Cast
Genevieve Adam - Anne
Montana Adams - Sheauga
Jordan M. Burns - Lionel
Theresa Cutknife - Oheo
Darcy Gerhart - Marinette
Scott Garland - Nicolas
Brianne Tucker - Catherine
This is a Canadian Actors’ Equity Association production under the Artists’ Collective Policy.
Additional support and funding provided by:
Genevieve Adam - Anne
Genevieve Adam is a graduate of the George Brown Theatre School in Toronto and holds an MFA from the East15 Acting School in the UK. Selected acting credits include Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (CBS), The Big Cigar (AppleTV), Mrs. America (FX), The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu), Stag&Doe (Capitol Theatre), Measure for Measure(Thought for Food) and Recall (Toronto Fringe) - for which she was nominated as Outstanding Actress in the 2017 MyEntWorld Critics’ Pick Awards. Her first play “Deceitful Above All Things”premiered at SummerWorks in 2015 and won several accolades including Outstanding New Play, Outstanding Production, and Best Emerging Artist. Her play “Dark Heart” was named one of the top theatrical productions of 2018 by the Toronto Star.
Montana Adams - Sheauga
Montana Adams is a theatre creator based out of Akwesasne. She began her theatre career in the indie theatre scene while she was at the University of Ottawa, where she received a BA in Theatre. In 2019 she participated in the Ottawa Fringe Festival and won the Emerging Artist Award for her play My Good Friend Jay, which was remounted online with the NYC Indian Community House's Native Theatre Thursdays, and in-person at the 2022 Undercurrents Festival. In 2021 she received the Ionkwakwé:nion Community Award from the Mohawk Council of Akwesasne for her accomplishments in the performing arts. She has worked with a bunch of productions as either an actor, playwright, a director, mentor, or all of the above.
Jordan M. Burns - Lionel
Jordan M. Burns (they/them) is a Disabled, Indigenous, 2SLGBTQ+, Neurodivergent, multidisciplinary artist from Treaty 3 territory. Jordan M. currently serves as Third Wheel Theatre Co.’s co-founding Artistic Director and as Clay & Paper Theatre’s Associate Producer. They’re also a proud honours graduate of both York University & Humber College's Theatre programs. Some favourite credits include Heartless (dir. T.J. Seguin), Stranger Things Experience (dir. T. Vannucci), Salt Baby (dir. N. Robitaille), Mno Bimaadiziwin (dir. H. Barnes), TMTYG (dir. J.M. Burns), and their piece in development, A Pineberry’s Past (writ. J.M. Burns). Follow Jordan M. on Instagram @ThirdWheelTheatreCo / @BurnsBright97
Theresa Cutknife - Oheo & Assistant Director
Theresa Cutknife (she/her) is a Nêhiyaw & Puerto Rican actor, writer, and storyteller from Maskwacîs, Alberta located on Treaty 6 Territory and she is a member of the Samson Cree Nation. Theresa is a graduate from The Centre for Indigenous Theatre’s full time acting program and most recently was a member of the 2023 Soulpepper Academy. Recent credits include: The Walk-Up (Soulpepper Academy), Niizh (Native Earth Performing Arts), My Sister’s Rage (Tarragon Theatre/Studio 180 Theatre/TOLive), The House of Bernarda Alba (Aluna Theatre/Modern Times Theatre), Diggstown (CBC Gem).
Darcy Gerhart - Marinette
Darcy Gerhart is a theatre artist from T’karonto and a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada. She has performed on stages across the country, including the Shaw Festival, Theatre Calgary, and Toronto’s Theatre Centre. She was recently nominated for a Betty Mitchell award for her performance in Alberta Theatre Projects’ Cowgirl Up!. A graduate of UofT’s Drama Centre she recently directed Featherhead at T.O Fringe (Winner - Spirit of the Fringe) and Smoke Ville at Alumnae Theatre.
Scott Garland - Nicolas
Scott Garland is a German-born Alberta-raised Toronto-based actor and writer. A George Brown grad, with a BA from the University of Alberta, he's best known for performing across the country and overseas, as Harris in Pea Green Theatre's award-winning Three Men in a Boat. He's also a founding member of the puppet theatre company Silent Protagonist. You can hear Scott voice various characters in the award-winning animated series People Watching (CBC GEM) and Let's Go Luna (PBS), or catch him on select episodes of Workin Moms, Mayor of Kingstown, Murdoch Mysteries, and Titans.
