No Mama, No Cry

Thoughts from the Director…

With humour and insight, Shayna weaves a story of the strength, the shame, the grit, and the grace of a lineage of women who mother unlike the rest. The play “taps into the rhythms of parenthood – its joys, pains, and everything in between – in a profound and humble way.”

Way back in the summer of 2018, Shayna and I had brunch. As we talked about her upbringing, her life, and her work as a storyteller, I asked if she would ever consider telling something of her story. The idea was new and small at the time – a few house concert shows the following spring. We chose a title before we really knew what it was, so that we could promote it in the Dark Glass season. It was Black Skin Deep - one woman’s struggle for culture, heritage, and identity. By spring of 2019, we did not have a play, but we did have an invitation to bring the show, once written, as a guest artist production during Pacific Theatre’s 2020/2021 season. This required us to have a completed script for approval by January 31, 2020. Despite distance, and difficult schedules, and our mutual cluelessness, we made the deadline! The finished product was remarkable, and when I sent off the script, I said: “One way or another, Dark Glass will produce this play next year.”

Instead, there was a worldwide pandemic. And seismic shifts in the professional and personal worlds of both Shayna and me. As I was trying to determine whether Dark Glass would ever produce anything again, Shayna performed a staged reading of Black Skin Deep as part of Ruby Slippers’ Advance Theatre Festival. We stumbled our way forward, slating the show for production in the fall of 2022. But our worlds continued to rumble and shift. The play – and Dark Glass - sat silent.

This year, as we looked to relaunch the company, one of the only things I knew for sure was that we needed to have Shayna on stage. We dug out

Black Skin Deep and discovered that, while some of it had aged out of possibility, other parts were as powerful and relevant as ever. We set a new direction and started yet another round of writing and dramaturgy. After months of meetings, massive revisions, and a whirlwind of rehearsals, No Mama, No Cry was born. We are finally ready to share this beautiful, intimate story with witnesses, face to face.

 Angela Konrad

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