Santiago Guzmán's URN 
June, 2022

Recipient of the NL's 2022 Arts and Letter's Award
Short-listed for NLCU's Fresh Fish Award 2022

TODOS Productions is honoured to have been invited by Eastern Front Theatre (EFT) to present the world premiere of Santiago Guzmán’s Urn during their annual STAGES Festival in Dartmouth, NS, on June 23, 2022. After having the premiere of Urn in Halifax, we will bring the successful production back to St. John’s for the Newfoundland and Labrador premiere at LSPU Hall for our community on June 29-30, 2022.

Urn has been developed with the support of Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre (PARC) through the PARC/EFT RBC Emerging Playwrights Unit since 2019. 

Home? Where-what is home? 
Urn follows the journey of Esteban and Mariana, two siblings that reconnect at their mom’s funeral after years of Esteban being estranged from the family. Despite their fractured relationship, they will have to decide where to inter their mother's ashes: their adopted home, St. John’s, NL, or their homeland, Mexico City.           
 
Urn explores the concept of ‘home’ from the perspective of two immigrants who have spent more years in their adopted country than their homeland. They have to deal with the consequences of what happens when the only person who has grounded them to their cultural identity is gone.

Urn has a non-conventional narrative with a sense of magical realism, where flashbacks give us small glimpses of Esteban and Mariana’s relationship before their rupture as well as their lives before arriving in Newfoundland and Labrador. The siblings in Urn have so much to resolve as they explore their feelings about identity, belonging, and family unity, but have avoided these questions and conflict, until the death of their mother forces them to face these issues head-on.    

The Creative Team

Rehearsal Shots

TODOS Productions gratefully acknowledges the support from

Thank you

Maria Foley for 

Raeesa Lanani for 

​Press:
CBC Radio - Whales! Plus a look at 'Urn', the latest work from TODOS Productions | CrossTalk with Adam Walsh

NTV News - TODOS Productions' Urn on NTV News ​

The Telegram - URN Comes Home to the LSPU Hall

VOCM - Award-Winning Play “Urn” Showing at LSPU Hall

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- NewfoundLanded  -
a verbatim theatre play by 
Vanessa Cardoso-Whelan, Santiago Guzmán & Nabila Qureshi

After a series of interviews with immigrants and refugees across Newfoundland and Labrador, Santiago Guzmán, Vanessa Cardoso-Whelan and Nabila Qureshi formed a playwriting team to use the collected interviews as source material to write the first draft of a new dramatic verbatim theatre piece titled NewfoundLanded. 

At the core of these interviews, the participants gravitated towards themes associated with the notion of home: what does it look like, what does it mean, and how does it evolve with time?

Taking direct quotes from the interviews, the writers devised a theatre piece where immigrants and refugees share their journeys of discovering and arriving in Newfoundland and Labrador, falling in love, questioning their decision of coming here, and ultimately calling it home.

After a public reading on August 15, 2022, TODOS' Artistic Director, Santiago Guzmán, facilitated a community dialogue to discuss the process of creating this piece as well as the steps moving forward.  

Between November 3 - 6, 2022 at the historic LSPU Hall, TODOS Productions and White Rooster Theatre presented the workshop presentation of "NewfoundLanded", a verbatim theatre play by Vanessa Cardoso Whelan, Santiago Guzmán & Nabila Qureshi, directed by Azal Dosanjh.

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​STARRING
A Powell
Amparo Montoya
Arturo Cuevas
Deepesh Paudel
Hanaa Mekawy
Jephthah Anga
Yejide Emioladipupo

PLAYWRIGHTS
Vanessa Cardoso-Whelan
Santiago Guzmán
Nabila Qureshi
DRAMATURGE
Keshia Palm
DIRECTOR
Azal Dosanjh
STAGE MANAGER
James Elloso
SET & COSTUME DESIGNER
Nico Paulo
SOUND DESIGNERS
Ana & Eric
LIGHTING DESIGNER
Reg Hoskins
PRODUCERS
Ruth Lawrence
Meghan Greeley
Santiago Guzmán
PUBLICIST
Nora de Mariaffi

Public Reading - August 15

Workshop Presentation - November 3 - 6

Rehearsal Shots

A BIG thank you to First Light for hosting us this week at their beautiful Centre for Performance and Creativity!

TODOS Productions and White Rooster Theatre gratefully acknowledges the support from