Brianne Tucker - Catherine & Fight Captain
Brianne is very thankful to be back in the world that Genevieve created and working with Tyler once again. She really hopes this becomes a habit. (Pun intended.) Thank you to Mom & Dad for the many laughs and to Andrew for being there whenever I return home. Credits include: Danny & Delilah (Cow Patti Theatre), Honour Beat (New West Theatre), The Incredible Adventures of Mary Jane Mosquito (Carousel Players), Bentboy (YPT), The 39 Steps (St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival, Salt Baby and Boeing Boeing (Magnus Theatre), Mno Bimaadiziwin (Theatre By The Bay), Murder at the Howard Johnson's (Orillia Opera House), One Slight Hitch (Upper Canada Playhouse), Dark Heart (Thought for Food), Perfect Wedding (Lighthouse Festival Theatre), Spirit Horse (Roseneath Theatre), and The World Beloved: A Blue Grass Mass (Carnegie Hall) TV credits include: The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu)
Creative Team
Keith Barker - Dramaturg
Maddie Bautista - Sound Designer
Theresa Cutknife - Assistant Director
Dahlia Katz - Photographer
Kalina Popova - Production Designer
Matt Richardson - Fight Director
Tyler J. Seguin - Director
Jeanalle Suico - Graphic Designer
Corey Tazmania - Intimacy Coordinator
Kayla Thomas - Stage Manager & Intimacy Captain
Brianne Tucker - Fight Captain
Imogen Wilson - Lighting Designer
Original music by Alyssa Delbaere-Sawchuk
Original music design & mixing by Alex Eddington
Additional audio design & mixing by Andrew Penner
Keith Barker - Dramaturg
Keith Barker is a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario. He is an award-winning playwright from Northwestern Ontario. Keith is the Director of the Foerster Bernstein New Play Development Program at the Stratford Festival, and the former Artistic Director at Native Earth Performing Arts in Toronto. He is the winner of the Dora Mavor Moore Award and the Playwrights Guild’s Carol Bolt Award for best new play. Keith was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for English Drama in 2018 for his play, This Is How We Got Here. He received a Saskatchewan and Area Theatre Award for Excellence in Playwriting for his play, The Hours That Remain, as well as a Yukon Arts Award for Best Art for Social Change.
Maddie Bautista - Sound Design
Maddie Bautista (she/her) is a Bi, Saudi Arabia-born Filipina sound designer and composer. In the daytime, you can catch Maddie creating and shaping sound in iconic theatres across the country – from composing original music in the earliest stages of new work development, to tuning systems with live musicians and mid-sized casts. After the sun goes down, she moonlights as half of xLq with Jordan Campbell – a queer pop performance duo who tours across the country with their daring, interactive theatre and bizarre, grungy drag. Maddie received 2 Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Love You Wrong Time (Outstanding Sound design and Ensemble). Selected sound credits: Wild Woman (Soulpepper), Les Belles-Soeurs (Stratford Festival), The First Stone (New Harlem Productions & GCTC); Kim's Convenience (The Grand Theatre, London).
Kalina Popova - Production Design
Kalina Popova is a Toronto-based costume and set designer and costume technician, born in Bulgaria. In 2020, she graduated from York University with a BFA in Theatre Production and Design. Since graduating, Kalina’s credits as a set and costume designer include The Drowning Girls (Guild Festival Theatre), Chekhov’s Shorts(GFT), War of the Worlds Reimagined (Frog in Hand, asst. costume design), and Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) (costume design). As a costume technician, she has built costumes for the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Flight (2023) and Rinaldo (2022) and more. Kalina also has her own business selling upcycled and sustainable crafts and is constantly striving to gain new perspectives on the expression of art.
