Civil rights icon Viola Desmond celebrated through music and song in Charlottetown

New show celebrates Viola Desmond Viola Desmond's bravery inspired change, and now it's the inspiration for a new musical.

Canadian civil rights pioneer Viola Desmond -- the face of our $10 bill -- is being celebrated through music and song in Charlottetown.

The first spark for the idea of “Hey Viola!” came when Canada’s new $10 bill featuring Desmond was unveiled in 2018.

“It was the not knowing who she was. When the $10 bill came out, in the West Coast we don’t have this, or we didn’t have this in our curriculum when I was growing up,” said Krystle Dos Santos, the show’s co-creator and lead singer. "Just such an iconic person that they’re willing to put on the $10 bill. We wanted to know what she was all about.”

The creators studied much about Desmond, including the court documents from her lawsuit, but they also leaned heavily on the work of Desmond’s sister, Wanda Robson.

“Heart and the family side of things,” said Tracey Power, director and co-creator of “Hey Viola! "Where she got that confidence in that fight, to do what she did, it came from before that day.”

Desmond, a Black woman, became a civil-rights icon after she was arrested and jailed for refusing to leave the whites-only section of a segregated theatre in New Glasgow, N.S., in 1946.

Desmond died in 1965 and was posthumously pardoned by the Nova Scotia legislature in 2010.

“Hey Viola!" shines a spotlight on more than just her brave and selfless act; it also explores her life and the music of her time.

Music is front and centre of the cabaret show, which spans Desmond’s lifetime, from the 1930s into the 1960s, with each song chosen to follow a narrative thread.

“The last song was written just after she passed away,” said music director, Steve Charles. “It’s like, what would a life inspire music to be written after she’s gone.”

It’s a way to present a chapter of Canadian history to those who didn’t study it in school.

“Sharing of culture and music, and it’s telling Black history, and it’s just very important for me to be able to share this information, and have people relate to it in such a personal level,” said Dos Santos. “It’s the emotions that makes people remember.”

“Hey Viola!” will run from. Aug. 4 to Aug. 13 at the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown.