I Am An Island Digital Program

HERE FOR NOW THEATRE

by Julia Lederer May 27 - June 7, 2026

WORLD PREMIERE www.herefornowtheatre.com 519.272.HFNT (4368)

WELCOME TO OUR 2026 SEASON I am thrilled to As the Executive welcome you to Director of Here an extraordinary For Now year of theatre.

Theatre, I am so Our 2026 season genuinely celebrates excited to be on curiosity, his journey with you. I have sat where you are courage, and the exhilarating sitting now, watching this artistry of taking bold creative company create something truly leaps. Each play in this year’s special, and I have felt the magic lineup is united by fearless that unfolds on this stage. imagination. These remarkable playwrights embrace risk in ways that feel fresh, daring, and deeply Together, we will continue our commitment to great actors, resonant. Their stories challenge thoughtful directors, strong expectations and invite us to see scripts, and performances that the world - and ourselves - from move us, now within this new perspectives. beautifully re-configured, intimate thrust space that brings artists As a company devoted to and audiences closer than ever developing new work, we believe before. theatre should be alive with possibility: a space where Thank you for believing in this work. Your support has made all boundaries are pushed, of this possible. With all of us narratives are expanded, and gathered here, sharing this space discovery happens night after night. This season embodies that and this moment, I know we will continue to create bold, powerful spirit. theatre in the Rose McQueen Performance Space, work that is I cannot wait to share these alive, daring, and deeply human. powerful stories with you.

Welcome to 2026.

Crystal L. Spicer Executive Director Fiona Mongillo Artistic Director

I AM AN ISLAND

by Julia Leder May lives on a tiny island surrounded by friends, family, and the occasional martini-swilling ghost. The only problem? May's island is sinking, and she can't get anyone to pay attention.

As May stages a very personal protest to bring attention to this looming disaster, we begin to see her struggles are not just external.

What's really sinking here? And can May do what needs to be done before it's too late?

From the author of 2024’s smash hit With Love and a Major Organ.

A Note from the Artistic Director I am thrilled to welcome back the singular voice of playwright Julia Lederer for her second Here For Now production. I Am An Island is a wildly imaginative new play about survival, love, and the stories we tell ourselves to make this world livable when we are surrounded by socio-political and environmental forces that feel incomprehensibly large. Set on a slowly sinking island where the community refuses to leave, the play follows May as she tries to convince those she loves that staying may not be the same as surviving. Lederer’s writing rides a delicate line between fable and reality: twins who balance light and shadow; a fiancé building hope out of balloons and platform shoes; a haunting grandmother with a martini in hand; and a chorus that insists, “our island has been sinking since before our grandparents’ grandparents walked its soil.”

I cannot wait to share this delightful world premiere with HFN audiences.

Fiona Mongillo Artistic Director Here For Now Theatre

Show Sponsor: Lucille Roch Production Supporters: Thomas R Verny and Sandra Collier Linda MacDonald and Thomas Gray Fiona Mongillo

CAST & CREATIVE TEAM Cast Nick Dolan* Ben

Barbara Gordon* Grandmother

Brianna Rodrigues April

Kelly Van der Burg* Sandra

Siobhan O’Malley May

Creative Team Julia Lederer Playwright

Allison Plamondon* Director

Wendy Ewert Stage Manager

Darren Burkett Lighting Designer

Adam Campbell Sound Designer

Ariel Slack Set Designer

Jennie Wonnacott Costume Designer Running Time: Approximately 85 minutes, with no intermission

Because of the close, immersive nature of our theatre, we’re unable to seat latecomers once the performance has started. For the same reason, we can’t offer re-entry if you step out during the show. We invite you to arrive early, settle in, and enjoy the full experience with us.

For more information about the show and to see production photos scan the QR code:

I Am An Island is produced by permission of Julia Lederer. *The participation of these Artists is arranged by permission of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association under the provisions of the Dance-Opera-Theatre Policy (DOT).

PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTE I think a theatre is like an island; a world we inhabit together, even for a short time.

The idea for I Am An Island came from a conversation with a documentary filmmaker, Bex Kamara. She told me of a project she was working on about an island that is sinking, yet none of its inhabitants will leave.

This idea is terrifying and beautiful at once.

When I write, it is always with a question I can't answer alone.

Here, it is: “How do we live on a sinking world and maintain hope?”

I began writing I Am An Island at the Banff Centre, in a cabin shaped like a boat. I continued with Watering Hole Collective in Dallas, and then at Boston Court in Pasadena. This is the first production of this script. That it is here, in Ontario, means a lot, especially for a play so focused on home.

