Snowdreams
- bilingual (English-French) play for high school students
- winner, The Toronto Board of Education's Canada Festival playwrighting competition
- first professional production under the direction of Ken Gass
- performed across Canada by high schools in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia
- award-winning productions in Ontario and Saskatchewan in student drama festival competitions
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Snowdreams is a cartoon history of 40,000 years of immigration to "Snowcountry"—a country with striking parallels to Canada. From the coming of the First Peoples through the Vikings, the explorers, the settlers, and 19th and 20th century immigrants, Snowdreams explores how people get along with each other (or don't) as they live together in the land of snow.
We are the people of the Northern Lights
(aurore boréale, nordlicht, polární záre, aurora boreal, északi fény, nordlys, pole pohjanaba, noorderlicht)
We dance our dreams
(rêves, träume, sogni)
We sing like the rustling of silk.
See all the millions of people
Who have lived and died in Snowcountry.
Layer upon layer, wave upon wave.
Corpses rotting, changing snow into soil
Where people can grow.
We are the ghosts of the people who came
To fill the empty land.
We brought our hopes
We brought our dreams
We brought our bodies
to be planted in this Land of Snow
Like seeds to grow.
Nous sommes ensembles ici.
This is our home.
". . . Snowdreams . . . toboggans over the ice-covered hills and valleys of the Canadian identity like an out-of-control railway car." (Robin Waples, The Sault Star)
"a lively and colourful comedy that depicts Canadian history as the sheer endless march of immigrants . . . one in which different cultures and races learn to live in peace and freedom. . . a noisy, extrovert, upbeat comedy with . . . hordes of characters." (Henry Beissel in Cues and Entrances)
"From the moment I looked at the cast, the setting, the theme and the language, I knew that Snowdreams was for us. It was bilingual, encompassed almost all ethnic and racial groups, was set in a snow-filled land, and was witty and brilliant." (M. Baschiera, high school drama teacher)
"Snowdreams was one of the most exciting experiences I've ever had. Since we first started rehearsing, I think I've felt every emotion possible: excitement, frustration, being overwhelmed, anger, pride and many more feelings that I just can't put into words. . . . It was our culture, our Canadian history (with a twist of comedy)." (Josée Pominville, student actor)
"Don't tell the students how educational this play is--they'll absorb enough by just having fun with it." (Margaret Loewen Reimer, National Mennonite Newsletter)
Playwrights Guild of Canada
Short (one-hour) and long (one-and-one-half hour) versions available:
$8.00 $10.00
Gage Educational
Short (one-hour) version available in Cues and Entrances, 2nd edition, edited by Henry Beissel ISBN 0-7715-1002-0 $14.95
