MRU teams up with Sage Theatre to present world premiere of ‘Boom Baby!’

The cast of Boom Baby, a new play by Calgary playwright, poet and academic Natalie Meisner, has its world premiere Friday, Feb. 28 at the Pumphouse Theatre (Jason Mehmel)

For her new play, Boom Baby!, Calgary playwright Natalie Meisner tapped into her teaching side to lend a hand to her artistic one.

Meisner, the author of plays such as Legislating Love: The Everett Klippert Story and Speed Dating for Sperm Donors, is also an MRU Professor who teaches creative writing, so she enlisted her students to lend a hand putting the final touches to Boom Baby!

It tells the story of Iona, a Nova Scotian who finds herself working in the oilpatch, then finds herself pregnant.

That inconvenient truth leads to a crisis for Iona, who sets out to explore all her options, including offering the baby for adoption to an infertile couple who work in management.

Students in Meisner’s directed readings English course have been involved in rehearsals right up to opening night. Not only are they working with each other and Meisner, but they’re creating new work inspired by their efforts on Boom Baby!

“I am a prof who teaches creative and script writing,” Meisner said, in an article posted on the MRU website, “but I also have this other career where I am doing theatre and publishing books, so bringing the two together has been really lovely.”

Meisner is also reuniting with Sage Theatre’s artistic director Jason Mehmel who also directed and produced the world premiere of Legislating Love: The Everett Klippert, which told the story of a Calgary bus driver who was the last man in Canada to be prosecuted for being gay.

As it turns out, Mehmel is also an MRU alumni so he’s circling back to his academic roots with this production.

“I think it’s amazing for MRU to be contributing to the cultural landscape with a world premiere play, ” Mehmel says. “Not to mention the chance for MRU students to study the process of making the show by attending rehearsals.”

Meisner’s own journey started in a Nova Scotia fishing community before she moved west and settled in Calgary -- like thousands of others who have migrated to Alberta from Atlantic Canada and built a life here.

That’s what makes Boom Baby! resonate for director Mehmel.

“It’s full of interesting and challenging ideas, wrapped around deeply resonant characters,” he said. “It’s also a detailed reflection of our city and province and how we relate to money and people.”

Boom Baby! has already won the Canadian National Playwriting Award as well as the Grand Prize in the Alberta Playwriting Competition. It opens Feb. 28 at the Pumphouse Theatre.

For tickets, go here.