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 …
If you’ve flipped through a copy of Esquire Magazine in the past four years, there’s a 50 percent chance you’ve read a story by Whitehorse writer Luke Dittrich. And there’s a 40 percent chance you’re a woman. Although Equire is primarily a men’s interest magazine, Dittrich says, “Pretty much everything I write for them is …
World of Words: On assignment with Luke Dittrich Read More »
The first Youth Art Enrichment (YAC) week in Dawson City was inspired in the early years of the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture (KIAC) by the long-running Youth Authors’ Conference that takes place in Whitehorse. It’s so successful in its own write – so to speak – that now it seems it’s just the …
As a child, storyteller and projection artist Daniel Barrow shielded his eyes from glimpsing the jackets of horror films in the video store. With puberty, his fear of the horrific and obscene became an obsession with the genre. I interrupted Barrow at home in Montreal last week, watching the 1993 comedy-fantasy-horror film Leprechaun before heading …
For seven years, Digging Roots’ lead guitarist, Raven Kanatakta could not pick up an instrument. “My arms and hands weren’t working,” he says. “I was worried.” In 1996, halfway through his degree in jazz composition and performance at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Kanatakta developed arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome in his hands. He …
Les Walker had a particular goal in mind when he teamed up with guitarist Clancy McInnis in 2009 to form the band, Common Knowledge. He wanted to perform at the Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards (CAMA) and have an album in nomination. When the alt-rock group’s debut album, Colour Blind, came out this May, it brought …
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 …
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 …
For some people, fly-fishing is a sport. For others, it’s an art. But for the diehard fly-fisher, it’s more like a religion. Doug Hnatiuk chuckles at the comparison. “It really is a passion for people, once they start to experience some of that outdoor serenity, peace and tranquility that comes with just a really quiet …
October, the month of change from no snow to snow, has just passed by. In the southern Yukon the year is nicely divided into two equal parts, with half a year where snow stays on the ground, and half a year where, well, there is always some snow somewhere. Last week everything dripped with melting …
There are three ways to get a CD made. The traditional way is to pay your dues, playing live and building up your experience and renown, and applying for grants to cover some of the costs. For those who can afford it, you can build your own studio and record yourself. But the way that everyone dreams of …
