Wyrd Words

Erin Shields, award-winning playwright, actor, and educator, joins Lisa Dickson and her cohost, Jessica Riddell, to talk about building paradise in the Canadian landscape, who her literary travel companions are, and where hope may be found.

Music Credits: 

Intro/Outro: “Memorized” by Josh Woodward

“Phase IV” by lo-fi is sci-fi

“Waves” by Sergey Chereminisov

(CC BY Creative Commons License)

Links for Erin Shields's works:

“Here We Are” (read by Erin Shields) https://www.crowstheatre.com/whats-on/view-all/here-we-are

Paradise Lost (Book), Playwrights Canada Press https://www.playwrightscanada.com/Books/P/Paradise-Lost2

Paradise Lost, Stratford Festival https://www.stratfordfestival.ca/WhatsOn/PlaysAndEvents/Production/Paradise-Lost

If We Were Birds (Book), Playwrights Canada Press https://www.playwrightscanada.com/Books/I/If-We-Were-Birds

Erin’s Book Recommendations:

Toni Morrison, Beloved, Penguin/Random House Press https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/117647/beloved-by-toni-morrison-introduction-by-a-s-byatt/9780307264886

Virginia Woolf, The Waves Free e-book: https://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/woolfv-thewaves/woolfv-thewaves-00-h.html

Hardcopy, Penguin/Random House Press: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/538974/the-waves-by-virginia-woolf/9780241372081

Erin Shields, award-winning playwright, actor, and educator, joins Lisa Dickson and her cohost, Jessica Riddell, to talk about the impact of theatre, the work of adaptation, the conversations between the past and the present, and imagination in the classroom.

Music Credits:

Intro/Outro: “Somewhere Nice” by John Bartmann

“No Cadillac” by Loyalty Freak Music

“Week Thirty-Six” by Ben von Wildenhaus

(CC BY Creative Commons License)

Links for Erin Shields's works:

“Here We Are” (read by Erin Shields) https://www.crowstheatre.com/whats-on/view-all/here-we-are

Paradise Lost (Book), Playwrights Canada Press https://www.playwrightscanada.com/Books/P/Paradise-Lost2

Paradise Lost, Stratford Festival https://www.stratfordfestival.ca/WhatsOn/PlaysAndEvents/Production/Paradise-Lost

If We Were Birds (Book), Playwrights Canada Press https://www.playwrightscanada.com/Books/I/If-We-Were-Birds

Erin’s Book Recommendations:

Toni Morrison, Beloved, Penguin/Random House Press https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/117647/beloved-by-toni-morrison-introduction-by-a-s-byatt/9780307264886

Virginia Woolf, The Waves Free e-book: https://www.gutenberg.ca/ebooks/woolfv-thewaves/woolfv-thewaves-00-h.html

Hardcopy, Penguin/Random House Press: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/538974/the-waves-by-virginia-woolf/9780241372081

Sarah deLeeuw, award-winning poet and essayist and professor at UBC and UNBC in the Northern Medical Program where she holds a Canada Research Chair in Humanities and Health Inequities, joins Lisa Dickson and her cohost, Shannon Murray, to delve into her creative practice and explore ideas of empathy, beauty, and hope, and the necessity of paying particular attention to the absent and the overlooked.

Music Credits:

Intro/Outro: “Summer Pride” by Loyalty Freak Music

Additional music in order of appearance:

“No Rocking in the Jazz Hands Zone” by Peter Gresser

“Action” by Monplaisir

“Binderweed (Instrumental Version)” by Axeltree

Sarah’s Books mentioned in the episodes:

Outside, America Harbour Publishing https://harbourpublishing.com/collections/sarah-de-leeuw

Geographies of a Lover, NeWest Press https://newestpress.com/books/geographies-of-a-lover

Where It Hurts, NeWest Press https://newestpress.com/books/where-it-hurts#:~:text=Where%20It%20Hurts%20is%20a,to%20be%20observant%20and%20aware.

Skeena, Caitlin Press https://caitlin-press.com/our-books/skeena/

Sarah’s Book Recommendations and Mentions:

Peter Auster's Why Write? https://www.amazon.ca/Why-Write-Paul-Auster/dp/1886224153

M. Nourbese Philip's Zong https://www.nourbese.com/poetry/zong-3/

Sarah deLeeuw, award-winning poet and essayist and professor at UBC and UNBC in the Northern Medical Program where she holds a Canada Research Chair in Humanities and Health Inequities, joins Lisa Dickson and her cohost, Shannon Murray, to talk about how the stories we tell about the landscape and our bodily experiences have material effects on our lives and wellbeing.

