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<\/a>The Year My Mother Came Back<\/i> explores motherhood, reconciliation, loss, and love.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe theme of it is it\u2019s entirely possible for the people that we have lost to come back to us when we need them the most,\u201d says Dean. \u201cThe general theme of the play is about love and reconciliation.\u201d<\/p>\n
After focusing her career on directing and founding theatre companies, Dean is excited by the charity work her current theatre company is doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is actually my 163rd play that I\u2019ve directed; I\u2019ve been around for a long time in both Alberta and in BC. I founded many theatre companies,\u201d she says. \u201cThe one that\u2019s doing this is Bema Productions out of the Congregation Emanu-El Synagogue, which I started in 2014. I\u2019m really proud of it because our mandate at Bema is that we raise money for charities that are needy. So the synagogue allows us use of the one common area and we take it over three times a year. So far, we\u2019ve donated to charities close to $70,000.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dean says that some aspects of the play are left up to audience interpretation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t decided whether [the mother\u2019s] a ghost or whether she\u2019s a manifestation in Alice\u2019s mind,\u201d says Dean. \u201cDuring her formative years, when her mother was ill, their relationship fell apart. And during this period they\u2019re able to reconnect on an amazingly deep level even though her mother is no longer alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dean enjoys working with actors that are new to the medium as well as working with professionals who share her love for storytelling.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got such joy out of helping actors and people that wanted to act who didn\u2019t have necessarily the training or the skills. I was able to help them look pretty darn professional on stage,\u201d she says. \u201cBema Productions, for the most part, are skilled community players with experience, with training, and with the joy of telling a story from the stage… I love to tell stories from the stage, and that\u2019s what theatre is: it\u2019s just telling a story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dean also says that she loves the feeling of community that happens during the production of every play.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the joy of forming relationship, a theatre family. Every time a play is produced it\u2019s its own little family. You get very close because you\u2019re working on trying to find the truth of what the playwright wanted,\u201d she says. \u201cYou get very close to the people and then you move on to another play, and then another time you reconnect with these people and your family is still there. I love the joy of working with people as passionate about theatre as I am.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dean hopes that the audience will re-examine their own tumultuous relationships and look for the love and understanding that once existed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI want the audience to be drawn into the work that these two characters do in the play to rediscover each other,\u201d says Dean. \u201cSo I hope that people who had come to the play and have had troubling relationships with people will take another run at understanding them, maybe forgiving them, maybe rediscovering the love they once had.\u201d<\/p>\n