Congratulations To All Theatre NS Award Nominees Including Talent Trust Alumni

Congratulation to our Talent Trust alumnae for their nominations for a Theatre Nova Scotia 2020 Robert Merritt Award!

Veronique MacKenzie for Outstanding Choreography in Ben Hur with Festival Antigonish Summer Theatre and The Children with Keep Good [Theatre] Company.

Laura Vingoe-Cram for Outstanding Direction in The Children with Keep Good [Theatre] Company.

Eszther Horvath for Outstanding Musical Direction in Brundibar with Halifax Theatre for Young People. 

Shauntay Grant for Outstanding New Play by A Nova Scotian and Outstanding Production for The Bridge with 2b theatre and Neptune Theatre in association with Obsidian Theatre. 

Congratulations to all nominees! You can find the full list at Theatre Nova Scotia's website: 
https://www.theatrens.ca/robert-merritt-awards/nominations

photo credit: websites of all the mentioned artists above


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Shauntay Grant's play The Bridge at Neptune Theatre January 22 - February 10, 2019

Writer and storyteller Shauntay Grant.

Shauntay Grant’s play The Bridge will be onstage at Neptune Theatre’s Fountain Hall January 22 - February 10, 2019.

Shauntay received a Talent Trust scholarship to support her studies in music. She is a writer and storyteller who teaches creative writing at Dalhousie University.
As Halifax's third poet laureate, she organized Canada's first national gathering of Canadian poets laureate. 

Shauntay has presented her work at events including Canada’s national Word on the Street festivals, the Vancouver Writers Festival, Toronto's Luminato Festival, Australia's National Young Writers’ Festival, and the Jamaica Poetry Festival. 

Her plays have been presented by 2b theatre, Eastern Front Theatre, and Neptune Theatre in Halifax, Black Theatre Workshop in Montreal, and b current in Toronto.

Directed by Anthony Black, The Bridge is a 2b theatre company and Neptune Theatre co-production in association with Obsidian Theatre.

Set in a rural Black Nova Scotian community, The Bridge explores the complexities of a relationship between two brothers strained over 20 years of secrecy, sin and shame. Secrets are revealed one by one from the brothers themselves, as well as a trio of community gossips who provide the musical backdrop for this gospel-infused tale.

To purchase tickets, visit Neptune Theatre online.

To learn more about Shauntay Grant, visit her website at shauntaygrant.com.

Congratulations to Shauntay Grant on her Governor General’s Literary Award Nomination

Halifax writer Shauntay Grant is nominated for a
Governor General’s Literary Award  for her book Africville

Shauntay Grant is nominated for a Governor General’s Literary Award.

Shauntay’s book Africville, illustrated by Eva Campbell, is nominated in the Young People's Literature-Illustrated Books category.

Africville is nominated alongside At the Pond by Werner Zimmermann; Go Show the World: A Celebration of Indigenous Heroes by Wab Kinew and Joe Morse; Ocean Meets Sky by The Fan Brothers; and They Say Blue by Jillian Tamaki.

Africville launched on September 29 at the Africville Museum in Halifax.

Shauntay received a Talent Trust scholarship to support her studies in visual arts. She later switched disciplines and is now a writer and storyteller who teaches creative writing at Dalhousie University. 

As Halifax's third poet laureate, she organized Canada's first national gathering of Canadian poets laureate. 

Shauntay has presented her work at events including Canada’s national Word on the Street festivals, the Vancouver Writers Festival, Toronto's Luminato Festival, Australia's National Young Writers’ Festival, and the Jamaica Poetry Festival. 

Her plays have been presented by 2b theatre, Eastern Front Theatre, and Neptune Theatre in Halifax, Black Theatre Workshop in Montreal, and b current in Toronto. 

Africville tells the story of a young girl who visits the site of the former community in Halifax and imagines what it was once like: a place of brightly painted homes and children playing throughout the neighbourhood.

Approximately 1,400 Canadian titles were submitted for this year’s Governor General’s Awards. Africville is one of the 70 finalists. The winners are chosen by peer assessment committees.

The Governor General’s Literary Awards are one of Canada's oldest literary awards programs, with total annual prizes of $450,000. Winners each receive $25,000. Non-winning finalists receive $1,000, and the publisher of each winning book receives $3,000 to support promotional activities. 

