Kelley Jo BurkeKelley Jo Burke (click on my name to email me)
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Writer, broadcaster, performer, mother, teacher and temporal juggler.
Kelley Jo Burke is an award-winning playwright, creative nonfiction writer and documentarian, a professor of theatre and creative-writing, and was for many years host of CBC Radio’s SoundXchange. (For complete ART WORK history, scroll to the bottom of the page and see final section C.V.)
Her latest book is:
from Radiant Press.
She was the 2017 winner (with composer Jeffery Straker) of Playwright Guild of Canada’s national Best New Musical Award for Us, which premiered at the Globe Theatre Feb 28 of 2018 directed by Valerie Pearson. Her other recent plays which have been been produced and published in Canada, and around the world, including "The Lucky Ones, " "Somewhere, Sask.," “Ducks on the Moon” (Hagios), "The Selkie Wife" (Scirocco), "Jane's Thumb" (Signature), and "Charming and Rose: True Love (Blizzard).
Her new musical The Curst, whose world premiere was scuttled by COVID, will be coming to Dancing Sky Theatre asap. And her comic memoir To the Lighthouse (I know. I Need a Better Title.) will be released by Radiant Press is 2021, said pandemic permitting....
She is is also a director, dramaturge and editor. Her latest editing project, Glass Beads by the wonderful Dawn Dumont, won the 2018 Saskatchewan Book Award for Fiction, and is nominated for the national Danuta Gleed Award for best new Canadian collection of short fiction. A recent favorite project was the audio version of the great Jean Okimasis' Cree: Language of the Plains.
She has her MFA Special Case, Playwriting and Dramaturgy 2013, was SSHRC recipient, the 2011 Doris and W.A. Riddell Fine Arts Graduate Scholarship recipient, and a 2011 recipient of a teaching fellowship with the U of R Theatre Department.
She has been a workshop leader in creative process, writing, performance, and creative non-fiction writing and production for more than twenty years.
She is a cultural citizen, serving on Saskatchewan Arts Board juries, judging awards and competitions, a sought-after speaker and panel member for many conferences and arts events, past president of the Saskatchewan Playwrights’ Centre, and past executive member of the Playwrights’ Guild of Canada.
She was 2009 winner of the Saskatchewan Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for Leadership in the Arts, the 2009 City of Regina Writing Award (her third time receiving that award), and the 2008 Saskatoon and Area Theatre Award for Playwriting.
Comments about Kelley Jo Burke:
About Kelley Jo Burke’s writing
“powerfully deconstructionist”--Aritha van Herk
“Cynical, pointed and rude” –Glenda McFarlane.
About The Lucky Ones:
The Lucky Ones is a kind of ghost story of mature love, or what
struggles to be mature. It’s about Enid and Marty, who meet by chance
and despite genuine doubts about human relationships in general, and
their own lovability, in particular, fall for each other one summer
night, high above a moonlit lake, trapped in an abandoned fort. And
contrary to everyone’s expectations, especially their own, they stay
together. And that’s how, one summer night, high above the city,
trapped in a hospital room, Marty finds himself the guy lucky enough to
be the one asked to decide to let his love die, when her illness
becomes intractable. And that’s where this play begins—with Marty
flat out refusing to accept his luck. Good thing Enid has never NOT had
the last word…
"A+--" impossible not to appreciate." Saskatoon S-P.
About Somewhere, Saskatchewan
Written by Kelley Jo Burke and Carrie Catherine, performed by Carrie Catherine
Written by singer-songwriter Carrie Catherine and playwright Kelley Jo Burke, “Somewhere, SK”, a two-act musical, is the story of Ez—formerly of Saskatoon—who followed her rock n’ roll dream (and her band mate/boyfriend) to Toronto. But the boyfriend’s a rat, the dream’s gone splat, and Ez is on the run, driving a stolen mini-van halfway across Canada before she realizes she’s heading home. She finds herself broken down and busted flat on the side of Highway 16. Ez looks around at the wind-battered prairie, and sees.....NOTHING. Until, she takes a closer look.
"Somewhere, SK" is a collaboration between Dancing Sky Theatre and... playwright Kelley Jo Burke and singer/songwriter Carrie Catherine. Kelley Jo, one of our province’s best playwrights, wrote the multi award winning "The Selkie Wife" produced by Dancing Sky in 2008. Carrie Catherine is Saskatchewan’s own award-winning prairie chanteuse. Playful and passionate, she mesmerizes audiences with her soulful roots sound and crafted songs.
