This past week, I was able to attend the initial read-through and table work for this major revival of my 2006 play Schoolhouse… which was directed at the 4th Line Theatre by Kim Blackwell in 2007, brought back by popular demand in 2008, and—despite its large cast and rural setting—has been staged somewhere in North America at least once a year ever since.

I haven’t looked at the script or seen a production in at least 15 years, so I was thrilled to bits to discover that the thing holds up. As well as being in awe of Monica’s casting, I fell in love with these characters and this story all over again… which isn’t immodest for me to say, I think, given that they were all inspired by real people and real events in the Cavan region, as told to me or read by me during my research here as an OAC and Canada Council for the Arts Playwright-in-Residence all those years ago.

Now that I’ve returned home, this complex little one-room ecosystem is entirely in the capable and sensitive hands of director Monica Dottor and her vast team of theatre professionals, community stalwarts, and truly irresistible children. I’ll be back at the end of June to see what they’ve made of it all.

Pictured: some of the cast and crew of Schoolhouse at the 4th Line Theatre, previewing June 30 and July 1st and running July 2-25, 2026. Photos by Kiana Bromley.