— ABOUT THE PROJECT

SPECIAL by Erika Squires is a play that follows Katherine and Dee, two autistic siblings with a significant age gap, as they balance living their adult lives in an allistic* world that ostracizes them for their neurodiversities. When eighteen-year-old Dee gets into the same university that their twenty-seven-year-old sister Katherine is soon receiving her doctorate from, the two move back in together for the first time since childhood. As Katherine and Dee explore their sexuality, passions, and complicated relationship with each other, Dee finds out they are pregnant. This story centres miscommunication, or the inability to speak the same language, as it relates to intersectional experiences of people on the autism spectrum. The story unfolds as these two people at different stages of their life, with different relationships to their autism, try to balance the love they have for each other with their need to survive in a world that does not always support them. SPECIAL is a raw, adult, human representation of autism told from an autistic playwright- which is a surprising rarity within the Canadian theatre landscape. 

— BIOGRAPHY

Erika Squires (Acting, 2025) Erika Squires is a neurodivergent queer creator and storyteller from Ktaqmkuk, Newfoundland, in her final year of training at the National Theatre School of Canada (NTS). She has a degree in English Literature specializing in Theatre, Drama, and Religious Studies, with a diploma in Performance and Communications Media from Memorial University of Newfoundland, for which she was honored to receive the Dick Buehler Award for Theatre upon graduation.

For Perchance Theatre, Erika has appeared as Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ariel in The Tempest, Horatio in Hamlet, Soothsayer in Julius Caesar (directed by Danielle Irvine); Bridge/Josephine/Tish in High Steel: The Musical (directed by Mary Walsh); Sorel Bliss in Hay Fever (directed by Michael Waller); and Lebeau/Hymen in As You Like It (directed by Todd Hennessey). For GroupHug Productions, Erika played Cliff in Sun in an Empty Room (directed by Azal Dosanjh), and they directed Never Swim Alone.

At NTS, Erika had the privilege of learning from some of Canada’s greatest theatre artists, including Nancy Benjamin, Tim Welham, Jessica B. Hill, Brian Dooley, Rose Plotek, Quincy Armorer, Rebecca Harper, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Alisa Palmer, and Thomas Morgan Jones. At school, she has had the opportunity to play Lady Anne in Richard III, directed by Danielle Irvine; Stage Manager in Deadline directed by Cherissa Richards; Anna/Ivanova in The Government Inspector directed by Krista Jackson; and will play Helen/Bessie in Jane Eyre directed by Jillian Keiley.

Erika is an emerging playwright, having written Hush for Persistence Theatre and Baby (self-produced with support from ArtsNL and the CCA), and she currently has two other plays in development.

Erika is passionate about remounting classical texts and loves being in any dramaturgical space. They are interested in devising, adapting, and creating multidisciplinary forms of theater making.