This play will take our hybrid mix of live theatre and live music to exciting places that it has never been before. Full of original music intricately woven with the magic of theatrical storytelling, "Somewhere, SK" promises to be a new kind of experience that explores the power of creation, music, home and landscape. --Dancing Sky Theatre website ( http://dancingskytheatre.com/index.php?page=upcoming-shows-tickets)
“There is a lot to echo what is happening on the stage with real life. For example, Carrie came back to the Prairies to find her dreams, like Ez. Also, the venue was once the town community centre, only to be refurbished as the Living Sky Theatre, much like an incident in the story....There is a lot to be enjoyed by this production in its zeitgeist. Carrie’s singing, Hal’s rhythm and foley contributions, Kelley’s words, each individually would make an enjoyable experience. Altogether, it is a fun night of indie theater.”-- Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen
“Saskatchewan singer / songwriter Carrie Catherine and award-winning playwright Kelley Jo Burke have teamed up to create a play inspired by the province's hidden gems – places where the two artists have toured and performed, who celebrate the arts. 'Somewhere, SK' tells the story of an abandoned prairie town that is transformed into a vibrant place where artists of all kinds can find inspiration.”-- Jessi Gowan, Prairie Post.
About Ducks on the Moon
Written and performed by Kelley Jo Burke
About “Ducks on the Moon”
“It’s a triumph of the human spirit, isn’t it?”
(audience comment, Regina premiere)
“Ducks on the Moon” is writer-documentarian Kelley Jo Burke’s “99% true” performance documentary about the first five years with her son, who in the play she calls “Noah”, because as she says, “My need for anecdotes does not trump my family’s need for privacy.”
In this non-fiction solo performance piece, Kelley Jo begins her talk to the audience on the day after her five year old autistic son has had dental surgery in the hospital. It hasn't been an easy 24 hours. She is almost immediately interrupted by her unseen, but very much felt, son, who continues to make appearances (of which the audience hears only Kelley Jo’s portion) throughout the performance.
In a series of stories and movement, the performer reflects on the boy's birth, and early childhood, and attempts to answer the question, "when did you first know that Noah was ...different?"
Through the stories the audience gets to share Kelley Jo’s learning curve as she meets not the child she expected but the child she has. The child has obvious differences, but Kelley Jo’s resistance to the idea of the child's autism is equally obvious. The question becomes, how bad will things have to get before this parent sees her child as who he is?
Ultimately, the piece is about the passage from denial to acceptance, not just for the parent of an autistic child, but any parent, making the transition from clinging to her expectations of motherhood, to the realities of life with her particular child. It is funny, heart-breaking and both entertaining and informative.
“Ducks on the Moon” was the winner of the 2009 City of Regina writing award. It has been performed in across Western Canada, by Kelley Jo Burke, with the Curtain Razor’s Theatre Co. 2009/10 season tour being a highlight.
“Ducks on the Moon” has been made into a documentary for the CBC radio program IDEAS, first broadcast on January 25th, 2010. A book of the same name, which includes the play, the interviews done for the documentary and other support material, was released fall 2010 by Hagios Press (see below).
Response to “Ducks on the Moon”
Susan Ouriou (novelist and translator)
“Kelley Jo Burke's… one-woman show is an unflinching look at one mother's hard day's night bringing up her autistic child. What we have seen so far is full of wisdom, wit, brutal honesty, and a willingness to challenge and be challenged. She gives voice to the fear, despair, love, and wonder of "special" mothering and a demonstration of the courage it takes, day after day after day, to drill into the hard rock of love, patience, creativity, and combativity that bringing up Noah requires. Thanks to Burke's gifts as a playwright, we anticipate a theatre piece that allows us to share in the triumphs and tragedies of the Noahs and Noahs' families of the world.”
Di Brandt (poet and teacher)
“It's ever so difficult to capture the sweaty anxious adoring pleasurable mix of giving birth and mothering young children in words. In this vivid monologue, Kelley Jo Burke manages that impossible task with verve and panache. The child in this case is not only young and demanding, but extraordinarily so, an autistic toddler, who can't sleep through the night without falling out of bed and injuring himself, who can't let go of his mother's hand or skin for even a second. The mother in this case is energetic and articulate in her response to the child, taking us through the swirl of emotions and ambivalences, the sorrow, guilt, weariness, anger, wonder and joy of mothering such a needy but also eerily gifted child, an increasingly common challenge in our time. This is sharply delineated human drama at its most tender, most vulnerable, most courageous. Excellent theatre.”