Matt Richardson - Fight Director
Matt Richardson is celebrating over 30 years in the study, practice and refinement of Stage Combat. He’s worked in professional theatres and in education across Ontario, most recently for The Canadian Opera Company and The Christie Pits Riot. He has taught “Introduction to Stage Combat” to thousands of students of all ages, from children to seasoned professional actors. His directing, teaching and professional development has had him working with experts from around the world, from Scotland, England, Australia and across the USA and Canada. Matt continues to develop his methodology, innovating how we approach and present theatrical fighting. www.MattRichardson.ca
Tyler J. Seguin - Director
Tyler J. Seguin is an award-winning director of theatre and film. He is also the co-Artistic Director of the Guild Festival Theatre, Scarborough’s only professional theatre company. GFT Credits include Alice in Wonderland (for which he received a Dora Mavor Moore Award nomination), Chekhov’s Shorts, and Anne. Tyler has also directed extensively with Thought For Food, including Dark Heart (Toronto Star Top Production of 2018), an all-female staging of Measure for Measure, and the Canadian premiere of Vaclav Havel’s The Memo. Other theatre work includes projects with companies across the country such as The Stratford Festival, The St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival, The Sudbury Theatre Centre, Theatre New Brunswick and the Old Trout Puppet Workshop. Tyler’s short film “Advances” has been screened at festivals around the world and won Best Short Film at the Toronto Food Film Festival and the Milton Film Festival. His webseries about death and in-laws, You’re Never Alone, will be released in 2024.
Corey Tazmania - Intimacy Coordinator
Corey Tazmania (Intimacy Director) is honored to collaborate on the final play in the New France Trilogy. Recent works include: The Hooves Belonged to the Deer- In Arms Theatre Collective; Edmonton Fringe; Intimate Apparel - Thousand Islands Playhouse; Antigone Lives, Seph, TomorrowLove - RISERx Why Not Theatre/ Toronto Met's School of Performance; The Hooves Belonged to the Deer - The Tarragon; Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo- Crow's Theatre.
Kayla Thomas - Stage Manager & Intimacy Captain
Kayla Thomas (she/her) is a Toronto based Stage Manager, originally from Vancouver, British Columbia. Her interests prioritize impactful entertainment that exemplifies diversity, and this has since become an important practice that she intends to carry into her future ambitions. Her recent credits include work for the 2023 Soulpepper Academy, Moonhorse Dance Theatre, Factory Theatre & Tarragon Theatre.
Imogen Wilson - Lighting Design
Imogen is a Toronto based Lighting Designer who has designed for The Stratford Festival, Canadian Stage, Chemainus Festival, Banff Centre for the Arts, Crows Theatre, Against the Grain, Summerworks, and Toronto Dance Theatre. Imogen has also worked as an assistant lighting designer for Mirvish, Canadian Opera Company, Stratford Festival, Musical and Canadian Stage. She is also a scenic painter, proud member of ADC 659, and loves to go for a canoe at sunset.
Playwright’s Note
This play has been over 10 years in the making.
It’s taken me to Wendake, the Huron-Wendat homeland since the 17 th century; to Pointe-à-Callière where Montreal was founded; and to the memorial for Hochelaga, buried in a bustling McGill quad.
I started writing about New France to find my place in these lands we call Canada, excavating the colonial history I’d been taught, listening to stories from cultures outside my experience, finding voices and perspectives other than those of white male settlers.
In the process, my old ways of knowing and thinking about this country had to die, so that new and better ways could be born.
“Heartless” is that journey through the darkest days before the dawn, to find hope and tenderness together in a brutal world.
Thank you for joining us. Better days ahead.
Tiawenk. Merci. Nia:wen.
- Genevieve Adam, “Heartless” 2024
Director’s Note
“They could be more humble…considering we had to show them how to survive here.” -Sheauga
I have been thinking a lot about one of my own ancestors- a young craftsman who left Brittany to escape the poverty and hierarchy of France and build a new life on the banks of the St. Lawrence River. I think about the many people who taught him to overcome his deadly ignorance and flourish. Whether it's bonds of blood or love or need, only in togetherness can we survive this cold hard world. I’m grateful for the people who have shown me the way: the incredible collaborators who taught me humility every day of rehearsal as well as those whose contributions to the previous plays and the 2019 workshop still echo through this story. Thank you to Theresa for her courage. Thank you to Genevieve for her trust. Thank you for joining us on this journey. Yours in humility - Tyler J. Seguin.
New France - Audio Plays
Did you love the show and want more New France stories? Well, all three plays have been adapted for audio! We’re still in post-production, but just fill out this form if you’d like us to let you know when they’re released.
Native Earth Performing Arts and Aki Studio are situated on the traditional territory of many nations including the Anishinaabe, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Wendat, and the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, and who are in a Treaty Relationship with Canada.