BF26: Kristen Da Silva's 'Sisters of '78' is essential storytelling

BY SCOTT STEPHENSON

For playwright Kristen Da Silva, the story behind Sisters of ’78 is not just compelling - it’s essential.

 

At the heart of her new play is a little-known but critical chapter in labour history and women’s rights in Canada. In 1978, 80 women walked off the factory floor at Centralia’s Fleck Manufacturing to protest unsafe and unsanitary working conditions. Their brave action launched a 163-day labour dispute that soon became one of the most heavily-policed strikes in our nation’s history. 
Sisters of ‘78 is a story inspired by those women, their struggle and their eventual victory, which had a profound impact on Canadian labour laws. “The story of the collective action of these women is so inspiring - they had to stand up for themselves and win their rights,” Da Silva told The Citizen. “And this cast is fantastic! The Blyth Festival just does such a great job at storytelling, and people are pouring every bit of their talent and effort into this production, and I think the finished product is just going to be something pretty special.”

 

For Da Silva, telling this story has been years in the making. Her first encounter with the experiences of the striking women of Centralia came not via the stage, but through academic study. “Way, way, way back, when I was doing my degree at York, I did a double major in political science and labour studies,” she recalled. “In one of my labour law classes, we were covering the Rand formula, and this strike came up, because it resulted in the Rand formula becoming law in Canada for the first time.”

 

Having a background in political science and labour studies might not seem like the most direct path to playwriting for some, but for Da Silva, the two worlds can come together in complementary ways. “I had always been involved in theatre, from a very, very young age, and I always loved reading and writing,” she explained. “But when I went to university, I decided not to pursue theatre as a career; at the time, it wasn't really talked about. I went to high school in King City, Ontario, and there really wasn’t a lot of push towards the arts. I would say most of our guidance was towards more traditional career paths.” 

 

She may have decided to take the sensible major route, but Da Silva always kept one foot on the wild and winding path to the stage. “When I was working in industrial relations, I was still involved in as much theatre as I could be,” she pointed out. “So, they were always both part of my life, side by side.” Now, those parallel paths are converging in Sisters of ’78 - a show inspired by her education and brought to life with her creative passion.

 

Right now, the pace of creation is both fast and familiar. “It’s really busy, and really exciting!” she exclaimed. “I’ve got a pile full of notes and revisions that I need to make and send off before we reconvene on Monday…. On a typical day, I get up, head off to rehearsal, make a bunch of notes, have great discussions, go home at night, revise some stuff and send it off to be read by the cast in the morning.”

 

A lot of creative energy is already building up around this production, from the director to the cast. “I’m super excited to be working with Mary Francis Moore. She’s the artistic director of Theatre Aquarius, where the play will go next in the fall,” Da Silva said. “I’m also excited to work with this entire company! The designers, the stage managers, the cast - every one of them is just dynamo. It’s been an exciting few days.”

 

For Da Silva, the power of theatre lies in the uniqueness of the shared experience - something distinct from other forms of storytelling. “There are live people in front of you! And this magical thing that happens, where we’re experiencing these emotions as a collective audience… it’s something you don’t get as easily with film.”

 

Da Silva’s writing thrives on the economy of the stage. “You have to figure out how to tell a story without the tools of film,” she pointed out. “Writing for the stage requires a little more creativity as to how you bring a moment to life.”

 

At the same time, she’s continually surprised by what live theatre can physically achieve. “I’ve learned over the last 10 years that working with such creative, resourceful people - especially designers - at great theatres, that the list of things you think are not gonna be possible to pull off on stage becomes smaller every day,” she said.

 

When writing a story inspired by real people like the Fleck Manufacturing strikers, Da Silva strives to reflect those historical figures with honesty and respect, especially when it comes to depicting rural communities on the stage. “Rural theatre is important - so much of our country is rural,” she asserted. “It’s important to me, because I grew up in a rural place. I know the lives of these people, because I grew up amongst these folks, and they’re really smart people. One thing that I’ve always kept in mind when writing about rural environments is that these are often very smart people, and they’re not always depicted that way in other works. They're interesting. They have rich, deep lives. They have… community. And there’s something very beautiful about that.”

 

For Da Silva, theatre is meant to extend beyond the stage and bleed into the art of everyday life. “I think it’s very important that young people are exposed to the arts - storytelling is so important to who we are as people, and it has always served an important role in human culture,” she informed The Citizen. “If we want well-rounded people whose education expands their minds, the arts is a place where we can go to grow our understanding of others, and our empathy for others… my favourite thing about being a playwright is getting to dream it all up - the stories, the characters, the dialogue.”

 

With Sisters of ’78, those imagined elements are grounded in real events for maximum impact on the audience. The resolve of that small group of striking workers has reverberated through the decades, and improved the working lives of countless Canadians. It is the power of that legacy that makes Da Silva certain that this is the story she wants to tell - right now. “This case was 48 years ago, and we may have forgotten, but what these women did changed history,” she said. “It changed history, and it changed their lives, and it changed the lives of many other Canadians after them. And it deserves our attention.”