🇪🇺 TEEN European Digital Community: Blue Spruce of Community from city of Edmonton, Canada

Blue Spruce of Community

I am a junior high student in Canada who loves learning and trying new things. I do circus classes (including aerial tricks and drops), play on my school basketball team, and love hiking, biking, swimming, cooking, baking, canoeing, skiing, sledding, and being outside. I’m passionate about music — both listening and making it — and I play harp and tenor saxophone. I also love creative writing, spoken word poetry, science, and creative research. I’m excited to meet new people and have meaningful conversations.

The soil / the need

After spending half a year in New Zealand, I came back and had to start at a new school in Grade 6. Everyone already knew each other, and I had a hard time finding my place. When I found out the school was doing a musical, I joined because I loved theatre — but also because I needed somewhere to go during recess. It ended up changing everything: I had to collaborate, trust others, and be trusted in return. That musical transformed my loneliness into connection and possibility.

The first seed

(An early and gradual path through family and school theatre; no single first moment.)

Tell us about that first spark

It’s hard to point to one exact moment, because theatre has always been part of my life. My mom took me to a lot of performances when I was younger, and we still go often. One especially important moment was going to Marseille and meeting other ForesTEEN participants — for the first time, I got to talk about theatre in a way I never had before. It felt like magic: different perspectives, different places, equal voices, and real listening.

Roots (people & experiences that shaped your path)

My mother has given me many opportunities to explore theatre. Experiences like Marseille, working at Fort Edmonton, and doing circus have all shaped my positive outlook. Even seeing theatre I don’t like has helped me think critically and ask better questions about what matters in performance.

The trunk (what keeps you in theatre)

I love that theatre offers shared experience and physical storytelling. You have to be there.

Branches (future / desire)

I see theatre as a way to connect with people and learn from their creative expression and stories. It helps build community. For me, theatre is always about the people who are here, right now — about us.

If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be? Why?

A blue spruce. In Alberta winters, when everything feels cold and grey, a spruce is a bright spot of color. I relate to that resilience — I try not to “drop my needles” when things get hard. Spruce roots also spread far and wide, like my connections through many communities. And like a spruce giving shelter to squirrels, I try to give people a safe space and really listen.