Categories
2014/2015 Season

Weesageechak 28

Our Annual Festival of Indigenous Work

November 11-21, 2015
7:30pm | Tickets $15

Aki Studio

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Over two weeks in November, the 28th annual Weesageechak Begins to Dance festival brings together emerging, mid-career and established artists to develop and showcase contemporary Indigenous theatre, dance and interdisciplinary creations for stage.

Save 50% with a Festival Pass!
Limited passes available for just $60. Book your all-access Weesageechak 28 festival pass by telephone at 416-531-1402

Our two-week festival will showcase exciting works by Lara Kramer (Tame), Jani Lauzon (Prophecy Fog), Michelle Thrush (Find Your Own Inner Elder), and Kenneth T. Williams (In Care). In addition to these established artists, Weesageechak will also feature new works by emerging and mid-career artists, such as Yolanda Bonnell, Brian Solomon, and writers from the Animikiig Playwrights’ Program.

The festival provides a platform that fosters mentorship through the exchange of skills and knowledge while simultaneously celebrating contemporary Indigenous performance through readings, workshops and productions. Festival audiences gain insight into the creation process and get a unique glimpse of new Indigenous works from around the world.

Click Image to See Full Schedule

W28 Schedule

See Photos from Weesageechak 27


CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION ON OUR
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SERIES


 

TICKETS

Evening Tickets $15 available online.
Festival Passes $60 available for purchase by telephone.
Tuesday-Saturday at 7:30pm.
The Sunday Workshop is Pay-What-You-Can and starts at 12pm.
Purchases made online or by telephone are by credit card only.
At the door payments accepted by cash, debit, VISA and Mastercard.

Box Office Telephone: 416-531-1402 Email: boxoffice[at]nativeearth.ca

More information on ticket pick-up here.


Weesageechak 28 Press Release

Categories
2014/2015 Season

Stitch: Georgina Beaty

Native Earth proudly presents the Culture Storm production of Cliff Cardinal’s Stitch, a dark and raw look at the life of a porn star desperate to have her story heard. This one-woman tour-de-force performance is on now in Aki Studio, closing this Sunday June 14th.

“the story of a woman claiming agency in a system that denies her any power”

Georgina Beaty, Toronto-based actor, Co-Artistic Director of Architect Theatre, and graduate of both the University of Alberta and Studio 58, is at the centre of it all. In Stitch, Beaty plays the role of Kylie Grandview, a single mother and porn star whose plight takes center stage. Stitch is “the story of a woman claiming agency in a system that denies her any power,” describes Beaty. “Kylie is a warped ingénue for dark times.”

But Beaty takes on more than just the ingénue. Demonstrating her incredible versatility, Beaty also brings life a multitude of other characters in Kylie’s world – mother, daughter, agent, laywer – just to name a few. “Cliff has written a piece that is a rare gift for a female performer. Every character is particular, funny (in a dark way), and a delight to inhabit,” says Beaty.

Georgina Beaty
Georgina Beaty; photo by akipari

At the helm of this production has been director, and once Stitch dramaturge, Jovanni Sy, who is joined by award-winning Production Designer Andy Moro, and new Composer Luca Caruso-Moro, who makes his debut with the production.

“I love this team. It’s felt like a really collaborative room,” says Beaty. “Because there is only one performer, Andy Moro’s sound and lights are a complete character within the piece, so it feels like I am very much in dialogue with other elements.”

Though Stitch deals with one woman’s experiences in a particular industry, Beaty believes there is more to take from Cardinal’s script than just the story of a porn star.

“It’s a highly specific story about one woman and her journey through the adult film industry, but it also implicates the audience in their appetite to watch the events onstage,” says Beaty. “As a woman in an industry that is male-dominated, for all of the dark humour of the piece, the ride of the story, and theatrical play, there is a relevant conversation about a society that is deeply inequitable and how that broader system can have devastating effects on an individual.”

Audiences who want a chance to hear more from Georgina Beaty can stay after the 8pm performance on Saturday June 13th for a formal post-show Q & A discussion. Tickets are available online.


Stitch Book Tickets


 UnStitched with Georgina Beaty

What are you reading right now?
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano and
Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit

Where is your favorite place to be?
In the mountains hiking. The coast.

What’s next for you?
Like There’s No Tomorrow at SummerWorks.  It is a piece I am creating with my company, Architect Theatre, inspired by interviews along the route of the proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline in Northwestern BC. Our team includes Anita Rochon, Paula-Jean Prudat, Jonathan Seinen and myself and we are re-imagining an environmental consultation process for a pipeline, but this one includes a talking fish, sunsets, and maybe even a dance party.


Audiences have until Sunday June 14th to see Beaty’s remarkable performance in Cliff Cardinal’s Stitch. Tickets are available online.

Categories
2014/2015 Season

A Message About Stitch from Native Earth

Native Earth is pleased to present the Culture Storm production of Stitch by Cliff Cardinal. Since 2013, Culture Storm and Cliff Cardinal have been developing this production in order to bring the talents of Cliff Cardinal, considered one of Canada’s brightest emerging talents, to the stage. When Culture Storm approached Native Earth for support with venue, box office, tech and marketing we were thrilled to support their production. By helping to support like-minded community organizations in their initiatives we are able to share our space through in-kind support with organizations to create a platform for Indigenous writers. Through these types of partnerships we are able to expand our audiences and create cross-culture platforms to expand the visibility of Indigenous talent, like Cliff Cardinal, across Canada.

This is a one-woman play by an Indigenous playwright, where the main character’s ethnicity is unspecified. This presentation was planned and cast before our recent co-production of The Unplugging and the issues raised by the casting of that play. The dialogue about The Unplugging has prompted considerable reflection by the Native Earth management and Board of Directors, resulting in the recent statement, posted on this website, which is our clear intention going forward. In light of that, we wrestled with the potential contradiction that might be seen in our role presenting Stitch, given the script and casting. The most honorable course is to keep our commitment, to proceed with this presentation as planned, and to support all the artists who are part of this production. Native Earth renews our commitment to cast only Indigenous actors in Indigenous roles going forward.

Ryan Cunningham                                    Isaac Thomas
Artistic Director                                         Managing Director


 

Statement by Heather Haynes, Culture Storm

Artistic Statement by Cliff Cardinal, Playwright

Categories
2014/2015 Season

God and The Indian: Renae Morriseau

For our cross-nation partnership with Firehall Arts Centre, we’re bringing Toronto and Vancouver audiences Drew Hayden Taylor’s God and The Indian, in Aki Studio May 2 – 17, 2015. Following the Toronto premiere, the production returns to Vancouver where it runs May 20 – 30, 2015.

After directing the world premiere of God and The Indian in Vancouver in 2013, Renae Morriseau (Cree) returns to bring audiences the Toronto premiere, currently playing in Native Earth’s Aki Studio.

“In our traditional ways the audience is then witnesses to share the story about this dark history about Canadian policy and legislation.”

Originally from Manitoba, Renae is based now in Vancouver where she works to cultivate social justice, inclusiveness and community-building through her work in theatre.  It’s these motivations that inspire Renae to help tell this heartbreaking story about Canada’s residential schools.

