Versatile and award-winning artist Madeleine Brown has parlayed her personal history and background in drama and science into a unique niche in Toronto’s vibrant arts scene. Her new play Give ‘em Hell is inspired by the 2012 closure of Peterborough, Ontario high school Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational Schools (PCVS) and the actions of a student activist group who fought to save it. The event made national headlines, and Rick Mercer gave it its own segment on The Rick Mercer Report, during which he ignored warnings to avoid any mention of the closure and instead empowered students to continue their efforts and “raise a little hell.”
It follows eight students over the course of the 2011-2012 school year, and the joys and challenges they encounter in resisting the closure. Featuring a cast of eight Peterborough-local teenagers Lion Addison, Jalen Brink, Edith Burton, Ziqin Chen, Ella Cunningham, Eloise Harvey, Isabelle Siena, Jessie Williams alongside actors M. John Kennedy, Jeff Dingle and Sarah Lynn Strange, the production will receive its world premiere in the former PCVS building September 15 – 23, 2023, directed by Aaron Jan, co-produced by Theatre Direct and Prairie Fire, Please, and presented in collaboration with 4th Line Theatre and the Peterborough Museum and Archives.There is also be an exhibition of archival materials from this turning point in the school’s history, created by the Peterborough Museum and Archives and a 15-minute post-show Q&A with special guests after all performances.
Because the site-specific show in Peterborough is bound to attract Toronto audiences, Theatre Direct is offering a return shuttle from Toronto for the Sunday September 17 matinee. “So Toronto audiences have no excuses!” Brown laughs.
As a playwright, actor, and Company Producer at Theatre Direct, Brown brings a unique perspective to the stage. Her journey into theatre began with drama camps and a passion for poetry and public speaking competitions, but in high school, she was actually contemplating a career in food science: “I think I was rebelling against my parents who were too supportive of my interest in the arts,” she smiles. A timely visit to a university lab clarified that her true passion was the arts, so Brown launched herself into the UofT Mississauga/Sheridan College’s Theatre and Drama Studies program. She graduated in 2015 and began establishing herself in the Toronto arts community.
Despite regularly writing for personal enjoyment and side jobs, she initially resisted the call to playwriting. It was a dare from friend and collaborator Aaron Jan, who is the director and dramaturge of Give ’em Hell, that changed her trajectory. Jan dared Brown to enter the Toronto Fringe Festival lottery, and – if Brown won it – write her first play. “Well, three successful lotteries and three plays later – and several programs at Second City – comes Give’ em Hell.” The duo formalized their partnership by forming the theatre company Prairie Fire, Please.
Ahead of the premiere of Give “Em Hell, Brown spoke with SesayArts Magazine about the genesis and developmental journey of the show, the topicality of the story in the current political climate and its relatability to – and inspiration for – youth activists.
SesayArts Magazine: What inspired you to write Give ’em Hell?
MB: I grew up in Peterborough and was there in the year in which the possibility of a high school closure was proposed. I didn’t attend PCVS, but was connected to the school through my sister who went there and friendships with other PCVS students that I met through community theatre and high school athletics. The reaction from the community and the passion from the PCVS students with regards to the school closure was unforgettable. And something I would’ve never done at that age, despite loving my own high school, Adam Scott CVI and my experience there. I was too scared. That fear, I thought, was interesting.
SesayArts Magazine: What has the play’s developmental journey been like?
MB: I wrote a very early version of the play for a final project in a documentary theatre seminar. I chose the subject matter because of the wealth of archival materials leftover from the closure and because, again, it was an event that happened in my hometown that I couldn’t forget and felt should be remembered by others in some way. The nature of how the students protested was also inherently theatrical to me.
Some years out of university when I finally let myself write plays, I came back to the source material. I was exhausted – and exhilarated! — by three years of Fringe-ing and wanted something that I could take my time developing, and that required such time. Shortly thereafter I met Lisa Marie DiLiberto at Theatre Direct who became the play’s first supporter/cheerleader. Theatre Direct went on to fund the play’s development including research, writing and workshop phases in combination with support from 4th Line Theatre, the Blyth Festival and the Ontario Arts Council. Aaron Jan came on as dramaturge (and now director) and Ferne Cristall, who spent many years teaching at PCVS before writing a masters thesis on the student activism that arose as a result of the closure, as community consultant. They read many, many drafts, and I couldn’t have done it without their insights. And moral support!
SesayArts Magazine: What is your personal connection to the school that the story is about and also where the play is being staged?
MB: As I mentioned, my sister went there and I was friends with many students there. From 13-years-old, I lived up the street from it, too. If I hadn’t already started at another school before we moved, I would’ve gone to PCVS myself.
The play is being staged in the former PCVS building. It reopened as Peterborough Alternative and Continuing Education, housing a collection of amazing programs for people ages 16-year-olds plus and the City of Peterborough’s Downtown Youth Space who helped build the play’s props. This will be the first professional play to occur in the auditorium since the closure.
SesayArts Magazine: When I read that Give ’em Hell will explore the “controversial school closure of Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational School (PCVS) and the students’ fight to save it”, it immediately brought to mind the current plight of public education and how it is getting clawed back. Do you want to speak a little about the topicality and urgency of the themes you’ll explore? How do you think they might strike a chord with audiences?
MB: In 2017 the Ontario government enforced a moratorium on school closures and earlier this year it was brought into question. From my research on school closures though, the process for doing so and the results themselves disrupt communities and create tensions between them and their school boards. This is felt especially in rural and under-resourced areas. This aspect of the play is undeniably urgent, particularly because, as of yet, there is no solution to the issue. And yet there is an eagerness to lift the moratorium. In writing the play, I realized how much of my own education and all the other facilities and programs offered in and by my school–and how accessible they were–I had taken for granted.
Otherwise, I believe the theme of youth activism is topical. Of the various PCVS alumni who I interviewed who were part of the student activist group, what struck me most was at times how difficult and demoralizing it was to fight. They are proud of what they accomplished, but they know what it cost them. I wish that that aspect of youth activism was known more by the wider public and that we had better ways of empowering young people and sharing decision-making power with them.
Sesayarts Magazine: What can audiences expect to experience at this brand new work? What would you like us to know about it?
MB: Audiences can expect to experience the efforts of a truly incredible team including together teenagers from Peterborough on all sides of the production and for whom this marks not just their professional debuts, but their theatre debuts, alongside equally incredible professional artists from the area and beyond.
It’s going to be a high energy, high emotion and highly unique event. (Don’t worry, there is humour and playfulness to balance out the subject matter.) PCVS and its closure meant a lot to many people in Peterborough, and, I believe, that even if you’re not from here or know anything about the closure itself, you can feel that impact throughout the play.
This is a special chance to gain access to an amazing school building, too. I am confident that the work of our designers is going to make the auditorium stage look even more remarkable and in a way it never has before.
SesayArts Magazine: What is the biggest surprise to emerge from your work on this play? Any challenges?
MB: The biggest surprise in some ways isn’t really a surprise, but it’s certainly big: the support and generosity of the community throughout the entire process. While it may not be a surprise exactly – growing up in Peterborough I experienced this in many ways – it’s an element of the production that I’m especially grateful for.
Give ‘em Hell runs 60 minutes + 15-minute post-show Q&A with the artists. Click here to reserve tickets online.
© Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2023
