Home and
By Olena Wawryshyn
Six years ago, when
playwright and teacher Dan Ebbs visited
“I’ve
always been a human rights ‘nut’,” says Ebbs, “and get incensed when I see
someone’s rights taken away. I had no
idea it [the internment] had taken place. It was obviously a story that needed
to be told,” he adds.
Ebbs,
who trained at
During
1914-20, more than 8,000 individuals, mostly civilian non-combatants,
Ukrainians and other immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, were interned
at camps across
While
conducting his research, Ebbs also discovered Yurij Luhovy's National Film
Board of Canada film about internment, Freedom Had a Price; got in touch
with the UCCLA; and spoke to Ukrainian-Canadians whose relatives had been
interned.
The
fruit of his work, Home and Native Land, took over two years and seven
drafts to write. An early draft of the
play was read last October to an audience who offered their critical input, and
in March, Ebbs received comments from dramaturge Gil Garrett of
After
conducting auditions last June, Ebbs, who also directs the production, gathered
together a cast with a wide range of experience.
The
final product is a two-act drama that follows the story of a young Ukrainian
immigrant farmer, Petro, who is separated from his wife Nadia, when he is sent
to the Castle Mountain Internment Camp at
Through
the play Ebbs has been able to combine his love of theatre with another one of
his professional interests – teaching.
Ebbs, who has taught in
“The
best way of getting this information about the internment out is through the
schools,” he says. For this reason, Home
and Native Land is being presented at three matinee performances that will
be attended by local high school students.
Before one of these performances, librarian and editor Andrew
Gregorovich will give a lecture on the internment.
Home
and Native Land is specifically being
premiered in October, “as right now high school students are studying World War
One,” says Ebbs. He says that students need to learn not only about the
soldiers who sacrificed their lives but the people back home in
The
play’s script and an accompanying study guide, geared to high-school History,
English, and Drama students, have been published by Cardinal House of
Publishing.
These
materials and others on the internment provided by the Shevchenko Foundation,
the UCCLA, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, and MP Inky Mark, who initiated a
Private Member’s Bills relating to restitution for the internment, will be on
hand during the performances of Home and Native Land.
In
addition, copies of "We Are Good People," a CD by singer/songwriter
Maria Dunn, who explores Western Canadian stories, will be on sale. Her music
is incorporated into Home and Native Land, as is a song called
"Look," which also deals with the internment. "Look" was
written by Donna Creighton and Jo-Ann Lawton, a London-Ontario duo who call
themselves Sirens.
Archival
photos of the internment camps are also incorporated into Home and Native
Land in a slide presentation.
The
staging of the play is “an awareness event” says Ebbs, “a memorial for people
who are from that heritage and relatives of the people who suffered in the
camps.”
Ebbs
says this premiere of Home and Native Land is only a first step. The next phase, says Ebbs, is to “develop it
as a radio drama and to market it to the CBC.”
Ebbs also envisages a subsequent national tour with a production that
would be staged at the sites of all the 24 internment camps and holding
stations across the country. Finally, he would like to see the script developed
into an “all-Canadian film production.”
To
realize this dream, Ebbs is raising money through grants and donations.
Home
and Native Land is being staged from
October 12-15 (with a public dress rehearsal on October 11) at the McManus Studio Theatre; 471