the schools, rehearsed with the students and directed the overall production. Tarragon’s Communications Director, Lauren Vandervoort, visited the R. H. King Arts Management class to support their efforts to publicize the play.
Sponsored by:
Scarborough Project Inaugural Year 2016: #thedonnellyproject
An adaptation of James Reaney’s “The Donnelly’s Part 1: Sticks and Stones” which debuted at Tarragon in 1973 presented by youth from various Scarborough communities.
