Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only €10,99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Happy Place
    Happy Place
    Happy Place
    Ebook135 pages1 hour

    Happy Place

    By Pamela Mala Sinha

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Happy Place explores the lives of seven women aged 23 to 60 who are residents of an in-patient care facility: a microcosm for the world outside its walls. What is it to live inside the suffering of these women… addressing the idea that we are not so different from each other, though our circumstances may be? Each woman must try to find a way to fit into a world that can’t respond to or redress a pain that is unseeable. But they are also the ones who can teach one another how to live with what happened to them as no one else ever could. Even if they can't always do it for themselves.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherScirocco Drama
    Release dateJul 21, 2022
    ISBN9781990737275
    Happy Place
    Author

    Pamela Mala Sinha

    Pamela Mala Sinha is an award-winning Canadian actress and writer, working internationally in theatre, television, and film. Pamela is the recipient of Canada’s prestigious Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Lead Actress for her solo debut play, CRASH. Published by Scirocco Drama, CRASH was also included in Bloomsbury UK’s Audition Speeches anthology and in Love, Loss, and Longing (Playwrights Canada Press). Her second play, Happy Place, premiered in Toronto at Soulpepper, followed by runs at Vancouver’s Touchstone Theatre and Winnipeg’s Prairie Theatre Exchange. CRASH debuted in the US at the Signature Theatre, NY, as part of Soulpepper’s tour in 2016. As one of few artists selected nationally to receive a prestigious Project Imagination commission from Soulpepper, Pamela began research for New, which she completed as playwright-in-residence at Necessary Angel Theatre. New had its world premiere (after two years of COVID delays) in November 2022 at Winnipeg’s Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, followed by a Toronto run at Canadian Stage. Pamela’s film adaptation of Happy Place was produced by Jennifer Kawaja (Sienna Films/Sphere Media) and directed by Helen Shaver. Pamela completed development with the CBC and Sienna Films on her series Nirvana and production wrapped in 2022 on the film version of CRASH (produced by Necessary Angel and Riddle Films) starring Pamela. Pamela is partner to playwright and mathematician John Mighton and proud stepmother to Chloe.

    Related authors

    Related to Happy Place

    Related ebooks

    Performing Arts For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related categories

    Reviews for Happy Place

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Happy Place - Pamela Mala Sinha

      Cover: Happy Place by Pamela Mala Sinha, published under Scirocco Drama, by J. Gordon Shillingford, shows the loosely bound threads in black and blue colours hanging from a nail on the perforated panel.

      HAPPY

      PLACE

      Pamela Mala Sinha

      Happy Place

      first published 2017 by

      Scirocco Drama

      An imprint of J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing Inc.

      © 2017, Pamela Mala Sinha

      Scirocco Drama Editor: Glenda MacFarlane

      Cover design by Terry Gallagher/Doowah Design Inc.

      Author photo by Lori Dorn

      Production photos by Cylla von Tiedemann

      Printed and bound in Canada on 100% post-consumer recycled paper.

      We acknowledge the financial support of the Manitoba Arts Council and

      The Canada Council for the Arts for our publishing program.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, for any reason, by any means, without the permission of the publisher. This play is fully protected under the copyright laws of Canada and all other countries of the Copyright Union and is subject to royalty. Changes to the text are expressly forbidden without written consent of the author. Rights to produce, film, record in whole or in part, in any medium or in any language, by any group, amateur or professional, are retained by the author.

      For professional or amateur production rights, please contact

      Ian Arnold

      Catalyst TCM Inc.

      #312 – 100 Broadview Ave.

      Toronto, ON

      Canada

      M4M 3H3

      Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

      Sinha, Pamela Mala, author

      Happy place / Pamela Mala Sinha.

      A play.

      ISBN 978-1-927922-13-2 (paperback)

      I. Title.

      PS8637.I633H36 2016C812'.6C2016-905183-8

      J. Gordon Shillingford Publishing

      P.O. Box 86, RPO Corydon Avenue, Winnipeg, MB Canada R3M 3S3

      For

      Damon DʼOliveira

      and

      Brian Scott

      A black and white photograph of the author Pamela Mala Sinha. She is wearing an off-shoulder dress and her loose, dark tresses are over her right shoulder.

