Featured Member — Christine Rodriguez
Each month we interview member playwrights to share their work, stories and inspiration with the community. We recently spoke with Christine Rodriguez, a writer from Montreal who creates from a mixed-race, Afro-Trinidadian perspective. Her play, Dreaming in Autism, received third prize at Ottawa Little Theatre’s 72nd National One-Act Playwriting Competition. Her TYA play, Simone, Half and Half, published by Playwrights Canada Press, earned her a nomination from Gala Dynastie for Author of the Year. She was part of PWM’s 2023 Gros Morne Playwright Residence and continues to work on her next play entitled ORO, which received third place in Infinitheatre’s 2024 Write-on-Q playwriting competition. An alumna of the Canadian Film Centre, Christine also has a Certificate of Professional Screenwriting from UCLA and is currently working on a bachelor’s in Hispanic studies from Université de Montréal.
Tell us how you got your start writing plays.
As a late-blooming actor in my 40s, I was initially doing a lot of independent theatre. It was the community I was a part of. So, it was only natural that my first commitment to writing be plays. I self-produced quite a bit before Black Theatre Workshop gave me a chance at a first professional production.
Has your mixed Afro-Trinidadian background and growing up in multicultural Montreal shaped your perspective as a writer, and if so, how do you reflect that in your work?
My mixed-race, Afro-Trinidadian heritage has definitely shaped my perspective. While I was born in Canada, my life experience was shaped by Montreal’s English Caribbean community and the immigrant experience: my parents’ desire for something better, my own desire as a mother to see my son benefit from all the opportunities Canada has to offer compared to what my ancestors faced. This perspective is reflected all over my work as I explore the Canadian dream. I mean, whose dream is it? Is the dream for everyone or only a certain few? I also love to delve into intercultural relationships between individuals and communities. Montreal provides an amazing backdrop for so many wonderful stories.
A few of your plays, including The Autism Monologues and Dreaming in Autism, explore the experiences of individuals with autism and their loved ones. What inspired you to write these plays, and what do you hope audiences take away from them?
I wrote those plays from personal experience, realizing that people needed to get a better understanding of what autism is beyond the stereotypes we’ve seen in TV and film. For me, it’s an added part of the challenges with regards to chasing the immigrant dream: what happens when situations you face are not at all what you expected?
In your opinion, what role can theatre play in bridging divides in multicultural societies?
Theatre is an authentic, uncensured art form that is essential to any healthy society. A playwright has more room to experiment and to challenge hegemonic attitudes in a way that other writers may not have because of commercial constraints (as in TV or film). Theatre takes risks. Explores the unexplored. And is rewarded for it. I also feel that fringe festivals allow playwrights to thrive in a low-cost manner that enables artists to reach passionate audiences.
Being from Montreal, have you found that audiences in Quebec respond differently to your work than those elsewhere in Canada?
I don’t have a lot of experience with my work being presented outside Quebec, but from what I’ve seen, Quebec, particularly Montreal, is much more open to all types of content and perspectives. I feel that, maybe, there is a divide between rural and urban communities, and some content that might thrive in Montreal or Toronto might face some obstacles in other settings. I worry about that because at the end of the day, we’re all human beings, individuals with unique experiences, and it would be nice if we could honestly speak to that without judgement or fear.
What are you working on next?
I’m working on further developing my new play Oro. I was able to work on it during the Gros Morne playwright residency with Playwrights Workshop Montreal in 2023. Last fall, it won third place in Infinitheatre’s Write-on-Q playwriting competition. It’s also had two public readings in Montreal. I currently need to expand on the story further to make it worthy of a mainstage production.
Oro is the story of two Black families, one in Canada and one in Colombia, and how a Canadian gold mine impacts them both. It’s an exploration of the relationship (or lack thereof) between communities of the African diaspora, so distant from one another. It also poses the question about the responsibility Canadians have towards the actions of companies in this country and the impact they have on communities in other parts of the world.
Do you have any favourite Canadian plays, and/or which artists are currently inspiring you?
I have a great admiration for Djanet Sears and her work. Afrika Solo, The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God and Harlem Duet are some of my favourite plays. Djanet is also a great mentoring soul. It was her kind support of my work early on in my career that encouraged me to keep going even though it took a while for me to gain my footing as a writer in theatre and beyond.
Keep up with Christine on Instagram (@chichimontreal) or on Facebook (@A Dios short film) or on LinkedIn!
And find a few of Christine’s scripts for sale through the Canadian Play Outlet.
Disclaimer: Playwrights Guild of Canada (“PGC”) is a national arts service mandated to engage and grow an active Canadian writing community. We promote Canadian plays around the world to advance the creative rights and interests of professional Canadian playwrights for the stage. The views of our members are their own. The opinions of PGC as an association remain neutral.
