I Was a Brave Child

I Was a Brave Child

Following a three year period of exploring community stories of Fear and Courage, and several exploratory performances including The Forest of Light and Shadows (2011) and Spooky Stories Strangely Told (2012), Arts4All produced I Was A Brave Child (2013) , a radio drama based on local Italian seniors’ childhood memories of World War II, performed by local children residents of Pelham Park Gardens and the Arts4All Players. The project culminated in a multimedia celebration combining video, live music, masked performance, electro-acoustic composition, and recorded sound.

Compiled of true stories, I Was A Brave Child followed Salina and Angelo, a sister and brother living with their father and grandmother in southern Italy in 1943. On the eve of Carnivale, the celebration before Lent, their village struggles to celebrate at a time of fear and uncertainty mere months before Mussolini’s downfall. The play depicted war through the eyes of children, until its tragic conclusion which tests the family’s resilience and love in the face of loss.

 

 

 

Toronto is home to a large indigenous population including residential school survivors and intergenerational family members who have been impacted by the history and legacy of the residential school system. The sacred land on which we stand has been a site of human activity for 15,000 years. This land is the territory of the Huron-Wendat and Petun First Nations, the Seneca, and most recently, the Mississaugas of the Credit River. The territory was the subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement between the Iroquois Confederacy and the Ojibwe and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. Today, the meeting place of Toronto is still the home to many indigenous people from across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have the opportunity to work in the community, on this territory.