Mr. Speaker, I rise in this hon. House
today to congratulate Meg Coles, a former resident of
Savage Cove on the Northern Peninsula, who recently
started a theatre company in St. John’s called Poverty
Cove. Meg and her business partner Shannon Hawses are
both graduates of the National Theatre School in
Montreal and are about to stage their first production
in St. John’s entitled, The Battery. This play
was first performed in Montreal and last summer received
a grant from the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council
to bring it to its final form.
The mandate of Poverty Cove Theatre Company is
two-fold: it is to explore a range of different issues
and, like most of Meg’s plays, The Battery, is
inspired by outrage against social injustices in the
world such as domestic violence.
Another part of its mandate is to examine the
changing relationships between urban and rural
environments and how it is changing in Newfoundland. Meg
has noticed that there has been a significant increase
of people to the Avalon Peninsula whereas on the
Northern Peninsula there has been a huge out-migration.
Mr. Speaker, I ask all members of this House to join
with me in congratulating Meg on this exciting venture
and to wish her all the best in the future.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
