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Prairie Nurse: The play based on events in 1960s Arborfield

ARBORFIELD — A play based on real events taking place in 1967 Arborfield has ended its run in Rosthern. Prairie Nurse was written by Marie Beath Badian about her mother’s own experiences.
Prairie Nurse
Yulissa Campos, left, and Andrea Macasaet perform in Prairie Nurse, a play based on the experiences of a Filipina nurse who came to Arborfield in 1967. Submitted photo by Britainy Zapshalla

ARBORFIELD — A play based on real events taking place in 1967 Arborfield has ended its run in Rosthern.

Prairie Nurse was written by Marie Beath Badian about her mother’s own experiences. Her mother, Conception Saberon, was one of two Filipina nurses who immigrated to a small community hospital in Arborfield during 1967. While artistic liberties were taken, her mother’s life remains the basis of the play.

“The circumstances of her immigration to Canada are a part of that story, but everything in that play was fictional. There are little bits, little moments I’d written into the play, like the parts about the letters,” Badian said. “Little snippets of her life are written into the play, things that she had written in lots of letters to the Philippines while she was in Saskatchewan.”

Britainy Zapshalla, media relations consultant for the show, said it contained comparisons to immigration today.

“Although the play is set in the 1960s, it has a lot of resonance today. Immigration in Saskatchewan is at an all-time high and in every corner of the province, people are working to create welcome and inclusive communities for newcomers,” wrote Zapshalla.

Nicole Thiessen, director of programming for the Rosthern Station Arts Centre, agreed.

“The themes of how difficult it can be to adjust to a new home and to new people and to new workplaces, those are universal themes, and like you say, at a time when immigration is at an all-time high, I think it resonates with a lot of people,” Thiessen said.

The show sold out for the final show a week in advance.

“Last year was also very good numbers, I would say this is definitely a very good run for us,” Thiessen said. “There are years where there have been really popular shows, there are years where you don’t have quite the same numbers. It feels like the numbers so far are even higher than even last year, which was a musical. Usually we have the highest numbers for musicals, so that says a lot.”

Thiessen would like people to take something out of the play.

”I think I would like people to take away the idea that all of us probably in our lifetime will have experienced being the person who is the newcomer, and it maybe gives you a little bit of a way to think of that a bit more and be empathetic when people are coming and they’re new,” Thiessen said.

Badian would like to thank the community of Arborfield.

“I want to say thank you, thank you for welcoming my mom,” Badian said. “She was there for two years, she married my dad in Arborfield, she sponsored my father over from the Philippines and they got married at the Catholic church in Arborfield and had a reception at the Legion, and all of the townspeople just rallied around them and made them feel so welcome. So, really, it’s a love letter to that time.”

The play ran from July 6 to Aug. 5.