{"id":37822,"date":"2026-03-26T16:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=37822"},"modified":"2026-04-02T15:46:56","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T19:46:56","slug":"where-you-are-brings-relatable-family-drama-to-theatre-aurora-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/where-you-are-brings-relatable-family-drama-to-theatre-aurora-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"“Where You Are” brings relatable family drama to Theatre Aurora stage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

No matter where you come from, your economic circumstances, or where you happen to be on your own life\u2019s journey right now, many of the rhythms of family life can be universal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While sisters Glenda and Suzanne might live lives all their own \u2013 while living together \u2013 on Manitoulin Island, the growth, challenges, and journeys each undertake in the play Where You Are, strike a familiar chord with just about everyone \u2013 and that is one of the many reasons Theatre Aurora tapped Ontario playwright Kristen da Silva\u2019s acclaimed play to be the penultimate offering of their 2025-2026 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSisters Glenda and Suzanne live a quiet life on Manitoulin Island, but when the unexpected arrival of Suzanne\u2019s daughter, Beth, and a weighty secret start to shake things up, the sisters find themselves hilariously tangled in each other\u2019s business,\u201d says Theatre Aurora. \u201cFull of witty banter, touching revelations, and the kind of love that only family can bring, this charming play is a delightful mix of laughter and heart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was love at first read for director Judi Cragg as she and the Theatre Aurora team put together the current season, but it was a long time coming as they waited patiently to secure the rights to stage the play \u2013 a process she says was well worth the wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbout a year ago when we were putting this season together, we got an email saying it\u2019s now available,\u201d says the director of finally clearing the two-year waiting list. \u201cThey asked, are you still interested? We jumped on it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just keep rhapsodizing about this play to everybody. The characters are absolutely real to our lives,\u201d Cragg continues, likening the play to the works of the perennially-popular playwright Norm Foster. \u201cIt\u2019s a little bit in the Foster genre where it is funny, but then there are very touching moments and, perhaps in this case, heartbreaking moments. I call it the M*A*S*H effect. It was really the first television show to start the idea where you\u2019re sitting there laughing at something hilariously funny and you\u2019re right in the moment, then, all of a sudden, they will smack you between the eyes with something heartbreaking, heart-wrenching, devastating and, because you\u2019ve just been laughing, it has more of an effect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The universality of many of the themes explored in Where You Are was just one element that attracted Cragg to the director\u2019s chair. Adding to the attractive challenge was the chance to delve deeper into just four characters after helming productions with very large casts of 20-or-more in previous seasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAll four characters are people I believe almost all of us have met before,\u201d she says. \u201cThe audience is going to sit there and perhaps not consciously, but somewhere in their mind they\u2019re going to know they\u2019ve met someone like these people, and they will understand their relationships\u2026. It\u2019s about family, but looking at love in its various forms with lots of laughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one week in the character\u2019s lives and I want people to leave feeling as if they have spent time with friends, that they will have been with these people, they like these people, they will feel with these people, they will laugh with these people, and they will go on their way. When I read novels, my favourite ones are where there\u2019s at least one character, hopefully more, that I don\u2019t just resonate with, but I really like \u2013 you love these characters and, when it ends, you\u2019re like, now I\u2019m going to miss my friends. That\u2019s what I want people to feel \u2013 that they like these people, they care about these people, and they understand these people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kristen Da Silva\u2019s \u201cWhere You Are\u201d opened at Theatre Aurora (150 Henderson Drive) on March 20 and runs on select dates and times through the final performance this Saturday, March 28. For more information, including tickets, visit theatreaurora.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No matter where you come from, your economic circumstances, or where you happen to be on your own life\u2019s journey right now, many of the rhythms of family life can be universal. While sisters Glenda and Suzanne might live lives all their own \u2013 while living together \u2013 on Manitoulin Island, the growth, challenges, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":37823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2026-03-26-01.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9Q2","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 21:11:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37824,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37822\/revisions\/37824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}