Cissy is a collection of three plays on gender and young LGBTQ+ folk by the acclaimed playwright Dave Deveau. In Nelly Boy, an unknown man sits in a nondescript room trying to discover how Nelly came to be running naked along the side of a six-lane highway. Nelly’s world slowly unfolds; following Nelly’s epic journey through suburbia, we discover the inner workings of a brilliant teenage mind trying to grapple with the greater picture. Caught in the middle of opposing gender ideals, Nelly is forced to confront hatred and his/her own perceptions of the world in order to survive.

My Funny Valentine examines the 2008 murder of 14-year-old Lawrence Laetitia King who asked Brandon McInerney to be his valentine. The next day, during first period, McInerney took out a gun and shot King twice in the head. On February 13, King was declared brain-dead, but was left on life support so organs could be removed for donation. King passed away on February 14, 2008 – Valentine’s Day. My Funny Valentine enters the minds of people on the fringes of a murder that will forever affect them. It tackles the fracturing of opinion in the face of a horrendous act within a community and invites the audience to search for its own humanity amid the confusing and chaotic implications King’s death brings to the surface. In searching through this thick haze, it enables us to find our hearts.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls is the story of 9-year-old Fiona who comes out as a boy and wants to be called Fin. Fin has always had this feeling – knowing something is different but not knowing what it was or how to say it. As Fin cuts his hair short and changes his name, his family works to understand and adjust to Fin’s gender identity. Dad is accepting of the change right away, but Mom doesn’t quite get it at first. We see Fin’s family struggle with this change and through the course of the play ultimately begin to accept and embrace Fin for who he is. Three powerful, intensely relevant plays by “one of Vancouver’s finest playwrights and one of our country’s finest gay writers” (Mark Robins, Vancouver Presents).

As an award-winning writer, Dave Deveau investigates queer themes that speak to a broad audience. His work has been produced across North America and in Europe. He was the Playwright in Residence for Vancouver’s Zee Zee Theatre who produced his plays Nelly Boy, Tiny Replicas, the critically-acclaimed My Funny Valentine(Sydney Risk Prize, Jessie Nomination, Oscar Wilde Nomination – Dublin), Lowest Common Denominator, Elbow Room Café: The Musical (with Anton Lipovetsky), Dead People’s Things and Holiday at the Elbow Room Café. He is deeply devoted to developing intelligent, theatrical plays for young people that foster conversation and is the Co-Artistic and Managing Director of Vancouver's Carousel Theatre for Young People. His plays for young audiences include Out in the Open,tagged (Dora nomination, currently playing in Polish) and Celestial Being (Jessie Nomination) for Green Thumb Theatre, Ladies and Gentlemen (Dora nomination, currently playing in English and Polish) for Roseneath Theatre and the drag-theatre hybrid Parents Are A Drag (commissioned by Vancouver International Children’s Festival). He is currently working on commissions for Zee Zee Theatre, Arts Club, and Carousel Theatre for Young People. In total, his plays have been nominated for 21 Jessie Awards, 4 Ovation Awards and 4 Dora Awards. He is represented by Marquis Literary. He is published in Scirocco’s Fierce anthology and his first book called Cissy: Three Gender Plays was published by Talonbooks. He lives in Vancouver with his husband Cameron Mackenzie and their two children.

Dave Deveau's profile page