That’s a wrap! NotaBle Acts closed the 24th annual edition of our Summer Theatre Festival on Sunday. Once again, our hearts are full. Over 70 NB playwrights, actors, directors, designers, and technicians came together to stage 16 amazing, funny, powerful, moving, and one-of-a-kind new New Brunswick plays over 11 days, to the delight of large and enthusiastic audiences. This was one of our best attended festivals in recent memory, for good reason, as the shows were all fantastic!

We have many people to thank, including our funders and sponsors City of Fredericton Government, Arts Culture NB, artsnb, Canadian Heritage, UNB Fredericton, and Downtown Fredericton, as well as our in-kind and venue partners Beaverbrook Art Gallery, The Charlotte Street Arts Centre and UNB Fredericton – Faculty of Arts.

Thanks also to all the amazing artists who contributed such fantastic work to making our 2025 festival such a success, and to all of you who attended the shows. We’re already looking forward to next year!

Photos: Kyle Albright, Kelly Baker & Barry McClusky

I gather you’re wearing multiple hats with Crane Girl as composer, production designer, and actor. What’s it been like juggling all that, and do you have a favorite or least favorite among them?

It has been an interesting process for sure! Knowing months ahead that we would be doing this play in Hamilton and now Fredericton lulled me into a bit of misguided confidence I think… The sentence “We have tons of time” kept coming up and that made some procrastination happen. Juggling the production design, performance, and sound design made for a stressful (and creative) June & July. In the rehearsal hall I found that I was standing in place as an actor doing a scene and then I would pivot into production designer to secure some piece of wood or metal, and then I would run and hit a sound cue to time it to the moment in the scene. Very fun, and a lot of work.

Tell us about the music for the show. How did you approach it and what were you aiming for?

The first ideas for the music in this show were influenced by the score by Hildur Guðnadóttir for Sarah Polley’s film Women Talking. That score is extremely beautiful and evocative and uses ostinatos throughout, (a word I didn’t know, but a musical idea that I’ve always loved). For Crane Girl, I wanted to create tightly interlocking pieces that drive and push towards something, much like Jane herself. Using guitar, mandolin, synthesisers, voice, and other digital instruments I created a sound design that I hope helps Jane in her climb.

Tell us about the challenges involved in rehearsing and performing a play that takes place on construction scaffolding? Do you have a favorite story about what it’s been like so far?

We created this show in Toronto and one thing about that city is that rehearsal space is hard to come by. The titular Crane in Crane Girl made the real estate challenge even harder. Everywhere we rehearsed we had to somehow travel this clanking metallic monster, load it in, put it together, and then do the reverse at the end. We have come to love our 4th actor (as we call it) but it’s been a tough journey sometimes. As for a funny story… there may be a facility in Toronto that thought we were using a room for a less theatrical purpose…

Having quite a large range of shows you have worked on before, what makes Crane Girl unique? And why should audiences come to see it?

Crane Girl has been one of the most challenging shows I’ve ever been a part of. With Falling Iguana Theatre we already work in a very DIY fashion, but the IT that needs to be DONE in this show is a bit bigger than others in the past. The blocking and rehearsal of the show needed to be on the crane from an early stage so we have been living with our structure for a long time. Crane Girl is fast-paced, heartbreaking, surprising, and funny. Alexa has crafted a great show.