“It’s a story that needs to be told,” says Morriseau. “In our traditional ways the audience is then witnesses to share the story about this dark history about Canadian policy and legislation.

Morriseau hopes audiences from all backgrounds will come to see the production. “I think it’s important for all Canadians to see – Native or non-Native. People need to understand the impact that residential schools have had on my people – “my” meaning all the different Nations across Turtle Island which is now called Canada,” Morriseau explains. “We’re talking seven generations of my people that have been impacted. With residential school survivors today, these stories help support the survivors to acknowledge the pain and loss of family and community.”

Morriseau is not the only member of the original Vancouver production working on the Toronto premiere; both designers (Lauchlin Johnston, Alex Denard) also returned to revisit the play.

Listen Renae Morriseau on our
Podcast: gaganoonidiwag

However, this is anything but a remount, as Morriseau has had an opportunity to explore the work with a completely new cast, whom she describes as “talented, intuitive, adaptable and creative.”  The Toronto premiere stars Toronto-based Thomas Hauff as Assistant Bishop George King, and Vancouver-based Lisa C. Ravensbergen (Ojibwe/Swampy Cree) as Johnny.

Audiences interested in a discussion about the issues addressed in the play are invited to check here for a list of pre- and post-show talks with the creative team.

God and The Indian runs in Toronto May 2 – 17, and moves to Vancouver May 20 – 30, 2015.


GI - Book Tickets


Tidbits About Renae Morriseau

What advice would you give to someone
who wants to do what you do?
Be curious. Start with your curiosity of what your passion creatively is. What are the stories that resonate in your heart and your mind and in what manner to do you want to develop your creative source.

What ability would you like to steal from another artist?
Lisa C. Ravensbergen’s acting and tenacity.
Tom Hauff’s uncanny ability to read between the lines.

Where is your favorite place to be?
With my grandson at a lacrosse game.

What’s your favourite dessert?
I make a great pumpkin cheesecake.

Favorite childhood toy?
Burnt bannock used as a hockey puck.

What’s next?
Returning to Vancouver to work with Vancouver Moving Theatre on Tracks: 7th Canadian Community Play and Arts Symposium.


Renae Morriseau: Since the early 1980s, Renae has worked in the arts in Canada, United States and most recently, internationally with her singing group, M’Girl. In theatre, she produced, wrote, directed and acted in a variety of Aboriginal stories contributing her music, dramaturgy, and teaching theatre to the next generation of thespians. In film she produced, wrote, directed and acted in a variety of television dramas, feature films, music videos, and documentary productions with her music licensed to diverse film and television productions. See: Down2Earth

Categories
2014/2015 Season

God and The Indian: Lisa C. Ravensbergen

For our cross-nation partnership with Firehall Arts Centre, we’re bringing Toronto and Vancouver audiences Drew Hayden Taylor’s God and The Indian, in Aki Studio May 2 – 17, 2015. Following the Toronto premiere, the production returns to Vancouver where it runs May 20 – 30, 2015.

Lisa C. Ravensbergen joins Thomas Hauff in Taylor’s two-hander, directed by Renae Morriseau. Based out of Vancouver, Ravensbergen, takes on the role of Johnny, a Cree woman, panhandling on the streets who recognizes Anglican Assistant Bishop George King outside a coffee shop. Johnny follows King to his office, where she confronts him about the abuse she suffered as a child in a residential school.

The challenge offered by this role excites the multi-hyphenate and Jessie Award-nominated actor, who describes herself as a tawny mix of Ojibwe/Swampy Cree and English/Irish.1

“I feel privileged and honoured to attempt to bring these voices to life…”

“I feel privileged and honoured to attempt to bring these voices to life and to negotiate with keen-minded collaborators,” says Ravensbergen. “It’s always exciting to work with new people. All three of us have overlapping artistic languages and different languages, as well. It’s fascinating.”

This is not the first time Ravensbergen has worked with Director Renae Morriseau; they previously performed together in George Ryga’s The Ecstasy of Rita Joe. 2 “She’s Cree and I’m Ojibwe/Cree. It’s great to have someone else in the room that shares your culture and can speak to the world view that is implicit in the script, whether Drew meant for it to be there or not. It’s nice to have someone else in the room that can see the cultural resonances.”

“They are tenacious about getting what they want – not just for themselves but from the other person.”

This marks the first time Ravensbergen is working with Hauff, and the two are finding the characters to be quite demanding. “It’s a pretty relentless room; there is no joy for these two characters. They are tenacious about getting what they want – not just for themselves but from the other person,” says Ravensbergen. “Tom is a fierce competitor and comrade and there is no room for me to be off my A-game.”

Though it’s been a number of years, Ravensbergen is no stranger to Native Earth audiences. “I have a long history here and I am really happy and pleased and blushy with honour to be able to be on stage with Native Earth again,” says Ravensbergen. “The last time I was on stage with Native Earth was the 2004 production of The Unnatural and Accidental Women by Marie Clements. It feels nice to return.

Audiences looking to have a discussion about the issues addressed in the play are invited to check here for a list of pre- and post-show talks with the creative team.

God and The Indian runs in Toronto May 2 – 17, and moves to Vancouver May 20 – 30, 2015.


GI - Book Tickets


Tidbits About Lisa C. Ravensbergen

What’s next for you?
A new multi-disc. collaboration with BLAM Collective (with Billy Marchenski and Michael Greyeyes) called The World is The World.

What was your first professional job?
As Rose in the premiere of Marie Clement’s Burning Vision, a
co-pro with urban ink and Rumble Productions.

Where is your favorite place to be?
Under trees, beside water under a big sky. Mountains help.

Who is one of your heroes?
My son, Nodin. I’m learning how to see the world through eyes that are clean and heart-driven and spirit-connected. I find it really humbling and inspiring to give witness to his journey.

What’s your favourite dessert?
Thanks to a slew of allergies, the closest I ever get
to real people dessert is in Fantasy Land.

Favorite childhood toy?
A bright yellow ball that I stole from K-Mart when I was a kid.


1Performance highlights include: Where the Blood Mixes (Theatre North West); The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (Firehall Arts Centre; Western Canada Theatre/National Arts Centre); Ernestine Shuswap Gets Her Trout (Western Canada Theatre), The Unnatural and Accidental Women (Native Earth Performing Arts); Burning Vision (Western Canada Theatre/Rumble Productions).

New theatre/ dance works currently in development: The Seventh Fire; The World is The World (BLAM Collective); The Art of Peace (Pounds per Square Inch).


2 Western Canada Theatre Company (Kamloops) / NAC English Theatre Company co-production.

Categories
2014/2015 Season

God and The Indian: Thomas Hauff

For our cross-nation partnership with Firehall Arts Centre, we’re bringing Toronto and Vancouver audiences Drew Hayden Taylor’s God and The Indian, in Aki Studio May 2 – 17, 2015. Following the Toronto premiere, the production returns to Vancouver where it runs May 20 – 30, 2015.

In Taylor’s two-hander, directed by Renae MorriseauToronto-based actor Thomas Hauff takes on the role of Assistant Bishop George King. King is caught off-guard by the sudden arrival of Johnny (played by Lisa C. Ravensbergen), a Cree woman who follows him after recognizing King from her childhood in a residential school.

