I was delighted by this month’s successful world premiere of THE SHOE (my translation of Governor-General’s Award-winning playwright David Paquet’s LE SOULIER, which won the 2019 Jessie Award for Best New Play). Samuel Buggeln of Ithaca’s The Cherry Artspace is one of the very few American theatremakers who has shown an openness to voices from outside the English language and outside the United States, where works in translation generally languish. I loved the imaginative design, the inclusive casting (“when you care enough to cast the very best”), the willingness to go all-in on David’s original and striking theatrical vision, his dark humour, his tremendous heart. David Paquet is a major talent and I am bound and determined to get English-Canadian theatres to open their doors to him… but it took a New York company to step up first!