Be/Longing is a pastiche play, exploring the rural lives and history of Kootenay women. It was written and performed by Martina Avis and Marya Folinsbee and toured the West Kootenays in 2018-2019, premiering at the Vallican Whole Community Centre.
Bessie Wapp provided dramaturgical and directorial support.
The project was funded by the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance.
Two scenes from Be/Longing, filmed in 2018.
Evelyn is a Perfect Housewife, stewing in her own repressed juices. Unconsciously frustrated by the dreary duties of domestic life, she discovers, in the course of her chores, deep, mysterious, primal urges, and struggle as she might to stay spic & span, shit gets dirty.
A one-woman play in a neo-bouffon universe, Domesticated Disputes explores the wild impulses lurking under the carpet of even the most perfect home.
Toured the West Kootenays and at Nanaimo, Victoria and Edmonton Fringe Festivals (2021-2023).
Photo by Xela La
A kid-friendly clown story about the fabric of reality, the magic of creativity, and the composition of the cosmos.
Written and performed by Marya Folinsbee & Aaron Pickett, Buttons & Pockets has been performed around the Nelson area and at the 2024 Edmonton Fringe Festival, with support from the Osprey Foundation.
The Church of Birch is an ongoing, work-in-progress roving lantern performance by Marya Folinsbee and Aaron Pickett. It’s also in development to become a one-act theatre performance, a sermon delivered by a tree priest.
Various iterations of the piece have been performed at the Polka Dot Dragon Lantern Festival in Nelson, Revelstoke’s LUNA Arts Fest, and at the Vallican Whole Community Centre.
Whale Fall is a shadow puppet installation created for the 2024 Polka Dot Dragon Lantern Festival in Nelson BC.
It’s a meditation on the generosity and abundance of a whale in death.
Co-created for Material Theatre by Marya Folinsbee, Lisa Johnson & Martina Avis, with installation help from Jacey Schindel, Aaron Pickett and Paul Sergeant.
Photos by Jacey Schindel, Martina Avis and Keely Winnitoy.
The Mosquitos is an original new absurdist tragicomedy by Marya Folinsbee, slated for its first production in the spring of 2025.
The Mosquitos is about an old group of friends, reuniting for a dinner party, in the midst of massive sociopolitical and physiological change in their community. It’s inspired by work like Eugene Ionesco’s Rhinoceros.
The Mosquitos is produced with support from the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance, the BC Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Big Water Coming is a short performance that was commissioned for the 2019 New Denver Writer’s Convergence. It imagines a pirate radio station navigating a near-future of climate catastrophe and societal collapse.
Photos by Art Joyce
Miss Marmot’s Playshop is the clown wing of Material Theatre. Marya is a clown performer and facilitator who offers short performances, interactive shows, and workshops for children and adults.
A short film made for “Fast & Loose Digital Video” workshop by The Folklordz and Nakai Theatre.
As the Administrator for the Vallican Whole Community Centre, Marya produced “A Country Road Rural Theatre Lab”, in collaboration with an organizing committee and many local theatre creators.
As the Administrator for the Vallican Whole Community Centre, Marya produced “A Country Road Rural Theatre Lab”, in collaboration with an organizing committee and many local theatre creators.
BRAVE NEW WORKS is a Cabaret of original new theatre work being produced by Kootenay artists.
Produced as part of the Rural Theatre Lab at the Vallican Whole, Sept 2024.
In 2019, Martina directed, and Marya starred in, a Valley Gems Production of Peter Pan.
