We Don’t Even Know What We Don’t Know
Prophecy Fog is only a solo performance if you don’t consider the rocks to be performers. Jani Lauzon does.
Stage
Yukon stories on stage and theatre performances, local music, dance and comedy. Our stages include a multitude of local performers in each community. Additionally, Yukon curators will invite performers from outside the Territory to entertain our community, with an added benefit of developing local performers skills.
Wyrd: A Musical UnFairytale
The idea for Wyrd first came about after playwrights Katherine McCallum and Angela Drainville met for the first time in 2017.
Sam McGee Connects The Yukon to B.C.
“Memorizing poetry is my daily training and therapy,” B.C. storyteller Andre Sutherland Begin said, adding he will be coming to the Yukon…
The Wolves At The Guild
The play itself is written for female-identifying characters which was a huge draw for Pritchard, Clark and Sinclair…
Puppet Show In The Window
Small audiences will delight in “Found in a Blizzard,” a short, family-friendly holiday puppet show performed in the window…
Silent Film Night Alive To the Sounds of the Roaring 20s
The Old Fire Hall will be roaring on November 19, as The Open Pit Theatre launches its Silent Film Night fundraiser.
Young Frankenstein At The Guild
Young Frankenstein, based on the book by Mel Brooks and Thomas Meehan, with music and lyrics by Mel Brooks, is coming to Whitehorse.
Preparing for the Apocalypse (and being misunderstood): the Guild Hall’s ‘WROL’
WROL (Without Rule of Law) at the Guild is an all youth cast with no adult characters in this play about 7 girls preparing for the apocalypse
Yukon Arts Centre 2022 Live Shows
You can tell the Yukon Arts Centre loves you because on Valentine’s Day, it announced ticket sales for eight new live shows. Those shows, all taking place in March and April, will mark the first time YAC has been open for performances since pandemic measures forced a closure on Dec. 21. After the three-month hiatus, …
KDFN Citizen Kiri Geen builds a career in Hollywood North
From background extra to the big screen. KDFN Citizen Kiri Geen builds a career. Kwanlin Dün First Nation Citizen success stories.
Nakai Theatre’s Pivot Festival 2022
Sometimes, you have to pivot! Nakai Theatre’s Pivot Festival 2022 will still take place this January, albeit with some modified programming
Every January we’re Pivoting
Pivot Festival brings laughs sunshine, & much-needed break from the winter blues. 14th year of bringing the unexpected to Whitehorse.
A dinner party: The Guild brings a new play to town for its first show this year
A Dinner Party at The Guild. “I love Whitehorse audiences, there’s an eagerness & openness to absurdity … and this play gets really weird.”
The Resurrectionists
Larrikin Entertainment artistic executive producer Katherine McCallum is excited to be spearheading the dark comedy’s world premiere.
Theatre in the Bush 2021
Ramshackle Theatre in the Bush “I’m already out in the yard,” Fidler says. “I’ve got my chainsaw out and I’m clearing the paths.”
Welcome back… to the Round Back
With an improved ‘Round Back venue in place, the Guild Hall unveils a new series of performances. Music, theatre, comedy and more.
Alone Together at Wood Street Centre
With COVID consuming a year of everyone’s lives, it seems almost for creatives to produce work that reflects the strangeness of these times
Dreary and Izzy at the Guild
This May, Whitehorse’s Guild Hall is presenting Dreary and Izzy, a play by Tara Beagan which centres on a pair of sisters who have lost their parents in a car accident.
How to pivot the Pivot Festival
As with every year, the 2021 Pivot Festival will bring Yukoners surprising work from both national and local performers. Due to COVID-19, the national talent – a comic duo called Folk Lordz – will participate online from wherever they are in Canada.
Every Brilliant Thing
Every Brilliant Thing is a delightfully funny play about depression, but it’s not depressing. It’s also no surprise that the Guild theatre’s first indoor play of the season is about connection.
Gwaandak Theatre’s The Born-Again Crow
Crow and Wolf, accustomed to several roles.“That’s how we’re used to working”.Indie theatre partners on Yukon production.
Bringing live performance back to the Yukon
The Guild Hall is getting creative. Of course, that’s pretty standard for the Whitehorse theatre, but COVID-19 is forcing a different kind of creativity.
The shows must go on!
Yukon theatre companies are finding creative ways to present work. Adapting shows and developing unique formats to fit with our new reality.
Isolation, underwear fights and hanging around the house
How Isolation, underwear fights and hanging around the house inspiration for Theatre in the Bush. ‘That would make a great spot for a show.’”
Puppets and pandemics
Really big puppets are coming to a park near you, but they’ll be keeping their distance.
Reaching the World Through Dance
Before COVID-19 Gurdeep Pandher had never considered teaching an online class.“I had always believed that to be effective classes needed to be taught in-person,” he explained. Despite that hesitation Pandher, who teaches bhangra, decided to give the world of online teaching a try. He hosted his first online class in March.
Awaken to spring with Gwandaak Theatre
With the arrival of spring, Gwaandak Theatre introduced the Awaken Festival for the first time ever! Gwaandak Theatre is the only Indigenous-centered theatre company in the Yukon, and has been empowering Indigenous and Northern voices since 2000.
Love, loss and creation
You’re seated comfortably in the Yukon Arts Centre, absorbed in the live streaming of a multi-layered interpretation of a Gothic horror/sci-fi story you’ve known for years. The person on your right is following an all-female troupe of live performers who frantically discard wigs, costumes, and the occasional animated puppet, as they move on- and off-camera. Meanwhile, …
A play on words
In January 2019, the United Nations (UN) declared 2019 to be the International Year of Indigenous Languages. This was meant to increase awareness and spur actions to promote and protect Indigenous languages around the world. According to the UN, an estimated 6,700 (or 40 per cent) of the world’s languages are in danger of disappearing. …
Yukon’s got talent!
The 2020 Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous (YSR) Festival promises to be more inclusive than ever. The much-loved Superstar competition will be replaced by Hunt for a Headliner, open to all, including comedians, dancers, singers and anybody else with an entertaining skill!
Anger and innocence
Claire Ness was only six (or maybe seven) when she first saw the dark Canadian comedy called The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine. Still, it left a lasting impression, in part, because that Nakai Theatre production in the early 1990s starred her father, Roy Ness, and fellow Whitehorse actor/musician Trish Barclay in the title roles.
Yukon Famous
The Yukon Famous, otherwise known as Jason Westover, Patrick Keenan, Elissa Ciullo and Chris MacFarlane, plan to perform comedy in various styles and genres, including a mix of stand-up, sketch, improv, monologue, music, dance and media.
Spice up you January with some variety
If you feel a strong connection to the Yukon and you like variety and fun in your entertainment, or if you’d just like a good excuse to hire a baby-sitter and get together with friends on a cold January evening, you could check out Nakai Theatre’s Pivot Festival 2020.
Getting nutty
Go Nuts show created by the students of The Heart of Riverdale is an opportunity for the community to celebrate the successes of our students, which contributes to their self-confidence.
An appetite for stories
The story you tell in a restaurant is going to be different than the story one tells on a bus. It is nice to get unconventional storytellers into the Pivot Festival and into unusual venues for performances.
Shakespeare in hiding
Sir Tom Stoppard is one of Britain’s best-loved playwrights and screenwriters, known for rapid-fire dialogue that also carries deep philosophical truths. Apart from his screenplay for Shakespeare in Love, he is perhaps best-known for his Tony Award-winning play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a philosophical comedy that brings two minor characters in Hamlet into the limelight. A quarter century ago, Whitehorse …
Come prepared to dance
Generally, when you decide to attend a dance performance, you can anticipate being treated to a single style of dance–ballet, highland, tap, contemporary, etc. The 2019 Bhangra Concert taking place at the Yukon Arts Centre on Saturday, Nov. 23, from 7 to 9 p.m., will break that mold. Gurdeep Pandher, along with his dance students, will …
Ready, Set, Howl will visit Whitehorse for a show on Oct 10
Norman Mervyn Barrington-Foote is bringing his own unique combination of music, comedy and puppetry to Whitehorse for a Halloween-themed show on Oct. 10, 2019 at the Yukon Arts Centre. Music, costumes and Halloween are all part of Ready, Set, Howl.
Subversive and sexy
After an absence of two decades, eight low-rent vaudevillians trying to evade the secret police in their homeland have returned to Whitehorse. The Guild Theatre opens its 2019/20 season this week with a remount of the wacky comedy, El Crocodor, written by Vancouver playwright Peter Anderson. Describing it as “just the most ridiculous show,” director Allyn Walton …
North of sexy
Skagway’s Nude and Rude Revue is once again visiting Whitehorse to share its specialized mx of performance art, including variety, vaudeville, burlesque, song and dance. The 12-member group, led by Juneauites Taylor Vidic and Cameron Brockett, is on an autumn “Guilty Pleasures” tour that will travel through Whitehorse, Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, Dawson City and, lastly, …
Another opening, et cetera
Ken is back producing a performance on the stage of big dreams Six hours after I email this column to Danny Macdonald, and long before you read it in What’s Up Yukon, these words by Cole Porter from the 1948 Broadway smash, Kiss Me, Kate, will be part of my remembered experience: The overture is about to …
It may be ugly, but someday I might call it home
I recently wrote about my new vocation as a DIY coffin maker. OK, strictly speaking it’s not a coffin. It’s a casket. On a draped bier. Thanks to the braintrust at Google, I now understand that a casket is rectangle-shaped, whereas a coffin is tapered at the head and foot. (The sort of vessel from …
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Summer in Geezerville is anything but dead
Ken goes on a mission to find some beat up wood panel on the cheap for art Things sometimes turn on a dime. Recently, with only three days’ notice, my summer job as a kiddie-train engineer suddenly vanished in a puff of steam-engine smoke. I won’t dwell on the details, except to say I was …
It’s a Cabin of Curiosities
Vaudeville has made a comeback in Dawson City. Cabin of Curiosities, a play which premiered last year on a limited run at the historic Palace Grand Theatre, has been reprised by The Friends of the Palace Grand Society, a non-profit organization that presents performing arts productions that reflect Dawson’s regional identity. “Our goal of a …
Step outside your comfort zone and into their world
Out Innerspace Dance Theatre will present Bygones at the Yukon Arts Centre on July 9 at 7 p.m. Created and performed by David Raymond and Tiffany Tregarthen (in collaboration with Elya Grant, David Harvey and Renée Sigouin), this 90-minute performance is a tribute to the effort required to reach resolution. Focusing on how everything …
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Friends of the Palace Grand plan 21 shows this summer
A scene from the 2018 production of the Cabin of Curiosities. Canoers meet The Collector at his cabin – Faith (Joey O’Neil) and Keeton (Sam Connolly) meet The Collector (Robin Sharp) The Friends of the Palace Grand (FotPG) has existed for a number of years. Originally under the umbrella of the Dawson City Arts Society …
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Dance dance revolution
Get ready to cut a rug in Haines Junction You don’t have to be part of a dance group to be a dancer. According to Rose Kushniruk, acting chief of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations, everyone has it in them and the Dákų̀ nän tsʼèddhyèt Dance Festival (Our House is Waking Up the Land) …
Read all about it
Disney’s Newsies, put on by Yukon Theatre for Young People (YTYP), will premiere on June 14 at the Yukon Arts Centre. The cast for the Tony-winning Broadway play consists of more than 30 youth performers, ranging from nine to 19-years-old, as well as another eight professional Yukon actors. Brian Fidler is the director, Allyn Walton is …
A solo show
If you’ve never heard of Paul Chartier, it’s with good reason. History doesn’t usually remember what might have been. “If he had succeeded in what he set out to do, his name would be taught in every classroom in the nation,” said Doug Rutherford, local playwright. “But he failed, which has made him a very …
Spirit of the times
The German term zeitgeist is generally rendered in English as the spirit of a given time, as shown in prevailing thought or customs. (Think, perhaps, how Carnaby Street reflected the social values of mid-1960s Britain.) In 2019, are Yukon audiences ready for an evening of music and comedy that offers a glimpse at the zeitgeist of contemporary …
Musical time travel
[two_third] With the stage still in darkness, a disembodied voice expresses the speaker’s dislike for plays that require theatre-goers to interact with performers who break the traditional fourth wall. When the lights rise on the latest Guild Theatre production, the speaker does precisely that, by addressing the audience directly. For the duration of the evening, …
Things that go bump in the night
Renowned dancer Peggy Baker brings her new show to Whitehorse on March 13 Relieved – that’s how Peggy Baker feels to be bringing her latest choreography to the stage after more than a year of preparing for it. “We’re so ready to do this,” she said over the phone, two weeks before who we are in …
All work and a play
On a Thursday afternoon at Takhini Elementary School, a class played dodgeball in the gym, seemingly unaware that, on the other side of the heavy blue curtain pulled across the school’s stage, was Paris. It was obvious as soon as you stepped behind the curtain. There was a tree-lined street with tall, black gas lamps …
The anarchy element
At the age of nine, Tomáš Kubínek gave his first performance before a group of experienced magicians. Four years later, he had an agent. He would soon make his circus debut with a duo of Brazilian clowns.
