Audiences can get a preview of a new historical play written by Maja Ardal when Millbrook’s 4th Line Theatre presents its 19th annual “Breaking Ground” event on Saturday, January 31 at Bagnani Hall at Traill College in Peterborough.
Beginning at 2 p.m., the free public reading of excerpts from Ardal’s play The Legend of Pearl Hart will feature 4th Line Theatre founder Robert Winslow, Amy Keating, Colin A. Doyle, Lindsay Wilson, Ryan Tobin, and Celine Gadoury. Anita La Selva is directing the public reading, with 4th Line’s managing artistic director Kim Blackwell serving as dramaturge.
The Legend of Pearl Hart tells the story of the most famous female bandit in the American West. Born Pearl Taylor in Lindsay in 1871, Hart’s colourful life story includes becoming enamored with a rakish young man named Hart at the age of 16, with whom she had two children, and later attending the Chicago World’s Fair where she developed a fascination with the cowboy lifestyle while watching Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show.
By early 1898, Hart was living in a mining town in Arizona when she fell upon hard times after the mine closed. Looking to raise money after receiving a message asking her to return home to her seriously ill mother, the 28-year-old Hart partnered with a man known only as “Joe Boot” to look for gold in an old mining claim he owned. When that endeavour failed, Hart and Boot decided to rob a stagecoach. While the pair galloped away with over $400 (worth over $16,000 today), they were captured by a posse less than a week later.
The robbery and Hart’s gender created a media frenzy. After a sensational trial in which she was acquitted, Hart was immediately rearrested for interfering with U.S. mail and sent to Yuma Territorial Prison, an all-male prison. During her incarceration, she continued to attract public interest until she was pardoned three years later in 1902 and largely dropped out of the public eye.
An Icelandic-Canadian based in Muskoka, Ardal is an actor, director, and playwright who has performed across Canada, the U.S and the U.K. with her award-winning solo shows You Fancy Yourself and The Cure for Everything. Her plays The Hero of Hunter Street and Wishful Seeing saw their world premiere performances at 4th Line in 2016 and 2022 respectively.
Breaking Ground is part of 4th Line Theatre’s New Play Development program, designed to support, nurture, and encourage the creation of environmentally staged historical plays.
“Public readings are an important part of the creation of plays,” says Blackwell in a media release. “This forum gives the writer the opportunity to figure out what resonates with audiences. The audience’s feedback during the discussion afterward may be the most valuable aspect of Breaking Ground.”
While the public reading is free, seating is very limited. To reserve a seat, call 4th Line Theatre’s Box Office at 705-932-4445 or email boxoffice@4thlinetheatre.on.ca.
