IN THE LAB

Jane Wells describes How to Live with Dread as “a show about family, about death, and about the work of creation… But in a fun way!”

Jane is a long-time member of the NACL artistic family — a relationship dating back to time immemorial — and it is fitting that this work should be developed here. Having recently lost her brother Ker (who directed and performed in numerous NACL original productions), she grapples in this new work with how to find the way forward in life and in her work without him — so close was their connection as siblings and collaborators.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Jane Wells is an actor, writer, and director based in Toronto. As an actor with Number Eleven Theatre, Jane co-created and performed in Icaria, The Prague Visitor, and The Curious History of Peter Schlemihl; in collaboration with Ker Wells, director of Number Eleven, she created her first solo performance Brightness Falls.

Jane's work as a director has been varied, ranging from Stalin Theory, Bruce Beaton’s one-man show about Joseph Stalin for Summerworks, to The Stolen Child, an outdoor play made in collaboration with sixteen children for the Cooking Fire Theatre Festival. From 2017 to 2019 she worked as associate director and contributing writer, and since 2021 as co-director, with the River Clyde Pageant, a collaborative community performance created annually in New Glasgow, PEI.

Jane studied performance technique and devised creation with Primus Theatre, under the direction of Richard Fowler, and with Ker Wells, director of Number Eleven Theatre. She has a BA in English literature from Mt. Allison University in New Brunswick.