As the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival returns for another summer of bold, independent theatre, one production is inviting audiences to laugh, reflect, and perhaps even rethink the stories they carry with them. Private Parts, written and performed by Kelowna actor Joanna Rannelli, arrives in Winnipeg following acclaimed performances at fringe festivals across North America. While its title hints at comedy, and there is certainly plenty of laughter throughout the performance, the one-woman show ultimately offers a moving exploration of family, identity, forgiveness, and the hidden truths that quietly influence people’s lives.
Presented at Venue 11 at Red River Polytech on Princess Street, Private Parts draws directly from Rannelli’s own experiences. Through a blend of humour, vulnerability, and deeply personal storytelling, she examines adoption, family relationships, inherited behaviours, and the emotional burden of secrets. Rather than presenting a straightforward autobiography, Rannelli has created a theatrical journey that asks audiences to consider how the stories passed down through generations continue to shape who they become, and how confronting those stories can be the first step toward healing.
From an Adoption Story to Something Much Bigger
Although Rannelli’s own adoption inspired the project, she explains that the show gradually evolved into something far broader during the writing process. “Originally, I thought that I was going to write about this journey and the search for my birth mother,” she recalls. However, after working closely with director and dramaturg Kerry Ipema, a different theme began to emerge. “As we started to go through things, she’s like, wow, there’s a theme here… secrets.”
That realization fundamentally changed the direction of the production. While adoption remains an important part of the narrative, Rannelli emphasizes that it no longer defines the show. “It’s not that adoption isn’t a part of the show. It’s just a part of it and not what it’s fully about anymore.” Instead, Private Parts became an exploration of the hidden truths families carry, the stories left untold, and the emotional impact those secrets have across generations.
Developing the production also required an unconventional creative process. Because Ipema lives in New York while Rannelli was based in Vancouver, much of the collaboration happened virtually. Rannelli began by writing memories from throughout her life, eventually accumulating pages of personal stories before the two artists refined them together through online meetings. “I started to write stories. I started to write about my life and it was my life story and I just kept writing and writing,” she says. Together, they shaped those memories into a cohesive theatrical work that feels intensely personal while remaining remarkably universal.
Family Secrets and Breaking Old Patterns
At the emotional heart of Private Parts lies Rannelli’s relationship with the woman who adopted her. Although the production includes numerous stories from throughout her life, including one she jokingly describes as involving a “secret marriage to an acrobat,” its central focus is the way family relationships influence future generations.
“It really is a show about my mother and I and about the parallels between us and how her secrets have directly impacted my life and how I’ve recreated some of them for myself,” Rannelli explains.
Rather than suggesting that history simply repeats itself, she believes many of the patterns people inherit are learned behaviours that quietly pass from one generation to the next. “I do think history… I think it’s learned behavior,” she says.
One insight from therapy profoundly influenced both her personal life and the production. Rannelli remembers hearing that people often keep loved ones alive through the characteristics they remember most vividly. For her, that realization was difficult but transformative. “He was talking about how we keep the people alive in our lives through the things that we know most about them. And unfortunately, some of my mother’s things I know about her is the things I kept alive. It’s all I knew.”
Rather than allowing those inherited behaviours to continue unchecked, Rannelli has made breaking those patterns one of the defining themes of the production. “This show is a little bit about changing that, changing that perspective,” she says. More importantly, she views the work as reflecting the choices she continues to make in her own life. “I’m trying to break patterns and break history right now, today, and every day going forward.”
By openly sharing these experiences, Rannelli encourages audiences to examine the stories they have inherited and ask themselves whether those stories still deserve to define who they are.
Finding Humour in Difficult Truths
Despite dealing with emotionally complex subject matter, Private Parts is far from a sombre evening in the theatre. Rannelli deliberately balances deeply personal moments with humour, believing that comedy reflects the realities of family life itself.
“Well, I think we all have secrets. That’s the most relatable thing, I think, about the show. We have families and we have secrets,” she says.
Throughout the performance she revisits different periods of her life, bringing past experiences vividly to life on stage. “I play parts of my life. I go back in time and I play a little bit of some scenes from my life and share some secrets that I think are quite funny.”
Those lighter moments provide welcome relief before the performance returns to more emotional territory. The result is a production that never feels overwhelmed by its heavier themes. Instead, the humour reminds audiences that even life’s most painful experiences often contain moments of absurdity, warmth, and joy.
Ultimately, Rannelli hopes audiences leave the theatre feeling emotionally lighter than when they arrived. “I hope that people take away… I just hope that they don’t let their secrets define them,” she says.
That message extends beyond personal healing and into relationships with others. “I hope that they can release some of that and walk away with some forgiveness because my show really has a lot of themes about forgiveness and I hope that there’s some people in their life maybe that they can just let go of.”
By blending laughter with vulnerability, Private Parts demonstrates that healing doesn’t require ignoring painful memories—it often begins by acknowledging them with honesty and compassion.
The Hidden Lives We All Live
Another central theme running throughout Private Parts is the idea that everyone presents different versions of themselves depending on the circumstances. In today’s world of carefully curated social media profiles, Rannelli believes that tension has only become more pronounced.
“I don’t know if I can speak for everybody else, but I can speak for myself. Absolutely. Absolutely,” she says when asked whether people hide aspects of themselves from public view.
Having spent years both performing and teaching acting, she often wrestles with deciding how much of her own life to reveal publicly. “I think about that all the time. There’s presenters and people picking up my shows. What are they seeing? You know, how much do I share about my actual life?”
Rather than exposing every aspect of herself online, Rannelli has chosen the theatre as the place where she tells her most personal stories. “That’s why I choose to do it in shows. I choose to, there’s places that I do that.”
Ultimately, she says Private Parts isn’t about confession for confession’s sake. Instead, it examines how hidden experiences continue influencing people’s lives long after they occur. “The show really is about my mother… So it’s really about the parallels and the secrets that are left behind.”
She explains that the production explores “the secrets our body keeps, the secrets that are passed along to us, and the secrets that we pass along to other people.” While those ideas form the emotional framework of the performance, Rannelli hopes audiences leave with one simple realization: “I don’t think we should be defined by them.”
A Story That Continues to Grow
Although Private Parts has toured for several years and earned recognition at fringe festivals across North America, Rannelli views it as a living piece of theatre that continues evolving alongside her own life.
Following its Winnipeg Fringe appearance in 2023, the production enjoyed a professional run before she stepped away to focus on other projects. Returning to the material proved unexpectedly emotional because, as she puts it, “I’ve changed as a performer, as a storyteller. I’m evolving all the time.”
That personal evolution has naturally shaped the production itself. “Yes, we have gone back and changed it,” she says, explaining that each new staging reflects where she is both artistically and emotionally. Longer versions now include additional projections and staging, while the script continues to grow as her understanding of the material deepens.
At its heart, Private Parts is a celebration of the stories that make us who we are, and the freedom that comes from sharing them. With a perfect blend of laughter, honesty, and heartfelt reflection, Joanna Rannelli invites audiences to see their own families, memories, and hidden histories in a new way. Whether exploring the secrets we inherit or the ones we choose to release, this engaging one-woman performance proves that even the most personal stories can create powerful connections. Don’t miss Private Parts at Venue 11, Red River Polytech, 160 Princess Street, during the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival,a funny, moving, and unforgettable journey into the stories we all carry.