Quartier: Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce || Intersections: Victoria, Côte-Sainte-Catherine
Mise en service: 1982 || Architecte: Gilbert Sauvé
Autobus: 124, 129
Letitia Brookes, 32
Actress, producer
Born and raised in Montréal, Letitia has amazingly spent the last 31 years, or her entire adult life, living in the same apartment building in Côte-des-Neiges. A graduate of Concordia’s theatre program, Letitia will soon make her professional stage debut in the world premiere of Omari Newton’s Sal Capone: The Lamentable Tragedy of, a co-production between Black Theatre Workshop and urbanink productions. Despite “not being great at math”, Letitia started off in Economics at Concordia before taking a break for a semester to get a job to pay for her education. She got a job in an accounting firm (go figure) and her tiny hiatus turned into a five year break. She took the time away from Concordia to take acting classes at the Montréal School of Performing Arts which sparked her desire to pursue a degree in Theatre.
Frustrated by the lack of diversity of roles in the theatre for Black women, Letitia started Nu Spyce Productions and produced For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow is Enuf by Ntozake Shange in 2011, and Lisa B. Thompson’s Single Black Female in 2013 Montréal Fringe festival.
“People are sometimes scared of Côte-des-Neiges, but I love it. It was a great place to grow up and to live now. A short walk or a couple of metro stops from my house will take me to the Segal Centre, several Caribbean restaurants, a Sri Lankan restaurant, a Russian bookstore, a couple of organic food stores, the list just goes on.”
“I’m more of an introvert, but bringing a character to life in an honest and vulnerable way in front of people is freeing. To express parts of myself that I wouldn’t necessarily show strangers.”