Performances run May 24 - June 2.
The Firehall Arts Centre will wrap its 2023-2024 season by welcoming back Cheri Maracle in Paddle Song. Running from Friday, May 24 to Sunday, June 2, this energetic and humorous one-woman musical reflects on the proud legacy of trailblazing Mohawk poet E. Pauline Johnson.
Produced and performed by multi-award nominated performer and singer/songwriter Cheri Maracle, Paddle Song captures the heart and journey of this gifted writer and poised orator, from a young woman canoeing the Grand River at home on Chiefswood, to her promising career just beginning, to earning her place on stages in Ontario, then Canada, the United States, and Great Britain.
One of Canada’s most remarkable feminists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Pauline Johnson endlessly fought for equality, acceptance, and respect as an Indigenous female performer with a voice in a male-dominated literary world. A monument in Stanley Park commemorates her work and legacy.
Produced & Performed by: Cheri Maracle
Playwrights: Dinah Christie & Tom Hill
Directed by: Dinah Christie
Re-staging Direction by: Columpa Bobb
Original Music & Lyrics by: Dinah Christie
Musical Arrangements by: Mark Rutherford, Justin Burgess, Brendan Peltier & Marc Nadjiwan-Merilainen
Slides by: Trevor Schwellnus
Costume Design by: Naomi Martin
Stage Management by: Jillian Perry
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