He’s confronted by someone who believes something about himself that he’s doesn’t believe to be true…

Thomas Hauff has worked professionally as an actor for most of his life,  appearing on stages across Canada and in film, television and commercials.1  He previously performed in Weesageechak Begins to Dance workshops for Yvette Nolan’s Annie Mae’s Movement and Stretching Hide by Dale Lakevold.

In preparing for his role in God and The Indian, Hauff found himself excited by the doubt presented in the script. “[Assistant Bishop King] is a man who is caught in a difficult situation. He’s confronted by someone who believes something about himself that he’s doesn’t believe to be true and he has to convince her otherwise.”

Though the last of the residential schools closed in 1996, Taylor’s God and The Indian brings attention to the issues still affecting Indigenous people in Canada today. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada indicates there are still an estimated 80,000 former students who are living and dealing with the impact of a childhood spent in an institution that sought to eliminate Indigenous culture.

Anything that starts the conversation about this situation and the effects on people of the residential schools is great.

The rehearsal process has been illuminating for Hauff. “It’s been exiting and challenging to explore with everyone. Lisa and Renae both bring a perspective that I don’t have,” he says. “It’s really interesting to sit back and listen to them discuss their ideas of the show. I’m learning from the experience.”

And that is exactly what Hauff hopes audiences will get from the show. “I hope they ask questions. Anything that starts the conversation about this situation and the effects on people of the residential schools is great.”

Audiences looking to have a discussion about the issues addressed in the play are invited to stay after the preview matinee on Sunday May 3rd for a post-show talk with Elder-in-training Christine Gijig and Director of Public Witness for Social and Ecological Justice, Anglican Church of Canada, Henriette Thompson.

God and The Indian runs in Toronto May 2 – 17, and moves to Vancouver May 20 – 30, 2015. More Information on Talks


GI - Book Tickets


Tidbits About Thomas Hauff

What advice would you give to someone
who wants to do what you do?
Explore it and find out if you NEED to do it.

First professional role?
As Slightly Soiled, one of the Lost Boys,
in Peter Pan for the Vancouver International Festival.

What is your profession’s greatest challenge today?
Getting work and doing it well.

Where is your favorite place to be?
I like to go home and relax after the show.

What ability would you like to steal from another artist?
Confidence.

Do you speak any other languages?
I can speak German.


1 Favourite theatre roles: Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Stratford Festival of Canada), James Tyrone in Moon for the Misbegotten (Theatre New Brunswick), Matthew Cuthbert in Anne (Blyth Festival, Theatre Calgary), James Donnelly in Sticks and Stones (Blyth Festival), both Angus and Morgan in different productions of The Drawer Boy (Theatre Passe Muraille, Waterloo Stage Company), Alfred in Stretching Hide (Manitoba Theatre Projects), and The Haushofmeister in Ariadne Auf Naxos (Canadian Opera Company).

Film: Adoration, Away From Her, Who Has Seen the Wind.

Television: The Listener, Universal Soldier, Sue Thomas F.B. Eye, A Season on the Brink, 9B, Friday the 13th, Top Cops’and Night Heat.

Categories
2014/2015 Season

From Artistic Director, Ryan Cunningham

As the Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts it is my role to take responsibility for the artistic decisions made by the company.

For as long as Native Earth has been a company, we’ve been trailblazers. Sometimes our choices are celebrated. Sometimes our choices are called into question.

Our community never fails to tell us how it feels, and for this I am grateful. I particularly appreciate the emails I have received; the conversations in-person and by telephone I have had with many in the community. This is productive.

I am listening to the discussion that is going on now. I hear the disappointment our community is expressing in the casting choices for this co-production and I appreciate the feedback. I will commit to take this feedback forward.

I heard you when you let us know how you felt at this past Weesageechak festival. The festival and community alike were electric with positivity and warmth. I knew from your overwhelmingly positive response that we’re on the right track with Weesageechak, and those responses are helping us to continue to move in the right direction with this annual festival. Some of you voiced to me your criticisms of the festival, particularly regarding how it was organized. I heard that too, and we will use the feedback to improve our upcoming festival.

Native Earth entered into this co-production with Factory and two accomplished artistic leaders, respected artists who have unquestionably supported Indigenous and culturally diverse artists for years. The impact they have had on our community cannot be eradicated with one production.

However, with any experience there are lessons to be learned. We have heard our community and in moving forward your voices will inform our choices for the future.

This is a complex discussion. We intend to take the time necessary to reflect and connect with our community on a personal level. We wish to hear the many perspectives on this issue before we come together in a public forum. We will then to put together a schedule of events that will allow us as a community to have this conversation face-to-face and move forward in a good way.

The community forum scheduled for Tuesday March 31st in Aki Studio is postponed to a later date. In the meantime, know that our doors are open. You are welcome to stop by, talk with us, phone or email us.

Native Earth was created to support Indigenous artists and share our Indigenous stories. Our community can count on us to continue to do this, to take risks, push boundaries, and trail-blaze in the name of supporting Indigenous art.

Ryan Cunningham
Artistic Director

Categories
2014/2015 Season

Inside The Unplugging: Allegra Fulton

We’ve partnered up with Factory Theatre to bring audiences the Toronto debut of The Unplugging by Yvette Nolan (March 14 – April 5, 2015), and here we get to know a little more about the key players in this production and partnership.

L-R: Diana Belshaw, Allegra Fulton; photo by Akipari

Along with Diana Belshaw, and Umed Amin, today we round out the cast of three with theatre veteran Allegra Fulton. Multiple award-winning actor, best known for her Dora Mavor Moore Award-winning performance in the one-woman tour-de-force Frida K., Fulton says she is excited to work on Yvette Nolan’s play about “love and loss and crafty survival”.

“I’m always drawn to first and foremost the story, the story, the story, that is being told. The Unplugging has been a very interesting exploration because of the nature of the story,” she explains. “To imagine the end of the world, which of course we all had to do each day of the rehearsal period and to deal with the kinds of thoughts, fears, needs, desires, simple survival skills that we would or would not have in such circumstances. Projecting yourself into that kind of difficulty and end-of-the-world scenario each day has made for some very challenging moments.”

“If we all carry seeds of everyone inside us – if we are all one – then Bern is in me in all the facets of her that I drawn on.”

And though she says the circumstances of the play are different from her own experiences (They are “surviving an apocalypse and that is very different from anything I’ve had to endure, thankfully.”), Fulton saw something in Bernadette that compelled her to take on this role.  “I certainly relate to her clown, her artist, her lover, her large spirit. If we all carry seeds of everyone inside us – if we are all one – then Bern is in me in all the facets of her that I drawn on.”

Nolan’s The Unplugging tells the story of two very different aging Indigenous women cast out of their community because of one thing they share – the inability to bear children. But it is their differences in response to these shared circumstances that make for two contrasting, but equally interesting, characters.

L-R: Allegra Fulton, Umed Amin; Photo by Akipari

“Bernadette is a fascinating character. She has no family, is rootless, disconnected. She longs for love and connection and community. She is self-taught and very smart but doesn’t really believe it. She doesn’t have a lot of confidence in who and what she is and yet she is spirited, generous, funny, willing, loyal. She sees the best in people even when their worst sides are forward,” says Fulton.

