The View From Here
A documentary play and curated exhibition about the Grandview Training School for Girls.
This inter-arts project explores a darker side of the history of Waterloo Region, and the unique relationship between the playwright and the building which housed the reformatory school.
Grandview Training School for Girls was an infamous reformatory (or “training school”) in Cambridge from 1933-1976, run by the province. The surrounding community was aware of the violent abuse going on at the institution intended to reform “incorrigible” girls. Hannah Foulger lived at Grandview as a child while the building was owned by an Christian performing arts school, for which her parents worked. Unbenownst to her at the time, there was an investigation and a series of civil and criminal trials about the abuse that went on at the school.
The play follows her investigation into the school. She eventually interviews a survivor of the school, whose story begins to parallel Hannah’s own, as she realizes her time living in the building was not quite as ideal as she remembers.
The exhibition, which changes throughout the performance of the play, interrogates how personal narrative affects history and how we might integrate more difficult community history into our own story.
Key Collaborators:
Hannah Foulger (Writer, Actor, Grounding Artist)
Sheila McMath (Curator and Artistic Director of Inter Arts Matrix)
Eris Thomas (Director)
Gary Kirkham (Key artistic associate, production designer)
Heather Majaury (Artistic Associate)
Maggie Winter (Artistic Associate, Textiles and Garments)
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Hannah Foulger
Writer, Actor, Grounding Artist
Hannah Foulger (she/her) is a disabled writer and theatre artist in Toronto. Born in Amsterdam to British missionaries, she was raised in Cambridge, Ontario. She has a BA in English and Theatre at the university of Winnipeg and an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Guelph. Her writing has appeared in Prairie Fire, the Winnipeg Free Press, Matrix Magazine, and the Disabled Voices anthology. Her writing for performance has appeared in the PTE Festival of New Work, Femfest, the Winnipeg Fringe Festival and Sick and Twisted Theatre’s Lame Is…. cabarets. She lives and writes with a brain injury, epilepsy, and mental illness in Toronto.
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Sheila McMath
Curator and Artistic Director of Inter Arts Matrix
Sheila McMath (she/her) is a curator, facilitator, and community organizer. McMath is committed to cultivating long-standing relationships with artists at all stages of their careers and consciously building community in the arts. A graduate of the University of Waterloo's MFA program, McMath's work in the arts has been grounded in direct involvement with artist-run initiatives while simultaneously engaging with larger organizations. She was Curator of Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery from 2014 to 2019, while simultaneously co-founding Tri-City Stopgap, an artist collective that hosts exhibitions in marginal or transitional spaces. McMath was attracted to the experimental and interdisciplinary mission of Inter Arts Matrix and was appointed Artistic Director in 2020. She has received support from the Ontario Arts Council to support her work as an independent curator. McMath is consistently attracted to working with artists who have an impulse towards narrative, an engagement with psychological themes and experimental approaches to processes that are associated with craft.
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Eris Thomas
Director
Eris Thomas (they/them) is a Nonbinary, multi-disciplinary artist working in theatre as a director, dramaturg and performance maker. Their work explores the possibilities of hybrid performance forms, and is especially devoted to marginalized histories, the inventive use of bodies and objects, and the performance of memory. They are a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s Directing program, and a founding member of Other Hearts Collective, a Dora Nominated, interdisciplinary performance collective. Selected Credits: Director/Performer Invisible Artists Carnival (Other Hearts/Eyelevel Gallery, Nocturne 2023), Director Quartet (Other Hearts in association w Video Cabaret, 2024, Dora Nominated), Performer/Creator Entwined/Distilled (Sto Union in association with Other Hearts, Nuit Blanche 2024).
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Gary Kirkham
Artistic Associate, Production Designer
Gary is a video projection and theatre artist. He created live video performances for Numus, Canadian Arab Theatre, Randolph Academy, and the critically acclaimed Music and the Shadow People by William Parker & Andrew O’Conner. He's created installations for Idea Exchange, Night Shift, CAFKA, and UnSilent Night. Gary has authored several plays including Falling: A Wake, Queen Milli of Galt, Pocket Rocket (w/Lea Daniel) and Pearl Gidley. He collaborated with MT Space for AMAL, Body13 and The Last 15 Seconds . His plays have been translated into French, Italian and Arabic and have been performed in over 100 theatres internationally.
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Heather Majaury
Artistic Associate
Heather Majaury (Artistic Director - Outta Work Actors Inc.) founder of the Kaleidoscope Two Minute Play Laboratory is also currently co-directing The Canadian Dream as a part of this year's IMPACT Festival. Having written and performed her own monodrama grappling with a complex legacy and relationship to colonialism in 2015 she was asked to support and advise on The View From Here. It has been an honour to walk with Hannah in a small way on her journey toward presenting her story about growing up on the grounds of the Grandview Training School for Girls. Exploring the intimate with the epic inside the ephemeral and lasting imprints of difficult history.
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Maggie Winter
Artistic Associate, Textiles and Garments
Maggie Winter is a creative living in the west end of Toronto who moved to the city from Portland, Oregon in 2021. She recently graduated from Toronto Metropolitan University studying Art and Contemporary Studies and often focused her projects on the history of textiles throughout the world and its intersection with traditional women’s work. She is excited about her first foray into costuming as a lifelong sewist, taking her passion for garments in a new direction.