Playwright brings own brand of humour to town

Theatre-goers will be treated to the outrageous and off-the-wall humour of Jo-Ann Waytowich and her alter ego, “Ivanka,” here tomorrow night.
The Manitoba native, who now makes her home in Thunder Bay, has written a hilarious play about the home shopping phenomenon called “Ivanka Delivers the Goods.”
“In the play, Ivanka and her cousin, Marucia, debut their very own home shopping channel called ‘Ivanka’s Household Boutique,’” Waytowich revealed.
“They show off some of their very own products and even have a door-crasher special. There is even going to be a dignitary coming.
“The audience is going to be in for a real treat,” she added.
The writer of two other plays about the Slobovian dynamo, Waytowich has developed a very special place in her heart for her lead character.
In her traditional Slobovian dialect of “Ivanka-esque,” Waytowich joked about how she came up with the larger-than-life diva.
“She is a combination of a number of people that I knew growing up on the Prairies,” she remarked.
“Let me just say that my glasses come from my cousin’s closet, and my dress was my aunt’s, and my necklace came from somewhere else . . . so you can get a pretty good idea where I am coming from.”
Currently working on two new plays, Waytowich’s work has been heralded and acclaimed by critics across Canada, which is quite ironic considering she has never thought of herself as a writer.
“I wrote my first play, ‘I Can Sing, Can’t I?’ in 1994 to graduate from the music program at Lakehead University,” Waytowich said. “Never in a million years did I ever think I would be doing this.
“Just by chance the artistic director at Magnus Theatre read my play and decided that he would like to produce it.”
And when Waytowich’s first play debuted on stage, it outsold everything in the theatre’s 30-year history–an accomplishment she is very proud of.
“It took a while to get to the stage,” she admitted. “But once it got there, it ended up doing very well. I think that it surprised everyone but no one more than myself.
“From that moment on, I had people shoving a pen in my hand, and I have been writing ever since.”
Though she enjoys writing plays, Waytowich’s first love still is to perform in front of an audience.
“I love to write comedy,” she said. “Bringing everything together is a real pleasure and I like it very much, but I still like performing much more.
“Writing you are so isolated and alone but when you act, you get a chance to see the reaction on the faces of the people in the audience.
“That is what is so great about Ivanka–I get to write the play and act in it,” she enthused. “It is the best of both worlds and is very thrilling thing.”
“Ivanka Delivers the Goods” is a special performance in the tour de Fort concert series, meaning it is open to the general public. Some tickets are still available for $20 at the Fort Frances Public Library and CIBC here.
For more information, contact Wanda Botsford at 274-8515 or visit the tour de Fort Web site at www.tourdefort.com