New Translation Canada – Celebrating great Canadian theatre in both official languages and beyond!
d’bi.young anitafrika in blood.claat
The Theatre Centre 2025 | Photo by Selina McCallum
New Translation Canada | Nouvelle Traduction Canada
in association with Le Théâtre français de Toronto (TfT)
blood.claat
(Trilogie Sankofa, 1re partie)
Translated from blood.claat
By d’bi.young anitafrika
Translated to French by Djennie Laguerre
Featuring: Maryline Cherry
Staged Reading
August 2026
3 PM
Théâtre français de Toronto
21 College Street, #610
Toronto, Ontario M5G 2B3
Pay What You Can Admission
More info at:
www.newtranslationcanada.com
Synosis
“Brilliantly written and performed…a funny, powerful, moving story of a young Jamaican woman…represents some of the best work being done in Toronto.” – Jerry Wasserman, www.Vancouverplays.com
blood.claat is a story of womxn and blood; life blood and death blood as experienced through the journey of fifteen-year-old mudgu sankofa. shx is surrounded by a legacy of personalities: from granny to auntie to njoni black to stamma to ogun and to pearl johnson, who all relate to blood on their own terms. mudgu negotiates gender, class, race, and sexuality through hxr intimate relationship with hxr own blood. the inevitable nature of cycles makes blood.claat a resistance to colonial oppression. a ceremonial dance. a liberashun chant. a long dub poem. dub theatre embodied.
Creative & Production Team
Featuring Maryline Cherry | Playwright: d’bi.young anitafrika | Translator: Djennie Laguerre | Translation Dramaturg: Lorrie Jean-Louis | Creative Producers: Johanna Nutter & Jack Paterson
Gallery
d’bi.young anitafrika in blood.claat, The Theatre Centre 2025
Photo by Selina McCallum
MEET THE ARTISTS
d’bi.young anitafrika | Playwright
Dr. d’bi.young anitafrika is an internationally celebrated dub poet, biomythicist, theatre-maker, and liberatory pedagogue whose work spans performance, scholarship, and arts leadership across four continents. Laureate of the 2026 Mayor’s Celebration of Cultural Life Award, the 2025 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize, and the 2023 Siminovitch Finalist Prize in Theatre, they continue to shape contemporary theatre and performance training through their pioneering methodology, the Anitafrika Dub Praxis. Dr. anitafrika has authored twelve plays, released seven dub poetry albums, published four poetry collections, and headlined festivals and theatre seasons worldwide. Their contributions have been recognised with numerous honours, including three Dora Awards, the Canadian Poet of Honour Award, and a Global Leader in Theatre and Performance distinction from Arts Council England. Their groundbreaking PhD, Personhood, Practice & Pedagogy in Black Womxn Theatre, theorises Black womyn’s theatre-making and addresses critical research gaps in Canadian performance scholarship. A visionary practitioner-scholar, Dr. anitafrika has lectured at Addis Ababa University, London South Bank University, Stanislavski Theatre School in Poland, and the Sandberg Institute in the Netherlands. Founding Artistic Director of the Watah Black Theatre School and Spolrusie Press, and Principal Researcher of the Black Womyn in Theatre Archive, Dr. anitafrika is also co-editor of Free To Be More: Creative Activism in the Era of Black Lives Matter and is currently embarking upon a global tour of their critically acclaimed biomyth monodrama shx mami wata & the pxssywitch hunt. www.dbiyounganitafrika.com
Djennie Laguerre | Translator
Djennie Laguerre is an actress, writer, and storyteller. She is a graduate of the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting in NYC and has a BA from the University of Ottawa. Her theatre credits as a performer include The Imaginary Invalid, Les Zinspirés I & III (Théâtre français de Toronto), Seventeen (Anonymous), and Women (Infintheatre). She is the writer, performer, and translator of Rendez-vous with home ⁄ Lakay and Manman la mer/Mother Sea. Manman la mer (Catapulte Theatre, Ottawa), which premiered in Ottawa before being presented at the MASA Festival in the Ivory Coast in March 2020, and toured New Brunswick, Saskatoon, Montreal, and Quebec City from 2022 to 2024. The show won the Prix Rideau Awards in 2020 for Production of the Year and Best Actress. The English version, Mother Sea, had its premiere this past February ’26’ at the Undercurrent Festival. Her latest TYA play, Taking Care of Maman, a Roseneath Theatre and Black Theatre Workshop production, has been translated by the author into French and Haitian Creole; Prendre soin de mom will be touring schools, in French and English, in the fall of 2026 and winter 2027, from Montreal and Toronto to Saskatoon. TCM has been touring a school near you since fall 2024 and has gotten the author nominated for Best New TYA Work 2042. For 20 years, Djennie has been a bilingual educational artist for the Ontario Arts Council, YPT, and Theatre Direct.
Lorrie Jean-Louis | Dramaturg
Born in Montreal to Haitian parents, Lorrie Jean-Louis holds a bachelor’s degree in History, Culture, and Society with a minor in Philosophy; she is currently pursuing a master’s degree in literature on “The Black Body and Intersubjectivity” and is completing her studies with a second master’s degree in library science.
