Stephanie Morin-Robert is reconnecting with her roots through her work.
The performing artist has translated her one-woman show, Blindside, into French after years of working in English. It’s an important step for her.
“It’s amazing to see the networks that are available across the country and to be able to go to those spaces and connect with the francophones in those regions is amazing,” she says.
Blindside is a comedy recounting Morin-Robert’s younger years, surviving cancer and the resiliency it can take to face a new school and the loss of an eye.
It has garnered awards at Fringe festivals across the country, including Most Outstanding Production in London and Best in Fest in Ottawa, and three awards at Contact Ontarois 2023.
When she had children, the importance of culture and language came into sharp focus for her.
“Community is important, whether it's in our careers or in our families,” she says.
Morin-Robert started her career as a teenager when she auditioned for Tout Feu Tout Flamme, a touring Franco-Canadian musical theatre company that focused on creating francophone work and touring francophone communities.
“There was something in that work and being exposed to these French-speaking people that ignited my pride as a francophone,” she says. “That came alive in me when doing these tours.”
The experience was unique.
“We would tour year-round and do our schooling correspondence and I auditioned for this in Grade 8, and not really thinking anything of it, more going to the audition to support a friend, but I ended up getting chosen,” she says. “It really changed my life and exposed me to something I didn’t even know I was interested in, and by being a part of this allowed me to choreograph, to perform, to write, direct and even help plan these tours.”
She says that decision to travel and perform with the group allowed her to pursue something she never considered before.
“I was hooked,” she says about performing.
She credits teachers she had while growing up in Timmins, and her parents never putting pressure on her to pursue a more traditional career, with her success.
“They never questioned my choices and pursuing a career as a performer,” she says. “So I never really grew up with that pressure of needing to do anything other than what I’m doing.”
She started dancing at a young age at Nancy Delmonte Academy of Dance, which is now Northern Diamonds Academy of Dance in South Porcupine, and as she grew, she focused on musical theatre.
“Nancy was my dance teacher for quite a long time, and she was a huge influence,” she says. “And I spent a lot of time out at summer camp, where it was quite normal to create skits and air bands, and that really did support my creativity in a big way.”
She studied dance but shifted her focus to choreography in her post-secondary studies.
“It allowed for more flexibility of what is dance, and what dance could be,” she says. “So it became for me a very multidisciplinary practice because as a choreographer I was able to use all types of tools beyond just movement.”
She started working with the Montreal Fringe festival after her post-secondary education, but despite its location, a lot of the work there was in English.
“It kind of blew my mind, and it showed me how you don’t necessarily need to wait for a gatekeeper to let you in to share your work,” she says.
Touring, she grew as a performer and expanded how she told stories to her audience.
“I had an interest in expanding beyond dance,” she says. “So I started writing one-woman shows that allowed me to mix in and use whatever I felt like using to tell my story based on my personal experiences.”
Her journey back to French in her work and in her life has been interesting, she says.
“Even though it was in Montreal, the whole theatre scene was very English,” she says. “Because I had an accent, because I was from Ontario, I was targeted as an anglophone, and I gradually fell into creating English work.”
She’s performed Blindside over 700 times in the last 10 years. Translating it in the last two years seemed very important.
“There’s a fear of losing track of the pride and the culture and feeling the responsibility to pass it on to my kids,” she says. “It’s really on me to be the French presence in the house, so I decided to translate my work and touring and performing in French.”
In her desire to have more French in her home for her children though, she’s found herself touring and away from her home in Winnipeg more than before.
“I’m constantly in and out of town,” she says. “It’s a bit of a double-edged sword, is that my decision to start working in French was because I wanted to share that with my kids, but now my work has me be away more.”
She had her first performance of her show a few months ago and will be performing Blindside in Quebec, which brings some fear with it, but also a lot of excitement.
“From an emotional perspective, of how good it feels to take responsibility for reconnecting with my heritage,” Morin-Robert says.
Having visited francophone communities throughout the country in her youth and with her shows as an adult, she said there is solidarity in minority French-speaking communities.
“It feels like there’s an understanding, there isn’t the pressure to try to speak well or a certain way or with a certain accent,” she says. “It feels like there’s a little more support in the celebration of the language.”
“Now to be planning tours in Quebec, it’s coming full circle,” she says. “I’m facing my demons in a way and I’m really excited, and it’s a really exciting step toward this French direction that’s been intentional in my career.”
“Now having all these amazing opportunities opening up in the French performing arts sector,” she says. “It’s very rewarding.”
She says seeing how Timmins has shifted and grown since she was a child is a great feeling.
“I’m very proud to be from Timmins!”