Karen Jeffrey, artistic director, Sunset Theatre
"Ducks on the Moon" by Kelley Jo Burke is a journey of the un-daunting spirit of a mother and an invitation to the open heart of a child, filled with wonder, awe and courage. It puts a whole new perspective on what it means to be a mother. It's honest- raw- and moves us to take a deeper look at our life, children and loves and examine not what we see but perhaps what we've missed!”
Watch the book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7XeAibV6Vs
About The Selkie Wife:
Winner of the Saskatoon and Area Theatre Award for playwriting
(from the book jacket)
“An ancient Celtic myth explodes in the centre of a modern Canadian family in this strikingly original drama…there are moments of uproarious comedy thoughout the play. But Burke’s themes are serious, and the questions her characters face go to the very essence of their lives; The Selkie Wife is a dramatic meditation about love and sex, about freedom and oppression, about making concessions and making choices.”
"The play works on many levels...Burke has crafted a beautifully-written story of love, longing, and identity."—Cam Fuller, Saskatoon Star Phoenix
"Even in the darkest moments there's tea being had and jokes being made. It's that Scottish and Irish sensibility.… Kelley Jo is like that as a person. She's really funny and she can also deal with very serious things.'' Paula Costain, actor.
About Charming and Rose: True Love: a modern fairy tale with a dark edge.
Performed in Canada, the US and in Europe, short-listed for the Chalmers and Dora Award for Playwriting. Winner of the 1992 City of Regina Writing Award, Finalist, finalist, 1993 Dora and Chalmers Awards.
“Kelley Jo Burke’s “Charming & Rose: True Love” is a darkly humorous, foul-mouthed inversion of a fairy tale that leaps off the page in a fury. Like Marie Clements, Burke uses multiple time values and highly visual stage imagery to present insidious male violence. “Doing the princely” in this setting produces bruised flesh, not a glass slipper.” Kevin Burns, Quill and Quire.
About Kelley Jo Burke’s work on CBC:
“Today will see the very last episode of the CBC Radio program SoundXchange, curated and hosted by the inimitable Kelley Jo Burke. This is a profound loss for Saskatchewan art and artists. Over the last decade, Kelley Jo has hired me to improvise and perform characters, narrate short stories and poetry, create and produce radio plays, write and perform comedy, and has broadcast all this work across the province. She has done this for countless other writers, musicians, actors, poets, and playwrights as well. SO MUCH of my development as a creator is due to the amount of time and care KJ invested in my work and career. I cannot overstate how lucky I am to have had these chances, I would not have had these opportunities to grow and learn and create without her. She made me better year after year and continued to encourage me to make more stuff.
I am so, so grateful to you Kelley Jo. Your effort and love did not go unnoticed and it mattered a lot. I was honoured to work for you, I would do it a thousand times again, thank you.”
-Comedian/Teacher/Actor/ Jayden Pfeifer
“Late yesterday, I drove for three hours across the landscape of this beautiful province, from Swift Current, where I'd taught a workshop, home to Saskatoon. For one of those lovely hours, the final edition of Sound Xchange kept me company. Sound Xchange, and white ribbons of snow geese in the sky. Thanks, Kelley Jo.”
-Author Leona Theis
“The air waves of Saskatchewan are poorer because you and SoundXchange won't be broadcast. But we all know you will continue to contribute to the arts community and to society in your own outstanding way.”
-Dr. Cyril Kesten, Dept of Education U of R
“Kelley Jo is without a doubt the most genuine and ardent fan of Saskatchewan talent on the face of this earth. She made you feel special in a time and place where it was very hard to do so. She taught me to deepen story - including mine - and to bring the light, even in the darkest places. The projects that I worked on with Kelley Jo connected me to intimate life stories that I feel honoured to have carried (with Kelley Jo's amazing touch) to listeners. The gift is double sided and I know that all of you who have worked with Kelley Jo understand the meaning of that - she's sneaky that gal and I feel certain that she chose projects with an understanding that some of us needed the release in the service of the word as much as the word required the service of our heart and lungs to be told. KJ - I love you and want to work with you again - I just know I'll find a way.”
