By Emily Adams, Mary Barnes, Rhiannon Hoover, Trudee Romanek, and Rochelle Reynolds

Based on a concept by Michael Whyte

Theatre by the Bay in partnership with Tourism Barrie

Summer of 2021

Winner of the ‘Creative Collaboration Award’ at the Mayor’s Innovation Awards for TBTB’s partnership with Tourism Barrie.

This project will always hold a special place in my heart, as it was the first collectively-created piece I have led since, well, high school. It also had the most moving parts of any project I have worked on thanks to its combination of theatre, film, augmented reality, and a walking tour.

The idea for The Ghost Watchers actually came to me from Michael Whyte back in February of 2020 - before the pandemic happened. When TBTB’s 2020 season was cancelled, and the future was looking increasingly uncertain, the concept of a show that blended augmented reality (AR) with live theatre came back to mind. It was scalable, covid-protectant for audiences and artists alike, and a really exciting project in-and-of itself.

Around July of 2020, the Board approved what would be called The Ghost Watchers as part of a revamped 2021 season. I quickly assembled a team of writers from various walks of life and levels of experience and put each of them in charge of selecting and writing monologues for their selected ghosts. The ghosts could be fictional or real, but as long as they were compact pieces that fit within the greater narrative.

In the wake of the summer of 2020, it became clear that our story needed to be centered around how a community can heal. As a group, we decided that the ghosts were stuck here because they had a story to tell (a message to convey) so that Barrie’s next 150 years could be a better, happier, more inclusive place for everyone. Only once the ghosts have shared their story can they ‘pass on’ to the next realm.

After the ghosts had been decided and the theme set, I worked closely with each of the writers to flesh-out and deepen their work, serving as an artist for the writers to bounce ideas off of, but also as a dramaturg.

A few months into our work, we presented an early draft to the Barrie Theatre Lab - Theatre by the Bay’s monthly playwriting get-together. The reaction to the piece was positive, but with lots of questions and considerations that propelled the playwrights into the next phase of their pieces’ realization.

Upon the completion of the script, actors were hired to play each of the ghosts. Rehearsals were conducted over Zoom, and the actors brought their ideas to the pieces to flesh them out further. I was delighted by the quality of performers we had. Even Sarah, by far the youngest of the cast, brought fantastic ideas and considerations to her role.

The next phase was filming. We are fortunate to have a great relationship with Studio House in Barrie - a professional dance studio that was perfect for covid-proof filming. The actors came in, were dressed in costume, and their pieces were captured in front of a green screen.

While all of this was going on, Michael Whyte and I were working closely with Sherpa Marketing, the company we hired to develop the augmented reality for the show. Brian and their team were amazing. From the beginning, they were so collaborative and supportive. There were certainly bumps along the way, as any brand-new initiative is bound to have, but in the end the AR looked great.

After filming was completed, it was the development of the walking tour component. Once again, I had a fantastic team known as the ‘Tracys.’ TBTB hired four summer students (one thanks to Tourism Barrie) to work in rotating shifts as Tracy, the Ghost Hunter who leads the audience, and a City of Barrie representative who served as the ‘interlocutor’ character who had lots of background information to offer before/after each ghostly encounter.

In the spirit of the show, the four actors worked with me to develop the why and the how of the tour, as well as what the arc of the show would be. It was a wonderful process and I was delighted by what they came up with.

Despite a crazy summer in 2021 (including a tornado hitting Barrie), The Ghost Watchers ended up being a critical and popular success.

The Cast

Hector - James Dallas Smith

Mrs. Morrison - Candy Pryce

Alisha - Alinka Angelova

Alice May Cotter - Sarah Warren

Roisin O’Reilly - Breanne Tice

The Woman - Heather Dennis

‘Tracy’ - Claire Allen, Alyssa Bartholomew, Dawn Cain, and Sabrina Merks

The Crew

Producers - Iain Moggach and Michael Whyte

Video editor - Michael Whyte

Costume Designer - Brenda Thompson

Hair and Make-up - Inara Poleshuk

Videography - Greg McFadden

Dramaturg - Mary Harris

Assistant Director and Accessibility Coordinator - Pascale Graveline-Pleau