Comedians Becky Johnson and Kayla Lorette find the laughs in suffering and the unexpected
Comedians Becky Johnson and Kayla Lorette have worked together for nearly a decade. The pair have performed around the world, worked with Second City and This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and acted in Baroness Von Sketch and Schitt’s Creek. Now, they’re taking on the Yukon.
Unexpected Paths
When the Guild Theatre’s artistic director, Brian Fidler, invited her to direct Durang’s wildly successful 2012 comedy, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, McLean leapt at the opportunity.
Shine those Shoes
Edmonton comedian Lars Callieou at a Comedy Monday Night gig in Calgary. Callieou will make a return appearance at the Ride For Dad Comedy Night at the Coast High Country Inn, January 17–19. PHOTO: James Moore Canadian comics Lars Callieou and Derek Seguin will share headlining duties at the annual Ride For Dad Comedy …
At least I’m not a giraffe’s backside this time
The time-honoured English tradition of the Christmas pantomime (known affectionately as just “panto”) was not part of my childhood. For the benefit of those of us who weren’t weaned on this particular theatrical fare, it’s important to bear in mind various traditions, tropes, and stereotypes of an English-style panto.
From the Punjab to the Yukon
Gurdeep Pandher was one of the first people I met when I moved to the Yukon. I walked into a Scottish country barn dance at the Old Fire Hall, in Whitehorse, and here was a guy in the remote North in his pagri, at an event, sitting and absorbing the dances and people.
Searching for a way out
Genevieve Fleming is counting on Whitehorse audiences to take in the upcoming Guild Theatre production, even if just to indulge in some cold-weather Schadenfreude. In one sense, the Vancouver-based director suggested in an interview, staging French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre’s 1944 play, No Exit, is like holding a mirror up to our own society. “We, the …
Be afraid … be very afraid!
As the days grow dark and the cool air settles in, Yukoners begin to turn their attention from campfires to pumpkins, embracing the spirit of Halloween. The City of Whitehorse bristles with spooky events for all ages. One of the largest and most-sought-after Halloween fixtures is the annual MAD Haunted House, presented by the Music, …
Nude & Rude
The Nude & Rude Revue started with two best friends, Taylor Vidic and Cameron Brockett, and their love of performance art. Vidic, 25, was born and raised in Juneau, Alaska, and met Brockett during high school in Juneau. Brockett was born in Fairbanks, Alaska, and has lived in Colorado, Ketchikan and Kodiak before moving to …
What would you do?
Wren Brian was just 10 years old when the first X-Men movie came out in 2000. The film’s opening scene, set in the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, triggered a fascination with the Nazi Holocaust that remains with her today. Until a single one-hour history lesson in Grade 12, however, the Whitehorse-born playwright had …
Overloaded by motherhood
It’s a comedy about the darkness of parenthood. That’s how Emelia Symington Fedy describes Motherload, the collectively-created play she and three castmates are bringing to the Yukon Arts Centre’s mainstage on October 13. Fedy traces the play’s conception to a specific outing with her infant son, at a time when she was grieving her own …
Downfall of a Salesman
The Guild Theatre will launch its 2018–19 season this week with Lawrence and Holloman, a darkly hilarious two-hander by award-winning Canadian playwright Morris Panych. First produced at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre in 1998, it later inspired a film by the same name, starring Ben Cotton and Daniel Arnold, which drew mixed critical and box office response. …
Busting up in the communities
Open Pit Theatre is excited to be taking their play, Busted Up: A Yukon Story, on the road. They’ll be coming to Dawson City on September 29, Carcross on October 2 and will be back in Whitehorse for a show on October 3. The play already premiered in 2017, as part of Canada 150, playing …
Play-fighting for fun
I’ve been there, watching a play when it happens. A sharp staccato rings out as the actor’s hand makes contact with their partner’s face onstage, and audience members grimace in sympathy, knowing that the fake slap made real contact. Usually the actor fights through the pain and tears to complete the scene before (in my …
It’s an attack of breakdance, hip hop and street-style art
Intense break-dance battles, powerful performances, live painting showcases and wild parties — CypherFest consistently delivers it all.
The Follies ‘Reborn’!
The Klondike Follies Cabaret shows will take place three times each week, beginning on June 26, 28 and 30.
Serving laughs straight from the oven
The Whitehorse comedy scene is on a roll as of late. One of the events that has helped cultivate this resurgence has been Baked Laughs, the stand-up nights presented monthly at Baked Café.
Just Dance
The upcoming edition of Leaping Feats’ annual year-end dance show, Dancing Through Life 2018, will be taking place over four nights, with one show per day from May 31 until June 3.
Can wisdom save the world?
The post-apocalyptic, not-so-distant-future world of The Unplugging, an award-winning play by Canadian playwright Yvette Nolan, is the latest production on offer from the Yukon-based Gwaandak Theatre.
In the spirit of re-emergence
The Yukon Playwrights Conference will feature information sessions presented by guest playwrights from outside of the territory and Yukon playwrights. They include, from top left Jacob Zimmer, Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, Kevin Loring, Monique Renaud, Wren Brian, Roy Ness, Patti Flather, Doug Rutherford, Brian Fidler, Reneltta Arluk, Leonard Linklater and Kevin Kennedy. PHOTO: courtesy of the …
Spelling it out
Mary Sloan was only vaguely aware of the 2005 smash Broadway musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, when she learned that the Guild Theatre’s artistic director, Brian Fidler, had picked it as this year’s season finale.
The Winterlong Podcasting Co
On March 24th the Winterlong Brewing Co. will be slinging more than beer when they play host to two popular Los Angeles based podcasts.
A weekend of laughs
The Yukon stand-up comedy scene can be fickle. Some years comics will perform to packed houses that turn people away at the door. Other years, not so much. Whether it’s a lack of comics, audience, or both, northern life can bring a number of challenges that make live comedy difficult to maintain. Richard Eden, George …
Stand up for Stephen McGovern
On March 9, Yukon comic Stephen McGovern will be gearing up to take the stage at the Just for Laughs Northwest comedy festival in Vancouver. The 10-day event beginning March 1 offers a wide variety of shows that highlight Canadian and international comedy. McGovern makes his Just for Laughs debut performing in The Outsiders Comedy show, which …
The Birth of the Yukon Comedy Collective
The Yukon is about to get a whole lot funnier if Richard Eden has his way. Relatively new to the territory, Eden is the president and creator of The Yukon Comedy Collective – a new non-profit organisation that’s dedicated to providing top quality comedic events, activities and hospitality by exposing outside and homegrown talent as …
Life 40-seconds at a time
Yukon storyteller Ivan Coyote and songwriter Sarah MacDougall are excited to premier their latest collaboration in Whitehorse.
Ten days to celebrate Pivot Festival’s 10th year
The Pivot Festival runs Jan. 24 to Feb. 3 with local and national acts Since Nakai Theatre launched the Pivot Festival in 2008, there have been some big names and unforgettable performances that have graced stages and pop-up theatre settings in Whitehorse. The festival has boasted bringing unconventional and award-winning shows from across Canada and …
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Hand to God
Lust, grief, denial and repression (not to mention demonic possession) in the bible-belt town of Cypress, Texas. Oh, yes. Don’t forget the puppets. These are all elements of the Guild Theatre’s upcoming production of Hand to God, a dark comedy by Robert Askins, who actually grew up in the Houston-area community in which he set …
Meet the 2018 cancan line
The 2018 Eldorado Line: Steal Your Fella Ella (left), Last Call Liz, Razzle Dazzle Rachel, Lollipop Ginger Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous season begins in February, but for some people it is a year round commitment. The women of the Yukon Sourdough Rendezvous Cancan Line are arguably the most in-demand group during Rendezvous, and their appearance bookings …
Chance or choice?
Is it character, circumstance, or the choices we make that determines our lot in life?
This is the conundrum that lies at the heart of Good People.
All the world’s a stage
Morris, an improv teacher and artistic director of The Paper Street Theatre company in Victoria, B.C. was giving a talk at a TedX event in 2012 about “The way of Improv,” much to the audience’s delight. In the crowd that evening was Shahin Mohammadi.
One woman – 24 characters
Katherine McCallum performs The Syringa Tree, Nov 8 to 26 at the Courts Theatre
Making it last
Cathy Stubington doesn’t mind being in the shadows when she does a show. In fact, she prefers it.
Bringing the White Pass story to musical life
Any of the millions of passengers who have ridden the White Pass and Yukon Route – “the scenic railway of the world” – in the 117 years since its completion, would immediately recognize it as a marvellous technological achievement. Indeed, the White Pass and Yukon Route is recognized by the American Society of Civil Engineers …
Good Night, Good Morning
Ann-Marie MacDonald’s award-winning comedy Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) has been around for almost 30 years, but Brian Fidler and Clare Preuss are convinced it will still play well to contemporary Whitehorse audiences. “I think it appeals to the core audience of the Guild that likes a good Canadian classic show, and that loves Shakespeare,” …
Sorcery, Swans and Love
For a cosmopolitan afternoon in downtown Whitehorse, head over to The Old Fire Hall for a screening of Swan Lake, performed by the internationally acclaimed Russian ballet company Bolshoi Ballet. The film will be shown on Sunday, October 1 at 2 p.m. as part of the Yukon Arts Centre’s Performance in HD Series. In the …
Very Old, Very New
Not many art forms can trace their origins back to a single year. But according to Toshi Aoyagi, program officer for the Japan Foundation, Toronto, the popular theatre genre known as Kabuki started in exactly 1603. And it’s still going strong. Aoyagi will be in Whitehorse this week to introduce Yukon Arts Centre audiences to …
Hidden Memories Revealed at Fringe Festival
Five years ago Hidden Memories started as a one-act play Lillian Nakamura Maguire drafted to improve her dialogue skills for a creative writing class. Now the full-length version will be featured in the Vancouver Fringe Festival’s Advance Theatre: New Works by Diverse Women on September 13. “It’s the first time Hidden Memories will be read …
Real Stories from Real People
Three years of collaborating, interviewing and gathering has culminated in one powerful play that shares both beautiful, heartfelt reflections and the harsh realities of northern living. Busted Up: A Yukon Story presents the colourful and eclectic real-life voices of the Yukon – politicians, mothers, fathers and children – 33 voices, to be exact. The play, …
Augusto! Children’s Festival the First of its Kind in the Yukon
“We are proud and excited to be founding the Yukon’s only dedicated art and music festival for children,” says Darlene Sillery, one of the five main organizers of the Augusto! Children’s Festival in Haines Junction this weekend. “We have a great variety of workshops and an excellent group of presenters, including visual artists, performing artists …
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Hitching a Ride
Growing up, Kathy Jessup was always “the yakky little sister.” In Fort Nelson, where she was raised, she’s still known as “Kathy who likes to talk.” Her family still teases her about finding a way to turn her gift for gab into a career as a professional storyteller. When her current show starts in Canada …
Stories Come to Life
Falen Johnson doesn’t hold back when it comes to Gwaandak Theatre. “I love Gwaandak,” the Six Nations writer says straight out. “It’s a place where you know you’re immediately welcomed as an Indigenous playwright.” Johnson’s play Two Indians is one of three plays featured in this year’s Indigenous Summer Play Readings by Gwaandak Theatre. The …
Stonecliff: White Pass and Beyond (Part 1/2)
When Michael Heney was just 14, he ran away from the family farm in the Ottawa Valley to work for an uncle who was building a portion of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) near Georgian Bay. His father quickly dragged him home to finish his education, but four years later he was off again, determined …
Telling the untold stories of the Yukon
The first days in the creation of the play Map of the Land, Map of the Stars took place in the summer of 2015 along the banks of the Yukon River. A group of artists gathered with stories, images, objects, and songs – items that they were drawn to and that were rooted in the …
Less is Definitely More
Dawson City did not have burlesque in its repertoire until long-time local resident Rachel Wiegers decided to take up (or off, as the case may be) the mantle and bring it to town. Wiegers says her journey towards burlesque started when she was young and discovered her father’s girlie magazine stash. “I was too young …
Identity Crisis
What does it take to make a puppet show that is also a stage show and a live-action video all in one? A script, a bunch of performers, some music. Lights, cameras, action. And cardboard. Miles of cardboard, according to Edward Westerhuis. “We go to different stores, to the dump behind their stores. The stuff …
Curtains Up!
