Photo by Wesley J. Colford

Sarah Prosper, Ally Martin, Keely Basque, Kayleigh Denny, Shanna Francis, Kaylee Denny, Shae Denny, Neylan Stevens, Deanna Johnston, Jesse Benjamin, and Kate Munro-Bergfeldt stand on P.E.I.’s Confederation Centre for the Arts stage during a tech rehearsal for Samqwan.

In 2021, the Highland Arts Theatre commissioned Eskasoni choreographer and dance artist Sarah Prosper to create a theatre piece for their summer Main Stage season of shows. The commission was made possible because of the HAT's Radical Access program with its hundreds of donors and supporters.

What followed was the creation of Prosper’s dance-focused, multi-disciplinary show Samqwan. The show quickly sold out its first run and then returned in 2022 for a second, which included another week of shows at the HAT and a series of performances at Halifax’s Neptune Theatre.

Now in 2023, Samqwan is on the road again, but this time to Prince Edward Island as part of this year’s Canada Games celebrations.

The Cape Breton team performed on March 1st at the famous Confederation Centre for the Arts in Charlottetown and its 1,100 seat audience - the same stage where Anne of Green Gables has performed for decades.

This iteration of the show features a cast of 10 (Sarah Prosper, Ally Martin, Keely Basque, Kayleigh Denny, Shanna Francis, Kaylee Denny, Shae Denny, Neylan Stevens, Deanna Johnston, Aaron Prosper, and Jesse Benjamin), Kate Munro-Bergfeldt as stage manager, and Wesley J. Colford as producer.

“The organizers saw the show when we took it to Neptune Theatre and asked us if we’d be interested in representing Nova Scotia artists at the Canada Games in 2023,” commented the HAT’s Executive and Artistic Director Wesley J. Colford. “Obviously we were honoured and excited to bring Sarah and the team’s incredible work to a larger audience. It’s another amazing step for this groundbreaking show.”

The show took place on March 1st as part of the Games’ Illumination Festival, headlining alongside Joel Plaskett, Lennie Gallant, and Alicia Toner. Samqwan was met with a standing ovation as the show came to a close.

Production Media Reference: Wesley J. Colford

Phone: (902) 565-5970

Email: [email protected]

Highland Arts Theatre

40 Bentinck Street, Sydney, NS B1P 6G2

902-565-3637

[email protected]