seeley quest (sie/hir) is a trans disabled environmentalist, working in literary, body-based and multimedia arts and education for equity. In Canada since 2017, sie presented in San Francisco’s Bay Area 2001-14, with Sins Invalid 2007-15, and has performed touring the US. Hir playscript “Crooked” is in At the Intersection of Disability and Drama, a monologue’s in Playwrights Canada Press’ 2023 queer theatre anthology, and hir first game narrative debuted for Canada’s National AccessAbility Week 2020.
Sie created Buddies in Bad Times’ 2021 Rhubarb Festival’s ecological assessment, assisted in curating Rhubarb Festival 2022, began in 2021 the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s first disabled writers’ workshop, and has led writing workshops with Toronto’s Workman Arts and Writing Futures With Resiliency for the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia. Hir script in progress, Modeling, has had readings online including with Montreal’s 2021 Wildside Festival and Vancouver’s 2022 rEvolver Festival, and onsite with Eastern Front Theatre’s 2023 Early Stages Festival. Ecofuturist Dispatches has had a reading online with the 2024 Early Stages Festival.
Publications include Canadian Theatre Review and Immerse.news. Addressing embodiment, eroticism, effects of capitalism, futurism, and ecology, hir work seeks civil society engagement and bonds of care; sie’s available for dramaturgy, equity consults, and collaborations internationally.
We asked some questions so our members could get to know seeley quest better.
What are some Canadian plays every aspiring playwright or theatre enthusiast should read?
Interdependent Magic: Disability Performance in Canada – a recent anthology of several scripts by Deaf and disabled comrades. Also, Yvette Nolan’s The Unplugging.
TELL US ABOUT THE PLAYS AND/OR PLAYWRIGHTS THAT HAVE SHAPED YOUR ARTISTIC JOURNEY. FEEL FREE TO RECOMMEND A FEW MUST-READS THAT HAVE BEEN TOUCHSTONES FOR YOUR CREATIVE EXPLORATION!
A Maze by Rob Handel; i saw it in Berkeley by the Shotgun Players in 2014, such a strikingly memorable piece. Top Dog / Underdog. Neil Wechsler’s Grenadine and Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig’s Lidless, winning in the Yale Drama Series 2008 and 2009
Two pieces in Calgary’s High Performance Rodeo: Inside Out Theatre’s approach to its 2018 feature [Elaine Lee’s Make Love, Not Art] mentioned here; and this 2020 feature [Premium Content by David Gagnon Walker]; have been a couple influences on design thinking for my script in progress, Modeling.
Also this 2021 interview [with theatre group Fake Friends] is a must-read on creating work addressing disinformation and community biases!