Shadows in the Nooks is a series of original five-minute monologues depicting 14 women in a unique immersive experience that takes the audience from one location to another throughout the theatre. The women depicted in these monologues found welcome and refuge in the theatre when they faced some of the most significant moments of their personal and artistic lives. Greenaway took time to share about her work as a playwright, the art of storytelling, and how her faith informs her creative endeavors. How did the idea of Shadows in the Nooks first come to your mind? Greenaway: I had the original idea of producing monologues about women who had contributed to Canadian theatre. Another Alumnae member, Nicole Arends, caught the vision and brought her skills as a director and producer to the creation of the project. We quickly realized we wanted it to be an immersive theatre experience with the audience moving from place to place throughout the theatre, where they would discover women with a story to tell about a crucial moment in their theatre careers. I had the vision of the production being simple, raw theatre, which meant I wanted to use natural lighting (at most a handheld work light) and foley sound effects—such as using a thunder sheet and a rainstick to create the sounds of a rainstorm. Did your work with the church inform your storytelling talents? Greenaway: I believe that theatre is created from stories that ring true and speak to the interests, concerns, fears, joys, and dreams of the public. As a playwright I draw on my ability to listen with an open mind and heart to the stories I hear. This ability to open up to people and situations I don’t know and to treat the people I “meet” with respect is based in what I read of Jesus’s life. He listened to, and spoke with, people from a wide range of backgrounds and sought to hear what was behind the situations in which they found themselves. My career in the church and in church organizations like the WCC and my lifelong membership in the United Church of Canada have allowed me to meet and work with a wide range of people. It has taught me to listen carefully to what I hear and to ask myself why they are reacting as they are. This is vital for my work as a playwright. Why is a play a great way to tell a story? Greenaway: I don’t believe in preaching through a play—that’s a sure way to turn off an audience. But I do believe that vivid storytelling reveals the stories of people and situations to which we are called to respond in our daily lives. Plays offer people insight into situations and characters that they might not have understood before. Hopefully they will then be a little more open to accepting people they previously rejected. A play can also show people what is happening in oil fields, retirement homes, or student dorms—situations that reveal racism, misogyny, or misinformation—and can reveal too the joy of new friendships or new beginnings. The call to seek truth, be reconciled, and start anew is at the heart of my faith. I think the best theatre—be it tragedy or comedy—speaks to that call. I guess that’s why I’m a playwright! How did you choose the women depicted in Shadows in the Nooks? Greenaway: Nicole and I produced a list of women who were involved in all aspects of theatre, from backstage to onstage. We then invited playwrights who are part of Alumnae Theatre to either choose someone from the list or to find someone themselves. The only limitation was that the woman had to have worked in Canadian theatre and to have passed away. We accepted every script that was submitted and were simply lucky that we ended up with a mix of stories about actors, directors, playwrights, theatre founders, a critic, a costume designer, and theatre educators. Will you produce a second version? Greenaway: Yes. Our one concern is that all of the women selected and all of the playwrights are white. Our hope is that this first version of the production will be a success, and that we can use that success to attract funding for a second, more-inclusive production of stories from Black, Indigenous, and people of color. For now, we have someone playing the role of The Guide who is a young woman of South Asian descent. In that role, she shares her perspective as a young racialized woman who is keen to tell stories from the diverse communities that make up Toronto. How did playwrights go about developing their stories? Greenaway: It was a creative challenge for each of the writers to find the authentic voice of the woman whose story they were telling. We wanted them to choose a turning point moment in the woman’s career where she had to make a decision. The story would reveal her priorities, passion for theatre, skills, and legacy. Fortunately, the Theatre Museum of Canada has a rich online collection of video interviews which includes some of the women the playwrights chose to profile. Also, some of us were lucky enough to be able to connect with people who had worked with the woman we were writing about or who were family members. In that case we could interview them and get a sense of the woman through their eyes and ears. You chose to write about Martha Mann, a costume designer. Why? Greenaway: I chose to write about a costume designer because I wanted to tell the story of someone who had worked backstage. When I discovered that Martha Mann had direct links to Alumnae Theatre, I knew she was the one for me to write about. I was lucky enough to interview both her daughter and a woman at Alumnae Theatre who served for years as our costume mistress and designer and who had been mentored by Martha Mann. One of the other Shadows playwrights, Anne Tait, had even worn a costume designed by Martha Mann when she appeared in an Alumnae production of Ben Jonson's The Alchemist as Dame Pliant. By a wonderful twist of fate, the director of the Martha Mann monologue, Liana Del Mastro, had also worn a costume designed by Martha Mann in a production at the University of Toronto’s Hart House Theatre in the 1990s. Liana has vivid memories of Martha’s larger-than-life presence, her distinctive voice, and her determination that the costumes not only look but feel authentic. This meant that Liana, playing a soldier, had to wear very uncomfortable boots as a soldier in that situation would have done. Do you think Martha Mann would approve of what you have written? Greenaway: I believe she would like that I zeroed in on her belief that an authentic costume is vital for an actor to bring a character to life and vital, too, for an audience to recognize and believe in the character. She would like that I built the monologue around her conviction that for a costume to do that, every detail has to be authentic—down to the buttons. I think she would like too that I recreated an actual moment of her working with an opera company's artistic director and convincing him of her approach. The woman she worked with at Alumnae was delighted with the performance of the monologue. I hope that when Martha Mann’s daughter sees it, she too will approve. Shadows in the Nooks: Spirited Women in Theatre was presented at Alumnae Theatre on 8-9 October, and will run again from 11-14 February 2025. | 
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