Andrew Ennals goes back to his spooky Sackville roots with Shivers: Supernatural Tales of Tantramar
This week, Live Bait Theatre debuts a new play written and directed by Sackville’s Andrew Ennals. Shivers: Three Supernatural Tales from Tantramar is playing at the Performers Theatre Studio on Fairfield Road from Thursday to Saturday, and at the CCUBIC theatre in Amherst on Wednesday.
Ennals dropped by CHMA studios to talk about the production:
When Ennals was young, he can recall being captivated by the “wonderfully spooky” look of Sackville during Halloween. “That setting of the Tantramar marsh, the Fundy fog rolling in, and just all these big spooky Victorian houses downtown,” says Ennals. “When I was a kid growing up here, and especially at Halloween, that was such a picture perfect version of what that that night felt like.”
And now the grown-up Ennals is bringing some of that spookiness to the stage, with a play he wrote featuring three stories designed to send shivers up spines.
“They’re ghost stories and they’re creative stories at the same time,” says Ennals. One of the tales is based on his own experience in the old Middle Sackville school house in the late 90s. Another features the ‘phantom fiddler of Frosty Hollow’ because with a name like Frosty Hollow, “you’re already starting from an advantage, as a writer”. And the third tells of the marsh witch, bringing in parts of the legend from Amherst and Tantramar regions.
Ennals has a background with Live Bait Theatre, having taken on roles during his high school days.… Continue
Live Bait New Works Festival kicks off Wednesday
The fourth annual Live Bait New Works Festival kicks off Wednesday evening in Sackville, with live events on offer at the Sackville United Church, the Music Barn, and online.
Mount A student Paul Brisk Jr. takes the stage with the first event of the festival, a presentation and discussion of a new play in progress called Becoming My Own Native.
Hear Paul Brisk Jr. on Tantramar Report:
Brisk hails from Listiguj, a Mi’kmaq First Nation across the Restigouche River from Campbellton. He says his new play will draw in “bits and pieces from everywhere” to tell a story of becoming oneself.
“I’ve spent a very long time of my life with external and internal forces telling me this thing about being a native is that, and this stereotype is that,” says Brisk. “It affected my life, in every aspect and every avenue, from the type of food I ate, to the language I spoke, to the type of education that I should be achieving.”
His new play is an exercise in self-acceptance, says Brisk. “It’s a whole project of me putting into words the the level of acceptance I’ve come to accept myself with, while also bringing Indigenous circumstance to the forefront of the conversation.”
Brisk started out as a music student at Mount A, and is due to wrap up as a drama student this coming year, where he hopes to continue work on Becoming My Own Native.… Continue