Awaken Festival 2026
April 12th-26th | Whitehorse, YT & Online
- Local Presentations -
Mise en Lecture de CoyLoup (CoyLoup Workshop Reading) - Par Théâtre Thumbs up Good Work / Écrit par Colin Wolf / Traduction de Gabrielle Dufresne
Lundi, 13 avril – à compter de 19 h (la salle d’attente virtuelle ouvrira vers 18-h-55) - Virtuelle via Zoom
(Monday, April 13th - 7PM Start [Online Waiting Room Opens @ ~6:55PM] - Digital via Zoom)
Safia Comtois-Mohamad - Actor (Saga, Crieur-public)
Gabrielle Dufresne - Translator & Director
Jesse Fulcher Gagnon - Actor (Isidor), Composer and Sound Designer
Dean Stockdale - Actor (Various)
Colin Wolf - Writer
Thumbs Up Good Work Theatre - Mise en Lecture de CoyLoup (CoyLoup Workshop Reading)
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Safia est une comédienne et chanteuse née à Montréal et installée à Calgary, passionnée de théâtre et de cinéma. Quelques crédits marquants incluent Hucksterland (Théâtre Chromatic et Théatre Thumbs Up Good Work), Cherry Orchard (Company of Rogues Actors’ Studio) et Heartbreak Hotel (Jubilations Dinner Theatre). Elle tient à remercier Théâtre Thumbs Up Good Work et Théâtre Gwaandak pour cette collaboration.
Safia is a Montreal-born, Calgary-based actor and singer passionate about theatre and film. Notable credits include Hucksterland (Chromatic Theatre & Thumbs Up Good Work Theatre), Cherry Orchard (Company of Rogues Actors’ Studio), and Heartbreak Hotel (Jubilations Dinner Theatre). She would like to thank Thumbs Up Good Work Theatre and Gwaandak Theatre for this collaboration.
Image by Jennifer Chipperfield
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Gabrielle Dufresne (she/her) is a Fransaskois theatre artist, producer, and educator based on Treaty 6 territory. She studied theatre (acting) at the University of Regina, as well as the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Gabrielle is honoured to have been able to translate CoyWolf into French, and is so excited to be making her directing debut with the Awaken Festival.
Image by Taylor Farrow
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Jesse Fulcher Gagnon est un artiste expérimental métis dont l'esprit dispersé le pousse à passer fréquemment d'un médium à l'autre. Un rat du théâtre, il travaille comme comédien, à la conception sonore, à la mise en scène, à la régie et à l'enseignement. Il se concentre principalement sur des projets jeunesse. Comme comédien il a joué des rôles tels que ceux d'une coccinelle, d'une vache, d'un bison, d'une pierre, d'un insecte et d'un coin – comme le coin d'une carré.
Image par Studio D YXE
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Dean Stockdale is from Treaty 6 territory Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and is an actor, a player and writer of music, a dancer, and an environmentalist. Some of their most recent productions include Wizard of Oz (Nikko, Ensemble) with Alberta Theatre Projects, Legally Blonde (Enid, ensemble) with Theatre Calgary and Citadel Theatre, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Mustardseed, u/s for Puck, Lysander, Helena) with Citadel Theatre, and Peter Pan (Peter, ensemble) with Globe Theatre Regina.
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Colin Wolf is a Métis performer, theatre maker, and activist from Moh’kins’tsis (Calgary), AB on Treaty 7 Territory. He graduated with a BFA in Dramatic Arts from the University of Lethbridge in 2014, and then spent five years making theatre all over the prairies. Colin co-founded Thumbs Up Good Work Theatre Collective with his sister Caleigh Crow in 2013. Colin felt the call of the North and moved to Whitehorse in October 2019 to serve as Artistic Director at Gwaandak Theatre. He wrote and produced CoyWolf, a story about loss and grief backdropped by a story of land displacement. Colin produced it as Thumbs Up in partnership with the Guild Hall Theatre in Whitehorse, and toured it to four rural communities in 2023. CoyWolf was published by Playwrights Canada Press and presented by Gordon Tootoosis Nīkānīwin Theatre in October 2025.
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Thumbs Up Good Work Theatre, created by Métis siblings Caleigh Crow & Colin Wolf, focuses on the creation of new indie projects that explode out of the black box and into apartments and parks. Their storytelling looks twice at our relationships with each other and acts out on behalf of those not served by the status quo.
