Precocious truancy, theatrical fluency – Winnipeg Free Press

Feb. 28, 2024

As a teenage truant, Canadian playwright Donna-Michelle St. Bernard didn’t simply opt for an afternoon spent at the movies or the mall while her teachers called her name during roll call — too predictable.

Instead, at 15 years old, St. Bernard embarked on a three-hour round-trip to York University, ponying up the cash for a varsity sweater from the campus store and silently planting herself in a lecture hall, listening in as theatre students dissected A Streetcar Named Desire.

“I was cosplaying,” says the 45-year-old MC, actor and three-time Governor General’s Award nominee for playwriting. “It was an installation performance, but I don’t know if they understood.