Where and Words

Photo credit Stoo Metz

HOW IT CAME TO BE

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

2007 - Lindsay Kyte teams up with Ian Sherwood, who had written the music for Toronto Adventures, to write the music for Tompkinsville. Sherwood's grandmother, Winnie Prothero, had been a songwriter from Reserve Mines, and they decide to include her song, Herrin' and Potatoes. The later generations of Reserve Mines are now collaborating with those who came before.

2008 - Lindsay Kyte begins research in Reserve Mines/Antigonish. Weird coincidences start happening, such as discovering a picture of herself in the archival photo album marked "Co-operative Housing." Also, Kyte's Dad 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.

2008 - Lindsay Kyte gets an offer from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) in Liverpool, England to take their Masters of Acting course. They offer to workshop Tompkinsville as part of her Masters, 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 awarded Kyte her degree.

2008 - After workshopping Tompkinsville with staff and students, Kyte has a staged reading at the Pilgrim Pub in Liverpool, England. Peter Murphy and Cara Jones of Antigonish fly over to film it for their documentary You CAN Do It!, which Kyte hosts. They also film 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.

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 shows!

Tompkinsville tours again in 2016 across Nova Scotia, opening 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."

Tompkinsville is chosen to be part of the Charlottetown Festival Theatre Conference on September 6, 2017, to be staged in staged reading form in the company of works by Leslie Arden, Stephen Gallagher, Scott Christian, and more.

Photo credit Jorge Chaves

CBC RADIO DOCUMENTARY JOURNEY TO TOMPKINSVILLE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jsgm8cBXBI

Ideas have hands and feet. You must make them walk for you."
—FATHER JIMMY TOMPKINS