The truth was I didn’t belong there. But my early years, sad as they were, helped me understand that mean words about my looks could not break me. I ended up in marshland Port Coquitlam, just south from where I was born, where I quickly learnt of the cruelty of hunters. One fateful night, I watched my friends, two brash beautiful wild geese, get shot and killed. The next day fierce dogs came sniffing around looking for more beauties to hunt, but I was simply ignored. I have to think it was because I was ugly that I was spared; I did not belong on a trophy wall. I was free to roam, alone.
And my days became a series of blind wanderings, going where I was not wanted.
Like that tilted house experience. I slipped in with an odd crowd: a nearsighted old lady, an arrogant cat and a pompous hen, who accepted me conditionally – that I could purr or laid eggs. Ridiculous. Obviously, I did not belong there either, but it was there that I remember the one thing that I was good at… I remember mom saying I was the swimmer. Right?! I love water! Hell ya! I left that crazy house and headed down to the river!
Actor Biography: Emily Grace Brook
Emily is a Writer/Actor/Producer, trained in The Vancouver Film School’s Writing for Film and Television program, who has written two short films: Work Bites (2013) and The Specials (2015). The Specials has been screened internationally in Austin, Texas. It was also awarded “Best North American Comedy Short” at the 2016 Vancouver International South Asian Film Festival. She made her theatre debut as “Jess” in the 2019 Real Wheels production of Act of Faith.