BEHIND THE SCENES The concept sprouted at a playwriting workshop where we improvised scenarios Simon Johnson gleaned from hints that came from our initial introductions. The Meabh character emerged strongly, coupled with a local issue of butchering groves of trees to further development plans in rapidly growing Surrey, BC. Soon the premise took on a life of it’s own and once the flashback. connections with Ireland and liminal storytelling aspects developed it grew in length with many interconnecting elements. Through the Wet Ink Collective (a Vancouver women playwrights group) I worked on scenes and character development. I edited a draft during a silent retreat on Bowen Island were I met Opa,a giant Douglas Fir. On visits to Ireland I did experience the Hawthorne bush along the highway in Co Clare and it was not at all the grand faerie tree of my imagination. Later at a writer’s retreat on the Beara Peninsula I was enchanted by the fleeting glowing golden lights on the trunk of a tree at the cascades waterfalls that seemed to be my own faerie tree. I also witnessed the difference between Irish (labyrinthine) and North American (linear) story telling. Truly, nothing is what it seems in Ireland. There are semi autobiographical parts from singing and acting at The Sugawn Folk Kitchen, Duke of Wellington Irish Pub in London 1972-75. Run by Jerry and Mary O’Neill, it was a haven for displaced Irish musicians and actors and the characters in the play are a blend of real acquaintances. Bíle the tree is a central character in the play. Ireland was once thickly forested. Now there are few remnants of the ancient forests Faerie trees remain as powerful reminders and also villageMonument Trees. https://oldmooresalmanac.com/the-monument-irish-tree-at-the-heart-of-village-life/ The play was several years in the making and then serendipity! During the recording sessions“The Fairy Creek protests (2020–2022) were a series of, at times, tense blockades on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, aimed at preventing the logging of old-growth forests, becoming the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. Over 1100 people were arrested as protesters, including Indigenous and non-Indigenous land defenders, challenged logging by Teal Jones Group. https://www.capitaldaily.ca/news/old-growth-protesters-walbran-valley-stay-put-bc-supreme-court-approves-injunction During the forced diaspora of Irish immigration to North America, many did only carry songs, stories and traditions with them. This play offers a glimpse of how the stories could evolve in a new and very different land. Both those who braved the perils of travel as well as those who remained behind often have fanciful notions about each other. I grew up in the wilds of Western US and have lived in Canada half of my life. Young Meabh is definitely from the US of my youth. Golden age Meabh and the inspiration for the play are very much influenced by the time I lived in Surrey, BC. I left discouraged by the hot political topic of lite rail and ongoing development schemes that were destroying riparian stream ecosystems and murdering trees. This personal blend is why I envision the locale of Freedom Grove as somewhere on the west coast of North America.