Rita's Current Projects:

“Women, Contemporary Aboriginal Issues, and Resistance” best practices kit - 

for which Rita is the Principal Investigator

Kit to be released June 2013, Mount Saint Vincent University and will be available for groups and for educational programs.

*Rita is an Actor in….. 

The Hush Baby

A play about mothers, magic lost and found

by Dawna J. Wightman; directed by Winnie W. Wong

2013 Spring Works Festival, Stratford, Ontario

May 12 @ noon

May 14 @ 6 PM

May 15 @ 8 PM...tickets: www.springworksfestival.ca

Get your tickets now! Opens on Mothers Day 2013

Book - coming:

Fists Upon a Star, a memoir of Florence Bean James

Co-author Jean Freeman

Epilogue by Rita

To be published fall 2013 by University of Regina Press 

Jean Freeman of Regina describes this project:

The New University of Regina Press Pioneers World’s First Reality Publishing Show

It is not every day that Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro congratulate a university on the launch of its university press, but then, it is a rare occasion when a new university press comes into being. Jumping to the head of the class on the good wishes of these literary titans, on June 1, 2013, University of Regina Press (U of R Press) officially launched the World's First Reality Publishing Show online!

Beginning June 1st/13 viewers to www.uofrpress.ca will meet the people (including new U of R Press Director Bruce Walsh) who stick-handle a book from manuscript form through to finished-and-launched product.

I'm extremely fortunate to be involved (as co-author) in the first book to be published under the new Press' imprint -- "Fists Upon a Star: A Memoir of Love, Theatre, and Escape from McCarthyism" -- which will be followed on the Reality Publishing site from its inception back in the 1960s when North American Theatre Pioneer Florence Bean James set out to write the story of the life which she and her husband dedicated to Theatre Of the People, By the People, and For the People. At the time, Mrs. James was traveling throughout the province for the Saskatchewan Arts Board when we met and became close friends. I was honoured, in the years that followed, when she asked me to help her with her book ... first, to help organize some of the material, then to do some editing. I did, and she suggested that I might rewrite some things here and there, and finally, if I would write some portions of the book and pull it all together.

I was glad to help, honoured by her friendship and trust, and her confidence in my ability, and we worked on the manuscript regularly over the following years, until shortly before her death in 1988. The manuscript sat in limbo until a few years ago, when actress and admirer Rita Deverell, who had known Mrs. James at Globe Theatre, and had done a one-woman play about her life, told the U of R Press (then the Canadian Plains Research Centre) about this remarkable woman whose actions and accomplishments had had such a profound impact on the development of so many facets of theatre and culture in Saskatchewan, Canada and the U.S.A.

One thing led to another: the book is now deep in development, and the remarkable crew at U of R Press is aiming for an early fall launch! (That's Early Fall 2013!! Remarkable!)

So if you're interested in seeing how this truly awesome process progresses, take a look at the trailer now on www.uofrpress.ca, and keep visiting the site in the days and weeks ahead to follow the action! I know I'll be out here and there introducing and signing "Fists" so I'll try to keep you posted!

Best regards (and please forgive the Shameless Self Promotion!!) I think you'll enjoy the book!

Jean

Rex

Upcoming: "The Time of Trouble" 

An Opera with Composer Elizabeth Raum

Watch this blog for more news