Dan School of Drama and Music presents inaugural Watershed Festival - Reimagining Music Theatre
In a year filled with challenges the Queen’s University Dan School of Drama and Music is presenting the inaugural Watershed Festival – Reimagining Music Theatre.
The first of its kind, the online celebration explores all things music theatre and brings together the worlds of opera, musical theatre, and those pushing the boundaries far beyond these traditional music boxes.
The festival opens on Tuesday, May 25 with a gala book launch event When Words Sing: Seven Canadian Libretti written by Dan School Professor Julie Salverson. Salverson and Tapestry Opera Artistic Director Michael Hidetoshi Mori are joined by renowned Canadian writers George Elliott Clarke (Beatrice Chauncy), Ann-Marie MacDonald (Nigredo Hotel) and Marie Clements (Missing) who will read excerpts from their work.
Michelle Cyca: How would you describe your literary tastes?
Jen Sookfong Lee: I mostly read novels my favourites are really immersive novels that have a lot of different layers in terms of setting and character, and all those fictional elements. I look for something that will suck me in and not let me go.
The last one was
Songs for the End of the World by Saleema Nawaz, which is a pandemic novel. Oddly, she wrote it before any of this happened. It’s not that she was predicting the future, but she did a lot of research into pandemics and viruses like COVID. It’s a fascinating read, and it follows something like five protagonists and their experiences through the pandemic.