Content: Coarse language. Portrayals of class struggle, mental health extremes, industrial meat processing including severe injury and death, police violence.

For more information please email box.office@ubc.ca

In conversation with director Yuri Kordonsky while he worked on a fable about dragons, he spoke of his interest not in the fear of external, fantastical dragons, but the dragons inside us all.

I’d propose we all contain the seeds of Mauler and Joan and Mrs Luckerniddle and the evangelists and the cops and the workers.

I see myself in Joan—as I see myself in all the characters. My good impulses and also my lack of follow through, my tendencies to get on a soap box about things I care about—even if I only learned about them moments ago. I see myself council de-escalation and fear that’s just supporting the status quo.

In the play I see people in the midst of cycles and patterns. Some characters claim those cycles and patterns are “unknowable”, “inevitable” or “unending”—but those claims are the site of critique for me.

We are reminded of patterns and shared impulses that underlie even supposedly “oppositional” positions. Joan and Mauler, the Straw Hats and the Packers, are refractions of each other, with similar impulses and weaknesses.

I fear this insight leads to cynicism and nihilism. In this age of deep institutional distrust, most of it well earned, the lesson of “it’s all corrupt!” can end efforts and fracture futures. And yet, despite there being no pure answer, no transcendence, we move. We get up and sing together. We make theatre.

In a theatre of 2024, focusing on the Salvation Army is like throwing eggs at barns: easy to hit, doesn’t do much, except cost eggs. So too with industrial meat production—the horrors have changed since 1906, but there are still horrors. It’s for a different story (and different medium) to best tell those tales.

However, questions of funding, philanthropy-as-control, and precarious workers organizing amidst historic refusal of collective bargaining surround us. Dynamics of celebrities and influencers “discovering” the lived reality of many and rushing in with crusader impulse under the guise of charity, are rampant. Every day, “leaders of industry” take advantage of systems built to be taken advantage of. Their appetite and capacity to push down while reaching up—in order to transcend—is “unrestrained.”

My connections and differences with Brecht are many, but include the resonating insight that “bread comes first, morals follow on.” Which rhymes with Upton Sinclair’s, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”

Both these contain a grief for a pure and transcendent possibility while acknowledging earthly realities. Now, a century or so on from those writers, I want to imagine braiding our hopes and practices with our needs and realities in a way alive with tension but without descending feelings of failure or a drive towards purity.

Again, I try to find this in the act of theatre.

Thank you to everyone at UBC Theatre and Film and Green College for supporting this uncommon proposal—especially Leora Morris for her wisdom and grace and to the cast and crew who have joined on this journey.

Thank you to Erinkate for joining and supporting this adventure and to the Nakai team in Whitehorse for making it possible.

Jacob Zimmer
MFA Candidate Director

Rachel Angco Joan Dark
Simon Anthony Auclair Troughton Mauler
Isabella Buonaiuto Apprentice
Miles Davies Worker, Wholesaler
Ekaterina De Boni Worker, Guard, Straw Hat
Julia Eckert Mulberry, Worker, Guard
Paula Goldie Foreman, Reporter, Straw Hat
Evie Hamilton Mrs. Luckerniddle
Rainbow Hui Worker, Labour Leader
Shivorn Kan Cridle, Police
Dahlia Raphael Kerr Snyder, Worker
Yi Ming Liu Slift
Abigail Millson Worker, Wholesaler
Raven Mutford Jackson, Music Captain
Belle Nightingale Lennox, Worker
Lauren Ohh Gloomb
Nico Pante Graham
Talia Peck Worker, Wholesaler, Waiter
Alivia Sabatino Durham
Skylar Somnus Rancher
Ripley Twardzik Ching Martha