Music Credits:

Intro/Outro: “Umlungu” by John Martmann

Additional music in order of appearance:

“No Rocking in the Jazz Hands Zone” by Peter Gresser

“No Cadillac” by Loyalty Freak Music

Sarah’s Books mentioned in the episodes:

Outside, America Harbour Publishing https://harbourpublishing.com/collections/sarah-de-leeuw

Geographies of a Lover, NeWest Press https://newestpress.com/books/geographies-of-a-lover

Where It Hurts, NeWest Press https://newestpress.com/books/where-it-hurts#:~:text=Where%20It%20Hurts%20is%20a,to%20be%20observant%20and%20aware.

Skeena, Caitlin Press https://caitlin-press.com/our-books/skeena/

Sarah’s Book Recommendations and Mentions:

Peter Auster's Why Write? https://www.amazon.ca/Why-Write-Paul-Auster/dp/1886224153

M. Nourbese Philip's Zong https://www.nourbese.com/poetry/zong-3/

Founder and Artistic Director of Method Contemporary Dance Society, Shelby Richardson explores the potential of dance as a hopeful, empathetic medium of expression and connection.

Method Contemporary Dance Society: https://www.methoddance.ca/

Shelby's TEDxUNBC talk, "The Choreography of Communication: Movement and Social Engagement": https://youtu.be/XdC0MhU6URs

Music Credits (from freemusicarchive.org):

Komiku: The Wind

Hutchings/Shakespeare: Doubt

Kai Engel: Interception

Axletree: Dragon Country

Josh Woodward: Spirit World

Founder and Artistic Director of Method Contemporary Dance Society, Shelby Richardson talks about establishing a professional dance company, building a culture of dance in the north and the ways that dance creates connection and conversation between artists and audiences.

Method Contemporary Dance Society: https://www.methoddance.ca/

Shelby's TEDxUNBC talk, "The Choreography of Communication: Movement and Social Engagement": https://youtu.be/XdC0MhU6URs

Music Credits (from freemusicarchive.org):

Robert Farmer: If We Knew All the Laws of Nature

Kevin Hutchings/William Shakespeare: Doubt

Doctor Turtle: Over the Water, Humans Gather

David Mumford: Night Without Sleep

Josh Woodward: Spirit World

We continue our discussion with Shannon Murray, professor at the University of Prince Edward Island, and Jessica Riddell, professor at Bishop's University. This time, we ask what it means to go hand in hand into the world of our own making, how we put the "fortunate" in the Fortunate Fall and how storytelling can help us to shape and to negotiate the discomforts of change and transformation.

For this first episode of our second season, our host is joined by her collaborators Shannon Murray, professor at the University of Prince Edward Island, and Jessica Riddell, professor at Bishop's University. They talk about the literary backup and mentors who've helped them to navigate the wicked problems of the past year of emergency pandemic teaching, and discuss how this global experience is complicated by its very particular nature.

We continue our discussion with Rodrigo Beilfuss, actor, educator and Artistic Director of the Shakespeare in the Ruins theatre company in Winnipeg, to look more closely at the layers of meaning enfolded in Hamlet and see how this play shows us how we can be human together.

Our guest is Rodrigo Beilfuss, actor, educator and artistic director of the Shakespeare in the Ruins theatre company in Winnipeg, to talk about the acts of performing and experiencing Shakespeare, and to observe how theatre is a shared space where we all come to be in the moment together.

We reach out to Alexandra Bennett, professor of Renaissance English Literature and Drama, as well as Modern British and American Drama, at Northern Illinois University, to ask ourselves what theatre means during pandemics, from Shakespeare’s time to our own movies-on-demand era.

We speak with Melanie Bellwood, a second-year candidate in the Bachelor of Education program at the University of Northern British Columbia, and reflect on how we learn, why we learn and what we value in our learning.

Our host Lisa Dickson is joined by her collaborators Shannon Murray, professor at the University of Prince Edward Island, and Jessica Riddell, professor at Bishop's University. They reflect on why we are still studying Hamlet now and observe what Hamlet, both the play and the character, can tell us about living in adversity.