We are thrilled that the esteemed, multi-disciplinary theatre artist and long-time GRT collaborator Jamie Konchak (GIANT, Something To Do With Death) will be leading her first devising project, FRONTIER, with Ghost River Theatre alongside Co-creator and Director Eric Rose and an exciting team of designers.

GRT supports the development of new work through a significant investment in creative research, often bringing together teams of devising collaborators for multiple development phases. It’s this devising process - a total art approach inspired by the artistic practice of our Artistic Director Eric Rose - which ultimately creates unexpected and impactful moments in which all the elements of theatre are synergized. So when an idea for a new project is on the cusp of active creation, we bubble with anticipation.

FRONTIER is such a project, scheduled for three weeks of first phase development at our home in West Village Theatre in February 2024 with the support of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and Handsome Alice Theatre. During this first phase, the artists will collectively explore and develop the theatrical language and aesthetics that will form the foundation of FRONTIER.

Jamie Konchak

FRONTIER - A Sneak Peek from Jamie Konchak:

FRONTIER is a 90-minute devised theatre piece that explores the paradoxically defiant and soft themes of motherhood and gender non-conforming women in the 1800’s in Alberta. It is filled with dauntless climbs through grief, identity and the unending urge of the rebel to seek truth through the dangerous and inspiring landscapes of the Western Rockies and the capitalist traps of the patriarchy. One of the key source materials we will be working with is Canadian author Gil Adamson's book of poems, ASHLAND. The worlds of the women heroes in our source materials were violent, physically severe, yet at turns sublime; the rocky bed of a cold creek tearing at our heroes’ bare feet as she runs from the twin brothers of the abusive ex-husband she murdered, parallel to velvet of her baby’s cheek against her warm breast as she nurses it, the cushion of pine supporting them. 


“She is unsure which way to go/ Upriver or down?/ Pursued by dogs she wades backward/ through the cane break/ to erase her scent.” (Gil Adamson, Ashland)

Stay tuned to follow the journey of FRONTIER as it develops from concept to stage.