What is your role in this production? I play Miss Blake, who teaches Moral Science at Girton College.
What is your background in theatre? At Walterdale? I did a bit of acting in high school, and I’ve done some educational and promotional films for Alberta Health Services. More recently I’ve been taking acting classes and studying singing. I’ve done two other plays at the Walterdale in the last 12 months, Portrait of a Family Dinner and Shatter.
What brought you out for this show? Why did you want to be a part of it? I really wanted to work with Laura Ly and Anglia Redding again, and I’ve just fallen in love with the play! It’s an amazing mix of sweet and funny and powerful!
What has been the most fun thing about working on the show? The biggest challenge? I love playing miss Blake because she is smart, brave, and so passionate about Women’s rights. I’ve also really enjoyed working with ‘my girls’! There have been no challenges at all- it’s been a pure pleasure!
What do you think audiences will take away from the show? Why should they come and see it? I think people will be saddened to realize how educationally disadvantaged women were historically, and I hope that they will be inspired and grateful for how far we’ve come in 120 years!
This show is about the advancement of women in history… who is a woman from the past (or present) that has inspired you? Why? I am an RN and an Infection Control Professional at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, and I think all nurses have a reverence for Florence Nightingale. “The Lady with the Lamp” is the quintessential nurse figure! In 1894, Nightingale trained 38 volunteer nurses who served in the Crimean War. These nurses tended to the wounded soldiers and sent reports back regarding the status of the troops. Nightingale and her nurses reformed the hospital so that clean equipment was always available and they modernized patient care. Nightingale realized that many of the soldiers were dying because of unsanitary living conditions, and, after the war, she worked to improve living conditions in the community. While she was at war, the Florence Nightingale Fund for the Training of Nurses was established in her honor. After the war, Nightingale wrote Notes on Nursing and opened the Women’s Medical College with Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell. International Nurses Day is celebrated each year on Nightingale’s birthday, May 12th!