      Pamela Mala Sinha

      Pamela Mala Sinha is an award-winning Canadian actress and playwright. Selected theatre credits include Happy Place (Soulpepper), Nirbhaya (Assembly Theatre/UK, NY), and The Little Years (Stratford Production/Tarragon Theatre). Selected TV/Film: three seasons on ER (NBC), Huff (HBO), Traders, Live from Baghdad, Breakaway, and What We Have.

      Pamela was the recipient of Canada’s prestigious Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Lead Actress for her solo debut play, Crash (Scirocco Drama), also included in Bloomsbury’s (UK) anthology Audition Speeches for Black, South Asian and Middle Eastern Actors. Crash toured to New York with Soulpepper Theatre in July 2017, and will continue touring internationally through 2018. Pamela’s new commission with Soulpepper, New, is a play inspired by her parents’ immigration to Canada and their coming of age. Pamela is in development on the feature film adaptation of Happy Place with Sienna Films and director Helen Shaver, slated for production in early 2018.

      Acknowledgements

      I am deeply grateful to a number of individuals who have supported me during the development of this play: Iris Turcott (Factory Crosscurrents) and Bob White (Stratford Festival) for producing the first public reading; Guillermo Verdecchia for his dramaturgical insights; director Alan Dilworth for his alwaysinvaluable notes in rehearsal; and to those actresses whose brilliant work inspired me to write these parts: Catherine Fitch, Kristen Thomson, Liisa Repo-Martell and Maria Vacratsis.

      I am indebted to Soulpepper Theatre Company; not only for premiering Happy Place, but for their continued belief in and support of my work.

      Finally, to my family, immediate and extended…your love propels me in this life.

      Production History

      Happy Place had its world premiere at Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre in September, 2015 with the following cast:

      SAMIRA Oyin Oladejo

      MILDRED Diane D’Aquila

      CELINE Pamela Mala Sinha

      NINA Liisa Repo-Martell

      JOYCE Caroline Gillis

      ROSEMARY Irene Poole

      LOUISE Deborah Drakeford

      Directed by Alan Dilworth

      Set Design by Lorenzo Savoini

      Lighting Design by Kimberly Purtell

      Original Music and Sound Design by Debashis Sinha

      Costume Design by Ken MacKenzie

      Happy Place was presented by Touchstone Theatre in association with Ruby Slippers Theatre in October, 2017 at The Firehall Arts Centre, Vancouver, with the following cast:

      SAMIRA Adele Noronha

      MILDRED Nicola Cavendish

      CELINE Sereana Malani

      NINA Laara Sadiq

      JOYCE Diane Brown

      ROSEMARY/KRISTA Colleen Wheeler

      LOUISE Donna Yamamoto

      Directed by Roy Surette

      Set Design by Pam Johnson

      Lighting Design by Adrian Muir

      Costume Design by Christine Reimer

      Original Music and Sound Design by Dorothy Dittrich

      Photograph of Mildred, played by Diane DʼAquila, breaks down in front of Rosemary, played by Irene Poole. The two women are sitting on the floor, as they perform in the play.

      Mildred (Diane DʼAquila) breaks down

      in front of Rosemary (Irene Poole).

      Photograph of three women, Joyce, played by Caroline Gillis; Rosemary, played by Irene Poole; and Celine, played by Pamela Mala Sinha, sitting on a sofa as they discuss among themselves.

      Joyce (Caroline Gillis), Rosemary (Irene Poole)

      and Celine (Pamela Mala Sinha) in the aftermath

      of Mildredʼs breakdown.

      Photograph of Mildred, played by Diane DʼAquila, holding the face of the tearful Samira, played by Oyin Oladejo. Both the women are standing as they converse.

      Mildred says goodbye to Samira (Oyin Oladejo).

      Photograph of the therapist Louise, played by Deborah Drakeford, placing a sonogram next to Nina, played by Liisa Repo-Martell. Both the women are sitting on the floor.

      Nina (Liisa Repo-Martell) responds to the results

      of her sonogram presented by her therapist,

      Louise (Deborah Drakeford).

      Production Notes

      The action of the play takes place in the interior of an in-patient care facility and

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1