IRREVERENT. BITTERSWEET. PROUD.
When Nora Neily gets dropped off at the nursing home by her son Kenny, she’s sure her life is over…
…until spunky, memory-challenged resident Edna Buchanan wheels into her life to remind her there are still more elephants left to dance on.
“I write from a woman's perspective, I'm comfortable there. I've also noticed over the years that there's not a lot of women's voices in movies or on stage. So, I just kind of naturally gravitated towards it.”
—Lisa Hagen (Writer, Dancing on the Elephant)
Screenplay
Awards
Half the World Global Literati - First Place (2016)
International Screenwriters’ Association Fast Track Fellowship - Finalist (2017)
Table Read My Script - Finalist (2017)
Blue Flame Collective - Winner (2016)
Blue Lizard Competition - Winner (2015)
Stage Play
Productions
Fly Away Arts (Baden, ON) - May 2019
Theatre Baddeck (Cape Breton) - 2018
Fascinating Women Festival - 2016
Daisy Productions (Toronto) - 2015
Act One Festival (Kitchener, ON) - 2014
Awards
Daisy Comedy Award - First Place - 2015
Registry Theatre Gold Medal - 2014
Cast
SHEILA MCCARTHY (NORA)
Decades after establishing herself as one of Canada’s great actresses, Sheila McCarthy is having a long-earned international moment with her riveting performance opposite Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Judith Ivey and Frances McDormand in Sarah Polley’s Women Talking for Plan B/MGM. She and her castmates were the recipients of the Robert Altman Award for Best Ensemble at the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards.
Other recent film credits include starring roles in Helen Shaver’s psychological thriller Happy Place for Sienna Films, the little indie horror that could Anything For Jackson with Julian Richings, supporting roles in the TriStar/Sony film Broken Heart Gallery, and the TIFF selected film Like A House On Fire. She can next be seen in Alex Noyer’s upcoming horror film Love is the Monster. Sheila won ACTRA’s Best Actress Award for her film Cardinals opposite Noah Reid, which also premiered at TIFF. Sheila won the People’s Choice Award at the Cannes Film Festival for her work in the film I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing, also winning the Chaplin Award in Vevey, Switzerland and her first of two Canadian Screen Awards.
Recent TV credits include an arc on Netflix’s Umbrella Academy, NBC’s Transplant, ABC’s The Good Doctor, CBS’ Star Trek: Discovery, and Riviera with Will Arnett and Julia Stiles.
MARY WALSH (EDNA)
Mary Walsh created and starred in This Hour Has 22 Minutes, CBC’s wildly popular take on current affairs. The series earned her many of her numerous Gemini awards and showcased her dynamic range of characters, including the
flagrantly outspoken ‘Marg Delahunty’.
Walsh wrote, produced and starred in the Gemini award winning series Hatching, Matching and Dispatching, which returned to CBC in 2017 as a feature length presentation called A Christmas Fury, with Walsh and the original cast reprising their roles. In 2017 she released her debut novel, a Canadian best-seller, Crying For The Moon. She currently writes and stars in The Missus Downstairs, for which she has been nominated for multiple Canadian Screen Awards. Walsh’s recent TV credits include recurring roles on Syfy’s Resident Alien, CBC’s Hudson & Rex, and Little Dog for which she was nominated for a 2020 Canadian Screen Award, as well as numerous guest appearances on This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Select feature film credits include The Grand Seduction and Closet Monster (Official selections at TIFF 2014 and 2015, respectively), and Mambo Italiano.
She won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2021 for her leading role in Helen Shaver’s first feature film Happy Place, and is soon to appear in Deaner ’89, the upcoming reboot of the cult classic comedy FUBAR.
Outside of the film, TV and theatre world, Mary is an outspoken advocate for mental health and addiction awareness as a spokesperson for Bell Let’s Talk. She’s a staunch supporter of the Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health in Ottawa, and lends her time and voice to the CNIB, St. Joseph’s Hospital and CAMH. Among her many awards and doctorates, Mary is the recipient of the Order of Canada, the Governor General’s Lifetime Achievement Award in the Performing Arts, and the CSA’s Earle Grey Award for lifetime achievement in television acting.
