Szepty/Whispers
In Development

Szepty/Whispers explores inherited silences through narrative fragments, multimedia artifacts, and audience contributions. The project includes an online collection of documentary traces from my mother's life, an interactive archive of family secrets, and an in-progress performance.

My mother grew up in Soviet-controlled Poland, during a time of seismic social and political upheaval. After escaping from her homeland, she rarely spoke about her past and its far-reaching impacts. As I attempt to articulate my ways of being in the world, which have been labeled as mental illness, I find myself seeking out her silences. Szepty/Whispers uses my family history as a starting point for asking: what can absences, ambiguities, and contradictions transmit across generations? How do these transmissions enable survival, resistance, or complicity?

Szepty/Whispers has been developed at Playwrights Theatre Centre as part of the Associates program. The project has received additional support from Boca del Lupo and Rice & Beans Theatre’s DBLSPK series, mentorship with Boca del Lupo’s Artistic Director Sherry J. Yoon, the National Theatre School’s Art Apart initiative, the Arts Club’s LEAP Playwriting Intensive, and the Wet Ink Collective.
Development History & Credits

Art Apart: Szepty/Whispers (National Theatre School)
Creator: Veronique West
Dramaturg: Kathleen Flaherty
Documentary Production Assistants: Kathleen Flaherty & Shania Smagh

June 2020 Workshop (Playwrights Theatre Centre)
Writer/Performer: Veronique West
Director: Jiv Parasram
Projection Designer: Candelario Andrade
Dramaturg: Kathleen Flaherty
Stage Manager: Andie Lloyd
Documentary Production Assistant: Shania Smagh

DBLSPK: Szepty/Whispers (Boca del Lupo/Rice & Beans Theatre)
Writer/Performer: Veronique West
Director: Pedro Chamale
Dramaturg: Kathleen Flaherty

February 2019 Workshop (Playwrights Theatre Centre)
Writer: Veronique West
Design Collaborators: A Wake of Vultures (Nancy Tam, Conor Wylie, Dan O'Shea)
Dramaturg: Kathleen Flaherty

Unscripted: Where the Devil Can't Go (Playwrights Theatre Centre)
Producers: Heidi Taylor, Kathleen Flaherty & Anjela Magpantay
Communications Manager: Belinda Bruce
Production Coordinator: Justine Fafard
Curator/Playwright: Veronique West
Space Animation: A Wake of Vultures
Performers: Vostok, JB the First Lady, Baraka Rahmani & Julia Siedlanowska
Community Partner: Downtown Eastside Women's Centre