On April 4th Nakai Theatre invites theatre lovers, supportive friends or simply the merely curious to attend their 24 Hour Playmaking Cabaret, held at The Deck at the High Country Inn. The event, which has been held for nearly 25 years, revolves around Nakai’s 24 Hour Playmaking Challenge, which took place March 11 to 12. …
Splattering Comedy
Whitehorse, it seems, has such an insatiable appetite for high-camp horror that the Guild Theatre has added another week to its run of Evil Dead: The Musical. The spring break-themed romp comes with a caution: if you intend to sit in the first few rows, be prepared for laundry afterward. You’ll be in what’s called …
Telling Stories Through Dance
“What would I say my style is? It depends on what project I’m working on… I liked to say ‘contemporary aboriginal dancer’ for a long time, but that’s pretty broad – there are so many kinds of aboriginal dance and it’s all different… If you were writing a poem, you’d use whatever words and meters …
She’s Been Bitten
It was the promise of bannock that first lured Melaina Sheldon into the orbit of Gwaandak Theatre in 2010. The show’s limited budget also allowed Sheldon to use some of the design skills she had developed in a one-year diploma course in fashion design in Vancouver. “I’m a Salvation Army thrift store shopper, for sure, …
Triple Threat
The Pivot Theatre Festival – Nakai Theatre’s annual performance showcase – begins a seven-night run this weekend in multiple Whitehorse venues. In addition to smaller-scale offerings such as a theatrical pub walk, an evening of spoken word material and a “speed-friending” event called Stranger Connections, the festival will feature the three major pieces, including: A …
Burning Questions
“If this show is revealing something about me that’s touching people and moving them, then I have to pursue it,” he decided. The burning personal question Heins originally set out to address came from the fact that he was an only child, and grew up wondering what it would be like to have a brother …
Indian Dance + Celtic Beats
On Saturday, Dec. 17, Yukoners will have a chance to immerse themselves in an uplifting show Bhangra: The Dance of the Punjab, which will feature bhangra dancing to traditional Irish and Scottish music by the Whitehorse band Crooked Folk, as well as group dances from Gurdeep’s bhangra dance class students. The evening has been organized …
Hang on, George
Christmas Eve, 1946. Several actors huddle around their microphones, live-broadcasting a radio station’s seasonal drama, complete with commercial intervals and a touch of Yuletide music. The story they are dramatizing concerns a well-meaning chap from a small town, struggling to save his deceased father’s savings and loan company from bankruptcy. His world is collapsing, because …
Shakin’ It Sober Style
For a lot of people, dancing and drinking go hand in hand. With a buzz, you can actually dance without worrying about what other people think. If you do something foolish you can always blame it on the booze, right? The Whitehorse – Just Dance monthly events are put on by Steve Potter as an …
Old Time Horror
Geneviève Doyon and Jessica Hickman have, once again, combed through silent films, searching for excerpts to play on a screen to an audience. This is the third year they’ve done it. Doyon and Hickman are the co-artistic directors of Open Pit Theatre. Doyon is based in Whitehorse, Hickman in Victoria. The film nights have become …
Tantalizing Varietease Returns
Varietease VI: A Burlesque Carnival is the Yukon’s very own burlesque variety show. Varietease runs every second year. This is an on-year, Oct. 25 to 29 at the Yukon Arts Centre. This year’s theme is a repeat of the 2009 carnival and promises to be bigger and more creative than ever with six acts, the Varietease …
Exploring Identity
Falen Johnson doesn’t know where the expression “salt baby” came from, but it’s a moniker the First Nations actor-turned-playwright acquired at birth. “I don’t remember being called that when I was a kid, but I remember hearing stories that I was called that as a baby, because I was really white-looking. It may have just …
Roller Coaster
From Beirut to Buffalo, then Whitehorse. That’s how Clare Preuss sums up the summer of 2016 from her standpoint as an itinerant stage director. The Toronto-based actor, choreographer and director is currently in the Yukon to steer the Guild Theatre’s season-opener, Myth of the Ostrich. Although the Matt Murray comedy was a standout hit at …
Capturing a Country’s Memories
When Charles Ketchabauw and Lisa Marie DiLiberto rolled into Whitehorse late last month, they weren’t your typical rubber-tire tourists. Sure, they had two small kids and a teardrop trailer in tow, which made their eight-day journey from Toronto what DiLiberto terms “epic and absurd.” But they weren’t here to drink in the sights and sample …
Who’s Line is it Anyway?
Expect the unexpected. This is good advice for both performers and audience at a typical improv event. Mind you, “typical” is a misnomer for a genre defined by having a unique performance every time. If you’ve ever had a yen to create one-of-a-kind, hilarious scenes, get yourself to the Guild Hall every Tuesday at 8 …
The legacy of the Follies
The Frantic Follies Vaudeville Revue is the longest running independent theatre company in North America. Or, at least, that’s Grant Simpson’s speculation. He’s also got an application in to the Guiness World Book of Records to affirm that the it’s the longest running vaudeville show. In the world. Simpson is into longevity. The Whitehorse show …
CypherFest
For the sixth year in a row, Breakdancing Yukon Society (BYS) is inviting professional and aspiring dancers from across Canada for a weekend of performances, dance battles and workshops. This year they are bringing up two renowned dance groups to the Yukon for the festival: OURO Collective and Tentacle Tribe. OURO is a dance collective …
Community Theatre at its Finest
Friends of the Palace Grand Theatre presenting A Klondike Cabin Companion, a live radio performance, bring community theatre to Dawson City.
Follow Our Trails
Audience members with program “maps” in hand will be guided through the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre for a unique performance adventure from Gwaandak Theatre, showcasing the spectacular riverfront and Yukon stories about who we are and where we come from. Gwaandak Theatre in association with the Yukon Arts Centre and Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre (KDCC) …
I Know What You Did
In Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th century collection of novellas called The Decameron, seven young women and three young men entertain each other with stories for 10 days inside a secluded villa near Florence as they tried to escape the Black Death. More than 650 years later, Toronto playwright and multidisciplinary theatre maker Jordan Tannahill found himself …
It’s Not All Greek
When you think of the Greek philosopher, Plato – if you think of him at all – the expression “party animal” might not come to mind. But Zuppa Theatre Co. would like to change that. The Halifax-based troupe has taken one of Plato’s best-known works, The Symposium, and re-cast it as a modern party – …
Who’s Out There?
Don’t bother asking Damien Atkins whether or not he believes in UFOs. He won’t tell you. What the Toronto-based playwright and actor will do instead is talk about his one-person play, We Are Not Alone, which he’s bringing to Whitehorse next month as part of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival. “When I do interviews about …
Life, Love and Trevor
Dogtown: the Musical, a story based on the life and fate of a local dog named Trevor, will be one of the many productions featured during the Magnetic North Theatre Festival, taking place June 9 to 18 Nakai Theatre and the Yukon Circus Society are the co-presenters of Dogtown: the Musical, which will be playing …
National Theatre Festival Comes to Whitehorse
“It’s the only national theatre festival in Canada,” Selene Vakharia tells me. She, along with a handful of other local creatives, are working on the Yukon end of the traveling theatre festival: Magnetic North, based in Ottawa, which moves to a different Canadian town every second year. “This year they picked Whitehorse,” Vakharia says. With …
Exploring Justice with Gwaandak Theatre
Gwaandak Theatre is known for producing high quality, thought provoking and original productions. A large portion of its mandate is to help cultivate Aboriginal and Northern artists gain professional experience and exposure on stages close and far from home. Now celebrating their 15th year, Gwaandak continues to cultivate new theatre and artists with Its Exploring …
Sal Capone: The Lamentable Tragedy Of
“The play was inspired by the shooting of a young man named Freddy Villaneuva,” Vancouver-based playwright Omari Newton tells me. “A young man that was apparently unarmed, had no previous criminal record. He got into some kind of altercation with the police, and he ended up getting shot. He died.” His play, Sal Capone: The …
For A Good Time Check Out This Show
Whitehorse is a hotbed of artists, dancers and performers brewing with ideas and creativity and this weekend we’ll have an opportunity to see what’s in their minds. On Friday and Saturday the Brave New Works show will be presented at The Old Fire Hall. This year co-artistic directors Mellisa Murray and Zoe Verhees have invited …
It’s Not Off Script If There Isn’t A Script
Theatre-goers, is your relationship with plays getting a little humdrum? Are you looking for more spontaneity in your live-performances? Are you tired of rehearsed scripts, structured plot lines and carefully planned story arcs? Then maybe it’s time to open your mind to other, less “vanilla” theatre going experiences at try a little improv. You can …
A New Theatre Company in Town
As winter carries on, theatre lovers will have the opportunity to warm their cold bodies with laughter in a brand new black box theatre when long time Yukon Arts mainstay Katherine McCallum unveils her new production company Larrikin Entertainment with the black comedy Often I find Myself Naked by Australian playwright Fiona Sprott. McCallum, a …
A Northern Cabaret
Craving a dose of good old fashioned Vaudeville fun? Yukoners looking for something new and adult to do this holiday season have the opportunity to find it at Furlesque: A Northern Cabaret. The variety show will feature, among other things, belly dancing, old-style song and dance numbers, burlesque, gymnastics, actors, musicians and comedians. Each evening …
Running the Show
Props, actors, lighting, sound, marketing; these are some of the small but numerous little details which turn a “piece” into a “show.” These things need hands to make them happen and cost money – sometimes a lot of money. Many of the shows put on in the Yukon are created by home-grown production company run …
The Twelfth Night, Lumbersexualized
Attention all lovers, poets and dreamers: this holiday season The Bard is returning to the Whitehorse stage. The Guild Hall will launch its second show of the season on Nov. 26 with Shakespeare’s classic comedy Twelfth Night, Or What You Will. The play was first performed in 1602 and takes a comedic spin on mistaken …
Stories of the land
Museum On Nov. 19 Yukoners can grab a drink and a snack at the Yukon Transportation Museum and hunker down for a favourite Yukon pastime: telling stories of backwoods adventures. The event, called Tales of the Trails, will feature Yukon storytellers Sharon Shorty, Ruth Carroll and David Neufeld among others, as well as music by …
We Can Change
Whitehorse director and playwright Arlin McFarlane strives to captivate. She has developed a unique, one-actor play about our ability to change our lives around thanks to neuroplasticity. The play is about a young girl who is prone to self-destructive behaviour and seeks the help of a scientist. The scientist uses principles of neuroplasticity to help …
Murderously Funny
This Halloween season The Yukon Arts Centre (YAC) will present Butt Kapinksi at The Old Fire Hall, an interactive comedic murder mystery set in the style of a classic film noir movie. The show’s creator and star, Deanna Fleysher, slips into the gritty shoes of private eye Butt Kapinski as he endeavors to solve a …
Party like it’s 1955
Dig out your poodle skirt and put on your saddle shoes. The Open Pit Theatre is hosting a 1950s Sock Hop Film Night in Whitehorse on Saturday. The evening features five films with an on-the-spot, improvised soundtrack by live actors and musicians. “The movies are the main entertainment,” says Geneviève Doyon, co-artistic director of Open …
Dancing To All The Sounds
On Friday, October 23, the Yukon Arts Centre will be presenting a multimedia experience that weaves together dance, video, music and costume. It’s called Eunoia and is based on Canadian poet Christian Bök’s book of the same name. Denise Fujiwara, of Toronto-based Fujiwara Dance Inventions and a veteran of the Canadian contemporary dance scene, heard …
How did Charlie Brown and his friends make out?
On October 1st The Guild Hall Society will kick off its 2015/16 season with Bert V. Royal’s dark comedy Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead. The play is considered an unauthorized parody of the iconic Peanuts characters created by Charles M. Schulz. The story imagines the gang as teenagers with all the ups, …
Ramble in T.O.
