I’m Every Woman

Every woman has to change her appearance and demeanour depending on who is in front of her. What happens when/if we drop the mask? Is there a real impact on those around us or not? When we are vulnerable and real with ourselves and others, what happens? Can we be real and vulnerable?

Project for “Disorderly Conduct” International Women’s Day exhibit on Gabriola Island, 2025.

This video was an installation project for “Disorderly Conduct”, an International Women’s Day exhibit on Gabriola Island, 2025.

It was a deep honour to exhibit alongside other amazing Gabriola Women Warrior artists for this show.

Ilze Bebris

Catherine Hallam

Tomoyo Ihaya

Yarrow Koontz

Debbie Marshall

Sheila Norgate

Marcia Pitch

Michele Provost

Frances Usher

Additionally, I am proud to say that my work existed in two places on this globe for IWD 2025. In addition to “Disorderly Conduct”, I was invited to perform Shield Maiden in London on March 8th for IWD.

For this video, I use three of my characters that I have embodied on stages; Ingrid the Warrior, Honey La Rue the hostess, Kandi Kayne the party girl. The viewer sees a sped-up version of me “getting into character” or “every woman”. What is edited down to four minutes took over two hours. I could feel my face change as I became each character. I could feel my mouth and eyes move into place. That perfect tilt of the head, or not. I could feel my resistance, my surrender.

I love Chaka Kahn’s version of her song “I’m Every Woman”. This disco anthem from the 70’s is a short, powerful treatise on how strong and variable the female spirit is. This was the perfect back drop to my transformation between identities. Certainly, it felt important to have Kahn’s words on the screen so the viewer had to pay attention to her message.

The vulnerability you see at the end was not planned. It was an honest reflection of the labour and effort that goes into stepping into different characters.

By the way, I do not have this shit figured out.

But I am actively learning how to show up authentically in my power, in my compassion and in my sexuality. I am a work in process. I am every woman.

Thank you to Ilza Bebris and Sheila Norgate for inviting me to take part in “Disorderly Conduct”. It was an honour.

Touring with Shield Maiden

touring with shield maiden

It’s time for another instalment of touring with Shield Maiden!

Team SM is hitting the road again, this time it’s a big one! With a show on hometown turf, Gabriola as a kick off date, Melanie and production manager, Sandy Cumberland, make their way to the Vancouver area. We have one night in Surrey then a run of shows in Coquitlam.

Touring with Shield Maiden is always a joy. We usually kick every tour off with a ferry across the Salish Sea. For me, that always feels like like an official start. Both Sandy and I live on islands so it feels like a true Viking foray starting every tour with a boat.

The costume and set pieces for the show are minimal which makes the show “light on its feet”. That’s theatre speak for easy to load in and out. The entire costume fits in one suitcase. Well, except for the sword. We had the shield modified to fold and fit into a suitcase and that’s how we’ve travelled with it to date. For this round, I’m going to rent a sword and Shield from the National Theatre of London once we hit that big city.

Touring with Shield Maiden is one of the best parts of this show for me. I love new theatre communities. The tech crew and management are always so kind and helpful and so far, they have done nothing but show love for the show and gratitude that we brought fresh, challenging material to their audiences.

This tour has brought support from local theatres as well as from the High Commission of Canada. They are providing extra financial support to Artdepot for our London show. But that is only the tip of the iceberg of support they have provided to me as an artist.

Touring with Shield Maiden has been a challenge as well as a gift. I am self produced which means I pay for it all. And I am lucky! The show has been successful enough over the last seven years to cover most of its own costs. That is rare in the arts world. Especially since covid. The High Commission has offered invaluable advice and helped me make connections that will ensure future tours across the UK. As well, the consulates all talk with each other. My hope for the years to come included touring with Shield Maiden to Nordic countries and beyond.

I have been so fortunate. Live performance has changed my life and brought so many people across my path that I would never have encountered. What a gift! Try to catch the show if you can. It is my absolute joy and privilege to share it with each of you. Sköl!

Even Warriors Need Rest

Even warriors need rest. Shield Maiden is taking a summer break from touring and performing. Our team has been so grateful for all the opportunities and interest in the play.

I am taking a break from performing. but the reasons why I created Shield Maiden are still real and present dangers. Women’s rights, safety and autonomy are being challenged to a greater degree today and that is very hard to deal with. Even the themes from Shield Maiden seem to be more relevant today than when the play was first written.

