New Play Development and Public Readings


 

Whose Justice

By Leonard Linklater

Fall 2012 Premiere
During the Klondike Gold Rush of 1898, a stampeder loses a can of arsenic. Members of a Tagish First Nation family find it but cannot decipher the label. Family members use the white powder to make bread, setting off a tragic chain of events culminating in the first hangings in the newly established Yukon Territory. A clash of cultures, values and justice systems in a far-flung northern frontier.

 

A commission with Gwaandak Theatre.

 

Linklater workshopped this play in June 2011 in Whitehorse with dramaturg DD Kugler and Whitehorse actor, as well as with Kugler and actors at Native Earth Performing Arts’ Weesageechak Begins to Dance Festival of New Works at Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto in January 2010.

 

Kugler also met with other Whitehorse playwrights sponsored by both Gwaandak and Nakai Theatres.

 

Thanks to Gwaandak Theatre's 2011-12 New Play Development Sponsors:

 

Rodney Snow and Heather MacFadgen

 

 

Leonard Linklater, Playwright

Leonard Linklater

 

Summer 2011 Play Reading Series

Join us by the scenic Yukon River in downtown Whitehorse for our 2nd Annual Summer Play Readings celebrating First Nations and Yukon playwrights and performers. We're offering two public readings of a powerful play from one of Canada's top Aboriginal playwrights, brought to life by Yukon director Brian Fidler and a talented northern cast and crew.

 

DREARY AND IZZY

Written by Tara Beagan

Directed by Brian Fidler*

 

Wednesday June 22

The Old Fire Hall

1105 1st Avenue

Doors open at 7:45 p.m., Reading at 8 p.m.

Admission by donation (Suggested donation $8 adults, $5 youth/students/elders)

 

Friday July 8

Adaka Cultural Festival

Mainstage Tent on 1st Ave.

Noon

Admission by donation (Suggested donation $8 adults, $5 youth/students/elders)

 

* Brian Fidler appears with permission of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association

 

Thanks to our special sponsors for this Reading Series, including Lotteries Yukon, City of Whitehorse Laura I. Cabott Professional Corp. and Yukon Arts Centre, along with season funders Canada Council for the Arts and Yukon Arts Operating Fund.

 

 


Laura I. Cabott Professional Corp.Arts Operating Fund

Canada Council for the Arts



Café Daughter

By Kenneth T. Williams
Yvette Wong’s mother wants her to keep a secret: to never tell anyone that she’s a Cree Indian.
As far as anyone knows, Yvette is Chinese like her father Charlie, who runs the café in a small Saskatchewan town.
Canadian laws forbid him from hiring white women. He ends up falling in love with a proud Cree woman. Their child Yvette is never quite sure if she’s Chinese or Cree.
Based on a little-known true story from the Canadian Prairies.

Williams is Cree playwright, journalist and filmmaker. A member of the George Gordon First Nation in Saskatchewan, Williams has a Master of Fine Arts in Playwriting from the University of Alberta. His plays include Thunderstick, Suicide Notes, A.W.O.L., Project 7, Three Little Birds and Bannock Republic.

 

Ken Williams, playwright from SaskatoonGwaandak Theatre was thrilled to host Ken Williams in spring 2009 as part of the Yukon Young Authors Conference/Yukon Writers Festival. He worked with young writers at three Whitehorse schools, and did public readings in Whitehorse and Haines Junction. Thank you for support from Playwrights Guild of Canada Canada Council Reading Program for their support.


PLAYWRIGHT-IN-RESIDENCE 2011-2012 RENELTTA ARLUK

Gwaandak Theatre welcomed Reneltta Arluk to Whitehorse for the first phase of her Canada Council playwright residency this May 2011. Reneltta is an Inuk/Dene playwright and performer from Yellowknife.

She is researching and writing a new play based on a true story. It's about a fascinating 19th century Inuk woman named Tookoolito, her connection to her own culture and her involvement with European explorers.

Reneltta Arluk, Playwright-in-residence

Reneltta Arluk