Louise Casemore has won the 2017 Enbridge Emerging Canadian Playwright Award for Undressed, a modern woman’s struggle to get rid of her wedding dress.
The full-time artistic associate for Calgary’s Ghost River Theatre receives $3,000 in seed money to explore and develop the concept.
“I was thrilled, shocked and overwhelmed. It was the strangest and most amazing feeling. It’s the first time people have been interested in creating the project,” said Casemore, a Paul Kane High graduate.
The Sterling Award winner enjoys a highly developed creative streak that includes the much-lauded one-woman show OCD and the site-specific immersive piece Functional.
Among her credits is the upcoming premiere of her new work Gemini, featuring Casemore and renowned playwright Vern Thiessen in a play based on the odd relationships formed on either side of a bar.
She also directed St. Albert Theatre Troupe’s 2014 mesmerizing thriller The Spider or the Fly and the 2015 Waiting for the Parade, a story of war seen through women’s eyes.
For Undressed, Casemore follows the mantra “write what you know.” After a divorce, she attempted to contact 20 organizations across North America to donate her wedding dress. There were no takers.
“You would think that a dress that is pristine and in good condition could be reused. But most just won’t accept gowns.”
Casemore’s goal is to voice the frustrating elements surrounding the metered fabric, examine the wedding rituals and the divorce culture.
Ultimately she invites the audience to share laughter and tears while exorcising her gown, a most expensive piece of clothing that has sat in a closet for almost a decade.
At the award ceremony held Friday, April 7 at the Calgary Tower, Edmonton-based Nicole Moeller was the recipient of the Enbridge Established Canadian Playwright Award. Her entry, The Ballad of Peachtree Rose, is a tale of murder that puts the justice system on trial.
Started in 2005, past Enbridge recipients have included Marty Chan, Colleen Murphy, Mieko Ouchi and David van Belle.