-Actor/producer Wendy Anderson
Summary:
Kelley Jo Burke is an award-winning playwright, a teacher, director, storyteller, dramaturge, editor, documentarian (for CBC Radio One’s IDEAS.) Her plays have been produced and published in Canada, and around the world. She was 2017 Winner of the national PGC Best New Musical Award for “Us” with Jeffery Straker, the 2009 winner of the Saskatchewan Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for Leadership in the Arts, the 2009, 1997, and 1992 City of Regina Writing Award, and the 2008 Saskatoon and Area Theatre Award for Playwriting, and two ImagiNative Awards for Best (Indigenous) Radio 2006, 2009.
Art Work Publications:
Books:
“Everything’s Got a Moral, If Only You Can Find It” in Wine Country Writers’ Festival Anthology 2022, Fall, 2022.
Wreck: A Very Anxious Memoir, Spring, 2021, Radiant Press.
“The Rat” in Living the Edges: A Disabled Women's Reader 2nd edition, edited by Diane Driedger. Fall, 2021, Inanna Publications.
“At the Arena” in Saskatchewan Hockey, edited by Allan Safarik, MacIntyre Purcell, 2018, also in Going Top Shelf: An Anthology of Canadian Hockey Poetry, Heritage House, 2004, edited by Michael P.J. Kennedy, on CBC special broadcast of the Kennedy book, and originally in CV II.
“Why Ducks” in Performing Women, edited by Penn Kemp, Living Archives of the League of Canadian Poets, 2016.
“A Conversation about Radio Drama”, with Allan Boss, in West-Words, edited by Moira Day, Plains Research Centre, 2011.
Ducks on the Moon: A Parent Meets Autism, annotated play and interviews, edited by Harold Rhenisch, Hagios, 2010
The Selkie Wife, play, edited by Glenda McFarlane, Scirocco, 2009
Jane’s Thumb in Two Hands Clapping , edited by Kit Brennan, Signature, 2006.
Safe in Going it Alone: Plays by Women for Solo Performers. NuAge Editions, 1997, edited by Kit Brennan.
The Jesus Monologue in Short Spells. Playwrights Union Press1998, edited by Valerie Shantz.
Fat Girls (wear all sizes), International Readers' Theatre, edited by Peter Atwood, 1993.
Charming and Rose in Prerogatives Blizzard, 1996, edited by Peter Atwood, and in Amazing Plays of the 1992 Winnipeg Fringe (anthology of 3 plays) Blizzard Publishing, 1992, edited by Peter Atwood and Gordon Shillingford.
As editor:
Theater of Marvels by Melia McClure, Radiant Press, 2022
#blackinschool by Habiba Cooper Diallo, University of Regina Press, 2022
Glass Beads by Dawn Dumont, Thistledown Press, 2018
Audio Books as Narrator:
The Elephant on Karluv Bridge by Thomas Trofimuk, 2022
Bodies in Trouble by Diane Carley, Radiant Press, 2022
The Errant Husband by Elizabeth Haynes, Radiant Press, 2021
August into Winter by Guy Vanderhaeghe, Penguin, 2021
Wreck: A Very Anxious Memoir by Kelley Jo Burke. Radiant Press, 2021
The Teller from the Tale, Ven Begamudre, Radiant Press, 2020
As producer
Cree: Language of the Plains –by Jean Okimâsis, University of Regina Press
As producer
Cree: Language of the Plains –by Jean Okimâsis, University of Regina Press
Arts Work--Stage and Radio Productions:
(as playwright)
The Curst, with Library Voices, upcoming world premiere, Dancing Sky Theatre, TBA, directed by Angus Ferguson.
Leaving America, Tic Toc Festival Regina, directed and performed by Kelley Jo Burke.
Us, musical, with Jeffery Straker, world premiere, Globe Theatre Regina, March 2018, directed by Val Pearson.
The Lucky Ones, Dancing Sky Theatre, April 2015, directed by Angus Ferguson.
Somewhere, Sk. premiere, Dancing Sky Theatre, April 26 to May 1, 2013, play by KJ Burke, music by Carrie Catherine, directed by Angus Ferguson.
Lookingglass, work in progress production, University of Regina graduating class, April, 2012, Kathryn Bract director.
