Author Mary-Ann Kirkby, shown here after accepting a national award for her second book in 2015, won an SK Arts grant to write the first draft of her third book. (file photo)

By Alison Sandstrom

Arts funding

P.A. writer and theatre company; Muskoday School receive arts grants for new projects

Jan 19, 2021 | 4:35 PM

A Prince Albert writer, a local theatre company, and Muskoday First Nation Community School are among the most recent recipients of grants from SK Arts.

The largest grant handed out in the P.A. area will go to author Mary-Ann Kirkby, who received $18,000 to write the first draft of Untold, The Hutterite Story. The historical non-fiction book will examine the time the Hutterite people spent in Europe before migrating to North America.

“It will be a story of how the Hutterites came to be,” Kirkby, who has written two other books on Hutterite life, told paNOW. “And I think it’s a story that not even the Hutterites themselves fully understand.”

As part of research for the new book, Kirkby spent two months in Europe retracing the steps of the early Hutterites through six of the eight countries the group fled to.

“It was quite fascinating to be taken in by the archeologists and the scientists who study them,” she said. “I came away with some pretty fantastic stories.”

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Spark Theatre

Meanwhile Spark Theatre received $11,667 to rehearse and present the female-driven Canadian play, The Drowning Girls at the EA Rawlinson Theatre.

One the play’s stars, Cara Stelmaschuk told paNOW the three-woman theatre piece explores the treatment of women in early 20th century from the perspective of three brides who married, and were subsequently murdered by the same serial killer.

“The set is three bathtubs,” she explained. “The women emerge from the bathtubs and start telling their stories.”

The play is set to run at the EA Rawlinson Theatre March 18, 19 and 20.

“It’s got a big feminist message,” Stelmaschuk said.

Muskoday First Nation Community School also received a $1,000 grant to meet and become familiar with the processes of artists who will carry out future activities for an upcoming residency project.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom