Last month, CHRC visited St. John’s, Toronto, St. Catharines, and Sturgeon Falls to connect with employers and workers participating in the Student Work Placement Program. It was great to see and hear the amazing experiences and opportunities the program has created for participants. Thank you to St. John’s Shorts, PerSIStence Theatre, ARCA, Muskoka Arts & Crafts, Suitcase In Point Theatre Company, Carousel Players, Dancer Transition & Resource Centre, and Blue Ant Media Inc. for your hospitality and continued support.  While in St. John’s CRHC also participated in a train-the-trainers session for 2 new RWA facilitators. Bailey Jackson and Leahdawn Helena are now ready to share the Newfoundland and Labrador content to that province’s organizations thanks to funding from the Canada Council for the Arts. Check out their bios below!  Bailey Jackson (she/her) is a theatre artist based in St. John’s. She has worked professionally as a theatre educator, actor, director, producer, and writer. While pursuing her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre from Grenfell Campus, Bailey worked with Shakespeare Simplified to implement theatre creation workshops in elementary schools around the Corner Brook region, sparking her love for teaching. She continues to teach with ActIV Shakespeare, of which she is a founding member and co-creator. ActIV Shakespeare leads high school students through interactive Shakespeare workshops designed to broaden their understanding of text. Bailey has acted across the island with companies like Stephenville Theatre Festival and Rising Tide Theatre. She serves on the board of directors for both NL Comedy Initiative Inc. and St. John’s Shorts Inc., working to bring local and international talent to the stage in the city. Bailey currently works as the Working With Respect Project Coordinator for PerSIStence Theatre Company.
 Leahdawn Helena (she/they/nekm) was born and raised on the west coast of Ktaqmkuk (the island of Newfoundland), and is trained as an actor, writer, director, and dramaturge. They hold degrees in both Theatre and Sociocultural Studies from Memorial University Grenfell Campus. They work as a freelance Dramaturg and as an Indigenous Sociocultural Consultant for the St John’s and Avalon Arts community, working with Artistic Fraud, St John’s Shorts, PerSIStence Theatre, and the Cupids Legacy Project, among others.
Their first full-length screenplay, Ruthless, was selected for a Newfoundland Arts and Letters prize in 2020. In 2021 they directed Petrina Bromley in Elizabeth Hicks’ one-woman short play, Hearty at Eighty, for PerSIStence Theatre. In 2021 they performed in Stephenville Theatre Festival in Meghan Greeley’s To the Girls, as well as the tour production in 2023. Their play, Stolen Sisters, which premiered in 2022, features Order of Canada member Deantha Edmunds, and is historically grounded in the colonial experiences of Beothuk and Mi’kmaw women and girls. Stolen Sisters toured across Newfoundland in 2023, Labrador in January 2024, and New Brunswick in April 2024.Their most recent work, Precariously Placed: Pandemic Monologues From The Edge, was researched and created with support from PerSIStence Theatre and York University.
L’nuit. Tleiawit Nujio’qonik. (They are L’nu. They have family roots in the Bay St George region.) |