AMANDA BRUGEL (NURSE BARBARA)
Amanda Brugel is one of Canada’s most acclaimed and respected actors, known internationally for her diverse and award-winning roles in The Handmaid’s Tale, Kim’s Convenience, and Sort Of. Currently she can be seen in Dark Matter, opposite Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly, as well as Parish opposite Giancarlo Esposito.
The 2022 feature film, Ashgrove, which she co-wrote, produced and starred in, premiered at the Glasgow film festival and won Best Ensemble at the Canadian Film Festival. In 2023, she appeared in Brandon Cronenberg’s Infinity Pool, opposite Alexander Scarsgard. Upcoming films include Dancing On The Elephant and the thriller, Ballistic, alongside Lena Headey.
KEVIN KINCAID (KENNY)
Kevin Kincaid's recent roles include the feature film Monica's News, Saint Bernard, and the CBC series I am Syd Stone. Other notable film and TV roles include Jason Buxton's Sharp Corner starring Ben Foster, Thom Fitzgerald’s Sex & Violence, Eva Thomas' Redlights, Charles Wahl’s Webdultery (Best Supporting Actor - BNFF) and an ACTRA Award nomination for his role in Every1’s Famous.
Crew
Julia NEILL (director)
Julia Neill is an award-winning filmmaker with a wide range of narrative film credits to her name, including Union, a Civil War period film inspired by Mary Walker, the first woman to be employed by the US army (Official Selection, Slamdance 2021). Julia has also been a longtime editor and videographer for clients including Smithsonian, Discovery, and PBS.
Jacob Smith (director)
Jacob Smith is an award-winning filmmaker, a former mayor, and a former U.S. Senate staffer. His films include the fiction short Chasing Rabbits and the feature documentary Waking the Sleeping Giant: The Making of a Political Revolution. Waking the Sleeping Giant is currently in national and international distribution.
Lisa hagen (story & screenplay)
Lisa Hagen is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter based in Ontario, Canada. Her writing credits include the 2018 narrative feature film Fortune Defies Death (co-writer), which just landed a distribution deal. Her stage script and screenplay for Dancing on the Elephant have earned multiple awards, and the stage play has been produced multiple times, including Theatre Baddeck on Cape Breton Island in Summer of 2018 and a May 2019 production in Baden, Ontario.
walter forsyth (Producer)
Walter Forsyth produced the award winning dramatic feature, The Disappeared and digital series, Everyone’s Famous, both nominated for two Canadian Screen Awards. He produced There’s a Flower in My Pedal (TIFF Honourable Mention) along with three documentary features and the short film How to Be Alone, viewed ten million times on YouTube. Walter has won TIFF’s Pitch This! and received a Sundance Doc Fund and also writes and directs.
Tanya Preyde (Producer)
Tanya Preyde is a Nova Scotian producer. With a background in teaching, restaurant management, fundraising, and event organization, Tanya transitioned into film and television production in 2021. She is in post-production on the feature documentary The Hands That Feed Us for Superchannel and in production on a short documentary, The Last Walt, for CBC.
kevin a fraser (director of photography)
Kevin A Fraser works as a narrative and commercial cinematographer as well directing and shooting documentary films. Kevin has lensed documentary and series work for the Comedy Network, Discovery, CBC, Documentary, W Channel, Super Channel and others. Films Kevin has directed include two TV hour length documentaries: More Blood, More Heart (distributed by Mongrel) and The Haunted Truth about Haven (distributed by eOne). The most recent short documentary he directed and shot earned him a nomination at the 2015 Canadian Society of Cinematographers awards for “Best Documentary Cinematographer”. He has also shot commercials for clients including Toyota, Marvel, Tim Hortons, Sport Chek, GoodLife, Nova Scotia Tourism and Newfoundland and Labrador. Kevin has had the great pleasure of making moving images in every Canadian Province and over 25 countries while traveling with collaborators he is fortunate enough to call friends.
michael pierson (production designer)
Michael Pierson is is a Nova Scotia-based Production Designer specializing in commercial, film and television. Michael's extensive Art Director and Production Designer credits include 50 episodes of the acclaimed Canadian comedy series Trailer Park Boys, multiple Trailer Park Boys movies, and feature films The Queen of My Dreams (2024 Canadian Screen Award Nominee for Achievement in Art Direction/Production Design), Queens of the Qing Dynasty, Night Blooms, Kids vs. Aliens, and Wildhood.
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