new roots festival | nowheresville, bc

Livestream Reading & Playwright Interview | Saturday, June 12 at 8:00 PM PST

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Nowheresville, BC is the kind of town no one stops at – unless they really need to pee. When Mia left for art school, she didn’t think she’d be living back at her mom’s house, post-grad, or that she’d be carting her brother’s ashes around in a shoebox. She most certainly never saw herself moderating crazy ideas for the town’s new roadside attraction…yet that is exactly the situation she finds herself in. A roadside attraction origin story, Nowheresville, BC, explores our ever-shifting relationship with home and the challenge of letting go.

Hear this brand new play in development from 2019-20 apprentice Chantal Gallant, and stay after the reading for a conversation with Chantal and dramaturg Ron Reed.

Daria Banu is an actor based in Vancouver, BC originally from Calgary, AB. She’s a graduate of the UBC BFA acting program and where she also gained a psychology degree. She’s thrilled to be back performing in Nowheresville, BC, written by the wonderful Chantal Gallant. Some previous credits include: Mystery at Greenfingers Hotel (Western Gold), Les Belles-soeurs (Gateway Theatre), Wives & Daughters (UBC) and Love and Information (UBC). She loves the colour periwinkle, the smell of rain, overweight animals and anything to do with strawberries.

Heidi Damayo is a multidisciplinary theatre artist and proud prairie girl from Treaty 7 territory. Select acting credits include: Mustard (The Arts Club/Belfry Theatre), New Canadian Kid (Green Thumb Theatre), and She Kills Monsters (UBC Theatre). She also plays Thea in the miniseries Foragers and has done motion capture for the virtual K-pop group K/DA. Her playwrighting credits include Morning Glory and LIVE (Arts Club Leap Program), and Generations (Nightswimming Theatre). She is a Nightswimming 5×25 commissioned playwright and recently served as an assistant dramaturg with Lunchbox Theatre in Calgary. She is a graduate of UBC Theatre, a Fight Directors’ Canada Intermediate Actor-Combatant (with conditions), a Wesbrook scholar, and a recipient of the Stephen Woodhouse Memorial Prize.

Chantal Gallant (BFA, UVic) is an emerging Actor and Playwright residing in Vancouver on the unceded, traditional territory of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Select acting credits include Mother of the Maid (Pacific Theatre); Nosegate (Stone’s Throw Productions); Riding with Change (MONOVA); The Comedy of Errors, Gutt girls (Phoenix Theatre). When not focused on theatre projects, Chantal enjoys working as a youth programmer with kids and teens.

Evan Rein is thrilled to be joining the New Roots Festival as part of the Nowheresville, BC team! Evan is an actor, sound designer, and all-round good guy. Theatre credits include The Hobbit (Globe Theatre), Peter Pan (Carousel Theatre), East Van Panto: Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (Theatre Replacement), Chimera, Freedom ’56, The Skin of Our Teeth, As You Like It, 42nd Street, Zoetrope (Studio 58). Film/TV: Blue Hour (Muskrat Pass Productions), Debris (NBC), Nancy Drew (CW), Upload (Amazon), Valley of the Boom (National Geographic), Heartland (CBC), Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (NBC), Sacred Lies (Facebook). Huge thanks to playwright Chantal Gallant and dramaturg Ron Reed for putting together cool art. Yay theatre! Evan is a graduate of Studio 58.

Ron Reed founded Pacific Theatre in 1984, and since running away to join the circus in January of this year has lived the life of a dilettante, gadabout, layabout, flaneur, raconteur, dramaturg, and other significant contributions to society, under the general title Artistic Director Emeritus.  An actor, director, and playwright, Ron has written almost twenty plays including Tolkien, The Top Ten Thousand of All Time, Refuge of Lies, and A Bright Particular Star, and has been involved in the development of scripts by other writers, such as Common Grace by Shauna Johannesen, A Good Way Out by Cara Norris, Wolf at the Door by Tina Teeninga, and Re:Union by Sean Devine, and many others.

Artist’s Notes

“Why in the world did they decide on THAT?” I thought as I looked up at the bizarre roadside attraction for the small town my mom grew up in. From there, this play was born…