Jacob Zimmer Director
Sophia Saugstad Assistant Director
Jack McLeod Mosher Scenic Designer
Nina Yu Assistant Scenic Designer
Huda Shawwash Assistant Scenic Designer
Madeleine Polak Costume Designer
Elly Ich Assistant Costume Designer
Brendan Lowe Lighting Designer
Emily Chang Assistant Lighting Designer
Victoria McNeil Sound Designer
Vincie Lin Assistant Sound Designer
Sam Cheng Assistant Technical Director
Hana Yaguchi Assistant Technical Director
Harlow Nguyen Stage Manager
Cole Albee Assistant Stage Manager
Jules Sassi Assistant Stage Manager
Holly Theobald Assistant Stage Manager
Midori O’Connor Production Assistant

Kai Wong Head Electrican
Marília Saito Assistant Head Electrician
Jaddi Sze Lighting Board Operator
David Siu Sound Board Operator
Elizabeth Cho, Steven Chu Follow Spot Operators
Luella DeGeer Head Scenic Artist

Scenic Build
Crew Cole Albee, Stella Chen, Alice Chen, Sam Cheng, Muleba Chailunga, Kaitlyn Fernandes, Nyssa Estrella, Ronica Huynh, Jack Mosher, Cooper Mortimer, Huda Shawwash, Willow Tiessen, Carol Tu, Cristian Twist, Amelia Wagenaar, Hana Yaguchi, Hana Yoneyama

Painting Crew
Kathleen Baldakin, Muleba Chailunga, Lee Funnell, Cooper Mortimer, Yena Lee, Cami Newton, Jaddi Sze, Nina Yu

Costume Build Crew
Elly Ich, Jenna Lee, Vincie Lin, Celeste Mol, Summer Liao, Wren-Harlow Gillespie, Ronica Huynh, Lauren Rankin, Marília Saito, Amelia Wagenaar, Sylena Wong

Costume Run Crew
Emma Hamilton, Carol Tu, Sylena Wong

Props Build Crew
Muleba Chailunga, Keaton Chiu, Nyssa Estrella, Kaitlyn Fernandes, Wren-Harlow Gillespie, Elly Ich, Stacey Kok, Jenna Lee, Celeste Mol, Harlow Nguyen, Lauren Rankin, Hana Yoneyama

Lighting Crew
Amy Currie, Kaitlyn Fernandes, Rachel Li, Henry Song, Maddie Steppler, Hana Yaguchi

Stage Run Crew
Sydney Klose, Jenna Lee, Kathy Manary, Naina Sharma

Leora Morris Direction
Emily Dotson Scenic Design
Patrick Rizzotti Scenic Design
Patrick Pennefather Sound Design
Mishelle Cuttler Sound Design
Brad Powers Technical Direction
Christine Reimer Costume Design
Mimi Abrahams Lighting Design
Jethelo E. Cabilete Stage Management
Lorraine West Scenic Paint
Jill Wyness Makeup & Hair

Ariana Barer Intimacy
Daisy Thompson Movement
Tanya Elchuk Voice
Mike Kovak & Sylvie La Riviere Fight Choreography

Borja Brown Theatre Production Manager
Cam Cronin Administrator
Sarah Crauder Film Production Administrator
Kirsten Dougans Assistant to the Head
Mia Faircloth Academic Administrator/Advisor
Amy Harris Stage & Lighting Specialist
Jodi Jacyk Wardrobe Specialist
Tony Koelwyn Audience Services
Amanda Larder Properties Specialist
Dmitri Lennikov Film Collections Coordinator
Ryan Murcar Stage & Lighting Specialist
Linda Pitt Communications Specialist
Nikki Roussos Grad Student Support
Erica Sterry Costumes Assistant
Karen Tong Department Secretary
Jeremy Vreeken Technical Director

Marília Saito & Lee Funnell Properties Assistants
Madeleine Polak & Lauren Rankin Costume Assistants
Gen Lee Communications Assistant
Harlow Nguyen & Celeste Marlene Mol Costume Assistants
Jack Macleod Mosher Shop Assistant

Jonathan Wood Graphic Designer
Javier R. Sotres Photographer
Barbara Philip at Barbariain Wine Consulting Wine Selection
Gracie, Lolo, Oz, Teddy, Trouble, Vegemite Very Impawtent Personnel