Behind the Play

This episode of Behind the Play features a conversation between TNB Outreach Coordinator and playwright Jena McLean and playwright Jivesh Parasram, who is currently touring his one-person play Take d Milk, Nah? to theatres in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. 

Take d Milk, Nah? is unlike anything we have presented in the past. Part comedy, part reality check, Parasram’s play tackles enormous issues involving race and culture. A humourous, skeptical take on the identity play, Take d Milk, Nah? blends personal storytelling and ritual to offer the "Hin-dos and Hin-don’ts" of Parasram's upbringing as a multi-ethnic Canadian as well as delivers a candid, funny look at race, religion and nationalism.

For the three performances of Take d Milk, Nah?, which will run at the Open Space Theatre at 55 Whiting Road, we invite you to name your price by choosing one of four different price points: $5, $15, $25, or $35. 

The second of a two-part conversation between TNB Outreach Coordinator and playwright Jena McLean and playwright Don Hannah.  This time around Don and Jena get into the weeds of playwriting and look at how the characters in Resident Aliens interconnect, how time is used as a tool for storytelling, and how this play differs from everything else Don has done. 

The first of a two-part conversation between TNB Outreach Coordinator and playwright Jena McLean and playwright Don Hannah. In their conversation, Don shares his experience growing up in Shediac in the 1950s, learning what it means to be an outsider, and learning about Vivian Larsen and her adventures.  This conversation was edited for length and will be continued in the next episode. We hope you'll join us. 

On July 24, 1959, a 50-something widow from Shediac set off on the journey of a lifetime. Her mission: to meet Walt Disney and share with him a secret she believed would somehow pay for her daughter’s university education. Her means: a wagon pulled by a retired milk horse named Bob.

The story of Vivian Larsen plays an important part in our upcoming world premiere production of Resident Aliens by Don Hannah. This is her story.

Behind the Play is a podcast produced by Theatre New Brunswick. In this first episode we speak with Artistic and Executive Director Natasha MacLellan about her relationship with playwright Don Hannah and his work. 

Natasha is a passionate proponent of new scripts and new play development. And when the pandemic put a stop to live, in-person performances of all shapes and sizes, Natasha started TNB’s online Fall Festival of New Plays, in part, as a means of keeping playwrights and actors, as well as our audience, engaged in the art form at a rare time in history when ghost lights outnumbered stage lights on theatres around the world.

And it was through the Fall Festival that TNB audiences first engaged with one of Don’s plays. On October 2, 2021 we live-streamed a reading of Resident Aliens. After we had the chance to catch our breath, we all agreed this was a story that needed to reach a wider audience. And so here we are, a few months out from producing the play’s world premiere.

For this first episode of Behind the Play, we thought it would make sense to speak with Natasha and learn why she decided to program Resident Aliens as one of three plays in our first full season of theatre since 2019.