TEC – Cascadia Nation: Workshop and Presentation at Belfry Theatre’s SparkFest
— ABOUT THE PROJECT
Cascadia Nation is a new work which follows five characters trapped together inside a snowed-in mountain hut somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. The play explores what happens when climate activism veers into extremism, asking us what we are willing to sacrifice now in our hopes for a better future. This project was first developed at the National Theatre School with dramaturgy from Andrea Romaldi and direction from Fatma Sarah Elkashef. Support from NTS’s TEC grant provided funding for additional revisions and a staged reading at the Belfry Theatre’s Spark Festival on the unceded territories of the Lekwungen People (Victoria BC).
— BIOGRAPHY
Sarah Danielle Pitman (Playwriting, 2025) is a playwright who grew up on the unceded territory of the Lekwungen and W_SÁNEC nations. She studied writing and English at the University of Victoria before pursuing playwriting at the National Theatre School of Canada. Her work has been performed in Victoria, Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto.
Sarah writes big stories fuelled by imagination. Inventing new dialects and vivid worlds, her plays are deliberately theatrical, bringing together multiple perspectives and complicated narratives. Through a combination of drama and comedy, she explores themes of connection, transformation, and climate collapse.
During her time at NTS, Sarah has worked on multiple projects including Fathom (dramaturgy by Ann-Marie MacDonald), Hunger Artists (with Nick Carpenter), Cascadia Nation (with Andrea Romaldi, Fatma Sarah Elkashef), and Beyond Belief (with Dean Patrick Fleming). Her play Salvage The Wrecked was written with dramaturgical guidance from Joanna Falck and performed under the direction of Jonathan Seinen at the National Theatre School’s 2025 New Words Festival.
