Jill Daum is a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

actress and playwright from

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...

."Jill Daum draws on real-life experience of husband John Mann's Alzheimer's for new play Forget About Tomorrow"
''

The Georgia Straight ''The Georgia Straight'' is a free Canadian weekly news and entertainment newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia, by Overstory Media Group. Often known simply as ''The Straight'', it is delivered to newsboxes, post-secondary schools ...

'', February 28, 2018. She is most noted for her theatrical play ''Forget About Tomorrow'', about a woman struggling to cope with her husband's diagnosis with early-onset Alzheimer's and based in part on her own marriage to musician and actor John Mann, and as a member of the "Mom's the Word" collective, who created several touring theatrical shows about women's experience of motherhood."Moms spread their word again". ''

Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network, and is the larg ...

'', January 26, 1995.

Early career

Her early roles included productions of John Murrell's ''Farther West'',

Carol Bolt Carol Bolt (August 25, 1941 – November 28, 2000) was a Canadian playwright. She was a founding member and, for several years, president of the Playwrights Union of Canada. Career Bolt's play ''Buffalo Jump'', an examination of Canada during the ...

's ''Escape Entertainment'',

Myrna Kostash Myrna Kostash (born September 2, 1944) is a Canadian writer and journalist. She has published several non-fiction books and written for many Canadian magazines including ''Chatelaine''. Of Ukrainian descent, she was born in Edmonton, Alberta and e ...

's ''No Kidding'' and Terry Jordan's ''Reunion''. In 1989, she also had a guest role in an episode of the television series '' Booker''.

''Mom's the Word''

In the early 1990s, Daum joined with Linda Carson, Alison Kelly, Robin Nichol, Barbara Pollard and Deborah Williams to write and stage the collective play ''Mom's the Word'', a "kitchen table cabaret" about motherhood. The show premiered at Vancouver's Women in View Festival in 1994 before going into wider production in 1995. The play won two

Jessie Richardson Theatre Award The Jessie Richardson Theatre Award (commonly known as the Jessie Awards) is given to recognize achievement in professional theatre in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Jessies are presented by the Jessie Richardson Theatre Award Society, at an annu ...

s in 1995, for outstanding original play or musical, and collective creation and performance. The collective subsequently toured the show across Canada, as well as staging it at the

Melbourne International Comedy Festival The Melbourne International Comedy Festival (MICF) is the largest stand-alone comedy festival and the largest international comedy festival in the world. First held in 1987, it takes place annually in Melbourne over four weeks, typically starti ...

in 1998."Despite their different lingo, Aussies guffawed Series: Moms Down Under". ''

'', April 11, 1998. After five performances in Melbourne, the collective cast a group of Australian actresses to continue performing the show on a wider Australian tour. The show was also translated into French by

Michel Tremblay Michel Tremblay (born 25 June 1942) is a Canadian writer, novelist and playwright. Tremblay was born in Montreal, Quebec, where he grew up in the French-speaking neighbourhood of Plateau Mont-Royal; at the time of his birth, a neighbourhood ...

."Terrible two's? What about the turbulent teens?". ''

Winnipeg Free Press The ''Free Press'' (or FP; founded as the ''Manitoba Free Press''; previously known as the ''Winnipeg Free Press'') is a daily (excluding Sunday) broadsheet newspaper in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It provides coverage of local, provincial, natio ...

'', November 16, 2006. In this era, Daum also had small roles in the film '' Head over Heels'' and the television series ''

Cold Squad ''Cold Squad'' is a Canadian police procedural television series that premiered on CTV on January 23, 1998, at 10 p.m., and ran for seven seasons. Led by Sergeant Ali McCormick ( Julie Stewart), a team of homicide detectives from the Vancouver P ...

''. Daum, Kelly, Nichol, Pollard and Williams reunited in 2005 to create the sequel show ''Mom's the Word 2: Unhinged'', using a similar format to address motherhood as children grow into their teens. The show again received a wider Canadian tour, although actress Susinn McFarlen performed Nichol's role on the tour. In 2009, the group staged ''Mom's the Word: Remixed'', a show which mixed material from both of the earlier shows. ''Mom's the Word 3: Nest Half Empty'', a new show about how motherhood changes further as children become young adults and move out on their own, premiered in 2017.

''Forget About Tomorrow''

After Mann was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's, Daum began to write ''Forget About Tomorrow'', drawing both on her own experiences and those of other people she had met in a support group for caregivers of Alzheimer's patients. She shared the work with members of her writing workshop during the process, but in order to ensure that she was receiving honest critiques about her writing, rather than undue praise based in sympathy for her situation, she did not tell her colleagues in the writing group that the play had roots in her real life."Writing a play about a family facing Alzheimer's helped Jill Daum cope with her reality"
''

'', February 20, 2018. After Mann's diagnosis was publicized in 2014, Daum toured as a caregiver with Mann's band

Spirit of the West Spirit of the West were a Canadian folk rock band from North Vancouver, active from 1983 to 2016. They were popular on the Canadian folk music scene in the 1980s before evolving a blend of hard rock, Britpop, and Celtic folk influences which m ...

as they undertook their final shows in 2015 and 2016."The unforgettable spirit of Spirit of the West"
'' Q'', May 2, 2016. In this capacity, she appeared in the documentary film '' Spirit Unforgettable''. She has also made several media appearances as a spokesperson for Alzheimer-related charity events, including a 2016 benefit concert for the

Alzheimer Society of Canada The Alzheimer Society of Canada (ASC) is a Canadian health charity for people living with Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. Active in communities right across Canada, the Society partners with Alzheimer Societies in every Canadian provin ...

, and as an advocate for improved support services for caregivers. ''Forget About Tomorrow'' received its first production at the

Vancouver Fringe Festival The Vancouver Fringe Festival is an annual alternative theatre festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada established in 1985. The event is organized and sponsored by the Vancouver Fringe Theatre Society, a non-profit organization found ...

in 2015, before receiving its official premiere at the

Belfry Theatre The Belfry Theatre is a theatre and associated theatre company in the Fernwood neighbourhood of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The company produces contemporary theatre, with a focus on Canadian work. The theatre building is a converted ni ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

, British Columbia in 2018.

Personal life

Mann and Daum's honeymoon in

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

was the subject of one of Spirit of the West's most successful singles, "

And if Venice Is Sinking "And if Venice Is Sinking" is a song written by John Mann and Geoffrey Kelly for the Canadian folk-rock band Spirit of the West. Spirit of the West recorded the song on their studio album '' Faithlift''. It also appeared on their greatest hits a ...

"."Spirit of the West singer goes solo for current tour". ''

Windsor Star The ''Windsor Star'' is a daily newspaper based in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Owned by Postmedia Network, it is published Tuesdays through Saturdays. History The paper began as the weekly ''Windsor Record'' in 1888, changing its name to the ''Bor ...

'', April 21, 2010. The couple have two children, Harlan and Hattie, who were given the blended surname Daumann to incorporate both Daum's and Mann's last names.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Daum, Jill 20th-century Canadian actresses 21st-century Canadian actresses 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Canadian women writers 21st-century Canadian women writers Canadian stage actresses Canadian women dramatists and playwrights Actresses from Vancouver Writers from Vancouver Living people Year of birth missing (living people)