“I have no idea what parts of me would emerge in such a dire circumstance. I think we all hope the best, but no doubt the worst parts of ourselves would also be on full display. Yet I always have such faith in the triumph of the glorious human spirit. We are such divine and complicated creatures.”

The Unplugging is on stage now until April 5th, after which audiences can see Fulton in the title role in Susanna Fournier’s adaptation of Medea, and also in the upcoming Julius Caesar and Comedy of Errors in the Dream in High Park.


1943_Factory_Unplugging_Hooplah_300x250-2


Getting Unplugged with Allegra

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Do it all. Never give up. Don’t listen to the nay-sayers.

Who inspires you?
All the artists in the world who continue
to fight for freedom of expression.

What was your first job in theatre?
John Van Burek gave me a role in Les Temps Sauvages
when I was 11 years old. I was acting with grown ups,
on a real stage, and I was in heaven!!!!

What is your profession’s greatest challenge today?
The dearth of good writing for people over 40 yrs old.
Especially women.

What ability would you like to steal from another artist?
David Ferry’s superpower of being able to work
on three things at the same time.

What are you reading right now?
Joel Thomas Hynes’ Straight Razor Days,
Caitlin Moran’s How To Be A Woman,
and my script.

What’s your favorite line from a book,
or play, or favourite lyric from a song?
“like a bird on a a wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir,
I have tried in my way to be free” – Leonard Cohen
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” Plato
“A poet is a time mechanic, not an embalmer” Jack Spicer

Where is your favorite place to be?
In bed with my favourite lover… or in nature, mountains,
oceans, cliffs, rolling green hills by the ocean.

What is one of your pet peeves?
Texting.

Who is one of your heroes?
Malala Yousefsy. She continues to fight for the rights of children to have education, despite being a teenager, a female, and having been shot in the head for her insistence on going to school.

The one word your best friend would use to describe you?
Passionate.

What’s your favourite dessert?
Tracy Pritchards Rose and Raspbetty Meringue


Recent Theatre Credits: The Carousel (Nightwood Theatre), The List (Nightwood Theatre), Tout Comme Elle (Luminato/Necessary Angel), Night of The Iguana, The Gentleman Caller (Hart House Theatre), King Lear (Antaeus Classical Rep/L.A.), The Taming of The Shrew (A Noise Within, L.A.), Geometry in Venice (Crow’s Theatre/Segal Centre), Scorched (Tarragon Theatre).

Recent Film & TV credits: Cronenberg’s Map To The Stars, Fargo, Desgrassi: The Next Generation, Against The Wall, King.

Categories
2014/2015 Season

Maskihkiwiskwe

A visual artist I respect tremendously called me in the middle of the day on Saturday, two days after my play The Unplugging opened on the Factory Mainstage, a co-production between Factory and Native Earth. My colleague, whom I will call Maskihkiwiskwe, is in Saskatchewan. She had been dragged into the debate about the casting of the play in Toronto, and she was calling me to ask me what was up.

I thanked Maskihkiwiskwe for calling. She is the first person who has actually called me. We are not friends, though I have seen her work, I have heard her speak, I have worked in the room around her, on projects she has headed. When her number popped up on my phone, I did not know who it was.

I told her I had heard about the discussion on The Facebook, although I am not on The Facebook; people had clipped and sent comments to me. I told her that I had been warned to be careful of my personal safety, that I should watch my back. Maskihkiwiskwe told me that I needed to say something, that the whole thing was raging around me, around my play, and that I needed to speak. But no one has spoken to me, I said.

But you know what is being said, Maskihkiwiskwe said. People are waiting to hear from you. While I find that hard to believe, since no one has asked me, Maskihkiwiskwe says I must say something.

The Unplugging has three roles: two “women of a certain age” and a young man. The women, Bern and Elena, have been banished from a community that only wants “women of child-bearing age”. In order to survive, the women have to dig down inside themselves and remember what they know, what they have learned from their elders. Elena in her mid-sixties, remembers snippets of her language (Anishinaabemowin), how to make a snare and trap rabbit. Bern, the younger at 50-something, is a former party-girl who is completely disconnected from her history, her roots: “So much I don’t know about where I come from”. The knowledge she remembers is the cabin in the north to which she leads them where they might be safe and have a hope of surviving.

I have heard that someone actually said that there are “hundreds of aboriginal actresses” who could have done these roles. There are not. When Nina and I sat down a year or so ago to talk about the play, we made a list of the women who could possibly play the roles. That list included Indigenous actors, and actors from the larger multicultural theatre community. It is not a long list.

Here is a thing. There are so few roles for women, of any age, that it is something of a miracle that there are any women still in the business in their fifties and sixties. Many quit, frustrated by roles or lack of them. Many move into other arenas – film and television, scholarship and the Academy. Over the course of the development of The Unplugging, many fine actresses have read the roles of Elena and Bern. Michaela Washburn and Tara Beagan were the very first Elena and Bern I ever heard; they were both too young by decades. The first reading at Weesageechak featured Patti Shaughnessy and Maev Beatty, both too young. Along the way, Val Pearson, Elinor Holt, Marie Clements, Margo Kane, Tina Cook, Erina Daniels, Colleen Gosgrove and Lisa O’Hara read the roles. With the exception of Margo Kane, all the actors have been too young for the roles. When Margo agreed to play Elena in the premiere of The Unplugging at the Arts Club in Vancouver in 2012, we were all aware of how lucky we were to have her.

(Even when you think you have the secured the perfect cast, there are no guarantees; a third production of The Unplugging by North Road Theatre, directed by Bill Lane, lost its first Indigenous Elena, postponed the show to recast, and then lost its second Elena. Bill Lane recast with Jan Kudelka, and the show just closed to packed house at Debajehmujig Storyteller’s Larry E. Lewis Creation Centre in Manitowaning, after short runs in Sudbury and North Bay.)

Many of the names on our not-long list were not available. I suppose the benefit of lasting into your middle-age as an actor is that you become a rare and precious gift. Many of the names on our list are working, not just in Indigenous plays, but in classics, world and Canadian, in new visions of old plays, or in new plays that imagine this old place in a new way. Similarly, the Indigenous artists on the creative side whose numbers are even smaller than the actors were either unavailable or withdrew for other opportunities. We were fortunate to have the Indigenous scholar Liza-Mare Syron with us in the room throughout the process until the first audience.

Many things play into the casting of a production: availability, ability, desire, resources. Can the theatre afford to bring in actors, if they are even available? I have heard it said if Factory could not cast the roles with Indigenous players, then it should not produce my play.

Really?

This is problematic for me, since I am mostly a playwright since I left Native Earth in 2011. During my time at Native Earth, I often found myself reaching across community to cast, since the pool of actors who were available, and affordable (i.e. local), was limited. Large cast plays often stretched our resources to the breaking point: for The Unnatural and Accidental Women, we brought in Lisa C. Ravensbergen, Trish Collins, and the magnificent Muriel Miguel for the role of Aunt Shadie, who was a woman of a certain age. For readings of Larry Guno’s Bunk # 7, about his residential school experience, we plumped our ranks actors from the fu-GEN community, like Byron Abalos and David Yee. We cast across community because the work needed to be done, the authors needed to hear their words onstage, the stories needed to be told.

