Breaking ground in 2009, Theatre Provocateur's raison-d'etre is to present live one-act dramas to audiences throughout Ontario, on various social issues that affect individuals, families and the community. The purpose of these plays is to educate, raise consciousness and move people to action, and give voice to people affected by the issues presented. Theatre Provocateur's ultimate vision is to provide an audience experience that will both provoke, shake up, tear down status quo and lead people to changing attitudes and behaviour.

For Robin Rundle Drake, Creative Director, this company represents a collision between two personal passions: the arts and mental health. She is a recognized professional in the mental health field, an area that she has worked in a variety of capacities for over twenty-five years (nurse, manager, educator and now advocate). She is also a recognized artist in the London community (actor, writer, director). Theatre Provocateur will offer audiences opportunities to engage and experience the arts in new ways. This is innovative work of high artistic merit that has the potential to impact the lives of people in our community Theatre Provocateur will create and produce artistically sound original plays that can be enjoyed by any theatre audience, but that can also be used for education and discussion in mental health and other settings like hospitals, advocacy groups and education institutions. The plays are powerful catalytic tools to engage audiences in authentic dialogue post-presentation about important issues that impact many people (for example: mental illness, homelessness, sexual abuse, elder abuse, poverty, palliation).

The company has produced two shows to date. The Shattered Years produced in collaboration with community partners involved in the Stop Elder Abuse and Neglect project focuses on elder abuse. The play is performed and then a facilitated conversation follows it. Beyond the benefits of shared dialogue, the discovery of what help is available, and how to access it creates value to a post performance discussion and has significant potential to impact communities and individuals. The Shattered Years was publicly 'workshopped' in London in October of 2009. and presented at the annual Geriatric Medicine Refresher Day in May of 2010.

Robin is also working in collaboration with community partners involved in the "Stop Elder Abuse and Neglect" on a second original work, The Shattered Years, which focuses on elder abuse. The play was recently performed and followed by a facilitated conversation. Beyond the benefits of shared dialogue, the discovery of what help is available, and how to access it creates value to a post performance discussion and has significant potential to impact communities and individuals.

The second production, A Few Prozaks Short of a Hap-P Meal© started as a conversation last August with Robin Rundle Drake, and quickly turned into eight months of rehearsal and the creation of this play about Mental Illness. The process of its creation is important, in that we took the lived experience of the participants and some submitted work and then refined and refined until we had what I called a bit.

Then you take the bits and string them together and presto chango we we can have the play. The play is about the absurdity, the frustration, the joy and the pain experienced by people who live with mental illness. Many are deeply personal to the cast and their bravery and the bravery of those who deal with these issues every day needs not only to be acknowledged but sung from the mountain to the valley. Sadly in Canada we are way behind almost every western nation when it comes to working with and supporting those with a mental illness. That's 1 in 5 Canadians by the way. We need to move on this with as much commitment as we have done with breast cancer. I hope our work helps to shed some light about why".
Sean Quigley. Director.

A Few Prozaks Short of a Hap-P Meal© was collectively created over the course of many months of hard work and play. It was important for us to bring in many perspectives and voices through the bits people are entertained with onstage. To do this with integrity and truth there had to be some lived experience with the material. We've been to these places - either ourselves, through word-of-mouth, with friends or families, or in the mental health system.

Robin Rundle Drake has been engaged in the theatre scene both in London and the surrounding region for many years as an actor. She recently received a special adjudicator's award for first-time directing at the 2009 London One Act Festival. Past credits include Channel Surfing's Sex with Strangers in 2009, Nelly, in Theatre Nemesis' 2008 London Fringe Festival production of Wuthering Heights, Therese, Passionfool's production of Les Belles Soeurs, Mrs. Peacock in Clue - The Musical for Simply Theatre. In recent years she has engaged in directing, and writing. Her first play, Clean Up Time received several award nominations in the London One Act Festival in 2007.

Listen to Robin's interview with VoicePrint -
Interviews with Joan Seabrook and Robin Rundle Drake. Broadcast May 7, 2009

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