(Editor's Note: In this new weekly column Barbara Ford will be providing us with profiles of some of Montreal English-language theatre's most interesting people)
by Barbara FordBeauty, brains and talent: killer combo. Joanne Sarazen has been blessed with all three and she’s a sweetheart to boot! But before we get into the success of her very first play, JESUS JELLO: The Miraculous Confection, which has its last showing Dec. 18th at MainLine Theatre, let’s delve into her deep, dark past.
Just like the two kids in her play, the Ottawa native was home schooled and raised in a religious Catholic family. She attended church with her mother every Sunday where she first felt the sting of dogmatic judgement as the only child of a single parent family in a congregation of mostly farmers, who lived and worked in the outlying areas and could boast double digit family members … the way God intended.
An incident in her early teens both planted the seeds of a creative idea and influenced her view of the church. A girlfriend claimed to have seen Jesus and whether it was for attention, (which she very likely lacked in a family of 13 kids), to make herself feel better about her cloistered lifestyle, or perhaps even true, Sarazen was shocked that the pious community did not rally round in support or to help this young girl but instead ostracized her. As a result, Joanne turned away from organized religion.
