What's Cooking? Friday Feature by Amelia Woolfrey: On Eleanora Barushka

'WHAT'S COOKING' is a blog series wherein the team behind Kitchen Party Theatre Festival gives you a closer peek at some of our secret ingredients, so to speak. What exactly does a recipe for artistic process call for? Who inspires our company members? What have they learned in the industry so far? What do they find interesting about the various characters they play? Today we have a Friday Feature on 'Girls From Away' character Eleanora Barushka, by company actor, Amelia Woolfrey.

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As an actor, one of my favourite parts of the process is bringing a character to life. Finding the complexities that make them human and unique can be like a scavenger hunt or a jigsaw puzzle, piecing together clues in the script and the vision of the director, and filling it in using my own ideas to create a rich inner life for the character. And oftentimes the characters we embody can teach us things about ourselves or the world around us.
 
From the first time I encountered the character Eleanora Barushka in my KTPF callback her strength and perseverance fascinated me and I wanted to discover more of her story. In Girls from Away, written by Bernardine Stapleton and Nicole Smith, Eleanora is one of the women Bridey meets when she moves from Newfoundland to Hespeler to help the war effort as a Girl from Away. Eleanora has come to Ontario from her home of Prague to escape the horrors of the Second World War. A former academic and professor, she now works at a textile mill in Dominion Woollens and Worsteds. In the face of hardship and adversity she continues to fight for what she believes in and remains true to the person she was. She is intelligent and resilient, proactive and playful. Despite her understanding of the harsh realities around her, she also has a sense of romanticism and wants to believe that the world of potential she imagined when she was young still exists. From the first day I admired the way she dealt with the world around her. Even after losing so much, she doesn’t become apathetic or passive, instead she continues to fight for a world where she belongs.
 
A character that has faced hardship like Eleanora could have been understandably dour and sullen, but in rehearsal it was exciting to find her moments of joy and playfulness. This is aided by the dry sense of humour that Bernardine and Nicole have given her; though she has struggled, she is still allowed to be human and have fun. These women continue to lead normal lives- they have rivalries and crushes, they complain about their jobs and play sports in their free time- though the war is always present in the background, as is the role they play in it. 
 
Even in times of extreme difficulty, people remain human. In our memories, suffering can overshadow small pockets of joy, but in reality our lives continue around the chaos. Time doesn’t freeze, the earth doesn’t stop turning, people don’t stop loving or laughing. Tragedy just makes these moments of normalcy more precious. What gives us hope are the moments of light we find amidst the darkness. 
 
You can discover the full story of Eleanora and the other women at the mill in Girls From Away, a part of the Kitchen Party Theatre Festival’s 2022 season.
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Get your tickets to the kitchen party today!

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AMELIA WOOLFREY (she/her)
Eleanora Barushka/Stella (Girls From Away), Mainstage Performer (The Codfather) 
 
Raised in rural Newfoundland, Amelia Woolfrey has always had a passion for storytelling and performance. As a recent graduate of the theatre and drama studies specialist program at the University of Toronto Mississauga and Sheridan College, she has continued to pursue this passion on the stage as a performer, singer and playwright.  Some of her credits include Paula in Fefu and her Friends (Theatre Erindale, 2022), Hippolyta in Aftermath (Beck Theatre Creation Festival, 2022), Lady Macbeth/Hamlet/Emilia in Shakespeare Then and Now (Hart House Theatre), Lady Capulet/Capulet in Romeo and Juliet (Theatre Erindale, 2021), The Hobbit (Theatre Erindale, 2020), and Lucy Wilde in Connie’s Crush and Fools Rush In (Queen Street Dinner Theatre; 2019, 2018). She has also written and directed two original plays; a one woman show titled On the Heels of Giants (2017), and Grave Spirits (2018).

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