Graduating class performances

About Scorched

After the death of their mother Nawal, Janine and Simon are left with a difficult mission that sends them on a revealing journey in pursuit of their tangled roots. This landmark play moves effortlessly between the children’s quest to fulfill their mother’s wish and Nawal own gripping story, which spans 50 years.

“Scorched is an outstanding play. It features wonderfully crafted characters and an extraordinary narrative. It is filled with rich and compelling ideas. The story examines the nature of love and identity at times of war and great strife,” explains award-wining producer, actor and director Djanet Sears.

“In English and in French, Scorched is a contemporary landmark. I think this production will be a bold and passionate interpretation of what has become a provocative "Canadian classic,” adds Alisa Palmer, Artistic Director of the English section of NTS.

For Djanet Sears, teaching future generations and passing on knowledge is essential. She taught the cast of Scorched a song that was shared with her during her theatre training by Michele George, a founding member of Peter Brook’s International Centre for Theatre Research. The song has been added to this production, along with several others. They reflect the multifaceted influences of Sears’ dramaturgy and performance style—choral technique, rhythms, singing, and movement—all of which promise to add to this daring production of Scorched in the round.

About Djanet Sears, Director

Celebrated playwright **Djanet Sears **is also an acclaimed theatre director and an adjunct professor in drama at the University of Toronto. Her plays have been widely produced, published and translated. Selected productions include: THE ADVENTURES OF A BLACK GIRL IN SEARCH OF GOD (Mirvish Productions, Nightwood Theatre, Obsidian Theatre); HARLEM DUET (Black Theatre Workshop, The Stratford Festival, St. Louis Black Repertory Company, Nightwood Theatre, CanStage), and AFRIKA SOLO (Black Theatre Workshop, Factory Theatre, Theatre Fountainhead). She is also the editor of two anthologies: TESTIFYIN': CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN CANADIAN DRAMA, VOLS. I & II. She has been a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University, a Creative Fellow at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Warwick University, Playwright-in-Residence at Tarragon Theatre, Factory Theatre, Nightwood Theatre, and International Artist-in-Residence at the Joseph Papp Public Theatre in New York City. Her honours include the Governor General's Literary Award, the Canadian Screenwriting Award, the Gold Prize at the International Radio Festival Of New York, a Chalmers Fellowship, a Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award, the Toronto Arts Foundation William Kilbourne Award, the African Canadian Achievement Award, the Harry Jerome Award, and the Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award.