Nanay: a testimonial play
Nanay is a testimonial theatre project designed to engender public debate about Canada’s Live-In Caregiver Program, and directly addresses the experiences of Filipino domestic workers who come to Canada as migrant labourers. Nanay transforms very conventional qualitative interview transcripts into testimonial theatre, which is to say, our project is based entirely on verbatim monologues taken from interviews conducted over a 15 year period with domestic workers, their children and Canadian employers. Our overall objective in Nanay is to forge a more complex identification with both the plight of domestic workers, as well as that of middle-class families struggling to secure affordable care in Canada.
The production premiered at Vancouver’s 2009 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, and then toured to Berlin’s HAU1 Theatre as part of their Your Nanny Hates You! Festival. In 2012, we conducted a script reading with professional actors at the annual conference of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) in Edinburgh (2013) and Whitehorse (2014). We have also carried out two productions of the work in Metro Manila (2013; 2015).
Director Alexander Ferguson
Writers Geraldine Pratt, Caleb Johnston
Dramaturge Martin Kinch
Costume Designer Barbara Clayden
Lighting Designer John Webber
Sceneographer Andreas Kahre
Set Designer Tamara Unroe
Actors Alisa Anderson, Marichu Belarmino, Delia Brett, Alexa Devine, Mellissa Dionisio, Anj Heruela, Patrick Keating, Joanna Lerio, Kirstin Murray, Lissa Neptuno, Karen Rae, Julie Taudevin, Hazel Venzon, Corey Turner, Erin Wells
