Events  /   Behind the Scenes: Caregiving in Creation

Behind the Scenes: Caregiving in Creation

(or How many nap hours does it take to write a play?)

A national roundtable webinar on parent and caregiver support in the performing arts

Location:
Women’s Work Festival 2025 in St. John’s, NL

Live streamed via Zoom (Registration required)

This roundtable is presented by Balancing Act Canada in partnership with Women’s Work Festival as part of their upcoming 2025 festival at The LSPU Hall on Mi’kmaw territory / in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador.

Celebrating International Women’s Day, this event tackles the need for caregiver support as a crucial factor in dismantling barriers and advancing careers for women and gender-diverse individuals.

The conversation will be moderated by Ana Pitol, Women’s Work Festival General Manager.

With panelists:
Sophie Angnatok, Playwright and Storyteller
Sharon King-Campbell, Playwright and Author
A Powell, Creator and Writer
Vanessa Cardoso Whelan, Playwright, Multidisciplinary Artist, and Clown

Join us for a dynamic discussion between these artist-parents about the unique challenges for playwrights and other creators who juggle caregiving responsibilities while creating work before the rehearsal process begins.

In-person and online attendees have the opportunity to submit questions to the panelists for discussion. Join us for this essential conversation about building a more inclusive and care-focused community.

Date: Friday, March 7, 2025
Time: 12:30 – 2:00 pm EST / 2:00 – 3:30 pm NST

In-person and Online via Zoom Webinar
ASL and French interpreters will be present for the webinar

📣 Meet the panel! 📣

🟣 Sophie Angnatok (Anna-tok: Meeting of Women) Sophie Angnatok is an Inuk throat singer and drum dancer from Nain, Nunatsiavut. Inspired by a newspaper clip of her Anasiak Elizabeth Andersen (grandmother), Sophie has been practicing the art of throat-singing and traditional Inuit drumming for two decades. She is currently President of and has been a member of the Inuit drum dance group Kilautiup Songuninga (Strength of the Drum) since 2010. In 2023 they were featured on the Mainstage of the St. John’s Folk Festival, as Sophie’s Grandmother Elizabeth and Aunt Susie Onalik were in 1984. In 2024 Sophie and her throat singing partner from the group, Ashley Dicker, opened the Folk Festival (on the Mainstage) and for a show by world-renowned contemporary throat singer Tanya Tagaq.

Sophie is the inaugural recipient of the Chris Brookes Memorial Award for “artists effecting positive change in the world.” She has performed for diverse audiences locally and across the country in many festivals, community functions, and arts-based events. Sophie has performed for the Canadian Prime Minister during The Truth and Reconciliation apology for Labradorimut, for Newfoundland and Labrador Lieutenant Governor Judy Foote and for the Governor General of Canada, Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary May Simon.

Sophie currently lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland where she plays an active role with her local urban Inuit community. She worked with the Kim White and Louise Moyes Docudance inclusive project Let’s See (Digital Now, Canada Council) to develop her own solo show, Coming Full Circle, funding by ArtsNL, which premiered at the Women’s Work Festival in 2024. Sophie often shares her love and knowledge of Inuit culture, teaches workshops and is a leader in her practice.

🟣 Sharon King-Campbell is a theatre and literary artist and graduate student based in Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland). She was the 2017 recipient of the Rhonda Payne Award, and is a four-time winner of the Arts and Letters Awards in fiction, dramatic script, and poetry. Her plays ‘Original,’ ‘Give Me Back,’ and ‘Melody and the Fishes’ have reached audiences throughout Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Canadian premiere of ‘Dayboil’ was the winner of 6 Robert Merritt Awards. Her collection of poetry, ‘This Is How It Is,’ was published in 2021, and ‘Dayboil’ was published in 2024, both with Breakwater Books. Sharon is Artistic Director of Shakespeare by the Sea, a position she took one week before the birth of her child.

🟣 A Powell (they/them) is a queer, trans, non-binary actor, writer, artist, Buddhist, feminist, activist.

They are a wheelchair user who single parents a ten-year-old whirlwind while navigating life with physical disabilities, chronic illness, intimate partner violence, depression, anxiety, ADHD, CPTSD, and PTSD.

Over their fifty-one years, A has worked in a variety of areas in four different countries. From food and beverage to administration to disability to mental health. Four and a half years ago, A started acting. They’ve been on TV, in educational campaigns, and a music video. The grassroots, community aspect of local theatre is what has really grabbed A’s heart and mind, particularly docutheatre.

A is trained as a Counselling Psychologist and trauma therapist who works on unlearning our colonial, capitalist, classist, racist, ableist, ageist, transphobic, homophobic, fat phobic, and patriarchal social conditioning.

🟣 Hailing from Brazil, Vanessa Cardoso Whelan (she/her) is a playwright, multidisciplinary artist, and clown with a passion for contemporary theatre and body movement. Graduating in Theatre Arts in 2004, she has performed with several artistic groups on stage, and in street productions as an actress, and dancer. Vanessa has been actively engaged in the local arts scene since moving to NL in 2014. She likes to give her art back to the community, doing volunteer workshops and performances for new Canadians/refugees and non-profit organizations, because of that and other achievements, Vanessa received the 2023 Inspiring Immigrant Woman Award from We Care Foundation. Inspired by Nature, Vanessa loves the mountains on the west coast of Newfoundland, it reminds her of home.

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