Article content continued

From that early beginning in Ontario, other teams began sprouting up across the country. A women’s league formed in Alberta and it held tournaments in Banff.

“The Calgary team was called The Grills so they must have been sponsored by a restaurant.”

As she got deeper into her research, she knew where it would end.

“If a story or an idea won’t stop pestering me, I know it wants to be a play, and that’s what happened with Hilda, Nellie, Marm and Helen who created the Preston Rivulettes.”

Photo by Barbara Zimonick / Calgary

There was just one not-so-minor hurdle.

“I kept wondering how a hockey game could be brought to life without putting the actors on skates. That’s where my dance background intervened. I decided to choreograph the hockey sequences. I started by studying hockey moves and deciding how to dance them. I thought this would help me capture the excitement of a hockey game and, especially, of winning a hockey game.”

Power looked at music from the 1930s, especially jazz, and with the help of sound designer Steve Charles, created something they call Electro Swing. “It’s a modern-day beat to the old jazz music.”

Through the play, Power wants to show “how Hilda, Nellie, Marm and Helen went about creating the Rivulettes and why they did it and how that hockey team changed their lives and so many other lives.”

Power feels the Depression was a major factor in the success of women’s hockey.

“This was a time when people were looking for ways to lift their spirits and sports can do that. So can theatre and the arts. There are so many parallels between sports and theatre, which is why I think Glory works on stage.”