About Pat
Artist Statement
I am an actor, a writer, and a performance artist. I believe that the art of performance can: 1. reexamine and connect us to our past, 2. console, inspire, and interrogate our present, and 3. help us dream up a better future. I tell stories about travellers, voyageurs, vagrants, and people who are searching for the feeling of home. I am also curious about the relationship between humans and the natural world. My work examines the connection between feelings of isolation and homelessness and society’s disconnect with the environment on which it depends. My work is simple in its presentation, and performers bear the key weight in storytelling. I value comedy and charm. I dislike forced sentimentality and seriousness. I value making space for human “error”. For anyone who has walked through a stand of old growth trees and paused to wonder at a vibrant mushroom or a strangely shaped impression in a trunk, this principle is intuitive. I believe that, like the magic in an old forest, the charm of a show occurs as a byproduct of when performers are given time and space to work with fearlessness and love. At times my work is scripted, at times it is not, but it includes elements of improvisation, and moments where performers can simply do a task or make something. I love to see hard work and effortless conversation onstage.
Bio
Patrick grew up in Epekwitk / PEI and lives in Fredericton. He is a recent graduate of the Acting program of the National Theatre School of Canada. Patrick’s stage appearances include: Shadows in the Cove (Mulgrave Road), Lauchie, Liza & Rory (Theatre Baddeck), The Glass Menagerie, No Man Is An Island, Loyalist Burial Ground Project, Hedda Gabler (Atlantic Repertory Company), I Know You (Desert Island Theatre Co.), Romeo & Juliet (Repercussion), Three Days of Rain (Sweetline), and A Magnificent Scheme (Confederation Players). He recently appeared in the short film Finale (Human Moves Media) and the feature film Moment One (Ewola Cinema). Patrick is also a writer, His first play, Oh, Prometheus! appeared in the Island Fringe Festival. His second play Brûlé premiered in the St. John’s Shorts Festival. Selections from his third play, The Breakthrough, were presented by Montreal’s Tableau D’Hôte in a workshop presentation in 2021. Last winter he worked with his grandfather Vernon Corney to make Shipwright, a performance and exhibit based on the fleet of model ships Vernon built over the past fifty years.