• Age: 8 to 14
• Grade: 3 to 9

Reenie wants to dance, following in her mother’s footsteps. Just like the rest of her ensemble, she believes she has what it takes to earn the coveted solo at the year-end recital. But when she notices that their strict maestra is not holding everyone to the same “traditional” standard—particularly Maia, the other Black girl in the class—Reenie is determined to stop her friend from being counted out of the competition. Frustrated with not being understood by her mother and filled with a new-found passion to fight a broken system, Reenie hatches a plan with her classmates but doesn’t realize where her quick journey towards justice missed the mark with her friend.

Reaching for Starlight is a compassionate story about the way we are told to move through a world not made for us, whether together or alone.

Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, a.k.a. Belladonna the Blest, is an emcee, playwright, agitator, and practitioner of humanitarian arts. Her main body of work, the 54ology, includes Cake, Sound of the Beast, A Man A Fish, Salome’s Clothes, Gas Girls, Give It Up, The Smell of Horses, Bilguisa Speaks Up, Diggers, Conjugal, Hunt/Peck, and The First Stone. She is a contributor to The Only Good Indian (Jiv Parasram, Tom Arthur Davis/Pandemic Theatre), Forbidden (Afarin Mansouri/Tapestry Opera), and Oubliette (Ivan Barbotin/Tapestry Opera). Other theatre works include Reaching for Starlight, They Say He Fell, and The Final Inquiry. She is co-editor with Yvette Nolan of Refractions: Solo (2014) and Refractions: Scenes (2020) and editor of Indian Act: Residential School Plays (2018), all published with Playwrights Canada Press.

Donna-Michelle St. Bernard's profile page

Mike Payette is an award-winning director, educator, and actor who has appeared with some of Canada’s finest theatres, including the Citadel, Vertigo, Banff Centre, Segal Centre, Centaur, the Grand, Factory, Neptune, and the National Arts Centre. A frequent guest artist at the National Theatre School of Canada, some of his memorable works as a director include Harlem Duet (Black Theatre Workshop), Hosanna (Tableau D’Hôte Theatre / Centaur), Around the World in 80 Days and Reaching for Starlight (Geordie Theatre), the Canadian premiere of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Choir Boy (Centaur, later with Canadian Stage / Arts Club), Cockroach (Tarragon), Sensitivity (Obsidian Theatre / CBC Gem, as part of 21 Black Futures), the Quebec premiere of Héritage (A Raisin in the Sun) (Théâtre Duceppe), along with national tours of The Tashme Project (Tashme Prod / Centaur / Factory / Firehall) and Lorena Gale’s Angélique (Black Theatre Workshop / Tableau D’Hôte / National Arts Centre / Factory / Obsidian). He was the co-founding artistic director of Tableau D’Hôte Theatre, past assistant artistic director for Black Theatre Workshop, and was the artistic and executive director of Geordie Theatre before becoming artistic director of Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, where he now resides.

Mike Payette's profile page

“Reaching for Starlight is a powerful reminder of the ways in which young people are capable of so much revolutionary work; how they are motivated to face adversity, stand together, and advocate for genuine, lasting change.”

westmountmag.ca