There are so many things I love about this show – I love the music, I love the craft of 12 people telling a story of hundreds, I love that the show hits you in the gut, and I love that it’s Canadian. When Rachel and I began talking about this show, I said early on that if you want the Broadway production on your stage, I’m not the one, because while I love and appreciate the original production, I have no interest in mounting a similar version.

So, how do you re-imagine a show when the original is so well known? What makes a non-replica production great? These were the questions that lived in my brain when I started dreaming about our production. What to do with this iconic, practically perfect, original production? I wanted to honour the tropes of what makes Come From Away special while reimagining what that looks like.

I spent a lot of time reading about Gander, and Newfoundland, and Canada, and rocks, and trees, and chairs, and 9/11 (and the days following 9/11). I read the script over and over, and I listened to the cast recording about 1,000 times. I was continuously pulled toward the line that Beverley says when she arrives in Gander: There’s a giant map on the wall of the airport and someone has written in red marker, “You Are Here.”

You Are Here – a simple phrase that meant so many things. You Are Here is literally Gander, You Are Here is symbolically every passenger forced into the present moment due to unimaginable tragedy, You Are Here is Canada. I did some more research, and an image came up of a single red chair on a frozen body of water. That image was the jumping-off point for Scott Penner and I to start conversations. I discovered the Parks Canada red chairs, originating at Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, and spreading right across Canada. We kept running with this idea and made chairs the centrepiece of the show, representing individuals from all over the world, representing countries, religious backgrounds, and communities. I wanted to honour Gander and Newfoundland while also acknowledging the ones ‘from away’ that contributed to the community during those five days. It is my hope that audiences will see the humanity in this approach and leave feeling more connected to the stranger sitting next to them.

I have so many people to thank. Thank you to Rachel for the opportunity to direct this beautiful piece. Thank you to my collaborators - Nicol, Sarah, Hailey, Scott, Ming, Jareth, Brian, Dani, Erika, Suzanne, Abby, Dariusz. Thank you to our four dialect coaches, the Grand staff, the band, the crew, and most especially to this awesome group of actors breathing life into this story. Thank you for your trust, your humour, and your kindness.

Julie Tomaino

Director, Come From Away