Cathy is a M'Kmaq/Acadian/Irish artist, composer, actor, director and playwrite. Last summer, in Charlottetown, PEI, she was the creator of the first all aboriginal original musical in the Charlottetown Festival's 27 year history. She, along with her Young Company, performed the finale of The Talking Stick for the Royals on July 4.
Her one woman musical, "Moving Day" was hand-picked by the Toronto Fringe's off shoot winter theatre festival, "The Next Stage Theatre Festival" along with 8 other plays in 2008. She was invited to bring it to the "SuperNova Theatre Festival" in Dartmouth N.S. the following spring and the Orillia Opera House this past fall. The past five years, she has been journeying to Webequie, Ontario with the DAREArts Foundation working on a pilot project for high school students in remote Aboriginal schools. There is a documentary (Fill My Hollow Bones) about the Aboriginal "First Roots" program which debuted at the TIFF Light Box Theatre last September. She has been traveling to First Nations all over Ontario and Nova Scotia. This spring, she and the students of Attawapiskat wrote six songs in four days.
Her much loved Yukon musical, "Fireweeds" was presented in concert by at the Canadian Musical Theatre Festival. Three of her songs have been published and released in a CD in volumes 1 and 2 of "Field of Stars" a collection of Canadian Musical Theatre songs.
She has been busy on stage as well: as Sharon Sharpe in Moving Day (Orillia Opera House), most recently, Jo in "Cowgirls" (Drayton Theatre) , Maggie in "The Princess and the Handmaiden"(YPT), Miss Shields in "A Christmas Story" (Orangeville) , Esther in "Breaking Up is Hard To Do" (Stage West, Toronto), Elizabeth in "Oil Rush" (Victoria Playhouse Petrolia), Hanna in "Spitfire Grill" (Grand Theatre), Leslie Arden's "Home For Christmas" (Talk is Free Theatre), Mrs. Potts "Beauty and the Beast" (Globe Theatre) Aunt Elizabeth "Emily" (Talk is Free) and of course, Sharon Sharpe "Moving Day" (Talk is Free Theatre)
This summer, she will be starring with CODCO's Greg Malone and Andy Jones in the New World Theatre Projects' as Ariel in the Tempest. She will be releasing her debut original roots album, Songs from the Land Below this summer or autumn.
interests
musical theatre, my dog, and anything that has anything with telling stories.