She has a wide range of professional experience, all of which has focused on literature and the French language. She has won three awards for her first poetry collection, *La femme cent couleurs*, published by Mémoire d’encrier. Among these awards is the CALQ Emerging Artist Award. Recently, she has been working with MAYDAY on the adaptation of bell hooks’ text “All About Love” towards “L’amour ou rien”, which will be performed at ESPACE GO and the Grand Théâtre de Québec. She writes.
Maryline Cherry | Performer
Maryline Chery is an actor, playwright, and improviser of Haitian descent. She studied performing arts at Concordia University. In 2021, she presented her first solo show, AFRODISIAQUE, at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts, before bringing it to the Zoofest festival (OFF Just for Laughs) at the Monument National, where the production won the Show of the Year award in 2022. The following season, she embarked on a Montreal tour of cultural centers as part of the Montreal Arts Council’s CAM on Tour program, drawing sold-out crowds throughout the 2022–2023 season. Maryline is commitment to international engagement, notably participating in the 17th Francophonie Summit in Yerevan, Armenia, in 2018, where she led writing and performance workshops. Her mentoring continued the Black Theatre Workshop’s artistic cohort in 2018–2019. Alongside her work as an actor, she co-directed projects such as the second edition of Projet Racines at Théâtre Espace Libre in 2021. On television, she has appeared in notable series such as Doute raisonnable (2023) and District 31 (2020).
She is the recipient of the Gloria Mitchell Aleong Award (Black Theatre Workshop, 2022),for excellence, community engagement, and artistic initiative. In 2024, Maryline received the Theater Actress of the Year award at the Dynastie Gala and published her first play, *AFRODISIAQUE*, with Hurlantes Éditrices. The English translation was published with Playwright Canada Press in 2026. Driven by a desire to showcase the richness of Creole culture, Maryline Chery continues to create vibrant, diverse, and socially engaged works. Her work reflects her identity while contributing to the development of a powerful and unique form of artistic expression.
New Translation Canada / Nouvelle Traduction Canada
NTC is an independent, nation-wide theatrical initiative co-founded by theatre makers Yolanda Ferrato, Johanna Nutter, and Jack Paterson to bridge linguistic divides by celebrating Canadian theater in both official languages and beyond . Born from the realization that landmark works by the country’s top playwrights—including Siminovitch Prize nominees—were often unavailable across different language communities, the project commissions collaborative “creative translations” in partnership with major regional theater companies . By adapting diverse plays between English, French, and other languages, the NTC strives to build a truly interconnected national theatre community, ensuring that unique regional voices and cultural heritages are accessible to audiences from coast to coast
Théâtre français de Toronto (TfT)
Théâtre français de Toronto (TfT) is the oldest continuously operating professional Francophone theater company in Toronto. It serves as a major cultural pillar for Southern Ontario’s French-speaking and French-loving communities. Founded in 1967 as Théâtre du P’tit Bonheur, the company has produced and presented hundreds of classical masterpieces, contemporary works, and original Canadian creations. Led by Artistic Director Karine Ricard, TfT plays a vital role in youth education, artistic development, and community outreach. It makes French-language performing arts highly accessible to the broader Greater Toronto Area by offering English surtitles for its performances.
The Siminovitch Theatre Foundation
The Siminovitch Theatre Foundation (STF) is a Canadian registered charity dedicated to uplifting groundbreaking theatre artists who foster human connection and understanding through their craft. Formally established in 2012 to sustain the legacy of the prestigious Siminovitch Prize—originally launched in 2000 to honor scientist Lou Siminovitch and his playwright wife Elinore—the foundation manages Canada’s most valuable theatre award. The foundation rotates the prize annually among directors, playwrights, and designers, awarding a mid-career laureate $100,000 alongside a $25,000 grant for an emerging artist protégé. Beyond funding the primary prize, the Siminovitch Theatre Foundation actively champions the national theatre ecosystem by providing a diverse portfolio of programs, including emerging artist grants, artist-in-residence programs, and peer mentorship initiatives.
Land Acknowledgment
Activities related to this project take place on the traditional unceded territories of several First Nations and Indigenous groups in the territory now known as Canada. These include: the Coast Salish peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations (Vancouver, British Columbia), Kanien’kehá:ka Nation (Montreal, Quebec), Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), Tsuut’ina Nation, Nakoda Island First Nations and Métis Nation (Region 3) (Treaty 7 Territory, Calgary, Alberta), Anishinaabe-Algonquin Nation (Ottawa, Ontario) and Mi’kmaq Nation (Nova Scotia). We recognize and honour the recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation commission and acknowledge the importance of Indigenous sovereignty on this unceded territory.
*A territorial or land acknowledgement is an act of reconciliation that involves making a statement recognizing the traditional territory of the Indigenous people who called the land home before the arrival of settlers, and in many cases still do call it home.
For more information on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada click here.
We Gratefully Acknowledge the Support of:
