Noteworthy

Though She Holds Up the Stars is an award-winning novel, author Sandra Laronde has always envisioned bringing it to life off the page. “When I wrote the story, it played more like a film in my imagination,” she says. 

At the heart of this story is Misko, a 12-year-old girl who returns to the rez to live with her grandmother. She soon encounters and unexpectedly bonds with a spirited horse. As she navigates a complex world of beauty and cruelty, she discovers an inner strength that reshapes her connection to land, home, and family. 

For Sandra, the story is personal. “About half is drawn from my childhood growing up on land where I’m from, and the other half is imagined,” she explains. “It was a joy to write from a place of lived experience and then to expand out into the realm of fiction. It’s where memory meets imagination.”

While writing the book was a solitary experience, bringing the story to life on the Toronto Symphony Orchestra stage has been a collaborative journey. “I didn't want the words to sit on the page; I wanted them to lift, to move, to breathe and be embodied. Coming from the world of live performance, the bridge to the stage was clearly the next step,” Sandra says. This is no ordinary orchestral performance. The newly commissioned work weaves storytelling, movement, music, visual design—and even life-sized puppets—into a bold hybrid. Guided by Sandra’s vision and realized through Red Sky Performance, the award-winning company she founded, the production refuses to silo the arts. Instead, theatre, music, dance, and imagery interlace to create Red Sky’s signature, powerful storytelling.

“I was keen to explore the fantastical levels of life-sized puppetry for this work,” Sandra notes. “They are not constrained by human anatomy. They can perform impossible movements and express concepts, like floating, disassembling, flying in slow motion, or exaggerating expressions beyond what a human body can convey.” 

The work to bring this story to vibrant life began almost 18 months before the show’s première on the stage of Roy Thomson Hall, and involved a team of 13, including a director, writer, composer, lighting designer, set designer, puppetry designer, and a puppetry movement specialist. 

“One of Sandra’s special skills is assembling teams, really carefully curating the creative process and how people work together and then deciding how the elements are going to play with each other,” says Eliot Britton, who composed the orchestral adaptation. 

Eliot’s work of composing started with conversations and a reading session with Sandra. “The work for a composer is thinking about the characters, about what they are like, and trying to figure out what the aesthetic direction of a show like this would be,” he says. 

This was just one element of the research and development process. “We did an initial exploration of the story through movement, puppetry, and how an ensemble cast brings puppets to life,” explains Sandra. This included testing prototype puppets to figure out practical and design needs—including how to position the orchestra’s musicians in such a way that there would be enough room for two people in a life-sized horse costume to navigate the stage. 

“We’re not performing a symphony; we’re performing a story, and the focus is on the actors and the puppeteers as well as the music,” says Trevor Wilson, who is conducting this one-of-a-kind show. “What’s really neat is that we’ve flipped the orchestra around 180 degrees. I’m going to be facing the audience, and the orchestra is going to be looking at the back of the stage,” he says.

A reading session in the spring of 2025 was the first glimpse of Eliot’s interpretation of the story for the TSO stage. “I had 20 or 25 minutes of material to try out,” he remembers. And through the summer, with a draft of a script in hand, he got to work finalizing a piece that told the whole of Misko’s journey. 

“I use my computer to collect a bunch of sounds and ambiences to mock up 50 minutes of material,” he explains of the shell that eventually became the final show. At his studio, he works with synthesizers, computers, and other kinds of drum machines, as well as other instruments. “The real trick is getting a sense of how something is going to work with all of these different elements over long periods of time.”

The use of technology isn’t always typical. “Composers used to use piano reductions to play through things for a director. Theatre would use sound cues, and they’d do various development phases,” says Eliot. “But for me, it’s bringing everything together in the computer, recording things, bits of dialogue, and looking at the scenes, so that I can deliver a 50-minute piece that follows all of the beats and has all of the emotional intensity that they’re looking for.”

With all the different elements and players, getting everyone together for a rehearsal is no easy task. For a Masterworks concert, a conductor and the musicians may have as many as four rehearsals. “Even if the orchestra knows the piece and has played it many times, it takes time for them to get used to what the conductor is doing, and for them to have that communication,” Trevor says. But with She Holds Up the Stars, there was just one full rehearsal before the show was presented to audiences. “In the case of this show, it’s more straightforward. We know what the notes are, so we use this time to make sure that we’re together and giving an exciting performance.”

The chance to be part of a dynamic Indigenous-led production—one that follows a young girl’s journey and her deepening connection to place—is something everyone involved holds close. “It’s profoundly meaningful for me to see She Holds Up the Stars come alive in a new way,” says Sandra. “From the beginning, it was meant to start as something personal and then grow outward, connecting with people on an entirely different level. At Red Sky, we’re driven to reach audiences through every sense—movement, music, imagery—so it becomes an experience rather than just a performance. This invites children, youth, and families into the story, where they can see themselves reflected and carry its themes forward into their own lives.”

Eliot echoes this sentiment. “The significance of any kind of large Indigenous-led project in Canada is huge,” he says. “It resonates with so many people who often feel excluded from cultural representation in Canada. It’s a testament to the risk-taking of Red Sky, the TSO, and other partner organizations who are investing in making productions like this possible.”  

She Holds Up the Stars, commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra in association with TO Live and the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund, will receive its World Première at Roy Thomson Hall on Sunday, April 19, 2026. Tickets are available at TSO.CA/Concerts.

Written by Maryam Siddiqi, a journalist and editorial strategist whose award-winning lifestyle writing has appeared in The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, ELLE Canada, and more.