In Development
Wife of Bath
Cowritten with Evalyn Parry
An adaptation of Chaucer’s most popular character from The Canterbury Tales. Using a mash up of Middle English and contemporary slang, we meet a woman as much a product of medieval times as she is Amy Schumer or Taylor Swift telling it like it is today. The Wife of Bath stands in front of her audience on the hunt for a sixth husband. In doing so, she spins tales of the radical ways in which she has survived as a woman over the ages. She’s brash, funny, rude, sexy, political, provocative, touching, hilarious, charming, and always razor sharp.
Wife of Bath will produced by Brock University Dramatic Arts Department, 2027
Funded by the Hamilton City Enrichment Fund and a Ontario Arts Council Recommender Grant by Nightwood Theatre
Pirate Party
An opera for young performers by Anna Chatterton (libretto) and James Rolfe (music).
Commissioned by the Canadian Opera Children’s Company.
Funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council
O.A.
Cowritten with Karen Ancheta
The Canadian-born daughter of a Filipina immigrant moves with her family into her parent’s house, and discovers that her mother is spiralling into dementia. The family navigates intergenerational clashes, bitter memories, and power struggles as they grapple with what to do.
O.A. is a Filipino colloquial acronym for the English term “over acting”. O.A. describes striking a balance between being “too much” or “too little”. Where do you meet in the middle?
Playwright Residency at Theatre Aquarius, funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and Ontario Arts Council.
Development funded by The Hamilton City Enrichment Fund and an OAC Recommender grant from Tottering Biped Theatre
Girls Don’t Die Here
Cowritten with Shahrzad Arshadi, Dramaturgy by Soheil Parsa
A new play cowritten with activist and multidisciplinary artist Shahrzad Arshadi, about the stories of imprisoned Iranian women during the 1988 massacre of over 14,000 political prisoners, and the parallel stories of imprisoned Iranian protesters today. This is a story of unendurable horrors and also of hope.
Dramaturged by Soheil Parsa
Funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and an OAC Recommender Grant from Studio 180 Theatre
The Kathak Theatre Experiment
Created with Deepti Gupta
A performance that uses the rhythm and techniques of Kathak dance and language to inspire a rhythmical theatrical text. Created by choreographer and Kathak Dancer Deepti Gupta and playwright/actor Anna Chatterton.
Funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, The Ontario Arts Council, The Hamilton City Enrichment Fund, and OAC Recommender grants from Tottering Biped Theatre, Volcano Theatre and Suitcase in Point
Photo: L-R Ravi Naimpally, Anna Chatterton, Deepti Gupta.
Photo by Peter Riddihough
FUGUE
Music theatre
Composer James Rolfe
Originally commissioned by Tarragon Theatre
Fugue traces the mysterious eleven-day disappearance in 1926 of famed mystery novelist Agatha Christie.
The reason for Agatha’s disappearance is still disputed. Some thought she staged her own disappearance as revenge on her husband. Archie found doctors who diagnosed her with short-term amnesia, or a psychological ‘fugue state’. This phenomenon had only recently been described; its symptoms—sudden, unexpected escape from home or work, amnesia about one’s past, confusion about one’s identity, or the creation of a new identity—mirror Agatha Christie’s behaviour during her disappearance.
Funded by the Canada Council for the Arts; Ontario Arts Council and OAC Recommender grants from Tarragon Theatre and Theatre Aquarius
Tasogare (between us)
Created by Anna Chatterton, Claire Calnan and Haruna Kondo
Written by Anna Chatterton
Directed by Claire Calnan with Haruna Kondo
Tasogare (between us) is about an intercultural friendship that explores differing relationships to space, the environment, monsters, and the looming threat of the climate change crisis. This performance explores both personal and culturally-specific notions around the concept of monsters and Japanese Yokai. Created with an ensemble of 8 McMaster students. Dramaturgy by Ravi Jain.
Workshop Production: Dec 21, 2023, McMaster University
Funded by the Canada Council, The Ontario Arts Council and The Hamilton City Enrichment Fund