Academy Island - Part 1

Freebairn Women’s Theatre and Theatrical Academy

Founder: Margaret Freebairn

Established: 1956

Theatre Locations: Victoria, Whistler, Vancouver

Academy Location: Ophelia Island, BC

The Theatre and Academy were founded by Margaret Freebairn after the millionairess widow took a vacation to Japan. Inspired by the ladylike demeanor of the actresses at Japan’s famous all women’s theatre, Mrs Freebairn was determined to instill similar morals and appreciation of art in young ladies of respectable Canadian families. Until Mrs Freebairn’s death in 1986, the Academy and Theatre were, in many ways, focused more on instilling morality on the women who passed through its halls than theatrical talent.

Under the management of the more artistically minded women who followed Mrs. Freebairn, however, the Theatre rose to prominence for its artistic merits, the academy rising with it to be one of Canada’s foremost acting schools.

This year marks the first year they’ve opened their doors to trans women.

Arrival

When Olivia Bishop had gotten her letter of acceptance to Freebairn Women’s Theatrical Academy she had been overjoyed. She was going to finally be free of the struggles and controversy that had plagued her in Stratford. Carl had been less than thrilled about her leaving, but the fact it was an all female academy had helped assure him she wasn’t going to be cheating on him.

Her parents were also nervous about her being so far from home, having previously been against her travelling to other parts of Southern Ontario to try to escape the cloud that hung over her in Stratford. Still, they’d accepted that she was 18 now, and that the academy was quite safe, sitting on a small island in the Salish Sea with a high faculty to student ratio.

Having had her attendance approved, Olivia had decided there was only one way to arrive at the Pacific for the first time, and had begged her parents for the funds to take the train. It was simply so much more romantic than flying, after all. That had also taken some effort, both of her parents worried about her being a young trans woman on her own, but her mother had relented to Olivia’s best puppy eyes. Then her father had surrendered with her mother switching sides.

Crossing Ontario had ended up taking two days on the train, but the rugged Canadian Shield made for interesting scenery to pass by. The Prairies, however… Manitoba and Saskatchewan had been exceptionally boring. Flat fields as far as the eye could see. She’d actually been glad when they’d rolled into the cities, providing a little variety.

Alberta had at least had the Badlands to spice it up a little, though they were only so remarkable. She’d been wondering if she’d made a mistake to go by train until she saw… them.

The Rocky Mountains.

A powerful presence on the horizon, looming there for hours as the train rolled along. Until, at last, they were among them. There was a presence to those mighty towers of stone she couldn’t ignore. BC had proven beautiful behind them as well, even though the mountains of central BC were less marked by stone and snow than the Rockies themselves were.

She was almost disappointed when they pulled into Vancouver. She’d wanted more of what she’d seen.

At least the Skytrain station was attached to the intercity train station, making it easy to get aboard with her luggage rolling behind her. She had to transfer downtown, but the Skytrains were quite fun to ride, zipping elevated through the large city of Vancouver. She couldn’t help but think it felt like a newer version of Toronto.

Both were intimidating for a small town girl like her. But so exciting at the same time.

She was a little annoyed to realise that she had to transfer from the train to a bus to get to the ferry station.

If only she hadn’t used up all her travel money on the train out. Maybe she should have taken a cab…

At least the bus map wasn’t quite as confusing as she worried it would be, her route being an express one, so it was marked extra clearly. She still asked the driver to make sure she had the right one when it pulled up, though.

But, after all that, she finally arrived at the ferry terminal, sitting as it was out on a long thin peninsula. The terminal was larger than she’d realised… and the ships she saw docked to it were truly massive. She found herself staring at them, wondering how many hundreds (thousands?) of people they could carry.

“I’ve got a 2008 Derby Stallion here for sale! Starting at $300!” a powerful voice boomed.

