This Is How We Got Here

The Firehall is proud to produce and present Keith Barker’s This Is How We Got Here from Saturday, April 13 to Sunday, April 28.
 
Simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming, This Is How We Got Here follows a close-knit family still dealing with the lingering trauma of an unexpected loss. A mother, father, aunt, and uncle must learn how to move forward after their shared grief as they re-learn how to interact with one another through humour, forgiveness, and love.
 
It has been a year since Paul and Lucille’s son Craig died by suicide, and their once-solid family bonds are starting to break down. While the now-separated couple tries to honour their son, Lucille’s sister Liset and her husband Jim refuse to discuss their nephew. The ties that keep the four together as sisters, best friends, and spouses are strained by grief and guilt… until a visit from a fox changes everything.
 
“When my eye caught the cover of this newly published play in 2017, I felt compelled to read it as I had recently had a ‘fox’ experience, different from this but also very meaningful,” says Firehall Arts Centre’s Artistic Producer, Donna Spencer. “Once I started to read it, I knew it was a play for Firehall audiences, and I appreciated how Keith had shaped this powerful story, blending humour with grief, friendship with raw pain, and the power of the natural world.”
 
Keith Barker is a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario. He is a playwright, actor, and director from Northwestern Ontario. Keith is also 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 recipient of the Dora Mavor Moore Award and the Playwrights Guild’s Carol Bolt Award for Best New Play. Keith 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. He was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for English Drama for This Is How We Got Here.