As an actress, Stephanie Hendersen knows how important it is to become intimately acquainted with the characters she plays.
Portraying four members of her own family, in a play she wrote herself, makes this a lot easier, of course.
The Troubles is a one-act, one-woman play Hendersen will produce this month at the Vancouver Fringe Festival.
The story is based on her father's experience of growing up in northern Belfast in the late '60s, during a time of intense unrest between the Catholic and Protestant population.
Conflict within the family as well as within the wider community, provides the framework for the plot.
"We really wanted to take the idea of conflict and see how it can be universal," Hendersen said. "Even though it may be specific to a place or a culture, it exists everywhere, and everyone can find something inside of it to connect to."
After writing the play in 2010, and first producing it last year, Hendersen and coartistic director Catherine Ballachey have revamped the script and honed the performance for this year's production.
Together, the duo will market, produce, direct and perform the show.
"At first, I thought, 'What the hell was I thinking?' It's a lot to take on as one individual, to carry and hold the audience with you for an hour. (Some) people are turned off by one-woman shows, but I find them to be incredibly intriguing. The work that people put into them and the character development and everything; a lot of the time it's a lot of work, so I really appreciate watching that as an audience member. So I'm hoping I can do the same in my show."
A graduate of the theatre diploma program at Douglas College in New Wesminster, Hendersen also has a bachelor of fine arts in theatre from Simon Fraser University, where she met Ballachey, with whom she founded Resounding Scream Theatre in 2008.
Though she does audition for other productions in the Lower Mainland and collaborate with other theatre companies, Hendersen said forming her own company has given her a unique platform from which to produce performance art.
"It was just too hard to live the actor life in Vancouver and just audition after audition, so we just decided we were going to create our own theatre, and - it's really worked out for us," she said.
With a bachelor of education as well as her BFA, Hendersen teaches performing arts in the public school system in the Fraser Valley as a supplement to her acting career.
The Troubles is the second major production for Resounding Scream Theatre.
The Fringe Festival is a collective of amateur theatre production that includes 98 shows in 10 days.
The Troubles runs from Sept. 7 to 15 on Granville Island, 1398 Cartwright Street.
For info go to www.resoundingscreamtheatre.com/upcoming-projects. html.
