— ABOUT THE PROJECT

This Is the Story of the Child Ruled by Fear is a participatory show with the core intention of giving audience members access to the experience of the theatre-making process. A hybrid of a play, a table reading, and a community workshop, the performance is a story read out loud by myself and the audience. Seven volunteers are handed scripts and read for named characters, and the rest of the audience is invited to read lines all together as a Greek chorus at key moments. Together, we tell a story about climate anxiety, depression, loneliness, community, wonder, and fear. It’s a humorous, cathartic experience; a chance for people to feel the transformative power of discovering a new story out loud; and an invitation to collectively (and joyfully) process some of the difficult private feelings we have all been sitting with during this strange time in human history.

— BIOGRAPHY

David Gagnon Walker (Playwriting, 2019) is a playwright and dramaturg from Edmonton, Alberta. His plays prioritize formal experimentation, integrating text-based drama with other modes of contemporary performance. Recent projects have focused in one way or another on staging the complex intersections of human experience, technology, and ecology.

Plays include The Big Ship (winner of the 2018 Playwrights Guild of Canada RBC Emerging Playwright Award), Nothing but Flowers (New Words Festival 2019, directed by Rose Plotek), Premium Content (Major Matt Mason Collective 2018, directed by Geoffrey Simon Brown), and Pink Moon (winner of the 2017 Wildfire National Playwriting Competition, created and performed with Judy Wensel and Harrison Thomas). Dramaturgy includes The Observed Flight of Birds (2b Theatre Company/NTS, 2017), Trying to Listen While Not Giving a Fuck (Surreal SoReal/ZH Festival, 2018), and the contemporary circus show Particle # B (2018-19 tour to Canada, France, Australia, and Finland).

David also works as a translator (French-to-English), performer, and educator. He is the 2019 RBC Emerging Artist-in-Residence with Halifax’s 2b Theatre Company, and the recipient of the 2019 Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal Cole Foundation Mentorship for Emerging Translators for his translation of Gabrielle Chapdelaine’s La retraite.