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Drama Women Authors

Guarded Girls

by (author) Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman

foreword by Kim Pate

Publisher
Playwrights Canada Press
Initial publish date
Oct 2019
Category
Women Authors, Canadian
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780369100436
    Publish Date
    Oct 2019
    List Price
    $17.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780369100450
    Publish Date
    Oct 2019
    List Price
    $12.99

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Description

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.

About the authors

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

Awards

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

Excerpt: Guarded Girls (by (author) Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman; foreword by Kim Pate)

Brit: Did you think it would be like TV?

Sid: Here?

Brit: Yeah.

Sid: I don’t remember.

Silence.

The Guard comes in and begins her search. Sid sees her and stands up.

Hi.

Guard: What are you after?

Sid: Nothing, just a hello.

The Guard laughs, yeah right.

Guard: Okay.

Sid laughs, imitating the Guard.

The Guard shakes her head.

Sid shakes her head.

That’s enough.

Guard moves away.

Sid speaks softly to herself:

Sid: What are you after?

Sid walks the length of her pod imitating the exact same walk as the Guard. The Guard sees something hidden somewhere on the stage. A tampon. She bags it and exits.

Brit: I need more tampooooooons.

Sid: I know.

Silence.

Brit: It’s really making me panic.

Sid: You got an extra pad?

Brit: No. And I really can’t handle not having another tampon right now. Like, it’s really making me—​

Sid: Hey, it’s okay—​

Brit: No. Like, I’ve been wearing it for like ten hours and I really can’t handle not having another tampon—​

Sid: I’ll try and get you another one.

Brit: I’m really—​

Sid: I know.

Silence.

Brit: Really, I can’t handle this.

Sid: I’m going to try, on the next round.

Brit: ’Cause I’m picturing it and—​

Sid: Shhh. It’s okay—​

Brit: I can’t—​I can’t—​

Sid changes.

Sid: I hate jam. It’s gooey and stupid.

Brit takes a deep breath and tries to listen.

But now, I miss jam. I miss having the option; I mean every morning I think about jam—​how . . . stupid is that?—​

Brit: I really need a new tampon. I can’t stop picturing—​

Sid: I know.

Brit starts moaning.

Fucking hell. Hello. We need a tampon. Hello!

Sid sees the Guard.

She needs another tampon. Yes. She does—​

Guard: You think this is a hotel?

Sid: Please.

Guard: You think you can make demands?

Sid: She needs it.

Guard: Don’t talk / back—​

Sid: I’m not talking back. She needs another tampon. Please—​

Guard: In what world is this / my problem?

Sid: Why are you being an asshole?

Guard: Careful.

Sid: Fuck you.

The Guard grabs her.

Fuck. Ouch. You’re hurting me now. No. No. No. Don’t! Just give her.

Sid spits in the Guard’s face.

Brit: No!

The Guard takes Sid away. Brit sits alone. Time passes; she waits. Brit closes her eyes. The Guard begins her search, and finds a calculator hidden somewhere on the stage. She bags it, but then sees something else, a soother. She bags it as well and exits.

A fragile Sid comes back into the pod and sits. Brit opens her eyes and listens.

Editorial Reviews

“ . . . 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

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