Nowhen: the stage play adapted from our stories

nowhen (noun) – “A point from which one has an unrestricted perspective in time.” 

nowhen was a Canadian Stage production in collaboration with the Department of Theatre, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design at York University, presented in partnership with Summerworks that ran at High Park Theatre from August 9-18, 2021. It is a collective creation led by York University Theatre and Canadian Stage MFA Candidate Alison Wong with Cole Avis, César el Hayeck, Djennie Laguerre, and Miquelon Rodriguez. The play was adapted from stories originally published in the Living Hyphen magazine and written by Anika Rasheed, Victoria Liao, Lance Morrison, Thunderclaw Robinson, Alison Isaac, Ayla Lefkowitz, Emily Kedar, Nariné, Karen Lahura, and Dee Stoicescu.

We at Living Hyphen are a community made up of people from diasporas from all around the world, as well as Indigenous people from many nations. And ‘nowhen’ was a reflection of just that. 

While our time at the High Park Amphitheatre has come to a close, we continue to sit with the questions it brought to the forefront of our minds. Questions about our place on this land, and the role and responsibility that comes with that. Questions that challenge and invite us to co-exist with one another in a way that makes just and equitable futures possible. 

Yasmine Amirkhani in 'nowhen.' Photo by John Lauener.

Yasmine Amirkhani in 'nowhen.' Photo by John Lauener.

In ‘nowhen’, audience members were invited to gather at one of seven different entry points to experience one of seven choreographed narratives adapted from stories featured in our magazine. Each path told the story of someone’s migration to or origin on this land. We were then led to the amphitheatre where all the paths converged. 

For us, ‘nowhen’ is a metaphor for our migration and movement stories as we converge on this land we now know as Canada. It is a celebration of our relationship to this place that we all find ourselves in today. It is a piece of important theatre that sits in this moment where, now more than ever, we see how legacies of colonialism, imperialism, and other systems of oppression endure to create the deep and ravaging inequities of today. It is a powerful meditation and urgent challenge for us to act in solidarity to share and care for this land and for each other. 

We carry these lessons with us forward in our work.

MEET THE DIRECTOR: ALison wong

Alison Wong is the York University Theatre and Canadian Stage MFA Candidate who is the lead creator and director of nowhen.

When Alison first reached out to us via Instagram direct message asking where she could purchase a copy of Living Hyphen’s inaugural issue called Entrances & Exits, we had no idea of the magic that would later unfold. We had no idea that just a month or so later, we would be meeting for a socially-distanced coffee and then a walk through High Park to seriously discuss the possibility of collaborating to adapt stories from the magazine into a staged production. We had no idea that this seemingly trivial interaction would lead to the creation of nowhen.

Our founder, Justine, had the privilege of interviewing Alison for Intermission Magazine to chat about her process in creating this immersive, diverse, and experimental production, how the pandemic has influenced her approach and her perspective, and the importance of the concept of place that is at the centre of nowhen. 

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