Café Daughter

By Kenneth T. Williams

May 2011

January & February 2013

“…PJ Prudat delivers a measured, engaging, and tireless solo performance in which she deftly weaves in and out of twelve different characters…Café Daughter is a uniquely Canadian story told in an engaging and heartfelt performance by a talented young actor…” – Wayne Leung, Reviewer, Mooney on Theatre

“…This play received a well-deserved standing ovation. From the start, myself and the rest of the audience were spell-bound…” – Holly Haggarty, The Chronicle-Journal, Thunder Bay

“Café Daughter has a strong message to send about discrimination, ignorance and the strength of the human spirit.” – What’s Up Yukon

“…the best play I have ever seen…everyone needs to experience that…an emotional eye-opening experience.” – Amy Szybalski, The Argus, Thunder Bay

Café Daughter is a powerful one-woman memory play about a bright Aboriginal-Chinese girl growing up in rural Canada in the 1950s, against a backdrop of discrimination. Café Daughter is inspired by the true story of Senator and Dr. Lillian Eva Quan Dyck. In the play, young Yvette Wong dreams of becoming a doctor, but struggles with her mixed cultural identity when her Cree mother tells her not to reveal her native ancestry.

Café Daughter began as a Gwaandak Theatre new play commission, with award-winning Cree playwright Kenneth T. Williams. This included intensive script development over two years, readings of earlier drafts with actors, script consultations with dramaturges and the director, and writing time at Banff Playwrights Colony and in Saskatoon.

Following Gwaandak Theatre’s world premiere in Dawson City, Yukon in May 2011, Café Daughter toured to Whitehorse and five others Yukon rural communities (Mayo, Pelly Crossing, Haines Junction, Teslin & Watson Lake), receiving standing ovations throughout the tour. Gwaandak Theatre’s national tour of Café Daughter in January and February 2013 – to Thunder Bay (Magnus Theatre), Kitchener (The MT Space) and Toronto (Aki Studio) in Ontario and Vancouver in B.C. (The Cultch during Talking Stick Festival) – garnered universal critical and audience acclaim.

Café Daughter received the Bob Couchman Yukon Theatre Awards for Outstanding Direction (Yvette Nolan), Outstanding Female Performance (PJ Prudat), and Outstanding Play.

CREDITS

Featuring PJ Prudat*

Playwright | Kenneth T. Williams

Director | Yvette Nolan*

Dramaturgy | Johnna Wright, Rachel Ditor, Banff Playwrights Colony

Set & Properties Designer | Linda Leon

Sound Designer | Jona Barr & K. Scott Maynard

Lighting Designer | Brendan Wiklund (2011) / Michelle Ramsay (2013)

Costume Designer | Linda Talbot

Photography | Bruce Barrett (2011) / Keith Barker (2013)

*Member of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association