Which brings me back to The Unplugging.

I had the opportunity to talk to a group of students on Friday night after the show, with Nina. We sat on Camie Koo’s beautiful set, under Michelle Ramsay’s suns, and took questions from the 40 odd students and their teachers. They were smart and curious. They asked about how Nina directed the play, they asked about the casting, they asked about the inspiration for the play. Nina and I talked about how theatre is all relational, about how our long relationship informs the play. Nina talked about the values embedded in the play, and how she and the design team all learned from the text. We talked about our long relationships with these designers, Camie Koo who has designed for both Nina at fu-GEN and Cahoots and for Native Earth, and how Ramsay is my lighting designer when I direct. I talked about Velma Wallis’s telling of the Athabaskan story of Two Old Women, which inspired my 21st century version. I talked about becoming a woman of a certain age, and becoming invisible and how my mother died at 63, impecunious and undervalued, because she was perceived as past her usefulness, and how I had to dig down and remember what I had learned from her in order to go on.

I also spoke about how John Ralston Saul’s book A Fair Country had inspired the play. Saul’s theory is that this country is built on Aboriginal values, that before the British arrived, the first people and the first arrivals were living here together in a good way, intermarrying, practicing egalitarianism, consensus-building, community over individual. I want everyone who lives here to adopt an Indigenous worldview, one that springs from the land on which we all live. My elders have told me “learn the language where you are, Yvette”. I offered that to the students. It behooves us to know where we are living, who was here before us. You can learn the language of the land on which you stand. Elena remembers what she knows and she teaches it to Bern who in turn teaches it to Seamus who, it is hoped, will teach it to the community that has banished the two old women.

Nina has said that everyone on this show has depended on the text to show them the way forward. The play is about generosity, and building community, and understanding how we are all connected, backwards and forwards through time, to those who came before us, and those who are yet to come, and to each other, all of us who are living here now, trying to find a good way forward.

– Yvette Nolan

Categories
2014/2015 Season

Inside The Unplugging: Ryan Cunningham

For the first time ever, Native Earth partnered up with Factory to co-produce the work of an Indigenous playwright. For this landmark partnership, the companies chose to bring to audiences the Toronto debut of The Unplugging by Yvette Nolan.

For his first production at the helm of Native Earth, Métis (Cree) Artistic Director Ryan Cunningham was excited to produce a play by Algonquin playwright Yvette Nolan. “I was a really excited to support the work of a personal mentor of mine, Yvette Nolan.” Nolan served as Artistic Director of Native Earth for eight years (2003-2011). “During that time Yvette influenced me as an artist and an artistic leader.

Allegra Fulton, Diana Belshaw
Allegra Fulton, Diana Belshaw; photo by Akipari

“She gave me my first job at Native Earth in a workshop, and provided me with opportunities to keep working as an Indigenous actor.”  It was Nolan’s encouragement that motivated Cunningham to start his own Indigenous theatre company in Edmonton, Alberta Aboriginal Performing Arts, which paved the way to his current position as the artistic leader of Native Earth.

“Being in a position to return that support by producing her work is an honour.”

“For us to survive as a species we need that knowledge in our contemporary life and it must inform how we move forward as a society. “

It’s not just supporting the playwright that made this production so important; it was also the story it tells. “What I love about The Unplugging is that it talks to the importance of Indigenous knowledge. It’s so rooted in the land. It’s lessons that have been learned  from the land,” says Cunningham. “For us to survive as a species we need that knowledge in our contemporary life and it must inform how we move forward as a society. ”

Umed Amin, Allegra Fulton
Umed Amin, Allegra Fulton; photo by Akipari

Native Earth wasn’t the only company interested in producing The Unplugging. Factory Artistic Director Nina Lee Aquino was in conversation with Nolan to direct the show. “A partnership between our companies just made sense,” says Cunningham. “I trust in the connection that Yvette and Nina have as a creative team which stems back to our working together at Native Earth – Yvette as Artistic Director, Nina as Marketing Manager, and I as an emerging actor.”

In approaching the casting of this production there were many factors to consider. To best support the work of this Indigenous artist, Native Earth and Factory aimed to put together a cohesive and collaborative creative team.

“We put together what we believe is a strong, talented cast who have great chemistry.”

“Every artist has their ideal team and we wanted to honour the working process the best we could. We didn’t have the budget to go outside of Toronto, and Indigenous artists we would have loved to have worked with were unavailable. So we put together what we believe is a strong, talented cast who have great chemistry.”

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Cunningham supported Aquino’s desire to work with her dream design team on this production. “Camellia Koo (Set Design) and Michelle Ramsay (Lighting Designer) have brought to life numerous Native Earth productions over the years. They are a significant part of Native Earth’s history, and we’re honoured that  they, Joanna Yu and Romeo Candido all came together to create a world in which to tell Yvette’s story.

“Everyone involved in this production is working to support the voice of an Indigenous artist, sharing an Indigenous story about valuing those stories and the knowledge passed on through generations,” says Cunningham. “And that’s what Native Earth is about.”

The Unplugging opens Thursday March 19 and runs through to Sunday April 5.

 


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Getting Unplugged with Ryan

What advice would you give to someone
who wants to do what you do?
Take very opportunity your offered and get as much experience as you can doing the things you love… whether that’s practicing in the arts or in your other interests. What continues to amaze me in my role is the importance of the skills that I have learned outside of working in the arts and how they add and inform my artistic practice.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
When things get stressed or tense, remember; No one’s going to die or lose a limb when someone makes a mistake in our line of work.
We can always do better the next chance we get.

Who or what inspires you?
Narcisse Blood, Tantoo Cardinal, Michael Green,
Kevin Loring and Marie Clements… and the land in Alberta.

What was your first job in theatre?
1995 at Citadel Theatre, Oh What a Lovely War by Joan Littlewood,
the last year Robin Phillips was Artistic Director.

What is your profession’s greatest challenge today?
Stephen Harper;
dwindling ticket sales;
how to be relevant, honest and necessary.

What ability would you like to steal from another artist?
Cliff Cardinal’s brain and Brian Solomon’s legs.

What are you reading right now?
7 Generations: A Plains Cree Saga by David Alexander Robertson

Where is your favorite place to be?
With friends, in Nature, away from the city.

What is one of your pet peeves?
Noisy eaters and sippers.

Who is one of your heroes?
Tomson Highway

The one word your best friend would use to describe you?
Bent

Follow Native Earth on Twitter

Categories
2014/2015 Season

Inside The Unplugging: Umed Amin

With previews of The Unplugging by Yvette Nolan (March 14 – April 5, 2015) underway, Native Earth and Factory Theatre are excited to introduce a newcomer to the Toronto theatre scene: Umed Amin.

Recent graduate from the University of Windsor Acting Program, Amin is thrilled to be making his professional debut in a Toronto premiere on the Factory mainstage.

Umed Amin as Seamus; Photo by Akipari

Amin’s role in Nolan’s post-apocalyptic story is that of the threat to the two exiled women’s new life – a role he was happy to take on.

“I’m incredibly excited about almost every aspect, but I’m most excited to explore the questions that the play asks.