One of the main themes is rage; what it looks like, who gets to express it, what costs come with expressing it.

A recent article in The Guardian titled “All the rage:women are furious – and repressing it can ruin our lives” highlights the very real consequences of inequality on women. It’s a great article and I hope you take the time to give it a read. We keep fighting the good fight. We keep standing up for ourselves at work, at home, in our art, and it is exhausting. And even if we are privileged enough to express our rage we know so many other women are not safe to get angry. Male violence is on the rise and women are the victims. And this is exhausting. I feel compelled to shout even louder from even more hilltops. But allowing rage to go unchecked is dangerous itself. For me, I lose focus. It impacts my show and my relationships. After hitting a wall I realize even warriors need rest.

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resting with pets = good medicine

I decided to take the summer off. Our daughter just graduated from high school and moved out (yes, it’s a very big deal). Our family dog of 13 years died. We started a new business. All these things were a year in the making but they all happened at once. Luckily, I didn’t have a nervous breakdown (would you blame me if I did?). I did however realize that I needed time to connect with friends and family. I needed to slow down and take a breath.

I have been performing Shield Maiden since 2018.

I love being the character Ingrid. I love her more today than I did in the beginning. Stepping into this role has gifted me with the opportunity to explore rage in a way I NEVER would have before. It has been very hard to crack the nice girl veneer that was cemented into me by family and society from early on. I still am that nice girl. However, I am now more honest with myself and those around me. I have better boundaries that are easier to maintain. But I have to be honest. – it’s also been exhausting.

I think being a human right now is exhausting.

I’m not special in that way. This is a weird time. So, I have laid my swords down. I am stepping away from the battle temporarily and I have retreated to my sweet little homestead to regroup, swim in the ocean and rest.

I hope that you can rest a little too. I know everyone’s situation is different and perhaps a rest looks like stepping into a cool library to read a magazine. Maybe it’s as simple as watching a show on Netflix that makes you giggle. I think any attempt we can make to take a break is monumental. I will say it again…even warriors need rest. Recharge the batteries. Get ready. The fight is long and far from over.

Until next time, stay tuned for updates. Because let’s be honest, of course I’ve been working behind the scenes on something big for Shield Maiden. But now, rest. Sköl! To resting!

2024 Pacific Contact

Shield Maiden hits the stage in Kelowna, BC at the 2024 Pacific Contact.

Pacific Contact is an amazing opportunity that connects artists with presenters in British Columbia and beyond. Four days of conferences, meetings, performances and opportunities.

This year, Shield Maiden has been invited to showcase in the Short5’s. This is a great opportunity to pitch the play to many folks at once. In addition, we will have a booth #26 in the Contact Room. Come by and say hello!

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Shield Maiden in Powell River, BC

Had a great time this past weekend when we performed Shield Maiden in Powell River at the Max Cameron Theatre!

Ingrid took the stage for International Women’s Day, March 8th.

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We had a great, rowdy crowd with a powerful talk back session steered by Ann Kurtz, the Executive Director of Powell River & Region Transition House Society/Powell River Community Services Association (Together known as qathet SAFE).

The highlight was an opening and land acknowledment by the Tla amin warrior drumming sisters. They made the space sacred and brought in all the ancestors for us that night. Video highlights of that coming soon!

Shield Maiden Marketing

Shield Maiden marketing has been focused from the start. A consistent package, brand, message and imagery proves this powerful one woman show delivers what it promises.

With clear and brilliant photography from Bill Pope Photography, HA Photo, and video captures by Port Theatre and Mitch Miller, Shield Maiden is ready to market to your audiences.

Audiences everywhere are coming back to theatre in full force and they are hungry for new, innovative and exciting theatre. Shield Maiden delivers all that and more. Contact us today for bookings. With professional and ready to go content, Shield Maiden marketing is easy to package. Give your theatre audience what they are ready for.

SHIELD MAIDEN

Written and Performed by Melanie Teichroeb

SHIELD MAIDEN is funny, sexy, fierce and unapologetic!

Imagine a 10th century Viking TED Talk on what it means to be a Viking warrior woman. As Garrison Commander Ingrid Larsdottir comedically endeavours to engage new recruits, she inadvertently reveals her own tragic and violent personal history. Watching her struggle with her trauma is unsettling. Witnessing her tap into her inner strength is inspiring. Ingrid’s clarion call for equality and new recruits wins! She empowers women to reclaim the warrior archetype in a substantive way.

