Marie Beath Badian is a Toronto based theatre maker and educator whose best known play Prairie Nurse has been produced across Canada to sold out audiences, including right here at Lighthouse in 2019.
Marie Beath has been the playwright-in-residence for fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company and Project Humanity and creator-in-residence for Blyth Festival. Her plays have been nominated for the Brentwood Prize, Dora Mavor Moore Awards and adapted into radio dramas and audio plays for CBC. As well as being an accomplished playwright, Marie Beath is mom to one pretty great Kiddo.
Like for many, lockdown and the pandemic have been challenging as Marie Beath juggles homeschooling and working from home. “It’s tough to carve out the time to sit and write. That said, with live theatre being postponed, there is a grace to having a bit of extra time to imagine and daydream the plays”. One of those plays is Precious Hearts Pies, a play that takes place inside the world of Prairie Nurse. A world that Marie Beath has been building over the last few years. Her new plays main character is sister to Nurse Puring from Prairie Nurse. Lighthouse is delighted to welcome Marie Beath to the Playwright Development Program and support this new play.
“This is an idea I’ve been germinating for a while. With the development funding provided by Lighthouse, I will be able to devote formative time to writing.” Precious Hearts Pies will be a new comedy about the search for the perfect pastry and those unsung bakers making magic behind the scenes. Drawing inspiration from the Filipino-Canadian Diaspora, like much of Marie Beath’s work, this new play explores belonging, identity, and what it means to be Canadian.