Taste: Exploring the Ties Between Food and Theatre – Bernardine Stapleton & Nicole Smith

Research focus

Bernardine Stapleton and Nicole Smith believe there are great parallels between what and how we eat, and the way we tell our stories, both intentionally, as through the creation of theatre, and unintentionally, as in the way our narratives, perspectives, and traditions are shaped throughout our lives. But what are these parallels exactly, and how could delving into said notions of creation and consumption via the ephemerality and tangibility of food expand our knowledge of and approaches to storytelling and performance?

About the researchers

Bernardine Stapleton just wants to be inspiring to bad girls everywhere. This playwright, author, skit-artist, and actor is a National Siminovitch Playwright Prize finalist, as well as being the recipient of the Rhonda Payne Award for Theatre. She is the founding Artistic Director of Girl Power Inc. an indie feminist theatre company. She was the inaugural playwright-in-residence with RCAT, embarking on a year-long journey of creation for a solo play Hysterical Vadge (a tragi-episio-omedy about when a bad girl gets old) and a play on aging and dying in the professional arts: Dying at the Discotheque. Other new works include Ophelia Swims, and a new podcast The Haunted Doorbell. Her most iconic play is the bad girls’ bible Offensive to Some. Bernardine is devoted to her rescue beagle Georgie Girl, shared with best friend Nicole Smith.

Nicole Smith is a writer, theatre creator, director, and producer, who splits her time between her homes in Cambridge, Ontario and St. John’s, Newfoundland. Her work as a playwright has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the Shaw Festival, Green Light Arts, and Canadian Stage. She is co-Artistic Director of Girl Power Inc. in St. John’s, and founding Artistic Producer of Sonderlust, a KW theatre collective dedicated to the creation of original work and the staging of women’s stories. Nicole is most interested in and excited about projects that involve some form of collaboration, and as someone whose mentors have shaped her every approach, she is devoted to creating and holding space for new makers of all ages.