Bernardine Ann Teraz Stapleton is a Newfoundland- Labrador writer and performer of unique distinction. She has had two new books just released. “Love, Life” is a hilarious frolic through the hills of Italy, a made-up true fable exploring love, food and travel. Do you love life? Check it out from Breakwater Books.
“Girly Muckle and the Queer Hands” is a coming out, coming of age story for young adults. Meet the Selkies, Adlets and the Old Hag, all residents of the Battery, hiding out in plain sight, making music and breaking all the unwritten rules. It’s published by Problematic Press.
Bernardine is the co-artistic director of the Kitchen Party Theatre Festival, a summer good-time vibe happening in beautiful Grand Falls-Windsor, NL. She and co-creator Nicole Smith are behind this brand new theatre event, with their musical “Girls From Away” as an emerging hit. They bring to life the untold true story of the wave of young women who migrated to Cambridge, Ontario during World War Two to work at Dominion Woollens. The resulting cultural, financial and historic impact has gone unnoticed until now. All the original songs are composed by the incomparable dynamic duo of Tim Matson and Kiersten Noel.
Bernardine has been writer-in-residence with Memorial University of NL, as well as a playwright-in- residence with the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal, Alberta Theatre Projects, CanStage, PARC, and other national companies. Her plays are regularly produced across the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. “Brazil Square” is her homage to the iconic boarding house district of St. John’s, and has been produced across the island. “Our Frances” (inspired by France Cluett, the World War 1 Nurse from Newfoundland who served overseas) has toured provincially and internationally with Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador.
Other books include “This is the Cat” and “Rants, Riffs and Roars” (Creative Publishing.)
Bernardine continues to be a part of the Artistic Fraud “Between Breaths” family, and is now Program Animateur for APTNL.
