A bold experiment in musical storytelling

Theatre Aquarius is a partner in Letters to the Future, a Canadian-United Kingdom collaboration using music, spoken word, and film to shape policy and public opinion.

Theatre Aquarius is a partner in an international arts project that aims to build a new future based on the power of artistic storytelling.

Last week, Theatre Aquarius welcomed a small group of donors, members of the media, and creative industry guests to witness and celebrate the results of the latest phase of Letters to the Future, a “Canadian/United Kingdom co-produced music-focused artistic exploration” of which Theatre Aquarius is a development partner. Executive director Kelly Straughan and artistic director Mary Francis Moore were on hand as the creative team and house band presented a beautiful medley of songs, spoken word, and film.

Letters to the Future is about three years in the making and led by Canadian singer-songwriter and artist advocate Miranda Mulholland and U.K. project manager and artist-development specialist Neil Pearson. The project’s central inspiration comes from English Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and his belief that “poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.” It also evokes the words of English writer Jeanette Winterson (author of the 1985 novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit), who said that “art does not imitate life, art anticipates life.”

At its heart, Letters to the Future is fuelled by the notion that artistic endeavour, including writing, filmmaking and music, is not simply a reaction to or reflection of its time but a socially creative force as well. Through their art and imagination, artists can — and, it is argued, should — shape public opinion and even policy-making.

The participants of Letters to the Future are engaged in a multi-phase, collaborative experiment with “preparation,” “incubation,” “illumination” and “presentation” phases to show the power of art to shape the future. “At a time when the world is more and more polarised and the crises of our age are politicised,” the project synopsis notes, “it will take powerful storytelling to change minds.”

Theatre Aquarius’s involvement originated last season, when Mulholland reached out to artistic director Moore, whom she has known for years. For Moore and executive director Straughan, Letters to the Future fit well with Theatre Aquarius’s mission as a hub of creative endeavour, community, and dialogue.

In the process of development, the artists converged for a week on Prince Edward Island in April to share their perspectives and expertise with the goal of “envisioning the future we want to live in.” This was the project’s “incubation” phase, seeing the gradual formation of songs and stories from the camaraderie and the alchemy of those creative raw materials.

Earlier this month at Theatre Aquarius, Letters creatives along with its house band spent a week in the third, “illumination” phase, further developing the songs that will form the final Letters to the Future production. With the guidance of director Andrew Shaver, Frank Donato (projections/lighting designer) and filmmakers Brittany Farhat and Matthew Fong were joined by music director Michele Stodart along with Kevin Fox (cello), Kelsey McNulty (keys/accordion), Dean Drouillard (guitar), Jamie Drake (drums/percussion), and Mulholland herself on fiddle. 

The audience that was invited to its closing “collage” of songs, spoken word segments, and projections touching on different aspects or visions of the future: some folksy, ethereal, bleak, humorous, resonant, and magical. One song evoked a feeling of yearning, featuring the repeated words, “we live in the question in my heart.” Another contemplated, “what parts of the past do we take to the future?” Yet another moment considered our common desire to disregard the past and fantasize that the future is a blank slate, a tabula rasa. The reality? The future is “smelly,” “messy,” “sensual” ... but whatever it is, “we are the story.” 

Letters to the Future may not be complete but something evocative and moving is clearly taking shape.

From the resources (letters, songs, photographs, and videos) of the week at Theatre Aquarius, a touring show with interactive elements and guest artists will be finalized as the project enters its final, “presentation” phase. This culminating production is expected to premiere in the U.K. in February 2026.

The artists of Letters to the Future are aiming to conclude their bold experiment with a  “heightened musical and literary experience that will have the power to transform, persuade and inspire.” As Mulholland and Pearson put it, “we will send our musical letters in performance into the future to inspire, challenge and delight.”

Artistic producer Mulholland is a JUNO-nominated singer-songwriter, fiddler, music label owner, and the founder and artistic director of the Muskoka Music Festival. In addition to a long list of touring and recording credits, Mulholland has also branched out into theatre and, most significantly, has developed an international reputation as an artist advocate. In addition to holding multiple advisory roles in the Canadian music industry, her bio says she has been a speaker at the World Intellectual Property Organization, the World Trade Organization, a NAFTA negotiating round in Washington, Midem, Canadian Music Week, and was the first music creator to take the podium at the Economic Club of Canada.

Pearson, Mulholland’s Letters co-lead and the project’s executive producer, is a creative project manager and artist-development specialist with over 15 completed projects to show for the last dozen or so years. These have been mainly within music, but have also crossed artistic genres. One such project was a writer and musician collaboration called The Lost Words: Spell Songs, presented at the Royal Albert Hall, the Natural History Museum, as well as other U.K. venues. His projects have been award-winning, international in scope, and have seen audiences of nearly a quarter million people.

Co-produced with the National Arts Centre's National Creation Fund, Letters to the Future’s development and community partners also include Theatre Aquarius as well as the High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom; Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance; Confederation Centre of the Arts, SOCAN; Graham Henderson; Music PEI; The Disability Collective; The Situation Lab; Scales House/Ashford Cottage; Music Publishers Canada, and others.

According to its website, the NAC’s National Creation Fund makes investments of up to $2 million a year in the development of nine to 11 compelling new creations in the performing arts. The fund is completely donor-driven, and its scope is to provide “the necessary time, space and resources to make inspiring and impactful work.”

The National Creation Fund has invested $125,000 into the Letters to the Future project. Mulholland expressed gratitude at the investment, noting, “their support, both financially and artistically, will allow us to not only give artists seats at the table but allow them to create their own table.” 

Pearson says: “Supporting creative ambition and embracing risk are crucial for innovative work to thrive,” adding that the NCF’s support of the Letters project acknowledges the lasting value of the creative process as much as it does its final product.

The Letters’ Canadian and U.K.-based creative team incorporates a considerable number of artists and creative professionals who were all carefully curated and chosen to participate. These include producer fellow (NCF) Morgane Lachance, dramaturg Lou Cope as well as filmmakers Farhat and Fong. There are the “thinkers” and “letter writers,” who have birthed the images, concepts, and themes of the future, including Ali Hand, Brendan van Niejenhuis, David Sax, Emily Maxwell, Julie Pellissier-Lush, Johanna Mizgala, Kiki Benzon, Nathan Sartore, Rhiannon Rosalind, Robin Mazumder as well as Jeanette Winterson, Peggy Seeger and Robert Macfarlane. Then there are the Letters songwriters, who include Dundas resident Lorraine Segato, along with Aysanabee, Catherine MacLellan, Clerel, Chris Luedecke, Emily Barker, John Smith, Michele Stodart (musical director), Mimi O'Bonsawin, Sadie Jemmett, T. Thomason, and Wesley Stace.