This November, Black Theatre Workshop (BTW) returns to the Segal Centre for Performing Arts Studio with Our Place, a stirring and often humorous exploration of Canada’s immigration system. Written by Ambrose Umozo, the play lifts the curtain on the unseen lives of those who work “under the table,” piecing together love, legality, and survival in a country that both promises and withholds belonging.
Running November 19 – 30, with a Special Dinner & Pre-Show Talk on November 22 featuring psychotherapist Shirlette Wint, the production is directed by BTW’s Artistic Director Dian Marie Bridge, who describes it as “a story of small choices with big consequences, where resilience becomes mandatory.”
Among the cast bringing this layered narrative to life is Kym Dominique Fergusson, who plays Malcolm; a Canadian-born man whose romance with an immigrant woman forces him to confront questions of privilege, morality, and empathy. For Fergusson, stepping into this role is more than another acting credit; it’s the closing of a creative circle that began over a decade ago.
Fergusson introduces himself, half in jest, as a “Jam-Haitian-Canadian.” Born in Montreal, raised between Jamaica and Haiti, he carries the cadence of the Caribbean and the pragmatism of the North. “It gave me the privilege of perspective,” he says to the CONTACT. “The privilege of having roots in two places and living in a third.”
That blended upbringing infused his love for storytelling early. As a teenager, his father encouraged him—half-seriously—to attend theatre school. “He told me, ‘I just didn’t want you sitting around my house in Jamaica for a year doing nothing,’” Fergusson recalls with amusement. “But that’s how it started.”
He trained at Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Jamaica before moving to Montreal, where he studied film at Concordia University. Yet even with talent and training, Fergusson struggled to see himself reflected in the Canadian industry. “I didn’t see directors or actors who looked like me. I didn’t see where I fit. So, I turned to poetry,” he says.
Between 2019 and 2023, Fergusson largely stepped away from theatre. “I was writing and performing spoken word, but I wasn’t actively pursuing stage work. Life was happening.” Then came Dear Black Man- his own play, developed over six years and supported by a Canada Council for the Arts grant. The project reignited his artistic drive and reminded him why the stage had always felt like home.
“After that, opportunities started coming again,” he says. He appeared in Domino at the Crossroads, where Dian Marie Bridge first saw his performance. “She invited me to audition for our place, and that’s how I ended up here.”
Though this marks his first full-scale production with Black Theatre Workshop, the connection runs deep. “Ten years ago, I was part of BTW’s Artist Mentorship Program. So, this feels like a full-circle moment,” he reflects. “It’s poetic, really.”
Malcolm, Fergusson explains, is a man of comfort and assumption; a Canadian whose citizenship has insulated him from the hardships faced by newcomers. “He’s dating Andrea, an immigrant whose motives are more complex. He doesn’t recognize that privilege until it’s too late. Things go sour, and the play explores that tension between love and survival.”
Although his stage time is brief compared to other characters, Fergusson makes every scene count. “I started journalling as Malcolm,” he says. “I wanted to know who he is beyond what’s written. I even write in a different handwriting, as him. There’s the script—but there’s also what’s unsaid between the lines. That’s where the real story lives.”
Set in a Caribbean fast-food joint where undocumented workers hustle to survive, Our Place asks audiences to look beyond policy and into humanity. “It’s about navigating systems, governmental and personal and what people sacrifice to belong,” says Bridge in her director’s note. “It’s about how far we’ll go to protect our new life in a new country.”
For Fergusson, that message resonates deeply. “Even if you’ve never been an immigrant, you’ll find yourself somewhere in this play,” he says. “We all know what it’s like to fight for a place to call home, physically, emotionally, spiritually.”
These days, Fergusson balances his acting with his role as Project Coordinator for the English Language Arts Network’s Digital Arts Hub, a position that gives him the creative freedom he craved. “I can work on my own time and still create,” he says. “I’ll never go back to a nine-to-five that takes me away from my art.”
Our Place is presented by Black Theatre Workshop will be showing from November 19 – 30 at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts Studio, Montreal for more information and tickets: blacktheatreworkshop.ca
