Miss Fortune's Portmanteau
~Women of Victorian Halifax~
Read the Chronicle Herald Article Here

Women's Council House
989 Young Ave, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Wednesday, November 19th through Sunday November 23rd, 2014 @8PM
Wednesday, November 26th through Sunday November 30th, 2014 @8PM

Tickets $20 / $15
Seating is Limited
For Reservations call 902 429 1797
To purchase tickets go to: HERE

The Players
Miss Fortune by RAYNA SMITH-CAMP
Sarah Clench and Fish Monger by SARAH ALBU
Halifax Woman and Cook by EMMA LEIGH RIVERA
Mary Howard / Broken Body by JANICE JACKSON

The Team
Barbara Lounder – Persnickety Playwright
Janice Jackson – Dazzling Directrice
Lukas Pearse – Marvelous Music
Robert Bean – Phantom Photography
Arianne Pollet-Brannen – Fancy Fashions

The Show
Based partly in historical accounts, partly in fiction, this show is a re-imagining of the era by the seven characters. It is presented against the beautiful back drop of the Women’s Council House at 989 Young Avenue, in Halifax.  The audience will experience a unique and lively hour of music, theatre, performance, and improvisation, during which  Miss Fortune’s Portmanteau (an antique steamer trunk) comes alive with images, costumes, objects, smells and sounds.  

The Concept
The concept for Miss Fortune's Portmanteau began with Janice Jackson's intimate connection with England's Home Children (or Barnardo Children), the over 100,000 orphaned and abandoned children who were sent to the British colonies to work as laborers between the mid-1800’s and the 1930’s.  In 1889 Jackson's grandfather, Hubert, was one of these children, and disembarked at Halifax’s Pier 21.  Just 8 years old, he had been sent to Canada from an orphanage in Middlemore, England.   Jackson's family history also includes the story of her great grandmother, Hubert’s mother, who was a drinker, and was arrested for assault and battery on a regular basis in Victorian England.  Inspired by Jackson’s account of her family’s experiences, Barbara Lounder first created a libretto for the character of Mary Howard, an indigent woman featured in the Portmanteau show. The creation of this character is also indebted to historian Judith Fingard's 1989 book The Dark Side of Life in Victorian Halifax.  Miss Fortune's Portmanteau weaves strands of Mary Howard’s life together with those of six other distinct and colorful Halifax women from that era. 

I am Mary Howard, young in years
Mary Howard old in crime
Mary Howard with a bit of the horrors
And I shall break your bleedin' windows in

This show is generously supported by Arts Nova Scotia.
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Ghost Tango Workshop Performance
Friday, September 5th, 2014 at 8pm
Saint Matthew’s United Church
1479 Barrington St., Halifax
Admission by Donation

A haunting tale of a Nova Scotian woman
caught in the web Argentina’s Dirty War.

Tim Brady - Composer, Electric Guitar
Douglas Burnet Smith - Libretto
Anne-Marie Donavan - Director
Lukas Pearse - Video
Janice Jackson - Soprano
Ross Thompson - Baritone

Supported by the Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture, and Heriitage