Ducks on the Moon, (as playwright/performer), on-going, most recent production, Regina, upcoming,
Saskatoon, Whitehorse, Curtain Razors, 2009/10, written and performed by Kelley Jo Burke, Michele Sereda director. Performances in Regina, Saskatoon, Swift Current, North Battleford, Brandon, Victoria (UNO Festival), Wells, Prince Albert and Yorkton.
Special, staged reading, Curtain Razors, July 2008, Michele Sereda/KJ Burke directors.
The Selkie Wife premiere, Dancing Sky Theatre, 2008, Angus Ferguson director, Toronto production, Fly By Night Theatre, 2011, and as a staged reading, Saskatchewan Festival of New Plays, May, 2006, Sarah Stanley, director.
Jane’s Thumb, stage play, Hamilton Fringe, August, 2013, with 11th Year Productions, Saskatoon Fringe, August, 2003, with Thumbco., and workshop reading, Saskatchewan Festival of New Plays, May 2002, Kathryn Bracht, director on both.
Comfort and Joy, staged reading, Saskatchewan Festival of New Plays, May, 2000, Mary Vingo, director.
Big Ocean, radio play, CBC’s Showcase, and in New Zealand, Australia, Britain, US and around the world on shortwave, for the Worldplay International Festival of Radio Plays, 2000, Kathleen Flaherty, director/producer.
Virtual.luv, radio play, CBC’s Showcase, October, 1998, Kathleen Flaherty, director/producer.
Jane's Thumb, radio play, CBC Saskatchewan, October 12, 13, 1997, Rachel van Fossen, director/producer.
Crack!, radio play, CBC, for Studio 96, January 19, 1996, Kathleen Flaherty, director/producer.
Had a Great Fall, radio play, CBC Radio Saskatchewan for Ambience, March 4, 1995, Wayne Schmalz, director/producer.
Charming and Rose: True Love, premiere produced by Nightwood Theatre, Toronto, October 12 to 31,
1993, Kate Lushington, now produced over thirty times in Canada, the US and Europe, including Washington D.C, (Theatre Conspiracy, fall, 2000)
Fat Girls (wear all sizes), play, July 1993, University of Regina Open Stage, and at the 1991 Winnipeg,
Saskatoon, and Edmonton (held over) Fringe Festivals, also Son of the Fringe, in Edmonton. Eileen Sproule, director, performed by the Curtain Razors, and September 7-10, 1995, at the Vancouver Fringe, Stephanie Kirkland, director.
Fetal Assessment, play, University of Texas Theater Department, student production, 1990.
Pig Shuffle, musical, premiere produced by Boomer Co, winter 1991, Susan Martin, director.
Goddessness, play, University of Regina Arena, July 5, 6, and 7, 1990, and at the Saskatoon and Edmonton Fringe Festivals. Director, Kelley Jo Burke, performed by the Curtain Razors.
(as director)
It’s Complicated, Regina Fringe Festival, written by Brita Lind. Regina Fringe Festival, 2014.
Radio documentaries: (as writer, director and performer for CBC’s IDEAS)
Bringing Up (Fur) Baby, May 2017
Shame on Youtube, May 15, Dec 3, 2015, Dave Redel, producer
Ducks on the Moon: a Parent Meets Autism, January 25, 2010, multiple broad and podcasts.
The World for World is Imagination: the ideas of Ursula K. Le Guin. April 12 and 13, 2004.
Fat Girls Sweet, variations on body size in eight body parts. November 26/27, 2001.
Mother of Miscarriage, September 20 and 21, 1999r.
Do You Believe in Magic?, October 17, 1996.
Chorus of Angels. March 13, 1995.
Poetry, prose, lectures and scholarly essays in periodicals:
“Lunch in America” The Society. St. Peter’s College Press, 2020.
“Blossoms and Gems: A CNF Manifesto” The Society. St. Peter’s College Press, 2016.
“Breakfast with Death”, The Society. St. Peter’s College Press, 2015.
TedX Regina Talk—Nights with Ducks. TedTalk (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNTKKBYHfFk). 2014
“Exact. Oh.” The Society. St. Peter’s College Press, 2013.
Playwriting in the New Saskatchewan, a Conversation that Didn’t Really Happen, Canadian Theatre Review 154, Spring 2013.
Bad Sal’s in Grain, Volume 36 No 4, 2009
Garden in Contemporary Verse II, 1998
Cheery Helen, I expect you to have all the answers to these questions, GenX Bridge and red in Contemporary Verse II, Winter, 1994 issue
They had girls in Contemporary Verse II, Fall, 1993,
House Hunting/House Dreams in the Spring 1993 issue of The Fiddlehead, (annual Fiddlehead poetry award winner)
The First Time, I wasted seventeen on love, and The Wolf, Spring 1992 issue of Contemporary Verse II.
