By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Theatre Burlington triumphantly ended its spring 2025 season with Bluebirds, a poignant wartime tragedy. Now the venue’s 2025 fall season is fast approaching and is set to start off with something a little more optimistic this time, but no less skillfully written. Its first installment is set to be Canadian playwright Mark Crawford’s The Birds and the Bees, a lighthearted and comedic tale about how family relationships, intimacy, and a connection to nature intertwine to make lives meaningful. When a fresh divorcee moves back in with her distracted, beekeeping mother, her life becomes entangled not only in her mother’s affairs, but also a possible affair of her own with an attractive college student. In Crawford’s buzzing world, nothing stays stagnant for long.
The Birds and the Bees will premiere at Theatre Burlington on October 17 and will run to November 1, 2025. Local theatre personality Francesca Brugnano will be queen of the hive as the director of this enterprise. By day, Brugnano maintains a career in the administrative world and also writes stage plays as a creative outlet. Her directorial abilities were applied earlier this year to Village Theatre Waterdown’s production of Arun Lakra’s Sequence. She has big plans for The Birds and the Bees, and endeavours to align her personal experiences with her vision for the show. She has spoken out about her life and approach.
The following responses have been lightly edited for clarity and flow.
What is your background in the theatre world? How did you get started?
I started off as an actor about fifteen or so years ago. I was laid off from my job, and it was really sad. I had taken the kids to a performance of The Three Little Pigs. I was sitting there at the back of the show, wondering what and who I was going to be next. Next to me was a brochure for musical theatre courses at the Living Arts Centre in Mississauga. I looked at the people on the stage, and I looked at the brochure, and I thought, “That’s who I’m going to be next.”
So I took the course. The course gave me a bit of confidence to audition for a show. And I auditioned for a very small part, and I accidentally got the lead. Accidentally, because I only auditioned for the small part. I was asked to read for the large part. And then I was told I got the part. I thought, “Oh, I got the small part!” When I showed up, I was given the script for the lead, and I started shaking. I spent the entire readthrough thinking, “How am I going to get out of this?!” But then I thought, “This is going to be hard, so I’m going to have to get good.” So I committed myself to memorizing the script because that was my biggest fear. Having never done something that long, I didn’t know how on earth I was supposed to learn all those lines. I showed up at the first rehearsal entirely off-book, so that was how I felt confident that I already knew the lines.
What made you decide to take on directing The Birds and the Bees?
The script really struck me because it was about people becoming unstuck. I think we’ve all been in that place where we have been stuck and life dealt us a really bad hand. So at the start of the play you see people who have had some bad hands dealt to them and they’re willing to live in that bad place. But then, through risk-taking, through vulnerability, they end up finding connections, and relationships, and dreams end up coming true. It just instantly inspired me. I love the progression of the story. I love that it is fast-paced. You root for the characters almost immediately.
Is there any character or relationship in the play that really stands out to you?
The two younger people. They are slightly mismatched. Heather is a thirty-eight-year-old new divorcee and Ben is in his twenties and he’s a student. They kind of fall into a situation, and the entire awkwardness and the painfulness of that is something I can so relate to. You have to take risks and you have to be vulnerable to find what you want in life.
What themes in the play do you think audience members will relate to the most?
I think the number one theme is the unpredictability of life. You think you’re headed in one direction, and then you get derailed. So what’s on that new road? It can sometimes be bad, and sometimes it’s a miracle. Every person in this place experiences a miracle in a different way, and it’s just through taking risks that you end up in that heartwarming, fulfilling place.
The second theme is human connection. Again, we come back to the need to take that risk to get some kind of connection because if you don’t, you could end up alone and stuck.
Do you plan to make any changes or subversions from the original source material?
Probably not. I also write plays, so I really respect the written word and the intentions of the playwright. Every stage is different, every audience is different, every set is different, so you do have to make those small adaptations where it’s unclear and where there are wiggle zones. But overall, respecting the work and respecting the themes is more important than putting your mark on it.
The best way is to follow your heart, to trust your actors, and to make sure they understand their characters. Once they understand where their character is coming from, what their character wants, then you get such an authentic, genuine performance out of them. Sometimes it’s trial and error because they can’t see what the audience sees. So I also operate as the eyes. I am in the audience, and I know when a scene is done well. When I sit there and it’s over and I think to myself, “What do I wish I just saw?” I wish I just saw that. So that’s how you do it.