Turning, Olivia for a moment thought she was seeing the most handsome man she’d ever laid eyes on. Those sharply handsome features. That short, yet luxurious, hair. A good chunk over 6ft, and built like a quarterback.

Except even the most impressive pectoral muscles wouldn’t be that large.

The voice as well told Olivia that the person in front of her was almost certainly a woman.

“$300?” a man said, walking up to the handsome woman.

Olivia blinked, realising the woman had a couple of suitcases beside her and the car in question behind her.

“Mhm, unless I get a better offer,” the woman said.

Another man walked up, offering $325. The first one pushed for $330. Which prompted several other people to walk up, forming a small crowd that began something of a bidding war.

Olivia could only stare, wondering how this woman had managed to start an impromptu auction for a car. Well, she had her suspicions. The woman was amazingly charismatic and had one of the most powerful sets of lungs Olivia had ever encountered.

And Olivia had grown up in a family that did traditional Shakespearean theatre.

By the end of the frenzy, which Olivia hadn’t been able to keep herself from watching, the price got up to $780 before the woman called it. She had the buyer send her an etransfer for the funds before handing over the keys to the car.

Then the woman picked up her luggage and started walking towards the ferry terminal proper.

Olivia blinked, before remembering she had a boat to catch herself. She also wanted to ask about what had just happened, so was glad her legs were just long enough to catch up to the woman as they got in line to have their tickets validated.

“You just sold your car?” Olivia asked after a moment of waiting in line, unsure how to start.

The tall and handsome woman nodded. “Yeah, well, I’m going to a school on one of the gulf islands for a bit, and it’s a car free island. Paying for long term parking would have been a nightmare.”

Olivia found herself wobbling on the edge of another question, but had no idea what to ask. About the cost of a new car surely not being worth it? About how the woman would get home? About why the woman didn’t arrange a buyer ahead of time?

“I won the car off an idiot in a bar anyway, so it’s no skin off my nose,” the woman added, having apparently picked up on a bit of Olivia’s confusion.

“You… won it?”

“Mhm. I’m good at arm wrestling, and drunk guys get very cocky when it comes to challenging a woman to anything physical,” she said with a grin and a bit of a flex to show off her arm muscles.

Olivia could only nod. She did not have the guts to do anything like that.

She also wasn’t the best at conversations with strangers, so hadn’t found the courage to say anything else while in line. The handsome woman went back to doing something on her own phone while they waited.

They both ended up called to the ticket counter at roughly the same time, two attendants beside each other becoming available.

As such, when Olivia finished having her pre-paid ticket given to her she turned to find the handsome woman waiting for her.

“Oh! So you’re going to Freebairn’s too?” the woman asked.

“Yes.”

“Cool! I think we still have, like, an hour and a half until the ferry leaves. What do you say we find something to eat while we wait?”

To her surprise, Olivia found herself blushing. Apparently this woman was handsome enough to fluster her despite, well, being a woman. Olivia also found herself going along with what the woman offered, not sure if it was the desire to make friends or, simply, to be around someone so charismatic.

“I’m Olivia Bishop, by the way,” she offered as they headed upstairs in search of a cafe.

“Eliza Haliwell,” the handsome woman replied. “Where are you from? I’m from Winnipeg myself.”

“Oh, um… Stratford. It’s, uh, near London and Berlin… Ontario.”

“Stratford? Cool! That’s, like, the big theatre town, isn’t it?” Eliza asked.

“Well, it’s big on theatre, but it isn’t really a ‘big town’,” Olivia explained. “Pretty rural, really.”

“Heh. Small Town girl from Ontario and city girl from Manitoba. We’re a pair, aren’t we?” Eliza replied with a grin.

“I… I suppose.”

There was a pause in the conversation as Eliza ordered a sandwich and a cola from the small cafe they finally found. Olivia stuck to just a bagel with cream cheese to tide her over a little.