The world premiere of anything is an experiment approached with passion, vulnerability, and hope. Bringing an audience in transforms a play into something new. It is another terrifying and beautiful thing.

Thank you for coming to this island.

“All good things must begin.” – Octavia E. Butler

Julia Lederer Playwright

Let’s start.

DIRECTOR’S NOTE How do we find hope in a sinking world?

When I first read Julia Lederer’s I Am An Island, I was struck by her ability to bounce between poetic language and bone dry wit with ease. It’s a rare script that manages to find the lyrical within the absurd and I think Mr. Beckett would be proud.

We meet May at a breaking point, coming to terms with a harsh truth. Will the rest of her community face reality or will they remain in the comfort of denial? This play asks us to consider how we respond when the ground beneath us is no longer solid. It delicately navigates the complexities of human relationships while evoking the precarious state of our planet. I am inspired by May’s resilience, the potential of rebirth, and the ever-present possibility for us all to reframe our own narratives.

Thank you for visiting our island.

Allison Plamondon Director

COMPANY BIOGRAPHIES DARREN BURKETT - LIGHTING DESIGNER Darren is thrilled to be back for the whole summer season at HFN! Previous Design work: Apples in Winter [Set, Lighting and Costume], Dinner with the Duchess [Set in a co-pro with Crows Theatre], 12 Dinners [Set], Life Without [Set and Costume], The Fox [Set] (Here For Now), Legally Blonde [Set] (Metro Theatre), Wizard of Oz [Set] (Pulse Productions), Something Rotten, Seussical The Musical [Set], Mamma Mia! [Set and Lighting] (Secondary Characters), and multiple set and lighting designs for dance and theatre schools in Vancouver. As an actor, he has worked across the globe. Many thanks to the whole HFN team for the unwavering trust in me, and his family, friends and especially Hunter for their never ending love and support!

ADAM CAMPBELL - SOUND DESIGNER Adam Campbell is a Dora-nominated composer, sound designer and musician.

Originally from Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Adam has worked as sound designer/composer with Stratford Festival, Blyth Festival, Human Body Expression, Tarragon Theatre, Canadian Stage, Here For Now Theatre, Edmonton Opera, Capitol Theatre and more. Adam made his Here For Now debut as sound designer and composer for 2025’s Reproduktion, and is thrilled to join HFN for several productions this season. Adam has toured and performed throughout North America as a percussionist with TorQ Percussion Quartet and Ladom Ensemble, and regularly plays in the pit for musical theatre productions with companies such as Mirvish Productions and Stratford Festival. In 2019, Adam released his debut solo singer-songwriter album, Guess I’m A People Too, featuring a mix of folk, rock and 90’s-tinged original music. Adam currently lives in Stratford, Ontario, with his wife Alice and their cats Ninja and Nazca.

COMPANY BIOGRAPHIES NICK DOLAN - BEN Selected Credits: Billy Cane in Bright Star (Mirvish), Gordon in Rent, Prince Escalus in Romeo & Juliet, Seth Soakem in London Assurance (Stratford Festival); Jason Powers in The Louder We Get (Theatre Calgary); Sloane Sherman in Killing Time, Dean in Iris Says Goodbye (Mixtape Projects); Demetrius/Snout in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Driftwood Theatre); Andrej in Once Theatre St. John’s); Jonathan Harker in (Written in Blood (Talk is Free Theatre). Film/TV: Partum; recurring principal on Locke & Key; No. 8 Reporting. Training: BFA, Toronto Metropolitan University. Et cetera: Special thanks to Mia at The Characters, to my brother Sean and parents Jen and John, and to my partner Sara. I love you all.

WENDY EWERT - STAGE MANAGER Delighted to be back as Stage Manager with Here For Now! Past stage management experience includes various with Here For Now; numerous shows for summer seasons and fundraisers at Victoria Playhouse Petrolia; A Stratford Christmas (Stratford Arts and Culture Collective); I Love a Piano, Hollywood Sings (Drayton Entertainment); Dracula: A Chamber Musical, Ballycroy (INNERchamber); Starbright Christmas (Stratford Festival, Imperial Theatre, VPP); and various for D2 Entertainment and Musical Theatre Productions.

COMPANY BIOGRAPHIES BARBARA GORDON - GRANDMA Barbara has spent over 50 happy years as an actress in Canada. She has performed in theatres across the country, from the Belfry, the Playhouse, Citadel, Downstage, Theatre Calgary and Alberta Theatre Projects, The Globe, RMTC, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Centaur, 2B, and Mulgrave Coop, to every major Toronto theatre, most recently as Polonius in Why Not Theatre’s tours of Prince Hamlet.

