Victoria Playhouse is delighted to produce Kristen Da Silva’s new play Where You Are as part of its 2019 Festival Season. Canada’s most produced playwright, Norm Foster calls Da Silva, “one of the brightest new comedic playwrights in all of Canada” and her plays have been shortlisted for and won the Stage West Comedy Award. Kristen Da Silva is a young Canadian playwright whose star is rising.

At once hilarious and heartwarming, Where You Are takes place in rural Manitoulin Island in Ontario. Rural settings are central to all Da Silva’s works and the playwright herself grew up in small-town Ontario, surrounded by farmland. It’s an environment she knows well and one that she says lends itself well to comedy.

“There’s no anonymity in the country. You really can know everyone in your community and that can lead to some pretty funny situations”.

Da Silva has the ideal combination of experiences to bring those funny situations to light. An early interest in performance led her to drama classes and improv in high school. Then, as a student at York University, she was a company member of Vanier College Productions and a founding member of the Vanier Improv Company, where she honed her comedy-writing chops. A career in theatre didn’t seem viable, however, so following graduation she went to work in the human resources department of an oil and gas company, a job which, it turned out, gave her ample opportunity to absorb the humour of human nature.

In 2016, she left the HR world to write and act full-time. She has since produced six full-length scripts and taken on the role of playwright-in-residence at Theatre Orangeville, while continuing to act, direct, and teach theatre both in professional and amateur companies.

Where You Are is her fifth play and her first to be produced in Atlantic Canada. The Victoria Playhouse production plays from June 25^th to July 28^th in Victoria.

PEI Professional Theatre Network