Suitcase in Point’s Artistic Director will share the next iteration of her work-in-development, A Brief History of Smoking Cigarettes.

I grew up in the 80’s, when smoking cigarettes still seemed like an acceptable thing to do. I remember being a little kid, rolling along in the back seat of the Buick Skylark running errands with my mom and grandmother. Grandma in the passenger seat, left arm resting along the front bucket seat, her soft fingers gentling rolling a perfect ball of spearmint gum – holding it to the side while she puffed her long Benson and Hedges smoke out the front window.

For better or worse, this is one of my most vivid and visceral memories.

Cigarette smoke in a sunny old car. Good lord that's good.

This play is a satire that looks at my personal history with cigarettes and quite impossibly, the global history of smoking cigarettes. From dancing smokes to billionaires to death metal tunes and an unending list of characters, A Brief History of Smoking Cigarettes (working title), shares the beautiful mundanity of a ridiculous habit.

Explicit Language, Mature Content

Deanna Jones is a Niagara-born artist, actor, writer, director and producer. She is also co-founder and Artistic Director of Suitcase in Point Multi-Arts Company. She has toured to festivals nationally and internationally in her over-20 year experience as a professional artist. Her acclaimed play, The Keith Richards One Woman Show was nominated for a Dora award in 2015 and toured throughout Western Canada. In 2011 Deanna received the City of St. Catharines Emerging Artist of the Year Award and in 2019, she was a nominee for Niagara’s Women in Business Cultural Arts Award. She grew up in Welland Ontario and has a history of collaboration with hundreds of theatre, music, film, literary and installation artists. Bringing creative impulses to life in unsuspecting places is one of her favourite things to do.