“We’ve become a culture that has adopted technology into our lives without a second thought; this play asks questions that an audience member has to ask himself or herself so that they can examine their dependency and whether it’s healthy or not.”

With so many power outages in Toronto’s recent history,  imagining a world where the power never does come back on may not be so difficult.  And what would life be like to be on the outs of The Unpluggings post-apocalyptic world?

“…what gives them the strength they need to keep surviving even when there’s no hope.”

“I think everyone is going to walk out of the theatre asking themselves what gives them the strength they need to keep surviving even when there’s no hope. Being able to try and wrestle those questions with others is why I’m in this business,” says Amin. “God knows it doesn’t always pay that well!

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Umed observing rehearsal.

The common struggles of working artists are not enough to deter Amin from his dream career.

“Honestly, my aspirations lie in film and television but my roots will always remain in the theatre. I plan on trying to build a name for myself in the film and television community while hopefully being able to meet new artists and work on new productions in the theatre.

“It is my hope that I can build a career where I can do film to feed my stomach and theatre to feed my soul: But nothing else. My ultimate goal is to just be a working actor.”

Catch Umed Amin as Seamus with Diana Belshaw and Allegra Fulton in The Unplugging by Yvette Nolan, directed by Nina Lee Aquino.
On stage now until Sunday April 5th.


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Getting Unplugged with Umed

What advice would you give to someone
who wants to do what you do?
My father thought I was majoring in History for the first two years of University (I was taking Acting), life is going to take you on a crazy rollercoaster ride, so if you truly want this, hunt for it. Just make sure that you’re aware of every facet of the job. And if you are aware of the hardships of merging art and business and what it means to be an artist and you’re STILL willing to chase the dream and try to work as an actor? Then focus on your goal, do what you have to do:
History will absolve you of your actions.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Become friends with the make up person. They’re usually in contact with almost everyone that has any power over your future and they can be really smart allies and very, very dangerous enemies.
I learned that in Michael Caine’s book on film acting.

Who is one of your heroes?
Superman has always been my favorite comic book hero. I think a lot of people overlook a couple very important things about Superman. People seem to say, and with some truth, that Superman seems to just punch his way out of every scenario. This is true, but this falls on the shoulders of the writing staff, in my opinion, for either allotting or being forced to adhere to a linear plot. However, the thing that I love about Superman is that even though he has the power to enslave or annihilate the human race, he chooses to put humans on a pedestal instead and tries to offer them hope and protection. Something that Superman does in many graphic novels on his free time is fly around saving people who decide to end their life by jumping off of buildings. He offers them a second chance and hope of redemption.
I think that’s pretty swell.

The one word your best friend would use to describe you?
Unique. I’ve never met anyone with the same first name as me.
I’m sure it’ll happen, but it’s forced me to be pretty unique.

Favorite childhood toy?
My brother told me at 8 years old that if I threw out all of my toys
and grew up, he would let me hang out with his friends: This never happened. Before that incident and well after, I had a plethora of wresting action figures that I owned and loved. I wanted to be a professional wrestler from the ages of 5-15. I quickly realized that the shortest wrestler in the league was an inch shorter than me with over 30 pounds on me. He could also do back flips.
I decided on a career change.

Who would you most like to have dinner with?
Dead or Alive?
Dead: Niccolo Machiavelli
Alive: Stephen Hawking


Select Theatre Credits: Charles in A Party To Murder (University Players), Tuzenbach in Three Sisters (University Players)

Categories
2014/2015 Season

Inside The Unplugging: Diana Belshaw

We’ve partnered up with Factory Theatre to bring audiences the Toronto debut of The Unplugging by Yvette Nolan (March 14 – April 5, 2015), and over the next few weeks, we’re introducing readers to key players in this production and partnership.

The Unplugging Cast
L-R: Diana Belshaw, Allegra Fulton, Umed Amin in rehearsal with Stage Manager AJ Laflamme.

Today we take a look at the first of our three cast members: theatre veteran Diana Belshaw.  Award-winning community leader,  editor, and founder of the Theatre Ontario Showcase, Belshaw is currently Head of Acting at Humber College.

It’s no small matter that Belshaw has taken on the role of Elena in this production of Yvette Nolan’s The Unplugging; it’s been fifteen years since Belshaw has graced the stage.

So what was it about this production that made her return from such a long hiatus?

“…this is a truly beautiful play which speaks to things we all understand and sorrow for.”

“How often do you get to work with a team of powerful women on a play by a woman who understands the complexity of being ‘other’?

“I rarely read or see plays which understand grace and forgiveness so deeply and personally; this is a truly beautiful play which speaks to things we all understand and sorrow for.” says Belshaw. “And it’s funny!”

Belshaw and Fulton on break from rehearsal.

Nolan’s story of two aging Indigenous women making a new life for themselves is particularly relevant for Belshaw who recently discovered her own Indigenous heritage.

“To lose family, community, and culture resonates for me; my own Indigenous heritage (Maori) lay unacknowledged in my family until recently. Perhaps this is my chance to share Elena’s journey and learn from her courage and grace.”

Following The Unplugging, Belshaw will return to Humber. “[Teaching is] my great passion – working with and guiding young artists find their voices to create work which reflects THEIR world,” says Belshaw. “Training actors is the most fulfilling job in the world.”


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Getting Unplugged with Diana

What advice would you give to someone
who wants to do what you do?
Find out what you are most passionate about in the world around you – art isn’t about yourself. And then find teachers, mentors and above all your tribe of artists who will challenge you and drive you to doing what you want to do.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Do what you’re most afraid of doing and
stay away from cheap choices.

Who/what inspires you?
People who actually give themselves
to make the world a better place.

What was your first job in theatre?
Well, when I was five I played Toto in The Wizard of Oz at school but my first actual earning money job was a six month tour of Northern BC with Holiday Playhouse Theatre, doing plays in elementary, middle and high schools, the hardest work I’ve ever done –
it sent me off to theatre school to learn how to act better!

What is your profession’s greatest challenge today?
The gap between the institutional structures and artists – where are the young voices and most especially the voices of artists of colour and other marginalized communities in our mainstream theatres? And how can all our incredible young artists actually make a living and gain the respect of a culture which only seems
to celebrate superficial success.

What ability would you like to steal from another artist?
Confidence.

What are you reading right now?
It changes constantly – I read endlessly – from embarrassing junk
to mysteries to literature to works of non-fiction.
I just finished Mãn by Kim Thuy and
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande.

Where is your favorite place to be?
Home.

What is one of your pet peeves?
Bad spelling.
Being called ‘Miss’ by students.

Who is one of your heroes?
Shirley Douglas for not just working to save the world but every single person she meets.  She certainly saved my sanity
at a tough time in my life!

The one word your best friend would use to describe you?
I hope ‘loyal’ but I suspect ‘pig-headed’.

 


Select Credits: That Summer (Blyth Festival); King Lear (two productions for Necessary Angel); Albertine in Five Times (Tarragon), ‘D’ Street and Broadway (Factory), De Beaux Gestes et Beautiful Deeds (Théâtre du P’tit Bonheur).

