The Woodstove Festival takes place this upcoming weekend, Nov. 3 to 5 in downtown Cumberland.
Amidst the performances is Forest Stories Theatre, an environmental theatre troupe consisting of kids in grades seven and eight who have been acting together since grade one.
The troupe, which is part of Cumberland Community Forest Society (CCFS), tells stories that revolve around mythology, folk fables and nature. This year, given the proximity to Halloween, the theme is witches.
Meaghan Cursons, executive director of Cumberland Community Forest Society and producer and director of the troupe, says that this year’s play looks at the theme of witches from an ecofeminist perspective.
“We start to unpack: Why is it that these witch stories are all about the wicked witches? And what other stories might be hidden in there? Like teachings from our mothers and grandmothers.”
Pulling from her own ancestral heritage, Cursons shared fables with Euro-pagan roots about human relationships with nature.
“We’re storytellers, right. And that is possibly what makes us human. And these stories have always been a way of transmitting knowledge and information, sometimes in unexpected ways,” she said.
Forest Stories Theatre grew out of an after-school program, and a group of passionate kids stuck around. The same group has continued to create and perform together through all these years.
Cursons said that the CCFS has always valued creativity and play in its activism. She said that the playfulness and creativity that kids naturally have is important to the organization.
“It’s important to capture the imagination of the next generation,” she said.
Woodstove Festival passholders can catch Witches on Friday, Nov. 3, 7 p.m. at Weird Church. Or, catch the encore performance on Wednesday, Nov. 8, 7 p.m. at Weird Church.
