Across the 45th Parallel: An Evening with Playwright Terry L. Allison

About 45th Parallel

In this fresh and thoughtful dramedy, playwright Terry L. Allison invites us into the long-divided world of the fictional Gagnon family, whose ancestral farm and beloved Beavertail Lake were sliced in half by the 1908 Quebec-Vermont border survey. The international line may be invisible, but its consequences ripple through generations.

First cousins Marie-Louise and Andy have learned to navigate life along the 45th parallel with good humor and occasional frustration—until a new threat arrives: proposals for a hardened, militarized border wall that would cut through their family land, shatter their privacy, and upend plans for the next generation.

Old disagreements, cultural divides, and national loyalties resurface as the family confronts a question many borderland communities now face: What happens when political decisions made far away threaten the relationships closest to home?

45th Parallel blends warmth, wit, and tension as the cousins rally siblings, elders, and reluctant relatives to defend their forest, their lake, and their intertwined futures. Part comedy, part cautionary tale, and deeply rooted in real events unfolding just south of the border—including debates over new wall segments and the surreal history of Haskell Free Library & Opera House—the play offers both laughter and reflection.

This first public reading is directed by Natalie Hamel Roy, guiding distinguished actors from television, theatre, film, and radio as they bring the Gagnon family to life.

The performance is followed by a discussion led by Vivien Grenier, offering audiences the rare chance to help shape a work still in development.

About the Playwright: Terry L. Allison

Terry L. Allison is an American educator, arts advocate, and writer whose career has spanned universities in California, Illinois, and Indiana, where he served as professor, arts dean, and eventually Chancellor of Indiana University South Bend. A longtime champion of LGBTQ leadership, gender studies, and the performing arts, Allison spent decades nurturing creative voices while publishing work in literature, film, sexuality, and theatre.

During the pandemic, while living in northern Vermont and separated from his Canadian spouse by the closed border, Allison began writing a series of plays exploring identity, belonging, and the strange realities of life at and across borders. 45th Parallel is the first of these works to reach public reading.

Now retired from university administration and residing in Montréal with his husband, noted voice actor Sylvain Hétu, Allison continues to write plays, short fiction, and memoirs. His creative work draws on a lifetime of community engagement, academic leadership, and personal experience with borders both literal and figurative. Democrats Abroad Québec (DAQC) is proud to count Terry among our loyal and active members — a creator whose work continues to bridge cultures, communities, and conversations across borders.