Poster boy

by Sheldon Elter

Poster Boy is a play that explores a young man’s journey through the entertainment industry. He is of mixed heritage (Métis) and is constantly thrust into situations that force him to question his identity, and how he hopes and wants to be represented and seen by his peers and his audience. With the fear of being type-cast, mixed with a fear of never getting hired, he is forced to take jobs that require him to speak on behalf of all nations, and to carry the mantle of emotional, social, and political labor of systemic colonialism.

MBP

by Christine Sokaymoh Frederick

A play about the intersection of the history and politics of Indigenous and Black Rights movements in the 1960s and their impact on Canada’s Metis, America’s Black and Australia’s Black peoples. The inspiration is a personal family story about her grandfather, Stan Daniels, who was the President of the Metis Nation of Alberta throughout the 1960’s, 1970’s and early ‘80’s. There are buildings in Edmonton named after him and he is remembered in the Royal Alberta Museum. The family story goes, the Black Panthers came to Canada in the 60’s and stayed at Christine’s grandfather’s house, where there was a mutual sharing of political ideas that impacted Christine’s grandfather’s policies, services and programs.

Nestichio

by Matthew MacKenzie

Matthew MacKenzie’s very personal adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. In 1795, his Great Grandfather, William Flett, was number two in command at Buckingham House, a fort built by the Hudson’s Bay, near Elk Point, Alberta, outside of Edmonton. Flett was from Scotland and was married to a Cree woman named Nestichio, one of Matt’s Chapans (Cree for Great Grandmother) and the two had four children. Flett became ill, and when it was clear he was going to die, he wrote a will stating that his pension from the Hudson’s Bay should go toward his wife and children. When he passed, though, the Hudson’s Bay decided it would not honour his ‘country marriage’ to a Cree woman, nor recognize their “half-breed” children, and instead sent his pension to relatives Flett had seen in decades back in Scotland. Nestichio and her children were left destitute, and she in essence became indentured labour at the fort.

Nefarious Fuzz

by Gianna Vacirca

an urban myth from the imagination, Nefarious Fuzz is A quest to find and return the daughter of the moon after she disappeared in 1969, after the first lunar landing. It is an exploration of choreography and dialogue to discover and uncover story, characters and conflict.

Gianna vacirca integrates choreography in collaboration with dancers and actors into a personal practice, and explores choreography as theatre direction.

alina by Lianna Makuch

alina is a one-woman play inspired by the experiences of Ukrainian female war veterans, including a young woman named Alina . As a 19-year-old combat medic she fought in the the Battle for the Donetsk Airport in 2015, regarded as the deadliest battle of the ongoing war in Eastern Ukraine. We follow her unforgettable journey as she leaves everything behind to go to the front line, and learn of her struggle to return to civilian life as she comes to terms with her trauma. alina explores the female experience of living through contemporary war and the unspoken impacts of PTSD.