Untitled, Demestica and At the Arena, poetry, Fall 1991, Contemporary Verse II.
Fat Girls Love to Swim, Fat Girl's Rhapsody and Metamorphosis I, poetry, Summer 1991, Grain.
Other speeches, articles, reviews, broadcasts, acting and essays: Too numerous to mention.
Radio Plays and Literary Arts Feature Productions as producer, director and dramaturg—some 350 productions over 10 year. Some favourites:
The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, radio play, by Yann Martel, read by Skye Brandon, recording engineer Chris Haynes, Dec 1st, 2007 *
Red Moon, live radio play by Dawn Dumont, for National Aboriginal Day Special 2007, featuring Tantoo Cardinal, Curtis Peeteetuce, Lorne Cardinal, and Fred Ewaniuk, recording engineer Chris Haynes, CBC National Radio Special, June 21, 2007-- ImagiNative award winner.
Out in the Cold, radio play by Cheryl Jack with Gordon Tootoosis, Mark Dieter, and Curtis Peeteetuce. Musical score was by Thomas Roussin -- sound design by Chris Haynes. Jan 5 2007
The World According the Charlie D., radio play, by Gail Bowen, with Patrick McManus, Wendy Anderson, Kelly Handerek, Sharon Bakker, Rob Benz, Daniel Maslany. recording engineer Chris Haynes for Sunday Showcase, October 15, 2006
Blue Marrow, live words and music performance piece by Louise Halfe, with Tantoo Cardinal, Kent Allen and Joseph Naytowhow. Recording engineer Chris Haynes. Gallery, June 14, 2005.
The Velvet Devil , live radio musical, written and performed by Andrea Menard, recording engineer Chris Haynes, for Gallery/Sunday Showcase, December 8, 2001.
PLUS developmental dramaturgy on over 100 new play scripts.
Awards and Grants (selected):
2022, WCWF Contest, first place for fiction.
2019, Tic Toc Festival, “Leaving America. “ Best Script.
2018, Sask Arts Board, IA, “The Curst” (working title).
2017, PGC Stage West Pechet Family Musical award for Us
2014 Saskatchewan Foundation for the Arts, City of Regina Theatre Grant, The Lucky Ones
2010, Saskatchewan Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for Leadership in the Arts.
2009, City of Regina Writing Award (Ducks on the Moon)
2008, Saskatoon Area Theatre Award for Best New Play (The Selkie Wife) 2007,
2006, ImagiNative Award for Best Radio, Dawn Dumont’s Red Moon and 2009, The Common Experience (producer/director).
1996 City of Regina writing award (Comfort and Joy),
1993, Finalist, Dora Mavor Moore award for outstanding new play in the Toronto season (Charming and Rose)
1993, Finalist, Chalmers Award for outstanding new Canadian play (Charming and Rose: True Love) 1993.
1992, City of Regina Writing Award, 1992 (Charming and Rose: True Love). 1991.
Languages Spoken
English and French.
Pronouns: She/Her
Press:
About Kelley Jo Burke’s writing
“powerfully deconstructionist”--Aritha van Herk
“Cynical, pointed and rude” –Glenda McFarlane.
About Us:
“Last night I had the life changing experience of watching Us at the Globe Theatre in Regina. The show had me laughing and crying. During intermission I had to run for water to rehydrate.”… “I think the most important part of this performance was the amount and range of the stories told. The happy, the angry, the scared, the learning. The good stories, and the really, really, horrible stories. Stories that rarely get told.”… “I truly believe this play will win awards as its use of music, dance choreography, and storytelling creates a compelling reality about the truths the Pride community faces not only from the outside world but also from within.”
And critics: “Burke’s script was matched wonderfully by Straker’s music. The Regina singer/songwriter penned 17 songs …were the life blood of the show….The diversity of the songs was truly impressive, from light and fluffy dance tunes to emotional ballads that revealed the darkest fears of the characters.” Regina Leader-Post, Mar 2, 2018.
The 2017winner of the Playwrights Guild of Canada Stage West Pechet Family New Musical award—for best new Canadian musical in development.