This modern feminist story uses a character from the past to expose the sad reality that not enough has changed in the treatment of women since the time of Vikings…one thousand years ago. 

The show challenges untruths about women and gendered expectations and is based on an historical character who history gaslit the hell out of. 

Shield Maiden 2023 Pacific Contact

What a great conference for Shield Maiden at 2023 Pacific Contact! Thank you BC Touring Council for a wonderful opportunity.! Thank you BC Touring Council for a wonderful opportunity to connect and spend time with presenters, artists and agent/managers from all parts of BC. Our booth was incredible thanks to images by Dirk Heydeman and Bill Pope and folks loved getting their photo taken with Ingrid and her bad ass swords.

This conference was a true success for the show. Melanie and Sandy networked with presenters from the Vancouver area all the way up to the near and far north. What an amazing group of humans dedicated to bringing live performance to all parts of BC.

The impacts of Covid were still keenly felt. Performers and presenters are all trying to carve a new path back to success. For Shield Maiden 2023 Pacific Contact was empowering to strategize, recognize and share experiences.

Stay tuned for more information because the 2024/2025 Touring season is shaping up!

Shield Maiden Slays Nanaimo

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Shield Maiden; The Discovery Series, Port Theatre – Nanaimo, BC March 16, 2023
Katt Campbell, ASL Interpreter (left), Melanie Teichroeb, Shield Maiden (right)

With a stellar tech crew, lighting design by Hilary Britton-Foster, and ASL interpretation by Katt Campbell, Shield Maiden Slays Nanaimo! This was one of our biggest Shield Maiden shows ever. The amazing staff and crew at the Port Theatre created a warm longhouse feel and our rowdy crowd showed up ready to roll!

Big thank you to David Warburton and his entire Port Theatre Staff and crew!

Thank you also to Sandy Cumberland, Graham Croft, Mitch Anderson and Dave Teichroeb for tech support and filming. New promo video coming soon!

ASL and Live Theatre

Melanie is hard of hearing, wears hearing aides and lip reads. Her Production Manager, Sandy Cumberland, is hard of hearing and wears hearing aides. Melanie has been exploring what it means to be part of the d/Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community. She has started taking sign language classes as well.

Melanie paired up with Island Deaf and Hard of Hearing to provide ASL interpretation for Shield Maiden. The Port Theatre was extremely supportive of this endeavour and the amazing Katt Campbell arrived to interpret for a rowdy crowd from the d/Deaf community in Nanaimo. Katt was incredible and the plan is to create inclusivity at as many shows as possible moving forward.

Did you know ASL is regional? Signs for certain words on Vancouver Island are different in Newfoundland. As we move the show forward, hiring interpreters from the region will be vital to good representation for all audiences.

The Shield Maiden team invites venues to seek out resources to make the performances they present as accessible as possible. Contact us for more information!

Amazon Warrior Women

Adrienne Mayor’s book about Amazon warrior women is a real treat. My play Shield Maiden asks me to continually work to find the warrior spirit in myself. I was thrilled to find a book steeped in proof of the existence of women warriors in history. It is quite dismaying that the notion of a woman warrior is still so heavily disputed.

The Amazons Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World

Mayor uses historical Greek artifacts to build the case that women warriors were more than cartoon fictionalized characters. These women were real people, living and fighting, loving, bearing children.

This past week, Mayor was interviewed by NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro about a recent archaeological find of women warriors buried in Russia. Here is a link to the transcript. The gravesite includes the bodies of four women. Their ages range from 13 to 50.

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“Many people had thought, in the past, that perhaps women of childbearing age or mothers or older women would not be participating in warfare. But this shows that women of childbearing age and even up into their 50s were participating in battle when necessary.”

Shield Maiden is based on the Birka warrior confirmed by DNA testing carried out in 2017 to be a woman. However, this discovery led to quite a loud uproar to the notion of women warriors. The idea of Amazons was met with equally rabid protest. Amazons were relegated to the land of myth and cartoons. Mayor rigourously cites ancient proof that these women in fact existed.

Therefore, this recent Russian burial site which “shows that women of all ages were active warriors and participated in battle alongside the men and were buried with the same honors as the men.” is a goldmine of proof and vindication to Mayor’s research.

All of this recent proof about ancient/ amazon women warriors makes my one woman show so much more exciting to me. My character is no longer just one woman from history but an army of women who were warriors rolled into one body.

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