Categories
2014/2015 Season

Inside The Unplugging: Nina Lee Aquino

The first production in our 2014-2015 Season, sees Native Earth partnering up with Factory Theatre to bring audiences the Toronto debut of The Unplugging by Yvette Nolan (March 14 – April 5, 2015). Over the next few weeks, we will introduce readers to key players in this production and partnership.

Today we focus on the woman making her Factory mainspace directorial debut: director Nina Lee Aquino.  Award-winning director, playwright, and anthology editor,  Aquino is also Factory’s current Artistic Director.

Nina Lee Aquino (center) consults with Graphic Designer Suzy Malik (left) and Photographer Bronwen Sharp (right) on shots during The Unplugging photo shoot.

Aquino’s enthusiasm to direct The Unplugging – a play about two aging Indigenous women, exiled from their community and starting over – stems from her admiration for playwright Yvette Nolan. “It’s an award-winning play by one of Canada’s most brilliant Aboriginal playwrights (since Tomson Highway).

“Yvette was my first ever “boss” – I worked under her while she was the Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts and I was the Marketing and Development Coordinator (for three years). She gave me my first real paying theatre job.” In this way, a partnership between Factory and Native Earth is a return to Aquino’s theatre roots.

And her ties to Native Earth don’t end there. “Isaac Thomas, who is now Native Earth’s Managing Director, was my first Stage Manager on Banana Boys, which premiered at the Factory Studio Theatre.”

“…this production is a whole lot of full circles and homecomings for me as an artist.”

Thomas and Aquino are not the only artists from that notable production working together again; Set Designer Camellia Koo, Lighting Designer Michelle Ramsay and Sound Designer Romeo Candido were all there, too.

L-R: Stage Manager AJ Laflamme, Movement Director Clare Preuss, Director Nina Lee Aquino, Actor Diana Belshaw

“The creative team of The Unplugging was also my very first creative team as a director and fu-GEN’s debut into the theatre community,” says Aquino. “This is the first time we are together again as a team in years — fitting as it’s my directorial debut at Factory. So all in all, this production is a whole lot of full circles and homecomings for me as an artist.”

When preparing for projects Aquino finds great influence in movies. “Movies are my biggest source of artistic inspiration,” says Aquino. “I watch a lot of them before and during my rehearsals.” Which certainly explains her favourite place to be: Cineplex VIP Cinemas.

Up next for Aquino is the Banff Playwrights Colony in April, where she will work with Jeff Ho on his newest play trace.


Getting Unplugged with Nina

What advice would you give to someone
who wants to do what you do?
Luck favours the prepared.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
Embrace the impermanence of it all.

Who inspires you?
David Yee, Cameliia Koo and Ric Knowles
are often my sources of inspiration.

What was your first job in theatre?
Actor in musical theatre.

What is your profession’s greatest challenge today?
How to convince people that theatre is an important part of everybody’s lives.

What ability would you like to steal from another artist?
The ability to figure out harmonies (music) on the spot.

What are you reading right now?
No time to read.

What’s your favorite line from a movie?
From one of my favourite movies, Pride and Prejudice.
Don’t ask me why but it just is.

Mr. Darcy:
How are you this evening, my dear?
Elizabeth Bennet:
Very well… although I wish you would not call me “my dear.”
Mr. Darcy:
[chuckles] Why?
Elizabeth Bennet:
Because it’s what my father always calls my mother
when he’s cross about something.
Mr. Darcy:
What endearments am I allowed?
Elizabeth Bennet:
Well let me think…”Lizzy” for every day, “My Pearl” for Sundays, and…”Goddess Divine”… but only on *very* special occasions.
Mr. Darcy:
And… what should I call you when I am cross? Mrs. Darcy…?
Elizabeth Bennet: No! No. You may only call me “Mrs. Darcy”… when you are completely, and perfectly,
and incandescently happy.
Mr. Darcy:
[he snickers]
Then how are you this evening… Mrs. Darcy?
[kisses her on the forehead]
Mrs. Darcy…
[kisses her on the right cheek]
Mrs. Darcy…
[kisses her on the nose]
Mrs. Darcy…
[kisses her on the left cheek]
Mrs. Darcy…
[finally kisses her on the mouth]

What is one of your pet peeves?
Body odor.

Who is one of your heroes?
Ninoy Aquino. Because knowing his life,
finally made my life make sense.

The one word your best friend would use to describe you?
According to Camellia Koo, my bff — “mighty”

What’s your favourite dessert?
Strawberry cupcakes.

If you were a breakfast cereal which would you be?
Count Chocula (google it).

Favorite childhood toy?
Fashion plates (google it).

Who would you most like to have dinner with?
Benedict Cumberbatch.
If not him, then a combo of Jann Arden and Sam Smith.

How would you title your memoir?
RBF. The Life and Times of Nina Lee Aquino.


Categories
2014/2015 Season

Inside The Unplugging: Yvette Nolan

The first production in our 2014-2015 Season, sees Native Earth partnering up with Factory Theatre to bring audiences The Unplugging by Yvette Nolan. Over the next few weeks, we will introduce readers to key players in this production and partnership.

Today we begin with the person without whom there wouldn’t be a play: Algonquin playwright Yvette Nolan. Not only is Nolan an award-winning playwright, director, dramaturg, and recognized community leader, but she also led Native Earth Performing Arts as Artistic Director for eight years from 2003-2011.

Photographer Bronwen Sharp and Assistant with Yvette Nolan at The Unplugging photo shoot.
Photographer Bronwen Sharp and her assistant with Yvette Nolan at The Unplugging photo shoot.

Nolan was inspired to write The Unplugging after the passing of her mother. Feeling that she hadn’t learned enough from her mother, and inspired by an Athabascan legend, Nolan took only three months to pen the play about two aging Indigenous women.

Making its Toronto debut at Factory’s mainspace March 14 – April 5, 2015, The Unplugging follows the women, exiled from their village and wandering a desolate landscape after all power has simply disappeared.  It’s not long in this new life before the women encounter a young man and need to make some crucial decisions.

“The play is funny and hopeful, even if a little apocalyptic.”

“I think the play addresses so many questions that the world is grappling with: women in the world, aging, our seemingly insatiable appetites, our dependence on technology, Indigenous knowledge,” says Nolan. “The play is funny and hopeful, even if a little apocalyptic.”

The partnership between Native Earth and Factory is just one of many reasons to be excited about this particular production. Led by Director and Factory Artistic Director Nina Lee Aquino, the production features a cast and design team Nolan stands behind.

The Unplugging 1st Reading
Sound Designer Romeo Candido at the first read-through.

“I have known Diana Belshaw since I lived in Winnipeg and she stayed with me, I have been awed by Allegra Fulton since Frida K., and it’s exciting to mix in a young up-and-comer like Umed [Amin]. Plus, Nina’s go-to team – Michelle Ramsay, Camie Koo, Romeo Candido, Clare Preuss – breathtaking.”

Nolan is Past President of the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance, currently serves on the board of the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance and Word On The Street Saskatoon Chapter, and her book Medicine Shows, about Native theatre in Canada, will be published in the spring. Next for Nolan is the Banff Playwrights Colony to work with Michael Greyeyes on his theatre-dance piece Nôhkom, then Saskatoon for Short Cuts, a festival of 10-mintues plays. Following which she’ll direct Falen Johnson’s Two Indians. Finally she is co-curating The Study on Manitoulin Island with Sarah Garton Stanley for the National Arts Centre.