My dance practice is rooted in uncultivated, wild, outdoor spaces. I often perform site-specific dances outdoors for audiences and/or camera. However, my latest collaborative project, Ramble (45 min), was performed last month inside a black box theatre in a busy city (Toronto), within a busy theatre and dance festival (the 25th edition of SummerWorks). …
Street Party
Nadine Landry describes Louisiana’s Cajun culture as a ‘holy trinity’ of food, music and dancing. “People invite you over to dinner, so there is food, and that’s hugely important in Cajun culture. And it takes so long for the food to get ready, you start playing tunes, and then people start dancing,” she says. “So …
Dramaturgy
Last Friday I met with David Skelton, the artistic director of Nakai Theatre, and DD Kugler, a renowned Canadian dramaturge. A dramaturge, which is an unpleasant word, functions as an advisor to a playwright. Such a person raises concerns, make suggestions, and sometimes draws thick red lines through vast swaths of dialogue. Both the above-mentioned …
The Big Top Comes to Whitehorse
The circus arts are some of the oldest performing arts: acrobats, contortionists, the bearded lady, bears pedaling bikes, clowns, and juggling. The big top, pennant flags waving in the wind. The smell of wood chips and animals. It’s mysterious, glamorous. Magical. From the outside. In reality, “everyday is the same” — a new town a …
A Swing Through Jazz History
Jazz has come a long way over the decades. What started as a call-and-response song though the cotton fields of the south, has now become an uptempo beat familiar to most. In edition to its evolution, it has sparked the creation of many sub-genres: Latin jazz, classical jazz, funk, b-bob, acid jazz, and vocal jazz, …
Leapin’ Lizards! It’s Annie
Curious Fact #1: stories about plucky orphan kids make wildly popular musical theatre fare. Witness Oliver!, Anne of Green Gables, and Annie. Curious Fact #2: two out of three musicals about plucky orphans involve adorable, authoritydefying redheads who find love in less-than-conventional families. “I don’t happen to be a tiny, adorable redhead, but I am …
Puppets, Comedy, and Gore
Whitehorse has an awesome art scene. This month, The Guild will try to make it more awesome when its production of Cannibal! The Musical hits the stage. The play, which is based on the film of the same name, has been circulating North America for over 15 years, to rave reviews. The story is centered …
Start at the Beginning
Have you ever had big dreams of creating a piece of theatre but weren’t sure how to start? Have you ever had a great idea for a play but had no idea how to get it on the stage? Are you looking for the chance to try out a script you have written in front …
Brave New Works
Nostalgia: sometimes it’s bitter, sometimes it’s sweet, and sometimes…it’s bagpipes. Brave New Works (BNW), the annual Whitehorse-based multidisciplinary performing arts collective, is back with a new theme. This year, the variety show is wistfully looking to the past with dance, photography, spoken word & mixed media, rap, poi, ukulele, and — you guessed it — …
Gearing up for Cannibal
Am I excited. In April I’ll be acting in the Guild Society’s newest play, Cannibal the Musical written by Trey Parker of South Park fame. The show is based on the true story of American prospector, Alferd Packer and his ill-fated expedition into the Colorado mountains in 1873. I recommend it to anyone who wants …
Sibling Revelry
Brigitte and Caroline Desjardins-Allatt were well into elementary school before learning about their father’s musical past — and the instruments stashed in the family garage. “Before he met my mother, he used to play a lot of music with his ex,” Brigitte Desjardins explains. “Then she had an accident and died, and I think my …
There’s Something About Twenty
The Yukon Arts Centre (YAC) is challenging Yukoners to embrace “spring break up” in all its disparate meanings. To help with that, YAC is hosting a Pecha Kucha evening on Friday, March 13 at the Old Fire Hall. Pecha Kucha, which translates to “chit chat” in Japanese, is a unique presentation format that will bring …
Blind Date with a Clown
Having a blind date can be very stressful — from thinking about what to wear and say, to awkward silences and thoughts of escape. Now imagine having a blind date every night. For actress Renée Amber this is reality: in the improv theatre show Blind Date, Amber plays Mimi, a partisan clown with a red …
Talking to Strangers
It’s been done before, and Moving Parts Theatre is doing it again — transforming Well Read Books into a theatre. Around the corner from the till, in the back, is the stage, wedged between the “Biography” and “Literature” sections on one side, and “Hobby & Craft/Trains, Boats & Planes” on the other. “People are Strange” …
Wushu Comes to Whitehorse
Last November, Whitehorse entrepreneur Stephen Kwok Wai-Kan was in Vancouver in his part-time role as liaison officer between the Yukon and Chinese governments. When Her Excellency Lui Fei, China’s consul general in that city, asked if he’d be interested in having some Chinese performers come to Whitehorse to help celebrate the Chinese New Year, Kwok …
Yukking It Up for a Cause
Katie-Ellen Humphries has one clear goal in mind this week when she makes her second trip to Whitehorse. “Now that I’ve been up there and I know what’s going on, I think this is the year I try to get into the Snowshoe Shufflers,” the Vancouver comedian quips. “I know they’re a tight-knit group, and …
Winter Folklore
The dances are coming. On January 31, Skookum Jim’s annual Folklore Show will take place at the Yukon Arts Centre. The vibrant show will feature many First Nation dances and songs. Doris McLean, of Carcross/Tagish First Nation, is now the vice president of the friendship centre, but she was the program coordinator for 30 years. She enjoys …
The Web of Family
Two distinctly different takes on the theme of family are among the highlights of this year’s Nakai Pivot Festival, which kicks off on Saturday, January 17 . Ralph + Lina is a two-handed “acrobatic comedy” performed by the husband and wife team of Dan Watson and Christina Serra, who first conceived the project while they …
Turn Your Conversations Into Art
“ Anyone – no matter what their background is – can take a tape recorder and go out and ask some questions,” says Saskatoon-based artist Joel Bernbaum, who will be in the Yukon this weekend holding verbatim theatre workshops with Whitehorse’s Open Pit Theatre. “ Verbatim is a fancy term but it actually just means …
En Pointe and On Budget
Deep-pocketed balletomanes (ballet fans) could spend thousands of dollars flying to Russia to catch the legendary Bolshoi Ballet in action. Or, for a mere fraction of that, they could experience the splash and spectacle of one of the world’s most celebrated dance companies without leaving Whitehorse. On Saturday, January 10, the Yukon Arts Centre (YAC) …
The Nutcracker Comes to Dawson
The Nutcracker is coming to Dawson City just in time for the holidays. The Northern Lights School of Dance in Whitehorse is staging the traditional ballet on Saturday, December 6, at Diamond Tooth Gerties. Of the five years that the production has been coming to Dawson, the last three have brought a twist to the …
The Birthing
When a play hits the stage for its first full production , it’s travelled a long way. Often a playwright begins showcasing her work by reading a scene or two in front of friends. After that, perhaps she recruits actors and presents those same scenes in a coffeehouse setting, then there might be a staged …
The Guild presents Dedication
Terrence McNally’s Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams, playing at the Guild Hall until December 6, is a love letter to theatre in an era when it needs all the love it can get. Set in the dilapidated remains of a once-grand playhouse — the kind with balconies — Dedication focuses on the aspirations of …
Playwrought
After hearing artistic director David Skelton talk about Nakai Theatre’s 24 – Hour Playwriting Competition on the radio, I decide to sign up. I’m not a playwright , but, then again — maybe I am. Maybe my passion for writing has been waiting for me to direct it at theatre, at which point my true …
1920s Silent Film Night
Halloween is over, but don’t stop dressing up . On Saturday November 8, Open Pit theatre is giving you another chance; it’s hosting a 1920s-themed silent film night, and the directors of the company want guests sporting their Sunday best. It’s an art night true to the theatre company’s multidisciplinary mandate — to create space …
Terror and Terpsichore
Don’t say you haven’t been warned. From October 28 to November 1, the Guild Hall will be chockablock with fire, brimstone, and all kinds of devilish mayhem. In addition to its annual Haunted House fright-fest, this year the Guild is joining forces with the Varietease burlesque troupe to co-produce a music-and-dance extravaganza that’s too hot …
The Shape of all Sorts of Things
The Shape of Things, which runs every night at the Guild Hall in Porter Creek until October 11, continues playwright Neil Labute’s reputation for blunt depictions of men and women at war with each other. Four students, played by Santana Barryman, Jeff Charles, Rowan Dunne, and Andrea Bois, navigate their way through gender politics and …
Theatre in the Bush
Theatre in the Bush is held in the fall, and with a start time of around 8:45 pm, it’s held in the dark. The darkness and the bush are integral to the event. This year the show was on a Saturday evening in mid-September. ‘Theatre in the Bush’ was projected onto Brian Fidler’s gravel driveway; …
It’s Your Story
The Open Pit theatre company is scouring the territory for stories.Genevive Doyon and Jessica Hickman are two playwrights, actors, and founders of Open Pit who are collecting yarns about what it means to call the Yukon home. They want to talk to anyone. Next spring, after transcribing and compiling the stories, Doyon and Hickman will …
Do I look Enlightened to You?
I recently heard the term “supermarket spiritualism” to describe folks walking down the proverbial aisle picking and choosing bits and pieces from every spiritual practice imaginable. And then paying for it all at the checkout. Emelia Symington Fedy, a Vancouver-based theatre artist, performer, writer and yoga teacher uses the term, “spiritual capitalism” in her lovingly …
David Skelton Nakai Theatre’s artistic director
A high-school excursion to a Toronto production of Peter Shaffer’s play, Equus, is what triggered David Skelton’s fascination with theatrical design. “The set and the costumes were just so evocative, so simple, so full of meaning, and just so functional. Scene starts, scene ends, move, move, move, quickly, quickly,” Nakai Theatre’s artistic director recalls. “I …
Second Sunday Dance Shakes it Up in Whitehorse
The body is mysterious; it is intricately linked to all that we do, and the ways we think. I’m a dancer; this is my perspective. And there are as many perspectives on the body as there are bodies. I also believe memories are stored in our bodies — that our experiences deeply affect the ways …
Jivin’ to the Jukebox
This week, 14 ambitious students from Vanier Catholic Secondary School will be belting out a raft of hit tunes their parents or grandparents probably danced or cuddled to decades ago. Under the direction of English teacher Marcia Lalonde and musical director Kim Hart, they will present two public performances of the “jukebox musical” Leader of the …
Taxicab Theatre
Gab in a cab, do time in the hole, or ponder what lies behind schoolyard shootings. These are just some of the options available to audience members as Nakai Theatre presents version six of its Homegrown Theatre Festival next week at the Guild Hall. The lineup of 12 local shows runs the gamut from a …
Statu Quo resists stereotypes of adolescent angst
A Vancouver play that earned four nominations for prestigious Jessie Richardson awards (Jessies), and won the category of best script by an emerging playwright, will take to the Old Fire Hall stage next week. Statu Quo, a French-language youth play by Gilles Poulin-Denis, travelled extensively in Canada before heading to Whitehorse. It is a work …
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It’s a Mad, Mad World
It might have been on John Lennon’s mind when he wrote “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” (so speculates Beatles biographer Bob Spitz). It was directed by a cast member of Beyond the Fringe, a popular satirical revue from the early 1960s, and sitar guru Ravi Shankar composed the score. With that kind of 1960s pedigree, …
Strangely Funny, but True
Anthony Trombetta’s first act as new artistic director at the Guild Theatre was to throw out the rule book. Instead of a conventional play, the black box theatre in Porter Creek has been playing host this month to standup comics, a hypnotist and even a magician. Strange But True, which runs until Saturday, April 26, …
Thumbs Up Captain !
