Wreck: A very Anxious Memoir has a cover, and launches this month!!!

This is a soft launch. We haven't finalized the date for the launch of this new book about fear and love and lighthouses and growing up very very anxious...but there's a cover. And goodness, that's a start. 

Wreck: A Very Anxious Memoir gets its North American launch this month. Radiant Press will be offering an online interview and reading sort of thing, available anywhere in the world that anyone is interested....which, as I am very very anxious, I imagine will be no one, no where, no how and I'm not even sure I should be writing this....But it's a nice cover! And the audio book version will be available very soon too. 

Not sure who I am? Try the bio!

Not sure if this book is for you? Like comedy, neuroses, true love, whales and lighthouses? Yes--it's for you. 

No? Oh dear. We need to talk. You better read the book too.  

CV-19 adds to the The Curst curse

POSTPONED (in a hugely meta way)

This play obviously DID NOT open May 1st.

My letter to the amazing cast of THE CURST, sent when we were supposed to be in rehearsal starting this week--to prepare for our world premiere at Dancing Sky Theatre:

"First of all, a huge thank you to all of you for everything that you've put into the show up to date. 

Secondly a huge thank you to Dancing Sky Theater for giving our artists something in lieu of the salary they were expecting. This is more than some theatres are doing. We have reports at playwrights Guild of artists being asked to return advances, and actors being cut off without a cent.

 

I am not surprised that Dancing Sky chose the decent path.I am just hugely proud to be associated with a theatre that has done so.

This is such a discombobulating time that there seems to be nothing to say except how much I care about all of you. And value what you bring to the work, but more what you just bring to the world.

 

I look forward to a time when we all come together again and make this happen. 

And finally, my sincere apologies for writing a play about artists being chased by bad angels. I knew I was opening the door to some epic bad luck. But I never thought that it would end up in a pandemic.

My bad."

Kelley Jo

"The Curst" heading into premiere production, Dancing Sky Theatre, May 1 2020

From the Dancing SKy Theatre website:

The Curst

by Kelley Jo Burke

​

May 1-17, 2020

“All my friends are buying diamonds for their girls

And bringing children into this world

Signing their name to a home on land they’ve captured

Me? I’m still writing songs I’m scared you’ll hear someday” — Carver, Library Voices

 The Curst may be the unluckiest band ever. They’re from small-town Saskatchewan, and they don’t play country. Their lead singer Merle is too neurotic to actually show anyone his songs. And it seems they’re being stalked by some kind of guardian angel gone really, really bad.  Their life on the road is such a series of injuries, freak catastrophes, and grueling hours in a beat-up van, that they are starting to wonder whether it’s just time to quit.

But sometimes, just sometimes, they make magic together and fly. Maybe it’s all worth it?

Then good fortune shows its face. To The Curst. All they need to do is keep it together and avoid any dodgy angelic interference for a few more days. What. Could. Go. Wrong?

Written by national-award winner Kelley Jo Burke (The Selkie Wife) and featuring the songs of Saskatchewan’s indi-pop legends Library Voices (Denim on Denim, Summer of Lust), The Curst is a funny, loving rock-musical about why year after year, generation after generation, bands climb into bad vans, and head out on another gig…no matter the cost.  

We've been through a series of amazing workshops. We have a killer cast (Tim Bratton, Kate Herriot, Felix Leblanc and Alyssa Billingly). We have the songs of the incredible Library Voices. And now the countdown starts--to the world premiere of this entirely made in Saskatchewan, pop as f*ck musical. Can't hardly wait.

Tickets are on sale here:  

Huge thanks to the Saskatchewan Arts Board, the Saskatchewan Foundation for the Arts, St. Peters College, and the Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre for their invaluable support of this project. 

Performance of "Leaving America" written and performed by Kelley Jo Burke, excerpt from upcoming memoir "To the Lighthouse (I know I need a better title)."

Thanks to Tic Toc TEN Short Performance Festival and a Thank you to ENC3000 videography.

Thanks to the organizers of the Tic Toc Ten festival of ten minute theatre pieces in Regina!

Whahoo! Thank you so much to the Paper Umbrella for supporting local arts, to the amazing three goddesses of Tic Toc Ten, Abbey Thiessen, Gabrielle Dufresne, and Robyn Sanderson for putting together such a totally successful event, and for all the artists and audience members for making it such an extraordinary night.