Aboriginal Summer Play Readings 2014
June & July 2014
Get ready to laugh your mocs off!
The 2014 edition of Aboriginal Summer Play Readings was presented by Gwaandak Theatre and the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre.
Salt Baby
By Falen Johnson
Directed by Melaina Sheldon
Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre - July 2nd
Salt Baby is about a young woman who was born and raised on a reserve but is seeking a place of her own in an urban area. She feels out of place on her reserve because she looks “white”, but she feels out of place in the city because she’s not “white”. It’s a play about self-discovery, learning, and discovering the difference between racism, ignorance, and indifference, and while it is not a soul-searching drama, it is indeed a deeper comedy that will leave an impact on the audience.
The July 2nd encore reading was a Cultural Presentation at the Adäka Cultural Festival. Both performances of Salt Baby were in partnership with the Adäka Cultural Festival.
Old Fire Hall - June 25th
Thunderstick
By Kenneth T. Williams
Old Fire Hall - June 26th
Isaac and Jacob Thunderchild are two cousins from the same reserve and haven’t seen each other in 15 years. Isaac is now an accomplished photojournalist who’s covered many wars, mostly in Africa. Jacob is a reporter for the Ottawa Citizen, an alcoholic, and on his third ex-wife. They’re re-united in Ottawa because Isaac has seen enough war and is fleeing some hidden demons of his own. On their very first assignment together, they get arrested because Jacob pukes on Prime Minister Chretien. What follows is an exorcism of the ghosts that haunt these men as they track down the biggest political story of the decade. It’s also pretty funny.
Directed by Patti Flather
CREDITS
Featuring Dennis Allen, Devon Armstrong, Christine Genier, Jared Lutchman, Nicholas Mah, Kelly Panchyshyn, Charles Eshleman
Playwright | Falen Johnson
Playwright | Kenneth T. Williams
Directors | Patti Flather & Melaina Sheldon
Stage Manager | Geneviève Doyon
Diitsii, Diitsuu Haa Googwandak Nakhwatsii, Nakhwatsuu Googwandak Play Readings
Presented in association with the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, a selection of readings were shared at the Biennial Gwich’in Gathering in Old Crow, Yukon.
Lear Khęhkwaii
Old Crow Community Centre - July 22nd
A project of the Fairbanks Shakespeare Theatre and the National Endowment for the Art’s “Shakespeare for a New Generation”, Lear Khęhkwaii is a Gwich’in adaptation of William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy. The result is a unique production combining the worlds of Shakespeare with Gwich’in culture, language, and history. The original production toured around Alaska in the spring of 2013, traveling to Arctic Village, Fort Yukon, Nome, Kotzebue, and Homer, among other locations.
By Allan Hayton (Adapted from William Shakespeare)
Too Oozhrii Zhit Tsyaa Tsal Dhidii (The Boy in the Moon)
Old Crow Community Centre - July 22nd
The Boy In The Moon is a traditional Gwich’in story about our relationship to the caribou and to the land. The story has a deep spirituality and contains many of our Gwich’in beliefs about respect, sharing, and taking care of others. It is important that we continue to study and share our traditional stories as our ancestral teachings still have much to offer in today’s world. This traditional story was adapted as a play and performed for the community in 2007 by the students of Arctic Village.
Leonard Linklater’s solo readings of Sixty Below and Justice at the Old Crow Youth Centre were presented by Gwaandak Theatre with the Gwich'in Gathering and Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, under the Playwrights Guild of Canada-Canada Council reading program.
Sixty Below
Old Crow Youth Centre - July 23rd
This play is a modern-day Gwich’in tale which also features traditional stories. It’s nearly winter solstice when Henry gets out of jail, ready to straighten out his life. Of course it’s not that easy: his old buddies just want to party, his girlfriend Rosie’s moving ahead of him, and then there’s the ghost of Johnnie, everyone’s hero, who just won’t leave the northern lights. Sixty Below was nominated for numerous Dora Awards for its 1997 Toronto productionwith Native Earth Peforming Arts. It toured the Yukon, including to Old Crow, in 2000, with Gwaandak Theatre, Nakai Theatre and SYANA.
By Leonard Linklater and Patti Flather
Justice
Old Crow Youth Centre - July 23rd
Justice is inspired by the true story of the Nantuck brothers, the first men to be hanged in the fledgling Yukon territory. During the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush of 1898, Aboriginal and European cultures came together with sometimes tragic results. The accidental poisoning deaths of two members of the Tagish First Nation led to a cultural misunderstanding and clash of justice systems far from the reach of the papers of the day.
By Leonard Linklater
CREDITS
Featuring Patti Flather, Allan Hayton, Leonard Linklater, Princess Daazhraii Johnson, Melaina Sheldon, Mary Jane Moses, Jane Montgomery, Adeline Raboff, Marian Schafer, Dana Tizya-Tramm, Kluane Adamek
Playwright | Allan Hayton (Adapted from William Shakespeare)
Playwrights | Leonard Linklater & Patti Flather
