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Photo credit Stoo Metz

HOW IT CAME TO BE

  • July 2007 - Lindsay Kyte, trying to distract herself from nerves on opening night of her autobiographical play, Toronto Adventures, at Festival Antigonish wanders into the Antigonish library and discovers the story of her family, her community and Tompkinsville.

  • August 2007 - Lindsay Kyte asks Ian Sherwood, who had written the music for Toronto Adventures, if he would like to write the music for Tompkinsville. Sherwood's grandmother, Winnie Prothero, had been a songwriter from Reserve Mines, and they decide the play will include her song, Herrin' and Potatoes. The later generations of Reserve Mines are now collaborating with those who came before in the spirit of creativity.

  • January 2008 - Lindsay Kyte begins research in Reserve Mines and Antigonish. Weird coincidences start happening, such as discovering a picture of herself in the photo album marked "Co-operative Housing" at the archives. Also, Kyte's Dad one night nonchalantly informs her she is writing Tompkinsville on Uncle Joe Laben's desk, which is in Kyte's childhood bedroom. Kyte was writing the story of the first co-operative housing project in North America on the very desk upon which it was conceived.
 
  • April 2008 - Lindsay Kyte gets an offer from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) in Liverpool, England to take their Masters of Acting course. Kyte turns them down to work on Tompkinsville. LIPA makes an offer she can't refuse, offering to workshop Tompkinsville as part of her Masters and informing her that the previous year,Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton had workshopped their piece, The Boys in the Photograph, through LIPA. The same staff and students who worked on that piece would be working on Tompkinsville. Also, LIPA is also located 40 minutes from the original home of the co-operative movement in the world, Rochdale. Kyte had four books about Rochdale on her desk when she got the offer. LIPA is founded by Sir Paul McCartney, who gave Kyte her degree when she graduated.
 
  • June 2008 - Lindsay Kyte gives a speech and reads selections of Tompkinsville at the Conference of the Centre for Regional Studies in Antigonish, Nova Scotia for Dorothy Lander's presentation entitled "What Would Mary Arnold Say?" 
 
  • August 2008 - Lindsay Kyte  and Ian Sherwood present a series of select scenes and songs from Tompkinsville at Festival Antigonish. It includes some of the songs Sherwood has been crafting, with lyrics by them both, in the various genres of the day—some country, jazz, and more.
 
  • December 2008 - After completing her first term at LIPA and workshopping Tompkinsville with staff and students, Kyte has a staged reading of Tompkinsville at the Pilgrim Pub in Liverpool, England. Peter Murphy and Cara Jones of Antigonish fly over to tape it for their documentary You CAN Do It!, which Kyte hosts. They also tape a segment on Toad Lane in Rochdale, England, where Father Jimmy once learned about the principles of co-operatives and brought them back to Nova Scotia.
 
  • March 2010- The Canadian Stage Company hosts a reading of the first act of Tompkinsville through its Gym program. Ian Sherwood is on-hand to play the music.
 
  • December 2010- Lindsay Kyte hosts a reading of Tompkinsville in her living room for a select group, featuring a cast of Maritime actors. The feedback session lasts until 5 am!
 
  • May 2011- Lindsay Kyte participates in the Playwrights' Atlantic Resource Centre's playwrights colony in Sackville, NB. Here, Tompkinsville is put through the wringer with a dramaturge, regular readings and feedback from other playwrights. From his home in Halifax via Skype, Ian Sherwood rewrites and retools songs to fit the evolving play. It emerges stronger and better than ever. It takes a community to build a play about community!
 
  • May 2011 - Tompkinsville goes through a week-long workshop in Halifax, NS and premieres in a staged reading for the United Church's Maritime Conference in Sackville, NB. The reading was performed for an audience of over 600 with the cast on jumbo screens. The reading ended with a short speech from Kyte about her connection to the play. The audience was on their feet with a standing ovation.

  • May 2012 - Tompkinsville sees the stage for one performance for Co-op Atlantic's AGM. The audience is on its feet, laughing and crying, at the play's end. 
 
  • January 2014- Tompkinsville has a 1/2 hour showcase at CAPACOA, resulting in Tompkinsville becoming "the talk of the town," according to one conference organizer. 
 
  • Tompkinsville hits the stages in April/May 2015 and the result is standing ovations every night, extra shows added, extra chairs added (100 at one show) and rave reviews — plus a demand for more tours and shows!
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  • Tompkinsville tours again in 2016 across Nova Scotia to more rave reviews and standing ovations. It opens at Neptune's Scotiabank Studio Theatre, presented as part of Eastern Front Theatre's season. It is named one of the top plays in Nova Scotia in 2016, and wins two Merritt Theatre awards for "Outstanding Original Score" and "Best Production By A New or Emerging Theatre Company."
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  • Tompkinsville is chosen to be part of the Charlottetown Festival Theatre Conference on September 6, 2017, to be staged in staged reading form for artistic directors and presenters from across Canada, in the company of works by Leslie Arden, Stephen Gallagher, Scott Christian, and more.

TOMPKINSVILLE -
​UPCOMING PERFORMANCES 

TOMPKINSVILLE will play in Antigonish, NS, for one night!

​FRIDAY, NOV. 2, 2018 - 8 PM
DENNIS HALL, ST. FX CAMPUS
TICKETS $20 - AVAILABLE ONLINE
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/tompkinsville-tickets-51339495814?fbclid=IwAR2Ciqj61q6iR5SdPSt_atWYeqW4scr18LLfVGomTdppMD-YEVymDdnP4v8

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Photo credit Jorge Chaves

HEAR PLAYWRIGHT LINDSAY KYTE TELL IT

Picture
Photo credit Stoo Metz

WHAT DID THEY SAY ABOUT TOMPKINSVILLE?
Ideas have hands and feet. You must make them walk for you."
—FATHER JIMMY TOMPKINS
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