Superhero movies have become increasingly popular, and film studios seem to be pumping them out as quickly as they can. Unfortunately, not all of these movies are cinematic masterpieces. Sadly, some are downright dreadful. Rather than evoking joy and whimsy, they result in a nauseating pain in your stomach and a deep-seat feeling of regret …
A Testament to the Disappearances of Aboriginal Women
International Women’s Day is Saturday, March 8, it’s a day to pause and consider women’s health, dreams, and safety — worldwide, and in Canada. It’s a perfect time to see The Hours that Remain, a play by Ontario Métis artist Keith Barker. The play explores the love, loss, and grief for families and communities surrounding …
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Family, Change, and Acceptance
Torontonian Clinton Walker has flown into the Yukon to direct another play at The Guild Hall. The new production The Book of Esther, by Leanna Brodie, is his fifth directorial project in five years up here. And this one hits pretty close to home for Walker. Set in the early 1980s, The Book of Esther …
An Invitation to Experience the Thrill and the Grit
The mix of open-flowing creativity, with a dash of fear, makes for a high that’s addictive for theatre performers — and especially for playwrights who perform their own plays. Usually the audience goes home with ideas swimming around, but we’re not buzzing the same way. Next week we can come close. The Pivot Theatre Festival, …
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L’Ark Brings Communal Experience (and fish) to Young Audiences
The creative spark for a new theatre company, L’Ark, took place at Yukon Educational Theatre’s (YET) presentation of Dean Eyre’s Diabetes, A Love Story nearly two years ago. Producer Arlin McFarlane arrived mid-show to a school gymnasium filled with young people. Immediately, she was struck by how completely engaged they were, listening intently to the …
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Playing Irish: The Guild Hall presents The Cripple of Inishmaan Nov. 21 to Dec. 7
The Guild is putting on one final show before the New Year: The Cripple of Inishmaan, by the respected Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. The comedy takes place in 1930’s Ireland, and is based on the true story of Hollywood filmmaker Robert Flaherty, who traveled to the island of Inishmore to film the movie Man of …
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Broken Heads Down the Road
Brian Fidler’s latest one-person show, which he wrote and stars in, has an inclusive quality about it. Broken, which premiered in Whitehorse in the fall of 2012, deals with Alzheimer’s disease and the way it affects family relationships. “The story is universal,” says Fidler. “Nearly everyone will have experiences with aging and dementia at some …
Courageously Putting your Voice into the World
Whitehorse-based theatre company Open Pit is on a mission. In addition to creating new performance works and fostering collaboration between local creators, Open Pit co-artistic producers Geneviève Doyon and Jessica Hickman endeavour to offer at least one workshop a year on different theatrical disciplines. “It is very important to Open Pit to offer professional training …
A Conversation With Colleen Murphy
If you are susceptible to the perception that we are a country of people who play it safe; Colleen Murphy is the kind of person who reminds us that Canadian’s can be cool. Her life is anything but normal and she’s artistic to boot. She has created films, written books and plays, and she even …
Syphilis Spreads like Wildfire: Peter Jickling’s Play Syphilis: A Love Story wins comedy award
It’s difficult to resist making puns about the title of the award-winning play Syphilis: A Love Story by Whitehorse playwright, and What’s Up Yukon assistant editor, Peter Jickling. Jokes like, “I caught syphilis at the Guild Hall last week,” or, “I caught syphilis with your mom.” Or how about, “I wanted to catch syphilis, but …
Theatre Returns to The Guild Hall
The stage is set for another season of theatre at the Guild Hall in Whitehorse. The Guild is back with four genre-bending productions that aim to bring out your fears, tears, and cheers. The Guild’s artistic director Katherine McCallum has searched afar for not only entertaining theatre, but also something different. Three of the four …
The Power of Love: Gwaandak Theatre is committed to Aboriginal, northern and diverse voices
Running a theatre company is not for the faint of heart. Only those who work behind the scenes in theatre truly know the passion, work, determination, dedication, and creativity required to produce theatre, season after season, year after year. Audiences grow and diminish, funding comes and goes, trends in the theatre world shift, venues close …
Amateurs and Professionals Share the Spotlight: Nakai Theatre’s upcoming season
Nakai Theatre is back with a diverse season, showcasing fledgling Yukon talent as well as established professional shows from across Canada. Their fourth season kicks off on Oct. 5 and 6 with the annual 24 Hour Playwriting Competition. Participants have an allotted amount of time to put their minds to the grindstone and come up …
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A Guide to Good Laughs: Dissecting the Whitehorse comedy scene
Tired of doing the old smile-and-nod routine because your boss thinks he’s Jerry Seinfeld? Experience some real comedy in Whitehorse. Anthony Trombetta, Jenny Hamilton, and George Maratos, three veterans of the local comedy scene, guide us through the main comedy venues in Yukon’s capital. Jarvis Street Saloon Whitehorse’s most regular venue, The Jarvis Street Saloon …
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Dancing the fine line between reverence and irreverence
The Yukon Arts Centre will become a church Feb. 27 to 29. This may appear to blasphemous to some when you consider the name of the play—Bigger Than Jesus—and the “priest” will be gifted comedian and voice impersonator Rick Miller (the same guy who brought MacHomer here some years ago). However, if you measure religious …
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Grace under fire
The hands move as they do in Spain, the hips move as they do in Africa and the shoulders sway as in Cuba. It is a style of dance pulled together by Liszt Alfonso to great success these past 17 years. On April 20 and 21, she brings this “sensual mix of fire and spice” …
A lightbulb, a chair and a bowl
It must be a magic trick, because Andy Massingham is going to hold the attention of a Yukon Arts Centre audience for one hour with just a lightbulb, a chair and a bowl. “… and incredible shadows,” says Massingham over the phone discussing his play, Rough House, which shows at the Yukon Arts Centre April …
Staging local talent
As the sunshine creeps into the evening and temperatures slowly rise toward double-digits, some art organizations’ seasons are winding down. One of the final accomplishments in focus for Nakai Theatre is a barrage of local performance artists. Also affectionately known as the Homegrown Festival. “It’s emerging artists, first-time artists and artists who are devoting their …
Fred Astaire, meet the street dancers
It’s Boys in the Hood and “Singin’ in the Rain” combined with what Nicolette Little describes as a “Sinatra-y feeling.” Little is an instructor for the Northern Lights School of Dance where she’s teaching her students a fusion of jazz, hip hop and street dance. Her Jazz & Street Dance class is percolating with isolations …
Leaping Feats: on stage and screen
Andrea Simpson-Fowler has a choice for audiences: if you want to see cute little kids and a mix of entertainment, come to the recreational show; if you want to see more professional, more polished pieces, then come to the repertory show. The owner and operator of Leaping Feats Creative Dancework is planning for its annual …
Northern Scene
I am one of the lucky few who will be at Northern Scene for the entire 10 days. I’m here with the production of Leonard Linklater’s play, Justice, for performances May 2to 4 at the Arts Court Theatre in Ottawa. I am the costume designer for the production and studying under director, Yvette Nolan. Each …
Audiences get the story they ask for
Did you just say, “storysmithing”? “Yeah,” says Aaron Janke, his arms still stretched out in the telling of his upcoming introactive theatre project. But he wants to keep explaining the plans of his troupe and he was on a roll … and I was interrupting. Throwing out the possibility that “storysmithing” might be hyphenated, he …
The strength and grace of Irish dance
Irish dancing is known by its row of stiff upper bodies and crazy strong legs moving in quick union. But Andrew Vickers, lead male dancer of The Magic of Ireland, is a student of the dance and he sees much more: “It is the girls and their light dancing; it is almost like a ballet, …
Laughing at the unlaughable
Bruce Horak no longer needs the catharsis that his play, This is Cancer?, has been for him. But other people do and, so, he will continue accepting invitations to travel with the play he wrote and stars in. Indeed, having only just been here for one show this past winter for the Pivot Festival, Nakai …
Kidd Pivot Is the dance you want it to be
Crystal Pite knows that audiences will watch her contemporary dance company, Kidd Pivot, with trepidation. “They feel they don’t have enough knowledge to get something out of it,” she says over the phone. “I would advise people to trust themselves to watch it the way it needs to be watched. “Trust your eyes, trust your …
A sex farce well told
Colin Heath was chatting online with Eric Epstein, the artistic director of The Guild. They were playing Scrabulous at the time because they both love words. So, when Epstein typed in the invitation to Heath to come to Whitehorse to direct What the Butler Saw, Heath accepted … because he loves words. “I love the …
Varietease is so baaaad, it’s good
Burlesque cabaret uses psychology in such a delicious way: it is a naughty place and we feel naughty being there. So we throw decorum to the wind, having forsaken the high moral ground, and give ourselves willingly to the sensations of dance, song and comedy being paraded in front of us. Entering the theatre at …
Timber Rabbits has a big heart and flat feet
I push the potatoes around in my cup of Timber Rabbit Stew and find no timber rabbit meat. Oh, I get it. I’m supposed to ask where the meat is and will be told, “You’re as naïve as Ben Mueller!” Ben Mueller is the character in Timber Rabbits – A Northern Mystery of Men, Madness, …
We get the theatre we deserve
When you think of plays, you think of The Guild and Nakai Theatre. More and more people are thinking of Music Arts and Drama at the Wood Street Centre as the high-schoolers in the experiential program put on beloved plays for the general public. However, not enough people are thinking of Moving Parts Theatre. This …
The very human story of Frankenstein
Just as the movie Twilight surprised the film industry, the success of Catalyst Theatre’s Frankenstein is surprising theatre watchers. Both are a hit with teenagers. “Teenagers really respond to stories of the outsider,” says Jonathan Christenson, the play’s writer, director and composer. “It’s that fear of being a social pariah.” And Frankenstein’s monster is the …
Living Another Life
“Like all actors, I enjoy the spotlight. So if there’s an opportunity, I like to break out.” That is how 21-year-old Winluck Wong explains his antics on the karaoke stage at the Boiler Room. Go in there on any given Friday night and you’ll most likely see Wong belting out Usher’s You Got it Bad …
A Shakespearean Celebration of the Solstice
Besides the regular fare of snow-covered sidewalks, holiday decorations and bundled-up pedestrians, this time of year signals the impending arrival of two familiar – and connected – occurrences: the winter solstice and the annual production of Longest Night. A creative collection of some of the Yukon’s finest performers are coming together to yet again mark …
Yukon Fashion to Swarm Ottawa Runway
When you live in a place where it is winter for half the year you would expect fashion to be restricted to parkas and boots, but that’s not the case. Tomorrow night in Ottawa three Yukon designers will show their work at Northern Scene’s contemporary themed evening, SWARM, which features music, art, fashion and a …
Memories, though invisible, are very real
“Go easy on the references to the Holocaust,” Jonathon Young says to me over the phone. “People will go into the theatre expecting it. “This play is much more about memory and how our actions affect our descendants.” The Invisible Life of Joseph Finch is, indeed, about re-creating one man’s life for the benefit of …
If a drag queen falls in the forest …
Last year’s Nakai Theatre Pivot Festival was not well-received. It featured a blind comic who portrayed cancer. It had a snow-shovelling demonstration. A sexualized Betty Rubble. A lonely, lonely lounge singer. A human piñata. Nakai Theatre wanted to bring out-of-the-box, professional theatre to the Yukon … and it did. But it wasn’t appreciated by the …
Taylor Mac wants to shake you up
Taylor Mac would like you to know that he doesn’t want to offend you. If his fantastical makeup and clothes surprise you, then that’s OK because if you are surprised, then you are being shaken up a little. And shaking things up is what this drag queen considers his job to be. If audiences are …
The comfort and joy of Fred Penner
Adults of all ages will be thrilled to hear that Nakai Theatre is bringing Fred Penner to Whitehorse. Sadly, many children today haven’t had the thrill of waiting for that magical moment when Penner would crawl through the hollow log and into a clearing in the bush … an extension of their living rooms. Fred …
The many ‘faces’ of the Pivot Festival
When David Skelton discusses the upcoming Pivot Festival, he keeps coming back to the example of Joseph Tisiga. The young Yukon First Nations artist is ready to burst out and Skelton likes to think his Nakai Theatre helped him along the way. That is, after all, the purpose behind Nakai Theatre. “We develop local artists,” …
Julius Caesar: A very Shakespearean Shakespeare
“Et tu, Brute?” A famous line uttered by even those who don’t know it is Shakespeare. It is spoken when one friend betrays another. Does this make Marcus Junius Brutus a bad guy? Anton Solomon is not sure. He plays Brutus in Moving Parts Theatre’s Julius Caesar Feb. 18 to 21 and Feb. 24 at …
Brian Fidler did it!
There is a moment in Becky Mode’s Fully Committed when Brian Fidler’s character, Sam, gives his father some disappointing news over the telephone. The entire audience tenses up. It was only one of many wonderful dialogues, so it cannot be considered a “magical moment”, but it was certainly a moment when the magic of this …
One actor, 37 characters
“I don’t want someone who can do 37 voices,” says director David Mackay. “I want 37 characters.” Therein lies the magic he hopes to capture with local actor Brian Fidler when they team up to present Fully Committed at the Guild Hall Feb. 5 to 21. Fidler needs to present 37 characters in this one-man …
One of many moving parts
Theatre isn’t just about the actors on stage. And while Moving Parts Theatre concentrates on methods and techniques for its players, it also provides community members with important roles behind the scenes. Balancing school work and rehearsals is Wren Hookey’s latest priority. The 17-year-old high school student just began her fourth year with the popular …
Brian Fidler
For Whitehorse-based theatre artist Brian Fidler, the desire to perform dates way back. “I can trace it to third grade,” he says. “Our teacher would get us to read stories we’d written in front of the class and I loved getting a reaction.” Shortly thereafter he knew he had to make it in the theatre …
Notes on The Dude
There are Lebowski-Fests and books about the Dude’s laidback ethos. Its popularity isn’t surprising, after all, the Dude abides.
