Notre Dame Student Production of From The Wreckage Makes Professional Theater Stage Debut – Beach Metro Community News

By NAFISAT ALAO

What began as a single scene in a modest school play quickly grew into an ambitious production that saw Notre Dame Catholic High School alumni and their enthusiastic teacher pour their creativity into a performance that recently premiered at the Factory Theatre.

Eloise Harrington is a lyricist, composer, writer, playwright and all-round performer who plays one of the main characters Alice in the play. Her musical style transcends genres and generations.

Hiyab Araya is a Toronto-based performer with extensive experience in Toronto’s professional theatre. She is a music contributor and performer who plays another lead character, Noa, in the show.

According to them, this play had just started as a school project they were working on

“It started very small and we quickly realized it was bigger than what we had been working on for school and deserved a shot in the professional theater world,” Harrington said.

The play, titled From the Wreckage, is a hybrid concert/theatre production that explores how young women are reclaiming the revolutionary spirit of rock and roll, and examines and explores the challenges and structures that silence diverse queer voices and amplify women’s complex and intertwined stories.

The production came to life when Sara Pedrosa, a Notre Dame artist, teacher, writer, producer and performer, asked her students to create a feel-good musical. Harrington and Araya were both 16 at the time and are now 18.

As Harrington and Araya reflected on their experiences as former high school students, they discussed how easily those experiences were incorporated into the play’s story and characters as they wrote it.

“The play is about high school students, similar to the ones Hiyab and I went to, so that definitely added to the experiences of the characters as we were developing them and (the play) is about the trials and tribulations of Catholic school… it’s written for young people, but also directly based on the experiences of young people,” Harrington said.

“When I look at mass media or performances that are meant to appeal to youth, I don’t see much of it. Maybe if it’s portrayed, it’s not accurate at all and I think this production is really raw and vulnerable and you don’t find that anywhere,” Araya said.

The title of the play was developed towards the end of the writing process and was inspired by a line from the main character, Alice. During the final scene, Alice says, “And there from the wreckage, something new,” which eventually became the title.

“It took us so long to come up with a title. Usually the title comes very quickly, but that wasn’t the case at all,” Harrington said.

Looking back, they noted that their experiences working and collaborating on the play outweighed any progress they had made.

“For me it’s not so much the magnitude of the success, I was just happy to be there and connect with people who have such creative minds… It’s encouraging to see that we’re capable of such great work,” Araya said.

“I’m just so proud of us that we took this little thing and knew the whole time it could be good, and then took it to a level that we knew it could be achieved,” Harrington added.

Harrington, Araya and Pedrosa each expressed their hopes for what audiences will take away from the play, stating that they aim for viewers to gain a deeper understanding of the growth, pain and transformation that occurs as individuals forge their identities.

Some of the challenges they identified in bringing this production to life included the lack of prior professional production experience for some and the lack of rehearsal spaces in the city.

“We have no experience as a youth collective and it’s hard to get people to believe in a story that’s created by people whose stories you’ve never seen before, if there’s no frame of reference,” Harrington said.

Moreover, Pedrosa stated, “the resources available to artists in the east of the country, compared to the resources available to people in the west, are much greater and that is a struggle.”

Making the production was the most valuable thing for them, because they could be part of something special and collaborate with other people for the first time.

“It opened up a new experience for me, I wasn’t really interested in the world of rock and all the art and artists, but working with them broadened my experience with music… it’s rewarding because sometimes we’re very narrow-minded towards art and what we identify with it, but I don’t regret it,” Araya said.

Overall, Pedrosa said her hopes for the future are that “I hope it encourages people to take more risks with young people, because they can be amazing.”

The latest version of the lyrics and soundtrack of From the Wreckage was performed at the Factory Theatre in Toronto on July 26th and 27th. For more information about the production, visit the website at http://www.fromthewreckage.com/