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I Was Here A workshop of a play by Emily Keyes in the hiOttawa Jail Hostel February 2016 Co-produced by Carleton Public History Department EMILY/MARIA | Hayley Berteka MARY ANN/MOTHER | Nicole Bedford MARIAH/CASSIDY | Andrea Connell CHESTER/JOHN | Dean Tardioli ROBERT/BRIAN/NICK | Tim Ginley PRODUCER/DIRECTOR | Mariah Horner PLAYWRIGHT | Emily Keyes Time: 1882. Place: Goulbourn, Ontario, and the Carleton County Gaol, Ottawa, Canada. |
Dean Tardioli, Photo by Mariah Horner
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I Was Here is a one-act piece that explores a fateful shooting outside of Ottawa, and the entanglement of bringing it to the stage. It was inspired by the research of Emily Keyes as part of her graduate work at Carleton University into the shooting of Robert McCaffrey in 1882 by his pregnant lover, Maria Spearman.All the characters in this piece are real, in the sense that they lived and died. However, the play should not be taken as an account of what “really happened.” Instead, it is the writer’s imagining of what may have happened, and the events that led to the death of Robert McCaffrey, and the imprisonment of Maria and Chester Spearman. It is also an exploration into the difficulties of adapting history for the stage, and the indebtedness we feels to “get it right.”
This staged reading will be performed in the Carleton County Gaol, now the HI-Ottawa Jail Hostel. This staged reading is presented in partnership with the Dean Catherine Khorduc and the Office of the Dean of Arts, Carleton University, The Frank Underhill Endowment Fund and the HI-Ottawa Jail Hostel.
This staged reading will be performed in the Carleton County Gaol, now the HI-Ottawa Jail Hostel. This staged reading is presented in partnership with the Dean Catherine Khorduc and the Office of the Dean of Arts, Carleton University, The Frank Underhill Endowment Fund and the HI-Ottawa Jail Hostel.
