It’s 1980, two days from the summer solstice in the wild landscape of Northwestern British Columbia. Deanna and her husband, Jay Kawatski, tend their food garden carved out of the wilderness in the Ningunsaw Valley when Deanna realizes that their first child will be born very soon. The couple must hike difficult mountain & bog terrain through clouds of bloodthirsty mosquitoes for more than two hours to their cabin on Desire Lake. Deanna’s water breaks and she instantly goes into labour. This is the story of their unattended birth, heralded by a family of loons who serenaded them throughout the night.

We Got One! celebrates moments that, whatever else happens in life afterwards, we have, as artists, in those moments, all the meaning we will ever need.  It marks the Cinderella achievement of having been chosen, of having hit the bulls-eye on the dartboard of current social and artistic reality. We can now stand on the world stage and beam our happiness that we matter.

Six Palm Trees is the journey of a family through the emotional landscape of their shared past. Annie Shea, the family clown, provides stand-up entertainment.Annie Shea, the family clown, provides stand-up entertainment. Annie Shea, the family clown, provides stand-up entertainment  at a family reunion, where everyone has gathered to celebrate 24 years of life together. 

“Funny and sad, powerful and whimsical, with mercurial mood changes and punchy humour. . . Six Palm Trees is more than a trip down memory lane . . it is a play (about) the price one woman paid to bear and raise 14 children. . . jewel of a play.”

                       -The Sooke Standard, Vancouver Island, B.C.

“A touching contrast between the comedy of sibling rivalry and the struggle for individual recognition in a large family.”

                                    -CHQM - Vancouver

High school graduate Teresa Feeney becomes pregnant from one encounter with a trusted priest Father Sully, who is leading a choir of students in a showcase of songs from the radical hippie production of HAIR. Annie Shea, herself from an enormous Catholic family where abortion is unthinkable, reluctantly becomes Teresa’s confidante. When Annie realizes Teresa is going to do what she desperately needs to do, she has to make a decision: Will she stand by her schoolmate and offer support during this dangerous, illegal procedure? 

Suddenly, your questions are endless: Who are you? Where is she?

Your father - a threat to national security? Imagine when men in heavy boots came to your home, your garden, to claim him.  An introduction to the story of a family, during World War II, living with the abrupt loss and the mystery of their father. 

"This morning, Lisa gave way to an anxiety she'd been stifling the past several weeks. She was afraid if she got behind the wheel of her red Toyota Tercel wagon, and drove onto the highway, she was going to give into the temptation she'd had lately to steer herself into a telephone pole."

Gramma Ester flies from Wisconsin to California to help with a big family wedding in 1976. Flowers, frozen turkey, chocolate groom's cake. Guests fill the church with summer: pastels and hats, ties and shiny shoes. The congregation murmuring, waits. And waits. If the music would just start to play, if the bride would just walk up the aisle on Daddy's arm, everything else would be vanquished into fairy tale. 

Finally, our mother: we can feel her slow step as she lifts each foot with all her available life force. How could we be losing her like this?