Unsung Hero: Kymme Patrick

SPONSORED BY FIRST CREDIT UNION & INSURANCE

Facing similar adversities, many people in Kymme Patrick’s situation would have given up hope.
Instead, this inspirational woman flourished.
Kymme’s career as an actress took a turn for the worse in 2011, when she developed oral cancer.
“If (treatment) didn’t work, they were going to cut out my tongue,” she said. “For someone who has lived their life speaking, teaching, acting – the thought of losing the tongue, losing the voice, was hugely (frightening). My voice, that’s my life.
“I remember having one dream about it, then just put it out of mind, saying to myself that that was not even an option. I did a lot of laughing. That’s how I got through it. There were some really dark times, but I say every day now… no I can no longer perform, but I’m still talking.”
Talking, writing, and teaching others.
Patrick’s spirit is her gift to the community – particularly the youth in the community. She is the artistic director of TheatreWorks Centre for Performing Arts. Her company offers and promotes a welcoming environment for people of all ages and abilities to become involved in community theatre. Since its introduction to the Comox Valley in 1990, TheatreWorks has been providing instruction to approximately 250 student members per year.
“Our mandate, or philosophy, is that everyone should have access to theatre, and theatre should not just be about performing,” says Kymme. “It should be about working as a team, about supporting each other, and to honour and recognize people with differences.”
Coaching and teaching is only part of the Theatreworks’ repertoire. Kymme is also a decorated playwright.
She makes a concerted effort to bring a message to her plays. She tackles social issues (racism, sexual abuse, drug use, bullying) and historical culture.
Her most recent production, Asylum, surrounds the story of a young Canadian girl who is unjustly committed to an asylum and is unknowingly sterilized.
It was featured at the NIZ Theatre Festival at Sid Williams Theatre last month.
Other topical Theatreworks productions include Threads of Change, about some of the young immigrant working girls who fought for better working conditions in 1911 New York. Coal Town remembered revisited history closer to home, when Cumberland was attracting miners from throughout the world.
“It’s funny; I never really considered myself a writer. But then after my whole cancer journey, I can’t perform anymore. The only thing I can really perform is my “Laughing Matters” show, because it’s attached my issues. I have no saliva, so I have a water bottle that I have to be attached to all the time. So my performing days are forever altered. So I started doing some more writing. With my writing, I was doing more research, and it gives me more tools to work with.
“I do find it really interesting, pulling things from history that are of interest.”
Over the years, Kymme has partnered with the Wachiay Friendship Centre, CODES (drug and alcohol), the Cumberland museum, NIDES, and Cumberland Community school, and many other organizations.
Her incessant efforts to bring important issues to light, and to make the Comox Valley a more inclusive community, makes Kymme Patrick a deserving recipient of the Unsung Hero Award.