Mistatim / Instant

By Erin Shields and Stephen Colella

In these two plays for young audiences, award-winning playwright Erin Shields presents the challenges of friendship and communication.

In Mistatim, which is based on a concept from Sandra Laronde of Red Sky Performance, two eleven-year-olds strike up an unlikely friendship at the fence between one’s reserve and the other’s ranch. On Speck’s side, she’s carved names of family members into the wooden posts as she tries to piece together her identity. On Calvin’s side, he’s trying to train a horse in order to prove himself to his father. When Speck realizes she can communicate with Calvin’s horse Mistatim, the pair work to liberate the animal, and in the process learn about one another’s cultures.

In Instant, three teens find out how far they’ll go in their quest to be seen and heard. Meredith is a singer-songwriter who makes YouTube videos of covers in an attempt to gain Internet fame. But her friend Jay, a rising hockey star, can’t understand why she won’t post her original songs. When their classmate Rosie suddenly goes viral after a video is posted of her singing to raise money for her father’s medical bills, Meredith’s jealousy takes over and she pushes Rosie too far, triggering a near-deadly response.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Playwrights Canada Press
• Release date: Nov 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9781770919310

Erin Shields

Erin Shields is a Canadian playwright best known for radical adaptations of classical texts which bring neglected female characters centre stage. Her additional text for Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing at The Stratford Festival gives a voice to silenced Hero at the climax of the play. Queen Goneril, which premiered at Soulpepper Theatre in rep with King Lear, centres Lear’s stifled daughters as they contend for power in a world that insists they remain powerless. Erin’s illuminating and hilarious adaptation of Paradise Lost (Stratford Festival), won the Quebec Writers Federation Prize for Playwriting. And her harrowing tragedy about sexual violence, If We Were Birds, won the Governor General’s Award for playwriting. Other plays include: Jane Eyre (Citadel Theatre), Piaf/Dietrich (Mirvish Productions/Segal Centre), Beautiful Man (Factory Theatre), The Lady from the Sea (The Shaw Festival), The Millennial Malcontent and Soliciting Temptation (Tarragon Theatre) and Instant (Geordie Theatre). Erin’s plays are published by Playwrights Canada Press and you can read more about upcoming projects on her website – www.erinshields.ca.

Book preview

9781770919297.jpg

Mistatim / Instant

Also by Erin Shields

If We Were Birds

Paradise Lost

Soliciting Temptation

Mistatim

Concept by Sandra Laronde

---

Instant

Erin Shields

Playwrights Canada Press

Toronto

Mistatim / Instant © Copyright

2018

by Erin Shields

First edition: November

2018

Cover art and design by Meags Fitzgerald

Playwrights Canada Press

202

-

269

Richmond St. W., Toronto, ON M

5

V

1

X

1

416

.

703

.

0013

:: [e-mail] :: www.playwrightscanada.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, downloaded, or used in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, except for excerpts in a review or by a licence from Access Copyright, www.accesscopyright.ca.

For professional or amateur production rights, please contact:

Ian Arnold at Catalyst TCM

312

-

100

Broadview Ave., Toronto, ON M

4

M

3

H

3

416

.

568

.

8673

:: [e-mail]

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Shields, Erin

[Plays. Selections]

          Mistatim ; Instant / by Erin Shields ; concept for Mistatim by Sandra Laronde.

Plays.

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN

978

-

1

-

77091

-

929

-

7

(softcover).--ISBN

978

-

1

-

77091

-

930

-

3

(PDF).--

ISBN

978

-

1

-

77091

-

931

-

0

(EPUB).--ISBN

978

-

1

-

77091

-

932

-

7

(Kindle)

          I. Laronde, Sandra II. Shields, Erin. Mistatim. III. Shields, Erin.

Instant. IV. Title.

PS

8637

.H

497

A

6

2018

                        jC

812

’.

6

                         C

2018

-

905798

-X

                                                                                             C

2018

-

905799

-

8

Playwrights Canada Press acknowledges that we operate on land which, for thousands of years, has been the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the New Credit, the Huron-Wendat, Anishinaabe, Métis and Haudenosaunee peoples. Today, this meeting place is home to many Indigenous peoples from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work and play here.

We acknowledge the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts — which last year invested $

153

million to bring the arts to Canadians throughout the country — the Ontario Arts Council (OAC), the Ontario Media Development Corporation and the Government of Canada for our publishing activities.

For my friend, Joc Palm

Contents

Foreword

Mistatim

Scene 1

Scene 2

Scene 3

Scene 4

Scene 5

Scene 6

Scene 7

Scene 8

Scene 9

Scene 10

Scene 11

Scene 12

Scene 13

Instant

About the Author

Landmarks

Cover

Half Title Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Table of Contents

Start of Text

Mistatim

Scene One

Scene Two

Scene Three

Scene Four

Scene Five

Scene Six

Scene Seven

Scene Eight

Scene Nine

Scene Ten

Scene Eleven

Scene Twelve

Scene Thirteen

Instant

About the Author

Page List

iii

iv

v

vi

vii

ix

x

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

56

57

58

59

60

61

62

63

64

65

66

67

68

69

70

71

72

73

74

75

76

77

78

79

80

81

82

83

84

85

86

87

88

89

90

91

92

93

94

95

96

97

98

99

100

101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

115

Foreword

by Stephen Colella

Erin Shields’s work with Sandra Laronde at Red Sky Performance and Dean Fleming at Geordie Theatre led to the creation of two individually compelling pieces of work for young audiences: Mistatim and Instant. It was with great pleasure that we were able to program the presentation of both at Young People’s Theatre (YPT). Each season at YPT is programmed around a theme or idea. Mistatim appeared in our fiftieth anniversary season, which was built upon YPT founder Susan Rubes’s belief that only the best is good enough for children. Instant played two seasons later under the theme finding yourself. I think these plays could have appeared interchangeably in either season as these two notions could hold true for both.

On the surface these two stories seem to have very little in common. In one, two people on traditional Cree territory attempt to save a horse. In the other, three people look to the Internet, and the fame that it brings, as a way to solve their individual problems.

The link between these plays is found not on the stage or page but in the audience who attends. The young protagonists in these