The program, founded 82 years ago, is currently funded and administered by the Canada Council for the Arts. Winners will be announced on October 30, and the awards will be presented in Ottawa on November 28.

Africville is available to purchase online at Indigo Books and Amazon. To learn more about Shauntay, visit shauntaygrant.com.

Shauntay Grant's New Picture Book Africville Launches at the Prismatic Arts Festival

Shauntay Grant's newest picture book, Africville (Groundwood Books), launches at the Prismatic Arts Festival on September 13. 

The event, which includes a reading from the book, takes place at the Africville Museum in Halifax.

Africville, a collaboration with illustrator Eva Campbell, is available through Indigo Books and Amazon. Bring your copy to the launch for Shauntay to sign, or you can purchase a copy at the Museum.

Africville was a longstanding, vibrant Black community that was demolished in the 1960s and its residents forcibly relocated. That story is a tragic one. Shauntay brings to life the Africville that those outside the community don't often hear about, through family stories shared with her young protagonist — stories of brightly painted houses, children playing, and fishing and rafting in the community pond. 

Shauntay Grant is a writer and storyteller from Halifax, Nova Scotia. She teaches creative writing at Dalhousie University, and as Halifax's third poet laureate, she organized Canada's first national gathering of Canadian poets laureate. 

A Talent Trust scholarship recipient, she’s presented her work at events including Canada’s national Word on the Street festivals, the Vancouver Writers Festival, Toronto's Luminato Festival, Australia's National Young Writers’ Festival, and the Jamaica Poetry Festival. 

Shauntay’s plays have been presented by 2b theatre, Eastern Front Theatre, and Neptune Theatre in Halifax, Black Theatre Workshop in Montreal, and b current in Toronto. 

Africville Book Launch and Reading
Thursday, September 13, 11:00 a.m.
Africville Museum
5795 Africville Road, Halifax

Admission: free

You can also see Shauntay at the Halifax Word on the Street Festival on September 15 at 2:00 p.m., where she’ll give a reading, followed by a book signing, at the Halifax Central Library.

Nocturne 2016 - October 15, 2016 features several NSTT former Scholarship Recipients

Nocturne Halifax, October 15 from 6 p.m. - midnight

Nocturne is a wonderful event in itself but it is even better to see so many former scholarship recipients involved in it. 

This year you can see:
105. Lukas Pearse at Halifax City Hall

103. and 127. Mike Hirschbach's Halifax Circus at Barrington Street - St. Matthew's Church

113. Charley Young at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in a hands-on activity in the AGNS studio

117. Lukas Pearse with SuddenlyListen at 1313 Hollis Street

132. The portrait of Portia White at Government House, Barrington Street (smile)

212. Pamela Ritchie and Dorothée B. Rosen at Mary E. Black Gallery, 1061 Marginal Road

320. Robert Calnen at the Hidden Gallery, 1469 Birmingham Street

325. Shauntay Grant at Dalhousie Art Gallery

402. Jason Skinner at Propeller Brewery, 2015 Gottingen Street

The numbers are in reference to the Nocturne's map/location. 

To see the Nocturne online guide or download the program please go to: http://nocturnehalifax.ca/guide

Shauntay Grant: Stitched Stories at Dalhousie Art Gallery - Artist Talk on October 6 at 6:30 p.m.

"In the late 1700s and early 1800s, thousands of Blacks evaded American slavery and migrated north to Nova Scotia. With them they brought their songs, stories, language, customs, and crafts," explains the Dal art gallery. Amongst these crafts were quilts, richly patterned, "a refined practice passed down from generation to generation, woman to woman." "Stitched Stories: The Family Quilts" is on display at the Dalhousie Art Gallery until November 27. Join Shauntay Grant (former NSTT scholarship recipient) as she invites her grandmother and other family members to consider the themes of the exhibit, and pay tribute to their matriarch (Simmonds) and the life-giving work she performed with her hands.  Dalhousie Art Gallery Thursday, October 6, 2016 at 6:30 p.m. For more information on the exhibit visit http://artgallery.dal.ca/stiched-stories-family-quilts