The stories and experiences of three imprisoned women and a guard intertwine in dramatic and dangerous ways, as the psychological destruction that is solitary confinement taunts each of their lives.

Nineteen-year-old Sid is transferred to a new prison, finding friendship with her cellmate Brit, but she also forms a complicated relationship with a guard who seems to be watching their every move. In another time, an older inmate named Kit talks to an unseen audience about a coming visitor and how she’ll stop at nothing to see them, even if that means bringing down the entire prison system. In another place, three girls wait as visitors, each one thinking about the complicated positions their mothers are in.

Playful and mysterious, Guarded Girls is about the stories we tell to survive, and how the same stories can also destroy us.

Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman is a Governor General’s Literary Award– and Dora Mavor Moore Award–nominated playwright, winner of the Herman Voaden National Playwriting Competition, and the K.M. Hunter Artist Award. She graduated from the playwriting program at the National Theatre School and writes for theatre, radio, film, and television. Her writing includes The End of Pretending with Emily Sugarman, Twisted with Joseph Jomo Pierre, Scratch, and Sudden Death. She directed and co-created Highway 63: The Fort Mac Show and wrote for CBC Radio’s Afganada and for the TV series KING. Currently she is developing two new musicals as well as three feature films. She lives in Toronto.

Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman's profile page

Kim Pate was appointed to the Senate of Canada on November 10, 2016. First and foremost, the mother of Michael and Madison, she is also a nationally renowned advocate who has spent the last 35 years working in and around the legal and penal systems of Canada, with and on behalf of some of the most marginalized, victimized, criminalized and institutionalized — particularly imprisoned youth, men and women.

Kim Pate is a member of the Order of Canada, a recipient of the Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case, the Canadian Bar Associations’s Bertha Wilson Touchstone Award, and five honourary doctorates (Law Society of Upper Canada, University of Ottawa, Carleton University, St. Thomas University and Wilfred Laurier University) and numerous other awards. Her extensive list of publications, national and international speaking engagements and her strategic intervention and advocacy for substantive equality testify to her commitment to broader social, economic and cultural change. She continues to make significant contributions to public education around the issues of women’s inequality and discriminatory treatment within social, economic and criminal justice spheres.

Senator Pate lives in Ottawa, Ontario.

Kim Pate's profile page

• Nominated, Governor General's Literary Award
• Winner, Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play

“ . . . the piece builds spectacularly, touching on issues of trauma and the cycle of violence without any gratuitous content and without exploiting the women Corbeil-Coleman listened to so carefully in preparation.”

Susan G. Cole, NOW Magazine

“Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman is an intriguing playwright, and perhaps her greatest gift is unpredictability.”

Paula Citron, Ludwig Van

“Corbeil-Coleman’s dialogue is quick, cutting, and refreshingly funny even as her play is pitch black.”

Kelly Bedard, My Entertainment World

“Artful and disturbing.”

Martin Morrow, The Globe and Mail

“The whole play might seem disorienting, but the story is worth the ride.”

Carly Maga, Toronto Star

“Corbeil-Coleman is an extremely talented writer; her dialogue sparkles, and her characters feel well-rounded and human.”

Ilana Lucas, Mooney on Theatre