Meet the Author: Trina Davies
Meet the author behind the love story Silence: Mabel and Alexander Graham Bell—Trina Davies!
Describe yourself in one sentence.
I am full of curiosity, empathy, and impatience.
Tell us a little bit about your new book.
Silence is a love story that explores communication in all its forms. The story is told through the eyes of Mabel Bell, a strong, self-assured woman who was a complete original. She became Deaf due to a case of near-fatal scarlet fever as a child. At nineteen she met and married Alexander Graham Bell, and the rest, as they say, is history. (With some bumps along the way.)
What’s something unique about you or something you like to do?
I travel as much as possible. The last year has been tough, as I’ve been grounded in one location.
What is something that you enjoy doing, and why?
I try to spend at least one day a week on the mountain, in the forest, or by the water. Thankfully easy to do in Vancouver.
What are some of your favourite plays?
That is a very long list, but I will try to pick a few. The December Man by Colleen Murphy; Lenin’s Embalmers by Vern Thiessen; Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story by Hannah Moscovitch, Christian Barry, and Ben Caplan; Three Tall Women by Edward Albee; Noises Off by Michael Frayn.
What are you reading these days?
I’ve had more time to read in the last while. The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue, Educated by Tara Westover, The Guest List by Lucy Foley. I’ve just picked up The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.
After I picked up an obscure first edition book and read a passage from it to my fiancé, he has been inserting the phrase “there are no more picturesque men!” into random conversations. The book was the 1928 More Candid Chronicles by Hector Charlesworth, a journalist and the first head of the CBC, who despairs that men in the 1920s are no longer growing and sporting outlandish facial hair. I’m reading it as research for the new play.
What’s something that makes you laugh?
My dog grumbling when she wants something and thinks I’m not paying enough attention.
Learn more about Trina Davies:
Trina Davies is a playwright based in Vancouver, BC. Trina’s award-winning plays include Shatter, Multi-User Dungeon, The Auction, The Bone Bridge, and Waxworks. Her play The Romeo Initiative was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama in 2012 and was the winner of the Enbridge Playwrights Award for Established Canadian Playwright. Her plays have been performed across Canada and in a number of other countries, including the United States, Germany, Italy, and India. She has participated in artist residencies at the Stratford Festival in Ontario, the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, the Playwrights Theatre Centre, and the Bella Vita Playwrights Retreat in Italy.
Photo credit: Cliff Nietvelt Photography
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