Paper Trails is coming to Nanaimo Fringe Festival 2026!

POV: Y/N

You look at your screen, your own shining orbs reflecting back at you. A block of text catches your eye: “POV: Y/N,” it reads. You raise an eyebrow. Interest piqued, you decide to read on:

“POV: Y/N” is a performance about teen angst, pulled from collaborators past writing. Using cringe performance and archive-based material, this show transports you to the life of a teenager in the early 2010s. With text serving as a time machine, audience members watch performers confront past versions of themselves. “POV: Y/N” explores the minds of awkward teens still present in old writing and asks why do we cringe at our past?

Sarah Carter is an interdisciplinary performance artist from 100 Mile House and Vancouver. Their interests lie in exploring the audience-performer relationship and how breaking the fourth wall can be used effectively to invite audience participation and interaction, especially through immersive theatre. They love exploring the world of cringe theatre: What makes us cringe and why? Sarah is currently completing their BFA in Theatre & Performance at Simon Fraser University's School for the Contemporary Arts. They are part of the Cariboo Players Theatre Troupe, and founded the 100 Mile Youth Theatre in 2024.

Credits

Director: Sarah Carter

Performers: Megan Battad, Sarah Carter, Chen, Jae Gonzales, Jaime McNaughton

Collaborator/Dramaturge: Rosemary Morrison

Technical Director: Dean Thivierge

Lighting Design: Marianne Gagnon

Stage Manager: Katelyn McDonald

Assistant Stage Manager: Dominic Santorelli

Lighting Operator: Cheryl Hsu

Sound Operator: Cheryl Hsu

Special thanks to James Long, Dr. Ryan Tacata, Erika Latta, Rose Esplen, TJ Tan, and to the evil exes of the cast

The Making of POV: Y/N

In the beginning stages of developing POV: Y/N, I wanted to explore the idea of our own old writing still being alive, surviving within ourselves in tiny ways even as we grow old. Specifically looking at teen writing we may cringe at or want to forget, I wanted to see where that writing goes when we no longer present it or think of it. Majorly, this was influenced by my own old fanfiction I wrote when I was in high school.

This is what eventually developed into the nostalgic time capsule that was POV: Y/N. Set at a middle school girl sleepover in the early 2010s, this show focused on the early teen experience of queer, nerdy teens, discovering their own identity through writing. The show exaggerated cringe moments and aesthetic elements of the story, resembling the exaggeration of our own memory when recalling moments from our teenage years that we now cringe at. The text consisted entirely of real writing from each cast members' own teenage years. This show makes audience members confront their own teen shame, and asks how we remember the traces of our past.