Kitchener, ON
Kitchener/Waterloo
Âge 14
I have always loved the freedom of creating stories. Stories through art, be it music, paint or words. There are often so many bursting from my thoughts just waiting to be told. This made me think of all the stories that sit untold by others, things they want to share but never got the chance to. Things that should have been told but were kept quiet and hidden, or simply lost. I feel there are also many things kept hidden from fear of other's reactions to them. In reality these are things that need to be told and need to be shared.
I find many people will hear a lesson and feel it does not affect them or hear of a horrible event and think of it as just another number or statistic. I put the lead role into the shoes of another character in her own story to communicate just how much we don't know, unless we realize what it would feel like to experience it ourselves. We may think we always know the full story but may get surprised when we are proven wrong.
Natalie, the lead, realizes herself that the story waiting to be told was right in front of her the entire time. She just had to listen and then not be afraid to speak to the world, giving a voice to another. I wanted to show the contrast between the two lives that grandmother and granddaughter had walked but how they are still connected.
I had the opportunity to perform the play of "Dead White Writer on the Floor" by Drew Hayden Taylor, which left many of the audience members replaying the script over in their minds, trying to figure out the motives of the people they saw before them and what the message they were trying to send them was. Having a performance brings the words to life and the characters become as real as the people you smile at every single day.