Dressed as People

A school haunted by troubled children, an encounter with the unknown on open waters, the mysterious disappearance of a friend in the woods. Three different characters, three different time periods, three spine-tingling tales of abduction and the intrusion of the uncanny into the lives of those who are taken, those who do the taking, and those who are left behind. Multi award-winning theatre creators and multi-award winning horror and speculative fiction writers team up for this chilling new show from the producers of the smash hit, The Elephant Girls. These internationally renowned queer, Canadian, fiction writers now tackle writing for theatre.

The three monologues that make up Dressed as People are:

Kelly Robson, “Skinless”
In 1989, while teaching Canadian Literature at a university in Edmonton, a nun reveals her past as a young instructor at a haunted school full of troubled children in 1950s Ireland.

Amal El-Mohtar, “The Shape of My Teeth”
In 1827, a woman reflects on her best friend’s mysterious disappearance in Mortimer Forest on the Welsh border. She refuses to be left behind.

A.M. Dellamonica, “Repositioning”
In 2021, a seasoned entertainer on the lesbian cruise circuit grapples with memories of an encounter with the unknown in 2018 while on a Pacific Ocean repositioning cruise headed to Vancouver, B.C. from Sydney, Australia. From the producers, director (Mary Ellis), and performer (Margo MacDonald) of The Elephant Girls.

*****Winner of the 2021 Ottawa Fringe Audience Choice & Outstanding Solo Performance awards.

“Three memorable stories, delivered by a master storyteller.”
— Apt 613

“remarkable… compelling…stunningly amazing performances…”
— Black Gate Magazine

Kelly Robson (Playwright)
Kelly is a Nebula Award-winning, and multiple Aurora awards-winning science fiction, fantasy, and horror writer. Author of: Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach (Aurora), Alias Space and Other Stories, High Times in the Low Parliament, A Human Stain (Nebula), Waters of Versailles (Aurora)

Amal El-Mohtar (Playwright)
Amal is an award-winning writer of fiction, poetry, and criticism. She’s the science fiction and fantasy columnist for the New York Times Book Review. Her novel has won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards. Author of: Numerous short stories including Seasons of Glass and Iron, and co-author with Max Gladstone of This Is How You Lose the Time War.

A.M. Dellamonica (Playwright)
Dellamonica has been awarded the Sunburst Award for Canadian Literature of the Fantastic, and the Aurora Award for Best Novel. They have taught Creative Writing at UCLA and at the University of Toronto Scarborough campus. Author of: Prix Aurora-winning A Daughter of No Nation, and, as L.X. Beckett, the solarpunk thrillers Gamechanger and Dealbreaker, as well as over 50 short stories.

Mary Ellis (Director)
Mary has worked extensively as a director, actor and educator for many years. For Parry Riposte Productions, she directed the multi-award winning The Elephant Girls. She currently teaches at Carleton University in Ottawa and at St Lawrence College in Brockville, Ontario. She is also the Co-Artistic Director of Horseshoes and Hand Grenades Theatre Company.

Margo MacDonald (Performer)
Margo is a four-time winner of the Rideau Award for Outstanding Performance. Her solo show, The Elephant Girls, has won local, national, and international acclaim, to date winning eleven awards. Recent performance credits include: The Persistent Stain (undercurrents festival), Heartlines (TACTICS Mainstage & GCTC), Albumen (TACTICS Mainstage), Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) & Fly Me to the Moon (GCTC)

Awards
2021 Ottawa Fringe Audience Choice & Outstanding Solo Performance awards
Margo is a 4-time Rideau Award for Outstanding Performance winner, along with a dozen other awards for her work
All three playwrights are multi-award winning fiction authors

Recognition
Ottawa Fringe Festival
SIESKI

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