THUNDER BAY — A locally written musical was on the mainstage at Magnus Theatre on Friday, for an audience made up mainly of school children and will return on Saturday with a sold-out audience.
Trading Places, the story of two women living in fur trade era Fort William: a local Ojibwe woman, and a runaway from Scotland, was written in collaboration by Sara Kae and Fae Alexander.
The two performances were accompanied by the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, who played the original folk music written by Kae and Alexander and arranged by Justin Stillman.
“Faye approached me, asked if I could bring an Indigenous perspective to this because she felt as if that was missing from what she was trying to get across from the fur trade era,” Kae said.
Kae said she was happy to join and bring that perspective to the story.
“We collaborated on that and then did a little workshop to get out the kinks a bit and we're continuing to do that. It's been a long journey, but it's been a really eventful one and it seems to keep growing.”
Performing with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra is magical, Kae said.
“I was so excited to share this moment with Faye because I was saying it's going to feel unlike anything else that we've ever done, because it's usually just us and a guitar maybe if we're lucky a bass.
“It's just going to come to life and it's going to feel kind of like that floating moment and so the minute we got into our first rehearsal yesterday, we looked at each other and I feel like crying, it's like wow, I've never heard our music sound like this before and it's so powerful,” Kae said.
The goal is to tour the play across Canada, Kae said.
“This play has so much opportunity to talk about the truths of women through the fur trade era, Indigenous people through the fur trade era, and kind of from a real perspective and so we hope to continue to shop this around.”
Trading Places is a story about two women living in fur trade Fort William, Alexander said.
“Isobel has just run away from home in Scotland and is under the guise of a man. She meets Memogway, who is an Ojibwe woman who has just moved into the fort and has just married one of one of the fur traders. Tricky circumstances arise and the two women find their lives combined and they find sort of solace and friendship in each other but also challenges with their different privileges and not seeing eye to eye.”
Alexander said they have been rehearsing this past week.
“Only in the last day we’ve gotten to sing with the symphony, but it’s been so great. It's amazing to hear your own music amplified by an orchestra.
“It's so special and important to be putting on shows about Thunder Bay's history, about Thunder Bay's women, especially as someone who doesn't live in Thunder Bay all the time now. I'm so grateful that people have really jumped on the opportunity to come and see our show. It means the world,” Alexander said.