Chicago Comes North
The longest running American musical in Broadway history opens this week at the Guild Hall’s Black Box Theatre in Porter Creek, where it will play five nights per week throughout the month. Chicago, originally written in 1926 during the Prohibition-era, revolves around criminal Roxy Hart and the murder of her boyfriend. Written by reporter Maurine …
A case of questionable identity
It is in the fall, off-season for a ski chalet, yet there is still excitement. A woman has disappeared. She returns, but it is not the same woman according to her husband. The police get involved and they are convinced she is who she says she is. “Oh boy,” is all that Pierre Gauthier will …
Get Out and Guild
Imagine you are sitting at your computer at home, one evening. Despite the fact that it’s minus 27 outside, it’s snowing – again. As if we need more snow … Enough already. Christmas parties and presents are a distant memory and spring may never arrive if what’s happening on the other side of your window …
Earnestly seeking that second dimension
We are familiar with the concept of “a face only a mother could love”. Well, The Mighty Carlins has three characters that, possibly, only the playwright could … like. Collin Doyle created three absurdly foul characters for the play that is being presented March 18 to 28 at The Old Fire Hall. And he likes …
Stories of the scientific nude
Yes, they know it is cold in the Yukon. The cast of Studies in Motion has been checking out the temperatures here daily. Yet they will all be nude sometime during the play when it shows at the Yukon Arts Centre March 24 to 27. “I was already nude on that stage a couple of …
An artistic director returns with a dream cast
He had been in Baked Café for only one minute and had already said hi to three people, and one of them got a hug. However, “Some people see me in the street and they just wave as if I hadn’t been gone for four years,” says Michael Clark, the former artistic director of Nakai …
In the ‘language’ of belly dancing, Raqs rocks
It’s not I Dream of Jeannie—not even close. “The North American image of I Dream of Jeannie is so ‘Hollywood’,” Nita Collins chuckles, but acknowledges that, yes, belly dancing is sensual. “I Dream of Jeannie is a combination of Turkish and Eastern and Hollywood.” But, she says, it did help introduce the whole concept and …
Montréal Danse: Up close and personal
It will be an unusual connection between the audience at the Yukon Arts Centre and the dancers of Montréal Danse when it presents On the Ice of Labrador on Saturday, Feb. 28. The seven dancers will each be presenting their own stories – stories of aviators, trombone players, blood-sugar cycles of a diabetic, Alzheimer’s disease …
Where sex meets the ice
There are four corners of a net that hockey players shoot for to score a goal. The ‘Five Hole’ is that other spot that could lead to a score: between the goaltender’s legs. That is where Five Hole: Tales of Erotica spends its time … and in the locker room and hotel rooms and bars …
Bold, dark theatre returns
After a decade of collecting dust in the Guild Society office, the script for Cabaret is finally being used and will be presented at the Guild Hall, April 2 to 18. The rights were purchased in the ’90s, but the Guild Society’s artistic director, Eric Epstein, was unable to find a suitable male lead. It …
On this stage, everyone is ‘Ynkluded’
It was like walking onto the set of High School Musical … there are people milling about, laughing and joking around, spinning playfully in wheelchairs and then, boom, cohesion breaks out into a delightful musical number on a plywood stage. Then Brian Fidler, the director of Tell Me More…, says, “OK, now get up or …
Cabaret plods between great musical numbers
There are actually two stage shows at the Guild Hall: Cabaret, the variety show and Cabaret, the play. The variety show is a blast with fantastic music and great dance performances that are raunchy and fun. The play itself, however, only briefly rises to the level of a story that the audience can care about. …
Cam & Legs are ready for their closeup
Cam, that breakdancing Brownie Hawkeye camera; and Legs, the glove that struts and dances like a DJ, have returned to Whitehorse. Cam & Legs creator and puppeteer, Brian Fidler, has scheduled the shows for Thursday to Sunday at The Old Fire Hall. Then he is on his way to Victoria’s Uno Festival for performances May …
A French Kiss With an English Twist
Whitehorse is known to have an active French community. “You guys are everywhere,” some say in a more-or-less enthusiastic way. Some birds of a feather like to stick to their own and travel in packs. Francophones are no exception. But if you happen to fall in love with an Anglophone, you may find yourself in …
Still funny after 500 years
In Italy, about 500 years ago, the lower classes liked to present plays that made fun of the higher classes. And the higher classes enjoyed them, too. Today, five members of Théâtre de la Pastèque (Watermelon Theatre) are borrowing this commedia dell’arte to entertain and, as four of the members of the cast are teachers, …
Grease is the time, is the place, is the motion
The Music Arts Drama students swirled in their dresses in the Wood Street Centre hallway and they laughed at the newness of it. Just a year ago, some of these same students laughed at the wild costumes from Seussical, which, really, is just another world that these actors created for the stage . This year, …
Theatre Where You Stand, and In Your Ear
Imagine trudging up the terribly endless flight of stairs at the end of Black Street only to be greeted by a small but brilliantly coloured green sign telling you to dial a toll free number and enter in a code. Curiosity difficult to sidestep? Take the opportunity to make the call (and casually catch your …
Supporting the art of dance
As far as this paper’s mandate reaches – arts, culture, entertainment and recreation – the biggest news of the week is the creation of the Society of Yukon Independent Dance Artists. It is big news because it addresses a major unfairness in the Yukon: the lack of resources and opportunities for local dancers. Sure, we …
Dancing Under an Umbrella
Jude Wong had an elegant epiphany last October. Perhaps the constant query she’d heard from fellow dance artists, “Why should I have to leave in order to create?” was her measured tempo on this specific fall day as she danced her way across the studio floor. Or perhaps the desperate exchanges Wong had heard, expressing …
Dance Yukon
Scores of Yukoners have come in contact with Groundwork Sessions (GWS) on some spot-lit Yukon stage where its young members can be found spinning the crowd into a frenzy with mills, flips, freezes, spins and top rocks. Perhaps you’ve met them through Breakdancing Yukon Society’s summer camps, a dance fundraiser, music festival or seen them …
Act like they do in New York
Posters around town advertise the Actors Intensive Weekend Workshop as “From New York to the Yukon”. Why is “New York” in the headline? “Classically, we think of New York as a method,” says “New York-trained” actor/instructor/director Anastasia Bandey. “We think of Meisner and the Actors Studio. “In the ’60s and ’70s, there was a revolution …
A love that made the gods weep
“It is a space of no expectations,” says Carol Prieur, a dancer in the upcoming presentation, Orpheus and Eurydice. Since Yukon audiences probably remember the choreographer, Marie Chouinard, who urinated into a bucket onstage, then, yeah, there probably aren’t any expectations for this performance. Prieur laughs at this and only gets more excited: “That is …
It’s a ‘building year’ for Nakai
This year, Nakai Theatre will not be producing any plays. David Skelton, Nakai’s artistic director, says the company will be concentrating, instead, on developing local scripts. This means that instead of spending money on a venue and staffing to produce a play, it will use some of that money to bring up DD Kugler, a …
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue
With both the Nakai and Moving Parts theatres scaling back on productions for a season of development, Eric Epstein sees the role of the Guild Society as all that more important. “We are certainly the ones to look at classic repertoire and contemporary repertoire,” says the Guild’s artistic director. “We just want to get the …
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Yukon Dancers Are Here to Stay
Jude Wong and I sit facing each other, sipping our coffees. She is nibbling on toast, and I am picking at a muffin – two food staples of dancers. We are talking about SYIDA (Society of Yukon Independent Dance Artists). Yes, this has been a feature of several articles in recent issues, but I am …
Stop … and listen to Mike Daisey
Mike Daisey talks. He is a monologist; it’s what he does. In a day when we watch our videos in one- and two-minute clips and read messages from our friends in 140 characters or less, Mike Daisey will talk for two hours. No dancing. No music. No pyrotechnics. Just talk. And audiences are listening. That’s …
The Bob Couchman Yukon Theatre Award
Each and every one of us at What’s Up Yukon finds local theatre to be a fantastic entertainment value. We like to think that covering theatre in our pages shows our support and we are happy to do it. But is there something more we can do? Yes, there is. We have a lot of …
No one can shock with such delight
In 1962, it was shocking and titillating. Though the Pulitzer Prize committee handed it a Pulitzer, it was revoked for language, for sexual situations. When it ran an England tour, Lord Chamberlain made the playwright, Edward Albee, change the swear words, “Jesus Christ” to “Cheese God.” Half sarcastically, Albee asked, “What about saying Mary M. …
Dance explores pain and pleasure
Hélène Blackburn is looking forward to bringing her contemporary dance company, Cas Public, to the Yukon next week. Long ago, she dismissed the notion that those in small towns can be closed- minded and that the west is saturated with with conservative tastes in entertainment. And, having visited two venues in northern Québec, she knows …
A room with a current
It is fall of 2005. I have just arrived in the Yukon. I am amazed to be accepted into an advanced playwriting course with the famous Canadian playwright, Tomson Highway. I spend a week with five other lucky writers as Tomson leads us through the steps of building the first draft of a play. I …
Round 1 goes to the Guild, and what a fight
4 out of 5 Stars The Guild pulled no punches with its first production of the season, dragging Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? out for display. And, judging from opening night, it’s a great fight. The action takes place in George and Martha’s living room between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., after they’ve …
Theatre reviews go interactive
There are two types of people who read play reviews: those who want to see if the reviewer agrees with them and those who want to decide if the play is worth seeing. Reviews are important. As the “Paper of Fun,” we want to encourage our readers to go forth and enjoy good recreation, good …
Decidedly Jazz Dance Workshops
The working life of a dancer is not all showbiz and stage time. Countless hours are also devoted to rehearsals, choreography, classes and workshops. Workshops are a welcomed spinoff of any touring dance show. It is here that local dancers can break the fourth wall and engage in the communal art form of dance with …
Dance Gathering
“A dance gathering?” you ask. Yes, that is exactly what it is: people gathering together to dance. I attended the Yukon’s first dance gathering on Oct. 17 – not as a participant, but as an observer. Jessica Hickman held this first dance gathering in the upstairs studio at the Alpine Bakery. Hickman, originally from Calgary, …
The return of jazz dance
Kimberley Cooper retraced the rise and descent of North American jazz dance: It is primarily a folk dance mixed by African slaves and the Europeans who enslaved them. But it died out with the Second World War, bebop and the taxation of dance halls. “It was kind of lost in the world, and that’s sad,” …
Romantic Christmas comedy had a long journey
Patti Flather is sitting at a coffee shop talking about how much fun it is to write strong roles for actors over 40. “There’s just not enough of that in theatre or film.” She sometimes wonders who tells their stories. “I love seeing actors who are a bit older grapple with dating in the same …
A play without boundaries
After presenting Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, one of the most well-known plays of the post-modern era, the Guild Theatre follows with the world premiere of Yukon writer Patti Flather’s play, The Soul Menders. This play has no theatre history, no reputation, no guide and, for Chris McGregor, the director, it has no boundaries. And …
Play makers: Get your craft on
Hockey players can craft, too. That is the message from Arlin McFarlane, artistic director for Yukon Educational Theatre’s Inzanity Wing, the backbone behind this year’s new Santa Parade “Winterval”. McFarlane is calling on hockey players and all members of the community to come down before Dec. 3 to the Old Fire Hall, in Whitehorse (before …
The stories behind Nutcracker
As audience members at the Yukon Arts Centre allow the Christmas tradition of Nutcracker to wash over them – joined, for the first time, by an audience in Dawson City – it would be interesting to note that this is a production of the Northern Lights School of Dance. As a school, it has many …
From dress rehearsal to final performance
I was lucky enough to be able to see The Soul Menders twice. Because of travel plans, I had to miss opening night and reviewed a dress rehearsal, instead, with all the rules about certain things I couldn’t talk about. One of those taboos was talking, really, about performance. Actors still had at least three …
Queer Coffee is a community saying hello
I don’t know what I was looking for when I walked into Baked Café for the Queer Coffee, advertised on ArtsNet. I knew I was going to interview Matt Koop-Pearce, the guy who created the event, but other than that, I think I was just curious to see who might show up. While many GLBT …
A rollicking story of Cape Breton
Sheldon Currie wrote a short story about a family in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, that echoed his message in the acclaimed Margaret’s Museum. Lauchie, Liza and Rory, too, looks at a Cape Breton Island community that is populated with good people, from all over the world, who are otherwise cogs in the machine. Unlike Margaret’s …
A Contemporary Aboriginal-Dance Passion
I have known Andrameda Hunter since she was a youngster, but when I recently met her for coffee, I was immediately taken by her radiant self-confidence as a young woman. She is not only a skilled dancer, but she is also an engaging and creative performer who has been hired to assist artistic director Alejandro …
Whose life is it anyway?