As they ate and waited for their ferry Eliza told Olivia about herself. She had apparently been on her school’s football team in high school. Until she got kicked off for getting into too many fights shortly after working out she was a lesbian (a fact that left Olivia feeling even more self conscious about the way she kept blushing). The fights had mostly been with people who’d been homophobic. Initially those who had done it to Eliza, but, later, with anyone she’d heard picking on other gay students.

Then, by grades 11 and 12, guys whose girlfriends she’d ‘stolen’ became a larger chunk of her fights.

“Honestly, if it hadn’t been for drama class I might have quit school completely,” Eliza said, finishing up her drink. “How about you, though?”

“Uh…” Olivia began, feeling like a deer caught in headlights.

Was she stealthing right now? A lot of people said she did, but she wasn’t so sure. If she was, did she want to out herself so quickly? Because her transness was pretty important to explaining her teenage years.

Oh, but, if she was going to be at the same school as Eliza for months then she’d have to out herself at some point, wouldn’t she? Especially with theatres having changerooms and her still being on a waitlist for the surgery she was after (applying as soon as she was 18 meant she’d only been on the list about a month).

Realising the inevitability she gave a nod to herself.

“I, well… my family does traditional Shakespearean productions. So, I grew up living and breathing theatre. But… it’s very traditional. As in ‘all male’,” Olivia explained. “And so there was a, uh… slight controversy when someone realised I was taking puberty blockers while being in the company’s productions.”

Eliza tilted her head a little, looking confused.

“Because, well… I’m trans,” Olivia offered with a slight grimace.

She didn’t feel 100% confident on how well that would go over, after all.

Eliza gave a slow nod, processing that. “So they… you were…”

“I was doing female roles in what was supposed to be an all male production. A theatre critic called it cheating, and there was a big stink… well, big for Stratford, and some theatre companies in nearby cities,” Olivia said, letting out a sigh. “The funny thing is, I didn’t even realise I was a girl at the time. I just knew I didn’t want to risk my voice dropping and my face changing to keep me from playing girl parts anymore. So I’d begged my doctor for help and he’d felt there was no real harm in blockers. Since they’re just a delay and fully reversible.”

“Huh… You didn’t know?” Eliza asked, looking genuinely confused.

“Mhm. I thought you were supposed to from childhood, like, just be born with the knowledge. Apparently being horrified by puberty and being proactive about stopping it is actually working things out pretty young,” Olivia replied.

The tall and handsome woman nodded again, looking like she was getting lost in thought. What about, Olivia wasn’t sure. She thought she heard a whisper of the name Kevin, but she wasn’t sure.

Before she could ask, though, there was an announcement on the intercom for the ferry to Ophelia Island.

Heading down to the pier called out, there were maybe two hundred people present, almost all women. Many were chatting along, showing that they were from higher years or faculty. A good chunk were looking a bit more lost, however.

There were clearly the other first year students.

Before they could really mix into the crowd, there was another announcement for the ferry starting to board. As they went on they found a sign telling all new students to go up to the second level. Following arrows (and the flow of the crowd) they reached a large seating area that Olivia swore was larger than her high school’s gym. Or some of the theatre’s she’d been to.

The idea that something this big was a vehicle certainly impressed her as she found somewhere to sit.

It took a few more minutes for the rest of the students to board and file in, but once they had a woman at the front of the waiting area began to talk. She had short hair that was nearly fully grey and wore a blazer over a more casual shirt.

“Hello new students. I’m Kim Michaels, the current head of the Freebairn Theatrical Academy. I want to start by congratulating you all on making it here. We only accept one hundred applicants a year across the entire country, so remember that getting in is an impressive feat all on its own,” the woman said, her voice somewhat rough. “Our ferry ride over to Ophilia Island is about an hour and a half, which is a good length for an initial orientation, myself and a number of the other key faculty will be introducing ourselves.”

Olivia nodded along, though she wasn’t sure how much of it all she really took in. She was more than a bit tired after a few days on a train, after all.