03/14/2024
Hi everyone! My name is Marie-Ève Melley and here’s the first promotional image for my solo Fringe show People I’m Dead To; a series of reflections on memory, and the people and places we’ve left behind. (Thank you so much to amazing photographer Alex Tran.)
Two years ago, I was in school in Toronto, living away from home during COVID-19. Despite wonderful roommates, new friends and exciting courses, things were not great. I struggled with mental health issues and a lot of illness and death in my family.
It was then that I wrote the original version of People I’m Dead To for a class on autobiographical theatre that I took with some really cool, inspiring people (Aisling Murphy, Becca Willow Moss). It was extremely cathartic to make light of bad situations, to be flippant even, but I couldn’t imagine actually performing the piece. Who would even be interested?
Fast-forward a year, and I’m living in Montreal with my partner, pursuing my dreams. Everything is amazing! Except it wasn’t. As a lot of young adults know, there is a lot of pressure to succeed, or even just find somewhere you can belong. I left two retail jobs and worried that I was being a burden to people in my life by choosing art. I was lucky enough to have Thomas James and Natalie Demmon to take me to rehearsals and invite me to shows that remind me why I love art; shows that remind me that as much as it can be an escape, theatre is also a window onto reality.
I dusted People I’m Dead To off after seeing Boy Falls From The Sky by Jake Epstein at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts. After the show, I was fortunate to speak to some of the show's production crew, lovely, encouraging people, and that was it! The next morning I was ready to apply for Festival St-Ambroise Fringe de Montréal.
This will be my first time producing, and I could not be more excited. I’m thankful to be working with the amazing Simon Lizotte again, and I’m so happy to finally be sharing this news. I can’t wait to see you all from June 6th to 16th in Montreal!
For more information or to keep up with production, please follow this page! You can also find me on Instagram and on my website.
