THUNDER BAY – The stories of Thunder Bay’s homeless are hitting the stage in April.
Students at Confederation College’s performing arts partnership are joining forces with Shelter House for Shelter From the Storm – Stories from the Street, which will be staged on April 5 and April 6 at the school’s lecture theatre.
The event is a fundraiser, the goal to raise $10,000 to help Shelter House provide services to the city’s homeless population.
Alanna Mazjik said they’re taking the stories they’ve been told by people living on Thunder Bay’s Streets and using them as the basis for the show.
“We’re trying to craft them together into a story that we can build on and work with and portray,” she said.
“I feel like a lot of people don’t have a chance to have their story heard and they all deserve to. I also feel like lots of these people are wonderful people and very nice people and they deserve to have that chance to share who they are with the rest of the community.”
Majzik said she grew up in a small town and didn’t experience homelessness in any grand scale.
“Homelessness isn’t something I really ever saw,” she said. “I don’t know if we even had it or if it was just hidden away. To be hit with the sheer numbers and what some of these experiences are and what these people go through is kind of a slap in the face.”
Fellow student Mickey Nagy said he was surprised to learn Shelter House is operating at 150 per cent capacity, a number he called eye-opening.
“It’s really hard to think about as someone coming from not this to see what’s really happening locally,” said Nagy.
There are plenty of challenges presented when trying to put on a show like Shelter from the Storm, whose name derives from a 1974 Bob Dylan song from his enduring Blood on the Tracks album.
But one stands out, Nagy said.
“Just trying to portray it respectfully and getting over some of the ideas and actions of being homeless. A lot of us have not experienced this. It’s just a really difficult experience for a lot of us,” he said.
Shelter House executive director Michelle Jordan said the project is an important one that can shed light on the plight of Thunder Bay’s homeless.
The idea was gleaned from a similar show she saw at a recent Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness conference.
“They were talking about stories of women who are actually homeless and we were really impacted by this,” Jordan said.
“It’s about everybody’s story here, so all kinds of homelessness is going to be portrayed in this performance. We always want to raise awareness and we always want people to know what it’s like. Our winters are really harsh here and it’s really difficult for people ... And it’s also a fundraiser for Shelter House as well.”
Tickets are available online at www.shelterhouse.on.ca for $27.54.
