Festival remembers N.B. teacher who brought live theatre to generations of students

Suzanne Doyle Yerxa, the educator who coordinated the New Brunswick Dram Festival, is pictured. (Source: New Brunswick Drama Festival)

A New Brunswick teacher who helped generations of students perform live theatre was remembered this past week at the drama festival she helped orchestrate for decades.

Suzanne Doyle Yerxa passed away on April 18 at the age of 75.

Doyle Yerxa was a teacher at Kennebecasis Valley High School in Quispamsis, N.B., for 35 years where she led the school’s theatre program and co-founded the KV Players community theatre group. She also served as the New Brunswick Drama Festival’s long-time coordinator.

The festival, hosted each May at Fredericton’s St. Thomas University, is the largest single-site provincial school theatre festival in Canada.

Doyle Yerxa served as a driving force at the festival for 30 years: 15 years as the festival’s organizing committee chair and 15 years as the festival’s coordinator.

“There’s countless volunteers, teachers and people like myself who are here based on the impact and legacy she had,” said Michael Hogan, co-chair of the task force that took over organizing the festival after Doyle Yerxa passed.

Over 1,200 middle and high school students participated in this year’s festival, which ran Monday to Saturday and featured 53 plays from 36 schools.

Hogan said Doyle Yerxa always made a point of trying to see as many of the school plays as possible.

“We are actually reserving a seat that she would always sit in,” said Hogan. “There’s little things like that throughout the festival that will honour her memory while making sure we continue to put on the festival as she would’ve wanted.”

A book of remembrance for Doyle Yerxa was also placed outside the Black Box Theatre during the festival.

Ilkay Silk, a long-time adjudicator at the festival and theatre educator, wrote that Doyle Yerxa was a creative force of kindness, talent, and compassion.

“Her love of theatre and her responsibility as a teacher and mentor to bring out the best in students was one of her super-powers,” wrote Silk in a memorial included in the festival’s schedule. Silk said she will miss Doyle Yerxa’s laughter and wisdom.

“She changed people’s lives.”

Suzanne Doyle Yerxa’s family says a celebration of her life will be announced for a future date.

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