Handsome Alice, the theatre company that has been devoted to uplifting and unleashing the voices of women through the theatre, is continuing with that mission for their 2024-25 season.

That season is kicking off with the return of Makambe K. Simamba to a Calgary stage, with her two-time award-winning show Fathers, Lovers, Sons and Little Brothers, in partnership with Tarragon and Verb Theatre.

That show, said Handsome Alice Artistic Producer Meg Farhall, was one that the company was very excited to bring to Calgary for the upcoming season.

“I know that Makambe in particular, wanted her last time performing the show, she wanted to do that in Calgary. So we’re just so thrilled to be the company along with Verb and Tarragon,” she said.

“We are always just so excited to have her work, her perspective, her art voice, and I think is just incredibly important on the Canadian stage, not just for us here in Calgary. We’re so lucky that she got her start here and so we have that connection to her, and her work, and access to her work.”

Fathers, Lovers, Sons and Little Brothers is like Simamba’s last show in Calgary with Makambe Speaks at Ghost River Theatre, a one-woman show—and one that directly addresses the Black experience in Canada.

It tells the story of Slimm, a 17-year-old Black teenager and he finds himself in the first moments of his afterlife, and a sacred journey through the beyond and through his own choices in life.

It addresses the themes like what it means to be young and Black in Canada, and what it means to be mistreated as a person of colour by the authorities.

“We just are so thrilled to bring it back and expose our audiences to an artist who is making this kind of work, and sharing this kind of message that is just so important for human rights,” said Farhall.

Simamba took home two Dora Awards in 2019 for the show, one for writing and one for her solo performance, and has been highly reviewed by Canadian theatre critics for the past five years.

She has also been nominated as part of the ensemble cast of Three Sisters by Soulpepper Theatre Company and Obsidian Theatre Company for the 2024 Dora Awards.

That production runs from Sept. 13 to 28, at the Big Secret Theatre in Arts Commons.

Workshop to give artists a way to improve their craft through movement

Coming in October, and directed towards the entirety of Calgary’s performing arts community, is a Handsome Alice workshop entitled Body, Speech and Mind, which is being led by Maya Lewandowsky.

The workshop will provide performers opportunities to free their natural voice through a vocal training methodology developed by Lewandowsky that uses body breathing to reshape and empower voices.

Farhall said that she was excited to bring Lewandowsky to Calgary from her work all over Europe, as part of the season.

“It’s more geared towards artists increasing their practice as movers and speakers, and working on their tool, as you will, as performers. She practiced here for a few years… and so we’re excited to have her on board for that project,” Farhall said.

She said that workshop is open to everyone, despite Handsome Alice being primarily known for their “art with a heart” that impacts women, trans-women, and non-binary individuals.

“Anyone can come to that project. It’s not just for women, but oftentimes we find that those are the folks that are engaging with our work because of our mandate,” she said.

“Maya’s workshop will be for everybody, any actor, artists, musician, any kind of performer. It’s a performance workshop. Everybody’s welcome to join us for that, and really everything that we do.”

Lived experiences, reproductive rights, and global issues

Handsome Alice’s 2024-25 season is finishing with a play that touches on one of the biggest issues facing women over the past several years: Reproductive rights.

Singer-songwriter Sonia Deleo will be performing an intimate one-woman play entitled Two Moons: A Folk Lullaby that combines song and storytelling to trace her journey through reproductive rights and health care in Alberta.

“So to be able to handle that material, with such sensitivity and softness, A Lullaby is really special and I think an important way to connect to that kind of material, because it can be so polarizing for people,” said Farhall.

“We think maybe taking a gentler approach to these kinds of conversations will get us a little bit farther than screaming at each other and with picketing.”

She said that by making it a personal story, there was a hope that audience members would walk away from the play having a little more empathy for people on both sides of the argument.

“I think storytelling, in particular, is such an important way for people to have an access point into these kinds of issues. Understanding someone’s personal journey is a little bit easier than looking at statistics, or political attitudes. And so it makes it a little easier for people even to talk about when they have that lens to connect to the issue.”

And that, said Farhall, was the hope—to uplift people and invite them into productive conversation.

Tickets will be available for sale at handsomealice.com later this summer.