Indigenous Storytelling - By Whitehorse Aboriginal Women’s Circle
Friday, April 17th - 7PM (Doors @ 6:30PM) - Indigenous Storytelling - Multi-Purpose Room, Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre, Whitehorse YT
Earl Darbyshire - Storyteller
Roreigh Eftoda - Storyteller
Kailen Gingell - Storyteller
Lasänmą (Mariah MacDonald) - Storyteller
Sharon Shorty - Storyteller
Whitehorse Aboriginal Women’s Circle - Indigenous Storytelling
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Earl is Southern Tutchone and Tagish Kwan. He was raised in equal parts here in Whitehorse, and in the Champagne and Klukshu areas. He began learning his language from whomever and whenever he could, starting in the mid eighties, and recently took a 2-year Southern Tutchone language immersion course.
Image by Vince Fedoroff
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Roreigh Eftoda (she/her), Métis/Cree-Celtic born in Northern Alberta Nistawâyâwis, is a credited actor, theatre maker, storyteller and burlesque performer living in Whitehorse, Yukon. Acknowledging she benefits from living, working, creating and healing on the traditional territory of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and Ta’an Kwäch’än Council.
Roreigh got her start in theatre in 2004, when she moved to Nanaimo, B.C. Taking acting classes with Bailey Studio, she made props and performed with the Nanaimo Theatre Group. In the Yukon, Roreigh did properties at The Guild Hall. Later, she landed a background role on an episode of Northern Town produced by Tagish Lake Film Inc/CBC. Then a feature role in Polaris produced by Little Dipper Films Inc.
Participating in Gwaandak Theatre’s Quick n’ Dirty Residency and Digital Cabaret in 2021 and 2022 as Roz Rouge. In March of 2022, Roz Rouge performed her first live burlesque act. Roz Rouge has performed at multiple venues in the Yukon and Vancouver Island. Recently Roz had stage managed Boolesque at the Yukon Art Centre and taken workshops with world renowned burlesque performer Bettie Bombshell. Roz is currently taking Burlesque101 with Babes in the Bush.
In the summers of 2022, 2024 and 2025, Roreigh travelled with Gwaandak Theatre for the Indigenous Summer Readings. Roreigh was the Festival Director for Awaken 2024 and The Deadly Festival Auntie, Awaken 2025. Roreigh recently performed at Native Earth Festival and developed a play in Toronto, Ontario as part of Gwaandak Theatre’s Indigenous Summer Play Readings series.
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Kailen is a multi-disciplinary artist and storyteller. Inspired by the land and stories of his ancestors, he works in graphic media such as drawing and analog photography to portray historic and emerging Yukon First Nation stories. Kailen is a Wolf Clan and Daklaweidí member of Kwanlin Dün First Nation. He carries the name of his great great grandfather Kanéł’ - Chief Billy Smith.
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Lasänmą (Mariah MacDonald) was raised in Haines Junction, Yukon and is a member of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nation. Lasänmą grew up in Haines Junction & Whitehorse. She moved to Vancouver in 2021 for education, & moved back home to the Yukon in 2025. Lasänmą has always been interested in storytelling, looking to find ways to tell story through artwork, beading, & writing. Her work is inspired by her Indigenous background, often looking towards home for inspiration. Her first published work of poems, Spruce to Cedar, is set to be published by Brick Books on March 31, 2026.
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Sharon Shorty is from the Tlingit, Northern Tutchone and Norwegian People. Sharon is from the Raven Clan and was raised with the storytelling tradition of her southern Yukon community. Her grandmothers taught her storytelling using traditional mentorship/apprentice techniques.
As a result, she likes nothing more than to share stories in various genres. Her popular character "Grandma Susie" tells the old stories as well as her adventures with Colonel Sanders and trips to New York City.As a playwright, her stories reflect her people. In Trickster Visits the Old Folks Home, an elder is moved to a nursing home, against her will. She has appeared on APTN, CBC, and CTV.
In 2012, on Canada Day,she received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and im 2025 she received the King Charles III Coronation medal for significant public service to the Yukon and Canada alike.
Sharon is an award winning actor and Storyteller And more importantly, Sharon is an award-winning Bannock-Maker! Gramma Susie's character as represented by her avatar can now be seen at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Sharon worked as Regina's first Aboriginal Storyteller-in-Residence and was at Vancouver Public Library as the Aboriginal Storyteller in Residence in 2015.
Sharon was Speaker of Teslin Tlingit Council. She also tells traditional stories and teaches about her culture. Sharon now lives in her home territory with her family.
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For over 20 years the Whitehorse Aboriginal Women’s Circle has been supporting the work of Indigenous artists. This includes the encouragement of entrepreneurship through the teaching, showcasing, and selling of visual art, and by creating spaces where storytelling and language is shared and celebrated.
You can also experience Colin Wolf’s and Roreigh Eftoda’s works-in-development as part of New Indigenous Theatre Readings in-person at the KDCC Multi-Purpose Room on Saturday April 18th from 3PM-4PM!