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Getting Unplugged with Yvette

What advice would you give to someone
who wants to do what you do?

I guess the bigger question is what do I do? I cobble together a life in the theatre. For me, my success has largely been dependent on doing things for the right reasons, which for me is not money. Whenever I do things for the wrong reasons, the universe smacks me upside the head so fast. So, the advice: figure out your reasons, your values, and make decisions accordingly.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
“theatre is hard, Yvette, be generous” – dd kugler
Also, Warren Zevon told David Letterman, not me, “enjoy every sandwich” but I was listening and I took it personally.

What inspires you?
People working to make change inspires me, whether it is huge like Arab Spring or Idle No More, or small and personal like a woman leaving an abusive relationship, a whistleblower
like the student at Dalhousie, or Lucy DeCouture.

What was your first job in theatre?
Eeeeeh, first? I have done everything.
Hung lights during university to support myself. Lay dance floor. Built props. Stage managed. Built sound tapes, on reel-to-reel, no less. Don’t remember what came first.

What is your profession’s greatest challenge today?
Not buying into the commonly held belief that we have to dumb down, reduce to 140 characters, use more technology to engage audiences. There is room for everything, from the high-tech to simple storytelling, from multi-disc to mime. To engage audiences,
we need to engage audiences.

What ability would you like to steal from another artist?
Oh my, I would love to sing like Michelle St John.

Where is your favorite place to be?
The Yukon. My heart home.

What is one of your pet peeves?
Reviewers who refuse to review what they see,
and instead review what they think they should be seeing.

Who is one of your heroes?
My mom, the late Helen Thundercloud, who survived tuberculosis (twice), residential school (two), divorce, a fire, to become a young elder who moved so many of us to try to know.

The one word your best friend would use to describe you?
She says, “Irreducible”. Then she admits she is cheating.

What’s your favourite dessert?
Cheese. A hard one, a soft one and a blue one.

If you were a breakfast cereal which would you be?
I am SO steel-cut oats.

Who would you most like to have dinner with?
I regularly have dinner with the people I most like to have dinner with. I have no desire to break bread with
Jesus or Shakespeare or Elizabeth I.

How would you title your memoir?
Because my first professional gig onstage was playing the dead body in Joe Orton’s Loot, I thought I would title it Playing Dead, but after 30 years in the biz, I think perhaps I will call it If You Want Me I’ll Be In The Bar (a nod to Joni Mitchell’s A Case of You).


Plays by Yvette Nolan include BLADE, Job’s Wife, Annie Mae’s Movement, Scattering Jake, Ham and the Ram, The Unplugging, The Birds (a modern adaptation of Aristophanes’ comedy), the text for from thine eyes (Signal Theatre), Prophecy (Canada 300/Watermark) and Alaska, which was part of the hugely successful inaugural Short Cuts, produced by her company Hardly Art with On The Boards in Saskatoon.

Directing credits include Salt Baby by Falen Johnson (Globe Theatre), Justice by Leonard Linklater, Café Daughter by Kenneth T. Williams (Gwaandak Theatre), Tombs of the Vanishing Indian and The Unnatural and Accidental Women by Marie Clements, Salt Baby, A Very Polite Genocide by Melanie J Murray, Death of a Chief, Darrell Dennis’ Tales of An Urban Indian, Annie Mae’s Movement (Native Earth Performing Arts), The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (Western Canada Theatre/National Arts Centre), Yoga Cannibal (Jungalee Gal Productions), The Only Good Indian… and The Triple Truth (Turtle Gals).

Recent dramaturgy includes Heather Morrison’s Thicker Than Water (Sum Theatre), Tara Beagan and Michael Greyeyes’ A Soldier’s Tale (Signal Theatre), Adam Pottle’s Ultrasound (Saskatchewan Playwrights Centre), PJ Prudat’s Reunir (Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company).

Categories
2014/2015 Season

The Unplugging

by Yvette Nolan

A Factory & Native Earth Performing Arts Partnership

March 14 – April 5, 2015
Factory Mainstage

Buy Tickets

Directed by Nina Lee Aquino
Sound Design by Romeo Candido
Lighting Design by Michelle Ramsay
Set Design by Camellia Koo
Costume Design by Joanna Yu
Dramaturgy by Ric Knowles
Stage Manager AJ Laflamme

Featuring
Umed AminDiana Belshaw and Allegra Fulton

In a post-apocalyptic world, two aging Indigenous women are cast out of their village and forced to wander the desolate landscape with their only tools of survival: a shared traditional knowledge and deep friendship. When a young man appears and threatens their new way of life, the two women must choose between isolation and community.

Learn About the Artists

Cautionary Tip: “The only way I could see us going forward is to start over again.” – Yvette Nolan

Winner of Outstanding Original Script at the Jessie’s 2013

TICKETS

Tickets $23-$45, available online here.
Purchases made online or by telephone are by credit card only.
At the door payments accepted by cash, debit, VISA and Mastercard.

Free Events to Enhance Your Experience

Factory Theatre Box Office Telephone: 416-504-9971
Email: boxoffice[at]factorytheatre.ca

PREVIEWS & REVIEWS

“The ideas of community over the individual, equality between men and women, valuing those who were here first and what they know about this land: these things may save us in the end.” NOW Magazine

“Simple and honest, The Unplugging gives hope… that society does indeed possess the ability to pull away from the brink.”
– Mark Robins, Gay Vancouver


Yvette Nolan

Yvette Nolan is an Algonquin playwright, dramaturge and director who was born in Prince Albert Saskatchewan and raised in Winnipeg. Her plays include BLADE, Job’s Wife, Video, Annie Mae’s Movement, Scattering Jake, Donne In and What Befalls the Earth. She is the editor of Beyond the Pale and co-editor of Refractions: Solo. She has been the writer-in-residence at Brandon University, Mount Royal College and the National Arts Centre. Nolan served as Artistic Director for Native Earth Performing Arts in Toronto from 2003 – 2011.

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Nina Lee Aquino

Nina Lee Aquino is a director, dramaturge and playwright. She is the current Artistic Director of the Factory. She is the editor of Canada’s first Asian-Canadian 2-volume drama anthology love + relasianships (Playwrights Canada Press) and the co-editor of the award winning New Essays on Canadian Theatre Volume One: Asian Canadian Theatre (Playwrights Canada Press). Nina co-wrote Miss Orient(ed) and has written her second play, Every Letter Counts (World Premiere, Factory Theatre 2013). Other credits include awards for directing: the Ken McDougall Award 2004, the Canada Council John Hirsch Prize 2008, a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Direction 2011 (paper SERIES, Cahoots Theatre Company).

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Factory

Factory is a vibrant centre of new play development and presentation, with the proud by-line, “Home of the Canadian playwright.” Located in the heart of downtown Toronto, Factory produces a full season of all-Canadian plays, many of them world premieres. Factory is edgy and contemporary with programming that celebrates diverse theatrical voices and culturally diverse artists. Visit the Factory Website


 Press Release Available Here

Season Photography done by Bronwen Sharp
Designs by OX Agency