The Amazing Grace Jones Spaceship, 2018
Submitted for MFA thesis at University of Guelph. MFA awarded in Summer, 2018.
The Amazing Grace Jones Spaceship is a full-length drama that hinges on a love triangle between three women: Charlie, Agnes, and Tuesday. Charlie is an attractive and charismatic young woman who identifies as masculine, although she fiercely resists being tied down by labels and/or relationships. Charlie is well educated and well read. She has worked/played hard to reclaim her body as a site of pleasure instead of a site of oppression, and has a habit of seducing and “queering” straight women. Charlie has a polyamorous relationship with Agnes, who tolerates and understands Charlie’s inclinations. When Charlie meets Tuesday, Agnes is threatened by the relationship. The world of the play merges the boundaries of fantasy, memory, dream, and reality to explore how these women apprehend and negotiate the way their sexuality is imagined as a source of desire, shame and degradation. Is pleasure trustworthy? Can sexual fantasies that involve playing with power be a joyful part of reclaiming our bodies? What are our responsibilities to others? To ourselves? How does queerness inform this project?
The Happy Woman 2012
A world premiere, directed by Kelly Thornton; at Berkeley Street Theatre, Nightwood Theatre. The play was shortlisted for the Carol Bolt award in 2012.
Written by Rose Cullis
Directed by Kelly Thornton
Starring Maev Beaty, Ingrid Rae Doucet, Barbara Gordon, Martin Happer, Maria Vacratsis
Set and Costume Design by Denyse Karn, Lighting Design by Kimberly Purtell,
Sound Design by Joelysa Pankanea
“One of the strengths theatre does have over those other mediums is the immediate presence of fully embodied characters. This production does not disappoint in this respect. The characters are familiar, yet not clichéd. The performances, especially the dynamics amongst the family, are fully realized. I wanted to dislike the mother character for her wilful ignorance yet ultimately I both loved and hated them all.” Mooney on Theatre www.mooneyontheatre.com
“The play does haunt the mind, and may even invade your dreams. The work of a new playwright (to me, anyway), it stands out in a season that’s been notably short on good new plays.“
Robert Cushman, The National Post
“The play is billed as a ‘darkly comic exploration of what happens when bliss gets in the way of truth and threatens to destroy the very foundation we rely on.’ The play gives us exactly that, a darkly comic story with tragic elements dispersed throughout.“
Dave Ross, The Charlebois Post www.carpo-canada.com
“Nightwood Theatre’s production of Rose Cullis’s The Happy Woman will find you leaving the theatre having gone through a plethora of emotions and that is precisely what you want when you see a good show…This is a play that will make you uncomfortable and will make you laugh. It is a strangely human play.” Janelle Watkins, The Scene In T.O. www.thesceneinto.com
“The Happy Woman is a very courageous look at the world of happiness and the deeper, darker, underlying layer. Cullis takes simple observation and creates a study that many of us would not dare to think about or look at. The sophistication in the play, the brilliance in the creative production and the memorable performances by the company create a moving and mind-boggling theatrical experience. It is hard to put the experience in words. It’s a theatre event that has to be seen to be truly understood.” Adnan N, The Arts Scene www.theartsscene.ca
The Dinner Party 2006
Directed by Bea Pizano; Rhubarb! Festival of New Works: Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.
Writer: Rose Cullis
Director: Bea Pizano
Performers: Zoie Palmer and Michelle Girouard
The dinner party is a comedy about the tragic necessity of loss when we make choices in our lives. Two woman in a relationship grapple with lost opportunities and have an identity crisis, while waiting for their guests to arrive for a dinner party. Can love matter enough in the shadow of regret?
Dendrites 2000
A text for a dance choreographed by Rebecca Todd, in a site-specific festival of dance, text and music: Shared Habitat: A Festival of Art and the Environment in 2000, with Bill James and co-producers Rebecca Todd and Ana-Francisca de la Mora.
Baal 1998
A world premiere commissioned and produced by Mercury Theatre, in association with Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, directed by Jon Michaelson, Buddies In Bad Times Theatre Mainspace.
A rock n’ roll show, commissioned by Mercury Theatre and inspired by a 1920’s play by Brecht.
Promiscuously talented ‘Baal’ writes the songs that makes the young girls sing, but at home and on the road she’s in conflict with her lovers, her band, her managers, and her growing notoriety.
Astrid Van Wieren starred indelibly as Baal and composed 7 kick-ass original songs which she sang with sass and passion. John Gzowski was the excellent band’s excellent leader. The versatile company included John Evans as a Machiavellian record industry magnate, and Brenda Bazinet as his star-struck wife. In her Toronto main stage debut, Tara Rosling played the ingenue love object with grace and fury.
“A wonderful gutsy idea…this production avoided many pitfalls and delivered many rewards…it had power, depth, and enormous creativity…and the music is as inventive as the text. Such a work deserves to go all the way and have national exposure”
Mira Friedlander, Variety
That Camille Claudel Feeling 1996
Toronto Fringe Festival, Robert Gill Theatre.
Pure Motives 1994
A world premiere, developed with the support of The Canadian Stage Company, Theatre Centre.