Minerva

Heritage meets the arts for the dramatic telling of the story of Minerva McCrimmon – local sailor and heroine from Prince Edward County. In partnership with author-artist Suzanne Pasternak, the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes is delighted to host the premiere of Minerva on Thursday November 17, 2022 from 7:30pm to 9pm in the Performance Hall of The Spire in Kingston, Ontario.

Born out of the dramatic global collapse of the performing arts industry during the pandemic, new life was breathed into Suzanne Pasternak’s acclaimed folk opera Minerva. Thanks to a residency at the Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts at Queen’s University, Suzanne and co-author and composer Tom Leighton were able to redefine their epic work under the Isabel’s “Imagine Project”. This program, funded by the Ballytobin Foundation, gave performing artists a chance to reimagine their works under the suppression of the world-wide pandemic, using state of the art multimedia facilities at the Isabel. Suzanne and Tom, along with a first rate creative team, were able to create a multimedia film that combined the music and story of Minerva along with video. November 17 will see the world premiere of this film.

Determined to preserve the true story of a teenage heroine, the script was written into a novella dramatically performed by Toronto actress Sandra Lean Leighton. Music was performed by Tom Leighton on piano and soloist Sadie McFadden, who also created the opening video. Minerva tells the true story of Minerva McCrimmon, the teenage ship’s cook and Captain’s daughter who sailed on the barley schooner the David Andrews in the late 1800s. It was on one of these sails that Minerva single handedly rescued each man aboard the ship after she wrecked off the shores of Oswego, New York having sailed from Kingston. “Minerva McCrimmon is often compared to Anne of Green Gables,” says Pasternak, “but, Anne is not a real person and Minerva is. She is a true Canadian heroine!”

General admission is $35 per person and VIP tickets are $75 per person. VIP ticket holders are invited to join us for a reception in the Spire’s Lower Hall from 6:30-7:15pm featuring a ‘sneak peak’ performance and Q&A with Suzanne. Thanks to Suzanne’s generosity, proceeds of this event will support the Marine Museum and its work to rebuild following its return to 55 Ontario St. in October 2021. Copies of Suzanne’s novella will be available for sale at the event.