Jurists Ted Dykstra (Chair), Clara Bullock, Meghan Gardiner, and Peter Jorgensen said the script “had incredible potential, heart, compelling characters, authenticity in both subject and the music. The jury felt it was a story that needed to be told, and was full of voices that needed to be heard. They also noted its big heart, that it came from a place honest and true, and that high school students could really benefit from seeing it.”
About The Lucky Ones
“impossible not to appreciate. “ —Cam Fuller, Saskatoon Star Phoenix
About Somewhere, Saskatchewan
Written by Kelley Jo Burke and Carrie Catherine, performed by Carrie Catherine
“...There is a lot to be enjoyed by this production in its zeitgeist. Carrie’s singing, Hal’s rhythm and foley contributions, Kelley’s words, each individually would make an enjoyable experience. Altogether, it is a fun night of indie theater.”-- Robert Barry Francos / FFanzeen
About Ducks on the Moon
“It’s a triumph of the human spirit, isn’t it?”
(audience comment, Regina premiere)
“Ducks on the Moon” was the winner of the 2009 City of Regina writing award. It has been performed in across Western Canada, by Kelley Jo Burke, with the Curtain Razor’s Theatre Co. 2009/10 season tour being a highlight.
“Kelley Jo Burke's… one-woman show is an unflinching look at one mother's hard day's night bringing up her autistic child. What we have seen so far is full of wisdom, wit, brutal honesty, and a willingness to challenge and be challenged. She gives voice to the fear, despair, love, and wonder of "special" mothering and a demonstration of the courage it takes, day after day after day, to drill into the hard rock of love, patience, creativity, and combativity that bringing up Noah requires. Thanks to Burke's gifts as a playwright, we anticipate a theatre piece that allows us to share in the triumphs and tragedies of the Noahs and Noahs' families of the world.”
Susan Ouriou (novelist and translator)
“It's ever so difficult to capture the sweaty anxious adoring pleasurable mix of giving birth and mothering young children in words. In this vivid monologue, Kelley Jo Burke manages that impossible task with verve and panache. The child in this case is not only young and demanding, but extraordinarily so, an autistic toddler, who can't sleep through the night without falling out of bed and injuring himself, who can't let go of his mother's hand or skin for even a second. The mother in this case is energetic and articulate in her response to the child, taking us through the swirl of emotions and ambivalences, the sorrow, guilt, weariness, anger, wonder and joy of mothering such a needy but also eerily gifted child, an increasingly common challenge in our time. This is sharply delineated human drama at its most tender, most vulnerable, most courageous. Excellent theatre.”
Di Brandt (poet and teacher)
Watch the book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7XeAibV6Vs
About The Selkie Wife: Winner of the Saskatoon and Area Theatre Award for playwriting
"The play works on many levels...Burke has crafted a beautifully-written story of love, longing, and identity."—Cam Fuller, Saskatoon Star Phoenix
About Charming and Rose: True Love: a modern fairy tale with bite.
“Kelley Jo Burke’s “Charming & Rose: True Love” is a darkly humorous, foul-mouthed inversion of a fairy tale that leaps off the page in a fury. Like Marie Clements, Burke uses multiple time values and highly visual stage imagery to present insidious male violence. “Doing the princely” in this setting produces bruised flesh, not a glass slipper.”
Kevin Burns, Quill and Quire.
Academic references
Dr. Mary Blackstone
Professor Emerita
C/O Department of Theatre
University of Regina,
Regina, Saskatchewan
Canada S4S 0A2
Phone: (306) 585-5562 Fax: (306) 585-5599 theatre@uregina.ca
Valerie Mulholland, PhD
Associate Professor
Language and Literacy Education
Faculty of Education
University of Regina,
Regina, Saskatchewan
Canada S4S 0A2
Telephone: (306) 585-4618
Dr. Barbara Langhorst
Humanities Coordinator
St. Peter’s College
Muenster, SK
Canada S0K 2Y0
Phone: 306.682.7865 Cell: 306.231.9291
Email: langhorstb@stpeters.sk.ca
General References
Angus Ferguson
Artistic Director, Dancing Sky Theatre
Meacham , Saskatchewan
306 376 4445 angus@dancingskytheatre.com
Paul Dornstauder
Executive Producer, Radio News and Current Affairs, CBC Saskatchewan
(306) 347 9641 paul.dornstauder@cbc.ca
Dramaturgical clients that can be called as references available on request.