Finders, keepers. Right? Well, adults will likely respond with, “It depends.” OK. This is something that was obviously discarded … but it was seven meticulously cared-for photo albums of a family … but the person who found them put a lot of work into them to create a play … but the person who threw …
The Many Worlds; and Faces; of Charles Ross
He’s a hobbit and an Ewok, Princess Leia and Gandalf — plus about 80 other denizens of deep space and Middle Earth. In a more mundane dimension, he’s a 38-year-old actor from Victoria, B.C. named Charles Ross. For the past dozen years, Ross has travelled through four continents, evoking a multitude of characters from two …
Just a big wacky musical about corruption
”It’s a huge show,” Todd Duckworth the director tells me. Twenty people in the cast, four in the band. “When you see 20 people stretched out in a line on stage singing their hearts out — it’s pretty impressive. “This is a piece of entertainment. It’s also a satire. So with all the fluff, there’s …
Walker’s Laramie Project shows the triumph of community
Clinton Walker, the director brought up from Toronto for The Laramie Project, has made me chili. Little triangles of toasted bread sit next to the bowl. Walker is staying at the Almost Home Bed and Breakfast, a cute B&B in Valleyview. He’s been here for six weeks now. In some ways, Whitehorse has become another …
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The 3rd annual Pivot Festival: Floating, swimming, flying
The Pivot Festival is upon us — and with it comes a huge ton of theatre. You have six shows you can see at multiple times, all wildly different, appealing to both broad and specific audiences. It’s like a carnival of mad, wonderful theatre taking over the town for a week. Feeling a bit like …
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Don Juan has come to save us
“Don Juan? I love Don Juan,” said my fiancée when I asked her if she wanted to see The Erotic Anguish of Don Juan at the Yukon Arts Centre. She loves Don Juan? I don’t get it. Don Juan was a cad who used women and left them . I would have been just as …
Giant Rat finally treated as honoured citizen (psst … go see this musical)
Everyone loves a “lovable rogue”. In the Guild Society’s musical comedy, The Man From the Capital, you get 20 rogues to pick from. The plot is simple: it’s a case of mistaken identity. The townspeople expect a government inspector to come and evaluate their use of federal money. The schmuck who stumbles into town, penniless …
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Comedy Explores How the Locking of Lips Can Lead to Swapping of Souls
A swapping of souls complicates what could be the simplest thing we know. “Love,” says director Clinton Walker, “it’s a simple concept.” The play Prelude to a Kiss, running until Dec. 8, will be Walker’s fourth time directing a production for The Guild in Whitehorse. The story is of a bride, played by Charlotte Courage, …
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Playwrights Present at the 24-Hour Cabaret
Earlier this month, 25 playwrights spent 24 hours at the Edgewater Hotel in Whitehorse trying to write plays for Nakai Theatre’s 25th 24-hour Playwriting Competition (there’s a pleasing symmetry there). Nakai’s artistic director David Skelton and Kim Hudson were on hand as dramaturges and the writers oscillated between head-clearing walks, hotel-room writing sessions and other …
Beloved Nutcracker Ballet draws audience into the seats … and onto the stage
There is no surer sign of the holiday season than the annual staging of The Nutcracker. The Northern Lights School of Dance is presenting the traditional ballet on December 2, in Dawson City and on December 7 and 8, in Whitehorse. This is the fourth year that this holiday favourite will be performed in Dawson, …
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The Men Behind The Boys
The Guild will open its season this week with the Canadian premiere of The Boys, written by Kris Elgstrand. Elgstrand and Brad Dryborough, the play’s director and Elgstrand’s “longtime production partner,” agree that it’s a simple play. With a lot going on. Each of the “three characters, in one room, in real time” has one …
Aboriginal plays featured in Gwaandak’s Summer Reading Series
Gwaandak Theatre is putting on a reading series this summer featuring three plays written by First Nations playwrights, borrowing the skills of some local First Nation actors — some who are brand new to the theatre stage. The whole idea makes Patti Flather and Leonard Linklater, co-founders of Gwaandak Theatre, excited and hopeful. “We wanted …
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Epstein leaves, stage right
Eric Epstein and I are sitting in the black box — the creative centre of the Guild Theatre — the room that can become anything, which has become everything. He reflects back on his last 10 years with the Guild. As he steps out of the position, he recalls the first show he did in …
The brutal, relentless comedy of The Boys
The Quickie: The Boys is not a feel-good drama, an easy date night play, or a relaxing evening. However, it is outstanding acting and thought-provoking theatre. There are some movies I refuse to see. I will not see Saving Private Ryan — the Second World scenes, I’ve heard, are way too realistic. I will not …
A Play in 24 Hours
If you ask Whitehorse resident Justine Davidson if the $50 fee to participate in Nakai Theatre’s 24 Hour Playwriting Competition is worth it, you’ll most likely get a resounding yes. Not only was she provided a hotel room at the Westmark, snacks galore and yoga sessions, but her play, Subway, ended up being selected as …
On His Own, With Lots of Company
Raoul Bhaneja is his own uncle. Which means he’s also his own stepfather. Not to mention his mother, his sort-of girlfriend, the ghost of his father and even his father’s windy old court advisor. Bhaneja will bring all these characters and several more to the Yukon Arts Centre stage next month with his one-man version …
Artistic transitions: McCallum enters, stage left
Katherine McCallum is sitting on the couches of the Guild Hall, the place the audience gathers before a show begins, that place of anticipation. She’s talking to me about magic. “Theatre magic. It’s why I wanted to produce in the first place. But producing happened to me. When you’re an actor in a big city, …
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Gay community sees hope in The Laramie
Then I was at the Big Band Dessert and Dance Saturday night, I saw a handsome man across the crowded room. Fat chance that I was going to have courage enough to ask him to dance. Are you kidding? I might be hit. He might yell at me. I could just see all the worst …
Laramie Project delivers stunning ensemble work
I gave Justine Davidson, the theatre reviewer for the Whitehorse Star, a long hug at the end of The Laramie Project, the Guild Society/GALA play. Both of us were near tears. She said over my shoulder, “Does this mean it’s good when the journalists are crying?” We weren’t the only ones moved. But don’t let …
Dancer Has Found Her Home
The’s a dancer, she’s a teacher, she’s a choreographer, actor, singer and performance artist. She is dancing all over this town. At the age of 24, Jessica Hickman has a wealth of skills and knowledge to share and teach in our northern community. Originally from Calgary, where she began her dance training, Hickman has trained …
Fragments of Belonging
What is it like to hear your own story told in your own words by a total stranger? Several Whitehorse residents will find out next week when Nakai Theatre’s Pivot Festival presents Tanya Marquardt’s work-in-progress called Fragments. The play is a pastiche of interviews Marquardt conducted with 25 local people in different locales over the …
Breaking Out
Two days after Ju Hyun Seo got married last November, he flew to the Yukon to teach breakdancing for a month at Leaping Feats Creative Danceworks. When artist director Andrea Simpson-Fowler asked if he’d be interested in something longer term, he was quick to accept. “Andrea said, ‘Are you sure you want to move here?’ …
Let’s Get Physical
You don’t need to be an actor, a dancer, or an acrobat to take part in physical theatre workshops with nationally acclaimed theatre creator, Ker Wells. Just bring an open mind, a good imagination and a willingness to try absolutely anything. Wells has toured across Canada and Europe teaching stage performers how to develop their …
New Crew
An energetic new dance group will make its debut this weekend in an unusual locale. Instead of a formal stage or a black-box theatre, the Tough Love Dance Crew will give its first official performance in a Whitehorse cocktail lounge. “I always felt like entertainment in Whitehorse was lacking a little bit,” explains Tough Love’s …
Seriously Hilarious
Margaret Thatcher. Genocide. Venereal disease. Personal betrayal. These are not the standard fare of romantic comedy. But in the deft hands of Whitehorse playwright Peter Jickling, they become wickedly funny. With Syphilis: A Love Story, Jickling has hit the exact tone for the rom-com genre. As a love story, it comes perilously close to being …
Stepping Out
For most students, summer school may be a drag. For Odessa Beatty and Sadie Segriff, though, it’s a golden opportunity. Beatty and Segriff [shown on front cover with Montreal choreographer Julio Hong] have both been selected to attend summer classes at prestigious Canadian ballet schools. Beatty, 13, has been invited to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet …
Healing and Hope
What is the nature of faith, and what is the nature of duty in wartime? Those are two of the profound questions at the heart of Whitehorse playwright Celia McBride’s new work-in-progress, GITA: God in the Army. The play centres on a Canadian soldier, Cpl. June Wright, who witnessed war atrocities while photographing the activities …
A Memorable Friendship
It happened on the dance floor November 1, 1985. “I don’t want to spoil the story of how we met,” Brooke Johnson says of her first encounter with Pierre Elliott Trudeau, “except to say that it involved a borrowed dress and borrowed shoes that were two sizes too big, French-braided hair and toilet paper.” It …
Turning Hollywood Upside Down
It’s 6:05 on a Sunday morning, and she has a play opening in only six days. So why is Sarah Rodgers sitting in the airport waiting for a flight to Vancouver? Well, so she can spend her day off with Poppy, her 13-month-old adopted daughter from Vietnam. “I feel like a jet-setter,” she quips. Rodgers …
Noh Comes to Town
Whitehorse rare opportunity to experience Noh Theatre, a form of classical Japanese theatre that dates back almost 700 years.
Victorian-era Monty Python
Kindhearted pirates, timorous policemen, pretty maidens, star-crossed lovers and a thoroughly modern Major-General. All these are onstage this week at Wood Street School as the Music, Art, Drama, Dance program (MAD) program presents the Gilbert and Sullivan classic, The Pirates of Penzance. When director Mary Sloan and musical director Jeff Nordlund picked the comic operetta …
Orderly Chaos
”Hello, everybody. Welcome to mayhem and madness.” It’s precisely 7 pm and Anton Solomon is just kicking off a rehearsal for the Moving Parts Theatre production of Noises Off, which is scheduled to open 15 days later. “We’ve got two weeks. Lots of time,” Solomon adds encouragingly. For the nine-member cast, this is the most …
Musical Sorts Out the Craziness of Craigslist
Inheriting her grandmother’s hymn-book — stuffed with press clippings, flowers and a nuclear disarmament card from the 1960s — took Veda Hille on a journey she hadn’t anticipated. “It was a real treasure-trove, this book,” said Hille, a Vancouver-based musician. With no traditional church background, Hille started delving into the hymns, especially those by 18th-century …
A Different Face of Mamet
In graduate school, Stephen Drover “dabbled” with the work of American playwright David Mamet, but he had never directed a full Mamet play. So when the Guild Theatre’s artistic director, Katherine McCallum, told him of the Guild’s plans for a professional co-production with Sour Brides Theatre of Mamet’s 1999 play, Boston Marriage, Drover was definitely …
Getting the Message
Editor’s Note: Amber Church’s assignment was to gather some impressions of Yukon Educational Theatre’s latest production from a few young audience members who saw it before it travelled to Yukon communities. Dean Eyre’s new play, Wake and Bake, takes an in-depth look at the lives of two sisters and their experiences with drug use. Opening …
Wolves, Words & French Press
Not everyone who enters Nakai Theatre‘s 24-hour playwriting competition is as prolific as Eva van Loon. Some writers manage to eke out nine pages or so. Others produce a respectable 28 or 30. Some miraculously manage 60 pages or more in the time allotted. In 2009, van Loon cranked out a full three-act play, called …
Honest Talk Cafe
How can one person transform herself into many people? How can one location turn into several without changing a thing? Go and see Café Daughter and you’ll find out. Somehow, this one-woman show, based on a true story of an ethnically mixed young girl growing up in Saskatchewan, manages to pull it off. Dawson City had the …
Wit and Film Noir
When Betty Beemer needs a health pamphlet written, she turns to Vaughn Fischer, a freelancer whose career is going nowhere. But Vaughn quickly becomes obsessed with turning a simple tract on syphilis into a masterpiece. That’s the basic premise of Peter Jickling’s quirky play, Syphilis: A Love Story, which Ramshackle Theatre will present for a …
Stories you’ve never heard, brilliantly told
I went Saturday night to The River, a Nakai production, with Michael Greyeyes directing a play written by David Skelton, Judith Rudakoff and Joseph Tisiga. To be frank, I wasn’t sure if I was interested in what I thought would be a sermon on homelessness. I just didn’t want the guilt. But local playwright David …
Voice for the Voiceless
Nakai Theatre’s newest production, The River, promises to shine an unblinking light on Whitehorse by presenting voices that normally go unheard. The “sprawling, episodic” play, co-written by Nakai’s artistic director David Skelton, Yukon artist Joseph Tisiga and Toronto playwright Judith Rudakoff, tells the stories of 12 separate characters in 60 scenes with no conventional narrative …
Into the Playground
Director Gerald Isaac thinks a playground makes an ideal setting for the Guild Theatre’s production of the musical comedy Into the Woods, which opens next week. With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine, the play has been a favourite of community and school theatre groups since its Broadway premiere in …
Venality vs Purity in Tinseltown
The strength of most plays by Pulitzer Prize-winner David Mamet lies in his characters, the moral murk in which they often exist and, above all, the laser-like precision of his dialogue. With the possible exception of his screenplay, Wag the Dog, plot is not Mamet’s long suit. Speed-The-Plow, his 1988 satire about the shallowness and …
A Blast of Craziness
Rocket ships hanging from strings, tinfoil meteorites and cardboard cutouts… who doesn’t love a good ’60s sci-fi B-movie? They’re low-fi and cheesy, with terrible acting, and were an instant inspiration for Brian Fidler. After watching several in a row, the actor, director, puppeteer and Ramshackle Theatre founder thought about how to translate that quality to …
Artrepreneur: Vastly Entertaining
Cruelty makes good comedy. There’s something fascinating and often hilarious about watching one character tear into another. And as the Song of Songs warns us, jealousy is as cruel as the grave. The Guild/Sour Bride co-production of David Mamet’s Boston Marriage brought the opening night audience to helpless laughter. I sat in the first row …
