Mother-daughter relationships are complex at best but central to Good House-keeping, the script being read at the last staged reading of the Emerging Voices season.
The story, written by Nicolle Nattrass, follows Beatrice, who enters a contest in the popular “Good House-keeping Magazine” for a weekend spa retreat for mothers and daughters. She wins but her luck runs out when an unexpected guest arrives and starts the rollercoaster weekend for mother and daughter. The journey is both comedic and poignant as Beatrice and Jeanine attempt to spend some much needed quality time together.
This script has undergone extensive rewriting since the first staged reading in 2009 and has gone on to receive an additional two-day development workshop at Presentation House Theatre in Vancouver with Nicola Cavendish.
Three professional actors will be working with TheatreOne’s artistic director Garry Davey to present this staged reading, including Norma Bowen, Samantha Currie and Joelle Rabu.
Nattrass is a professional playwright and member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada, as well as an actress based in Lantzville. Her latest play, Countryside Christmas – co-written with Mark DuMez – had a successful run at the Chemainus Theatre Festival.
The Emerging Voices series of staged readings of new Canadian scripts provides an important venue through which established and emerging writers can have new plays workshopped by professional artists and read before an audience, receiving valuable feedback in this important part of the creative process.
The reading of Good House-keeping is set for Feb. 7, 7:30 p.m., at Coast Bastion Inn. Admission is by donation. For more information, please visit www.theatreone.org/emergingVoices.html.