Selected work in television includes The Testaments, Boston Blue, The Boys, Best Laid Plans, Little Mosque on the Prairie, Wonderland, and several Hallmark MOWs. Film work has included Learning to Love Again, Skinwalkers, Hyper Cube, Men with Brooms, Dead Ringers, Three to Tango.

She is married to writer Douglas Rodger and has two children, Melody and Dougal and two brilliant grandchildren. She enjoys volunteer work and life at the cottage.

JULIA LEDERER - PLAYWRIGHT An acclaimed writer, Julia's plays have been produced across North America and in Europe and her films have screened at festivals including SXSW, TIFF, and Palm Springs.

Recent productions: Gather (with Julie Ritchey, MTYP), FLIES (Bombshell Dance Collective @ Dallas’ AT&T Performing Arts Center), and With Love and a Major Organ (Here For Now). Now often in LA, she is developing The Minister of Loneliness in Circle X Theatre’s Evolving Playwrights Group. Julia's award-winning feature film adaptation of With Love and a Major Organ, is streaming on Fandora (CAN) and Prime (US). Upcoming: With Love... @Cyrano's Theatre in Alaska.

COMPANY BIOGRAPHIES SIOBHAN O’MALLEY - MAY Selected Theatre Credits: Jill Banford in The Fox, Jessica in Spit, Belle in Post Alice, Rory in A Hundred Words for Snow, Rue in Whack! (Here For Now Theatre); Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion (Guild Festival Theatre); Fanny in Mary of Shanty Bay (Theatre by the Bay); Mary in Mary’s Wedding, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Festival Players of Prince Edward County); Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing (The SecretShakespeare Series); Catherine Givings in In the Next Room (or The Vibrator Play), Martha in Spring Awakening, Rosalind in As You Like It, and Yelena in Uncle Vanya (The Lir). Training: Honours BA in Acting, The Lir National Academy of Dramatic Art (Trinity College Dublin/RADA).

Siobhan is an Artistic Associate and Marketing Coordinator with Here For Now Theatre.

ALLISON PLAMONDON - DIRECTOR Allison is passionate about directing new works. Canadian highlights include Walking Home (Theatre Centre) and writer/director/choreo for And I Never Stopped Dancing (Smile Theatre). New York City premieres include Memory Home (HB Studio Resident Artist), What’s YOUR Problem?!

(Wild Project/Ars Nova), The Greater and Lesser Edmunds of the World and President’s Day (both for Greenhouse Ensemble), and director/choreo/concept for The Tchaikovsky Vignettes (HB Studio Resident Artist). She also directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the 14th St Y. Allison is a member of the first all-female creative team to receive Opera America’s Robert L.B. Tobin Director-Designer prize (2021-22) for Orfeo Ed Euridice and was the apprentice director on Orphee+ with Edmonton Opera. Also a choreographer, highlights include Kimberly Akimbo (Segal/Mirvish), White Christmas, Damn Yankees, and Holiday Inn for the Shaw Festival, as well as choreography for the Oscar-winning short film, Curfew. OffBroadway assistant work includes Make Mine Manhattan (Associate, Connelly Theatre), Freckleface Strawberry (Associate, New World Stages) and an SDCF Observership with Kathleen Marshall on Bells Are Ringing for City Center Encores.

COMPANY BIOGRAPHIES BRIANNA RODRIGUES - APRIL After participating in Not Just Empty Space’s reading last summer, Brianna is both so excited and so honoured to be returning to the Here For Now theatre stage sans script in her hands! Growing up in Montreal, Brianna’s biggest passion in life was the arts, which meant she always knew she wanted to be a part of what makes theatre so special. Be it through acting, singing, or lightly tapping her toes, she loves to entertain. Some of her other credits include Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Cat in the Hat in Seussical! The Musical. She would like to thank her partner and parents for their endless support, and Fiona Mongillo for giving her this chance to do what she loves.

ARIEL SLACK - SET DESIGNER Ariel Slack is a multidisciplinary artist who writes, performs, and designs, and is currently Props Buyer at the Stratford Festival. Some theatre companies they have worked for as a set designer include Carousel Theatre, Geekenders, Tumbleweeds Theatre, Ensemble Theatre Company, the frank theatre, and now… Here For Now! Ariel has also been an assistant designer at the Stratford Festival on 5 shows, and was the winner of the 2022 Cultchivating the Fringe Award (Vancouver Fringe Festival) for their one person show How to Believe in Anything. They are a Jessie Award nominee, an Ovation Award winner, and completed their first international tour with Tumbleweeds Theatre's show A Little Green Leaf last fall. Proud associate member of ADC and Studio 58 grad.

