Straybird Productions
Regina, Saskatchewan
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 29, 2017
Contact: Kelley Jo Burke: 306-596-0757/kelley.jo@sasktel.net or
Jeffery Straker: 416-882-0992/jeffstraker88@rogers.com
New Canadian Musical, “Us” by Kelley Jo Burke and Jeffery Straker
Announced as winner of the Playwrights Guild of Canada
“Stage West Pechet Musical Award”
at the 2017 “Tom Hendry Awards” Gala
TORONTO, ON—The Playwrights Guild of Canada (PGC) has awarded the new Canadian musical “Us” by Kelley
Jo Burke and Jeffery Straker with the “Stage West Pechet Musical Award” at the annual Tom Hendry Awards.
The award is presented annually to a PGC-member recognizing the best new Canadian musical in development.
Co-created by playwright Kelley Jo Burke (book) and singer-songwriter-pianist Jeffery Straker (score) of Regina,
Saskatchewan, the duo is thrilled to be receiving the recognition from the PGC as well as the $5000 prize. Their
new work is already part of the current season at The Globe Theatre (Regina, Saskatchewan) where a main
stage production run is scheduled for February 28 – March 18, 2018.
Kelley Jo Burke was present in Toronto to receive the award at The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto remarking:
“Thank you to- The Sask Arts Board, Sask Playwrights Centre, Roberta McKay and Elmer Brennan, the Centre for
New Play Development at the U of R, and a huge thanks to Ruth Smilie and the Globe Theatre in Regina who will
give our show its premiere stage in March, and to our director Val Pearson for her faith in the project. But my
hugest thanks must go to the staff, volunteers, and above all the campers of Camp fYrefly Saskatchewan and
Alberta—Canada’s leadership retreat for gender and sexually diverse youth—because they are warriors—and
this project would have been wholly impossible for Jeff and I without the gift of their voices, and the gift of their
inclusion of us.
The new musical is set at a summer camp for LGBTQ youth and is an exploration and celebration of the search
for identity amongst a wonderfully diverse group of young people. The creation team has been writing and
developing the piece for the past 2.5 years.
The ‘Stage West Pechet Musical’ award is sponsored by the PGC and Stage West Restaurants. Past recipients
include: ‘Come from Away’(2013), ‘Onegin’ (2014), 33 1/3 (2015), Prom Queen (2016).
For more information regarding the co-creators, refer to contact info at top of this release.
For more information regarding the 2018 production of “Us” at Regina’s Globe Theatre:
http://globetheatrelive.com/plays/1718-mainstage/us
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