Loaded for Laughs
It’s the night of the first big snowfall, and that sound you’re hearing is the explosion of standup comedy in Whitehorse. At the Jarvis Street Saloon, it’s round three of the Punchline Punchout, a competition that pits five teams of comics against each other in five-minute sets, followed by an elimination round of impromptu rants …
A Pan-Northern Performance
It may not have the national audience of a CBC-TV True North concert. And it may not cover as much geography as the cultural events at the upcoming Arctic Winter Games. But a concert at the Yukon Arts Centre (YAC) this week is still a major undertaking that will showcase traditional and contemporary performances from …
Cinema Sunday
The Available Light Cinema series returns to the Yukon Arts Centre on Sunday, November 13 with a full day of film entertainment. Leading off at 2 p.m. is an all-time favourite that spawned a highly successful franchise of adventure films, the 1981 Steven Spielberg classic, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Harrison Ford stars as Indiana …
Inspired by a Face
The portrait of an Inuk woman in a British-style bonnet, looking solemnly from the book cover grabbed Reneltta Arluk’s attention. Her interest only grew after reading Sheila Nickerson’s 2004 book, Midnight to the North. She was captivated by the descriptions of Tookoolito, a woman who, along with her husband, helped guide U.S. explorer Charles Francis …
Mystery and Good Causes
Galen Ashley of the Root Sellers will present his band’s new music amidst the mystique and mystery of the Yukon Transportation Museum at this weekend’s Boys’ and Girls’ Club Masquerade. “It’s really grand. It has a giant airplane in the room,” says Ashley with a hint of awe creeping into his voice. “I really love …
A Little Off the Top: Comedy of Manners
They mean well, and the evening starts on a good footing. But throw in some sumptuous art books and a bottle of rum and, voilà. It’s as if Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf has melded with Lord of the Flies. Reza deftly shows how easily the veneer of civilization can be peeled from any of …
Big Top Dreams
As amusing as Claire Ness is, her commitment to the circus arts is no joke. After spending nearly seven years training in the big smoke of Toronto and Montreal, the Whitehorse based multi-disciplinary entertainer has brought her infectious enthusiasm for the circus to Yukon. Ness’ passion for the performing arts started early. As a wee …
Young man of many parts
It’s not always easy for a 19-year-old to decide what to do next; especially a 19-year-old like Graham Rudge. Should an award-winning year at art school be followed by a mechanical engineering degree, or a stint at circus school? Of course, that would have to be after a semester learning how to be a butcher. …
Love Alive: It Ain’t TV
In the simplest terms, it’s a variety show. In real terms, it’s a little more than that. Love Alive is the finale for a Brave New Works season based on the theme of living art, and promises something different from previous offerings at the Yukon Arts Centre or Baked Cafe. “When you come to Love …
Review: Bubbles of Self-Delusion
Don’t expect deep truths about the human condition from the Guild Theatre’s latest offering, The Food Chain. Don’t expect a plot that’s more than paper-thin. Don’t even expect characters that are anything but stereotypes, deliberately pushed to the point of caricature by a playwright deft enough to pull it off. What you can expect, unless …
Playwright Sherry MacDonald shares her secrets to the creative process
Sherry MacDonald, the newest writer-in-residence at Dawson City’s Berton House, has a place secured in heaven. “There’s a special place in heaven for single moms who have raised three boys,” she says. MacDonald is a playwright and her plays have been seen on stages in Vancouver, Calgary, and Florida. Her sons are now grown and …
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Peeling the Veneer
Two sets of well-to-do parents meet in a well-appointed living room to discuss a small problem in a civilized manner. One of their sons has hit the other with a stick, damaging two of the latter’s teeth. Yasmina Reza’s script starts with the matter of dental bills, but more importantly, an apology that’s meant to …
A Musical
“At times it’s felt like trying to build a house with popsicle sticks and paperclips, but we’ve been ridiculously persistent and resourceful,” says Britt Small, co-director of Atomic Vaudeville’s upcoming theatrical event Ride the Cyclone. Imagine six actors with complex choreography, a book of high-voltage songs, and bombastic writing fitting in a space smaller than …
Anatomy of an Effigy
Brian Oman wants to put the winter blues behind him this weekend. The young baker is now in his fourth Yukon winter. “Just sitting around for the winter, waiting for summer to come, to be more productive and get on with my life, is really the big challenge I’ve had since I came to Whitehorse. …
Step this way for hilarity
We meet our Canadian protagonist, Richard Hannay, played by George Maratos, in his West End London flat. It’s the mid-Thirties and he’s bored. So he decides to go to the theatre. This cures his boredom. It will cure yours. In Hannay’s case, a mysterious woman takes a seat next to him, shoots into the ceiling …
Artrepreneur: Trippy Nordic Odyssey
Peer Gynt tells the life story of an irresponsible young man who grows into an old man adventuring through the world. He returns home and makes an accounting of his life when faced with the prospect of death. We open on a scene with Peer’s mother, where he beguiles her with outrageous lies about his …
Nordic Fantasy
The 19th century Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen, is best known for the naturalistic dialogue and depth of character in such stage classics as Hedda Gabler, An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck and A Doll’s House. Less well-known is his 1867 fantasy, Peer Gynt, which wasn’t written as a play, but as an epic …
A Tale in Two Tellings
Ten years after Louis Riel was convicted of high treason and hanged, a young Cree warrior shot a cow near Duck Lake, Saskatchewan, where the so-called North-West Rebellion had begun. According to some versions of the story, the animal was intended for his wedding feast. That young man, known in English as Almighty Voice, was …
MacHomer Erectus
Somewhere along the line, Rick Miller wandered from Moshe Safdie’s Legoland and the Bauhaus world of Walter Gropius to the raucous playground of William Shakespeare and …wait for it! … Homer Simpson. Miller is an actor, writer, singer, painter, comic and mynah bird capable of mimicking the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Meatloaf, Andrea …
A Comedy of Obsession
When the Guild Theatre’s artistic director, Katherine McCallum, was choosing this year’s season, she may not have known playwright Nicky Silver was about to hit the big time. After two decades of writing successfully for off-off-Broadway, then off-Broadway, Silver will finally penetrate the Great White Way this month with his newest work, The Lyons. “I …
Conflicting Concepts of Justice
The discovery of long-buried human remains in Dawson City two years ago shone a public spotlight on a little-known chapter in Yukon history. The four bodies unearthed at the site of a former Northwest Mounted Police palisade turned out to be those of prisoners executed and secretly buried during the Klondike Gold Rush. Two of …
Showing Their IZM
It all started with a movie. When Yvon Soglo was growing up in Aylmer, Quebec, his preferred method of physical expression was channeled through sports. Then in high school he saw a film called Breaking, and a new world opened itself to him. The film was about b-boys and girls (break dancers, to the uninitiated), …
A Fresh Footing for NLSD
Change and innovation are the order of the day as the Northern Lights School of Dance (NLSD) begins is 2012-13 season. Not only does the school have a new artistic director and a new mandate, there is even a brand-new entity for emerging artists, called Young Ballet of the Yukon (YBY). Artistic Director Julio Hong …
Comedy Dominates in Venus
The play is new. The book that inspired it is 142 years old. The song dates back to the Summer of Love. The kinky proclivity all three works explore may be as old as time. Venus in Fur, the David Ives play that opened Off-Broadway to much acclaim in 2010 before moving to the Great …
From Eden to Legoland
For several years, Amitai Marmorstein has periodically donned a drab brown uniform, complete with long stockings, shorts,vest and tie and Harry Potter glasses. Thus garbed as 13-year-old schoolboy, he joins Celine Stubel, as his similarly-attired 16-year-old sister, to tell the story of Legoland. “These two siblings, Penny and Ezra Lamb, grew up on Elysium, this …
Unpacking Memory
What is memory? Where does it live? Where can it take you? Who does it belong to? What is it like to live without it? These are some of the questions at the heart of Broken, a new play by Whitehorse theatre maker Brian Fidler that opened this week in as a Nakai Ramshackle Theatre …
Syphilis Goes South
It sounds nasty. A small group of northerners is scheming to infect a major southern city with Syphilis next month. But there’s no need to alert public health officials. Ramshackle Theatre is merely hoping to spread an infectious dose of laughter to audiences at the Edmonton International Fringe Festival, by means of Whitehorse playwright Peter …
Journeying Through Dance
This week, Dawson City welcomes back Raven Spirit Dance, which has enjoyed a well-established presence in town for several years. Choreographer Michelle Olson is somewhat of a part-time Dawsonite herself and member of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation. She has previously created two pieces that were performed at the Dänojà Zho Cultural Centre. This summer …
Confusion and Betrayal
When siblings embark on a new life together in unfamiliar surroundings, it can often result in confusion, conflict, even betrayal. Especially if one is working hard to keep everything together and the other’s life is a mess. That’s the premise of Wake and Bake, a new play by Whitehorse playwright Dean Eyre, which is currently …
Staging Canada’s Parks
It’s a challenge trying to engage an audience in a meaningful celebration of all of Canada’s national parks, national historic sites, and national marine conservation areas in 40 minutes or less. But the award-winning Mountain WIT Theatre Troupe has proven that it is possible. Mountain WIT is a professional theatre troupe based in Banff National …
Yukon B-Boys Go International
It took nearly two weeks of persistent e-mails, phone calls and text messages to nail down an interview with the Whitehorse breakdancing crew, Groundwork Sessions (GWS). The chase finally resulted in a late-night Skype interview with Nick Robinson, who was conducting a workshop in Saskatoon, SK. It also yielded a last-minute chat with Nick’s younger …
Reconnecting Severed Bonds
Kenneth T. Williams had never heard of his distant cousin, Lillian Dyck, until 1999, when he was asked to suggest names of suitable Saskatchewan candidates for the National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement award. He first approached another cousin, a well-known writer and aboriginal historian, who told him, “No, no, no. Don’t nominate me. I …
Growing Up to Play Barbie
As a young boy, Nina Arsenault’s desire to be beautiful came from a “deep, deep place.” Now a full-fledged woman with the face and body of a Vegas showgirl, Arsenault makes a living from talking about her life experiences. Next Thursday at the Yukon Arts Centre, as part of the Nakai Theatre Pivot Festival, she’ll …
Spying on the Neighbours
When Martin McDonagh’s play, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, first emerged in 1996, the 23-year-old playwright was quickly caught up in a storm of controversy. “There were a lot of Irish who thought this was just the most offensive, stereotypical thing to come across the border since the original English invasion,” explains Clinton Walker, who …
A Christmas wish for stability, sanity and love
PLEASE NOTE: Leaving town for two weeks, I was grateful to be able to review a non-public dress rehearsal of The Soul Menders, on Nov. 15, before I went. As per What’s Up Yukon policy, I will not be commenting on flaws that dress rehearsals usually find, then fix. (3 out of 5 stars) Like …
The one and only Dessert & Dance
“No.” The answer came from Rebekah Bell and Bruce Johnston in the perfect unison you would expect from two band teachers – from Porter Creek and F.H. Collins Secondary School, respectively. The question was if they would add an extra Dessert & Dance this year since it is so popular and raises money for the All-City …
My Lovely Chinese Lady
Cher Yukon, Comment ca va? I am now living in “La Belle Province”. I think I should first give you a brief history about how I came to be here in Montréal after having spent over 25 years in the Yukon where I married twice, raised my two children and worked at jobs I loved …
Play Makers: The Untimely Demise of Volcanic Joe
BY GEORGE MARATOS The pink roses fell gently from Miles Canyon Bridge and the ashes soon followed. Scattered from an empty case of 12-year-old Glenfiddich scotch, they speckled into the Yukon River and continued north through the green current. After a few seconds of quiet reflection, teary-eyed friends, family and actors raised their cups of …
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MacLean Offers Peers Comic Relief
Sheila MacLean, 18, recently won the Safe Partying Comic Contest put on by Les EssentiElles and the Victoria Faulkner Women’s Centre. MacLean did not even hear about the contest until three days before the comics were due, when her boyfriend, Dean Williams, pointed out the advertising poster in Starbucks. This direct deadline did not intimidate …
Aboriginal Art on Stage and Screen
BY SHARON SHORTY Katie Johnson stops for a minute to eat at a busy restaurant while chatting about the next large event she’s working on: the 1st Annual Yukon First Nations Arts Festival to be held in Whitehorse June 21 to 28. This young vibrant Southern Tutchone woman is the event management co-ordinator and assistant …
“Oh the thinks you can think, when you think about Seuss.”
BY TARA McCARTHY Walking through the doors to the auditorium is like travelling into a world of storybook proportions – the air is filled with energetic rhythms, while the stage is devoured by colour with a rainbow cast of characters. After weeks of work, the dedicated Music Arts and Drama students at Wood Street Centre …
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MAD kids break the stereotypes
Are you worried about the state of our youth today? I have a cure for you. It is something that works for me every time: I attend a MAD performance at Wood Street Centre. Music Arts Drama is an experiential program advocated for, and now run by, Mary Sloan and Jeff Nordlund. Two semesters a …
Feeling the Light
It’s taken 20 years, but Gary Bailie has light burnt into his soul. With a background of lighting up thousands of different shows, Bailie has learned the survival skill of relying on his intuition and feeling. In an electronic age, he infuses human touch into his world of colour. Influenced by the very thing that …
Whips and Whimsy
BY TARA McCARTHY Variety is the spice of life. And Tang Productions’ Varietease aims to tickle all your senses. “Expect the unexpected. It’s going to be a fun ride,” says director Brian Fidler of the unapologetically sexy show. From sultry singers to scantily clad dancers and risqué comedy, Varietease finds the artistry and hilarity in …