See more at: https://arielslack.squarespace.com/

COMPANY BIOGRAPHIES KELLY VAN DER BURG - SANDRA Selected Credits: Buying The Farm (Drayton Entertainment), Perfect Wedding (Upper Canada Playhouse), Renovations for Six (Aquarius), Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Leroy Street Theatre).

Film/TV: Borje (Crave), Heartland (CBC), Designed With Love(Lifetime), Decoys (CBC Gem), Cardinal (Netflix), IT: Chapter 2 (WarnerBros), The Kennedys After Camelot ( Reelz), and Canadian Indie Feature Body and Bones. Training: BA in Theatre; Bishop’s University. Graduate of the CBC Actor’s Conservatory. Et cetera: Thank you to Christo, Reaney and Clarence for your support and love

JENNIE WONNACOTT - COSTUME DESIGNER Jennie has enjoyed a two-decade theatre career as a costume cutter and tailor, designer and professor. As a theatre professional that takes joy in the success of her peers, Jennie recently made the switch to a career in art administration to assist in facilitating what artists do best! Select design credits include 12 Angry Men and Steel Magnolias (Drayton Entertainment), and The Magic Flute (UWO). Jennie has surpassed 24 seasons at the Stratford Festival in wardrobe production. She is the 2016 recipient of the Pauline McGibbon award, and recently completed an MA is Arts Leadership from Queens University.

HERE FOR NOW THEATRE Founded in 2012 by Artistic Director Fiona Mongillo, Here For Now Theatre began as a pop-up company in Stratford dedicated to bold contemporary plays and underrepresented voices. With a focus on intimate, actor-driven productions, the company quickly established a reputation for fearless storytelling and powerful performances.

In 2020, while theatres across the country were closed, Here For Now launched a groundbreaking outdoor repertory season on the lawns of The Bruce Hotel. The innovative season drew national attention and critical acclaim, creating a unique gathering place for artists and audiences at a time when live theatre felt especially vital.

In the years that followed, the company continued to grow its national profile, commissioning and developing new plays while building a loyal and expanding audience.

In 2025, Here For Now opened its permanent 60-seat home in the beautifully restored Perth County Registry Office and unveiled the Rose McQueen Performance Space.

Today, Here For Now produces year-round programming that champions daring new work and the immediacy of live performance, bringing audiences together for powerful, intimate theatre in the heart of Stratford.

HERE FOR NOW TEAM Fiona Mongillo | Artistic Director Crystal L. Spicer | Executive Director Marie Farsi | Interim Associate Artistic Director Siobhan O’Malley | Artistic Associate & Marketing Coordinator Adam Steinbach | Technical Coordinator Jocelyn Nicholson | Social Media & Audience Experience Coordinator

Mark Uhre | 2026 Season Artwork Sara-Jeanne Hosie | Show Images Ann Baggley | Production Photography Siobhan O’Malley | Promotional Photography Jocelyn Nicholson and Fawn Adair| Trailers Tabworks | Bookkeeping & Payroll

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Susan Moffat | Chair Frances O’Malley | Past Chair Jessica B. Hill | Artist Representative Laura Dinner | Treasurer Jo-Dee Burbach | Secretary

LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT We acknowledge that our theatre stands on the traditional territory of the Anishnabek, Haudenosaunee, and Ojibway/Chippewa peoples. We recognize the enduring presence and deep artistic traditions of Indigenous communities in this space and across Turtle Island.

As storytellers, we honour the generations of knowledge keepers, artists, and caretakers who have shaped this land’s history. We commit to listening, learning, and building meaningful relationships as we share and celebrate the power of theatre, and invite you to do the same.

Thank you to our Sponsors Foundation Sponsor The William and Nona Heaslip Foundation Season Sponsors Larry Beare Sylvia Chrominska Bill and Janet L’Heureux Kelly and Scott Morrison Beverly and Douglas Valentine Technical Equipment Sponsor Robert Lott and Dr. Anne Robinson

Workshop and Development Sponsor Bob and Martie Sachs

Limited Engagement Series Sponsor Laura Dinner and Richard Rooney

I Am An Island Show Sponsor Lucille Roch I Am An Island Production Supporters Thomas R Verny and Sandra Collier Linda MacDonald and Thomas Gray Fiona Mongillo

Coming up next in 2026....

2026 CONTACT US 24 St Andrew St. Stratford, ON www.herefornowtheatre.com 519.272.HFNT (4368) @herefornowtheatreco

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