The Alchemy of ALFF
ALFF has evolved into a two-week, 100-plus film event. There are 45 feature- and mid-length films, over 50 short films, live concerts…
Nakai Theatre
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
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.
Puppets and pandemics
Really big puppets are coming to a park near you, but they’ll be keeping their distance.
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.
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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From stage to page
When Yukon playwright Patti Flather launched the book of her highly acclaimed play, Paradise, on a warm June evening at Baked Café in Whitehorse, Mac’s Fireweed Books sold out all their copies. “The thing about a play, is after it’s produced it’s done. A book lasts,” says Flather. Flather is a co-founder of Gwaandak Theatre, …
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. …
Creating Healthy Communities
United Way Yukon is a charity that raises money to fund Yukon organizations. Its mandate is to fund programs that enhance the “physical, mental and social well-being” of Yukoners. So says Brian Bonia, who is United Way Yukon’s campaign cabinet director. It is a volunteer position. An example of these organizations are Blood Ties Four …
The Must-See Guide to the Pivot Theatre Festival
By La Compagnie L’Immédiat/Camille Boitel Jan. 27-29, 8 p.m., Yukon Arts Centre Co-presented with the Yukon Arts Centre, this European classic comes all the way from Paris, France. Perhaps more exciting than the distance travelled, or the point of origin, is that its Yukon debut will also be its North American premiere. Yukon audiences will be …
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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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
The three faces behind the Yukon Film Society: There’s more than one way to eat popcorn
A group of movie lovers gathers on a frigid Sunday in Whitehorse. In an apartment living room, they watch movies and eat popcorn. They laugh with a good comedy and are swept away with a gripping drama. But the home of Yukon Film Society president Michael Vernon is not being used just for a good …
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Banding together for business
For this issue, I interviewed three people who, in the business world at least, walk in very different circles. There was Craig Hougen and Mary-Jane Warshawski, the couple who have 20,000 square feet of retail space on Main Street; and Jason Seguin, former artistic director of Nakai Theatre and fine-food enthusiast. Craig and Mary-Jane spend …
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 …
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 …
Roman Danylo knows how to make you laugh
Buy your tickets early for Thursday night’s comedy show at the Yukon Arts Centre so that you can get a good seat in the back. You see, Roman Danylo is one of those comics who gets the audience involved. If you sit too close to the front, you may end up in a slow-motion shoot …
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 …
It’s gonna be a ‘blue’ folklore
Skookum Jim Friendship Centre is doing something different this year with its 2009 Folklore Show on Saturday, Jan. 31: it will be A Night of Blues. Well, it is always a little different from year to year. This 36th edition’s theme emerged after Chris Nash, the producer, and the Folklore Committee saw which acts were …
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,” …
Yukon writers pair up to perform
Yukon writers are pairing up to give a series of weekly readings at the Whitehorse Public Library starting Feb. 5. The readings begin with Al Pope and Miche Genest, on Feb. 5, followed by Patti Flather and Clea Roberts on Feb. 12. Other joint readings are by Claire Eamer and Jerome Stueart, Celia McBride and …
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 …
24-hour contest can be a whacky first step
Bringing a play from the idea stage to the big stage can be overwhelming. Where do you start? Who is there to help? What the heck is dramaturgy and why is it important? During the first part of this year, Nakai Theatre has been working through a strategic-planning process and has been confirmed that it …
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 …
The Intimacy of Live Performance
When you talk about “The Theatre”, these days, it is inevitable that certain eyes will glaze and certain minds will wander. It’s old and out of date, the YouTube crowd might complain. But perhaps the qualities that prevent live theatre from being trendy are the exact same qualities that ensure it will always remain consistently …
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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Sharing the Wealth, Creatively
Amber Walker feels grateful for her lot in life: her husband supports her financially so she can pursue her interests as a visual artist and playwright. Over the past year, in Whitehorse, she has had many opportunities to pursue her artistic interests. David Skelton of Nakai Theatre is helping her as she develops her play. …
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 …
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 …
Nina Arsenault talks about the pursuit of beauty and truth
Nina Arsenault warns me that she’s not about to tell the “typical” transsexual story to Nakai Theatre’s Pivot Festival audiences. You know the story, she says, “Her name is Barbara, she used to be Markus, she never felt right in her own body, she met a doctor and now she’s getting boobs. It’s the same …
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Ron James shifts comedy paradigm
Ron James used to be the spokesman for Texas tourism for three years on CNN. “It was during George Bush senior’s term. I can imagine Saddam Hussein, who watched CNN all the time, really getting to know my face.” James is talking like a freight train on the phone with me. Not jokes, but gems …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Hazel Venzon embraces the Filipino community
Hazel Venzon is holed up in Porter Creek when she Skypes me. She’s been in Whitehorse since December working on her play. “Vancouver has a lot of distractions,” she says, waving her hands a bit to either side of the screen. She came up on her own dime, taking a few risks to be here. …
A Yukon Playwright Presents the Yukon
Celia McBride will be representing us at the 2010 Olympics, in Vancouver. Is she a curler? or a luger? Neither, actually. She’s a local playwright with an incredible opportunity on her hands. As the host country of next year’s Olympics, Canada has been afforded the opportunity to showcase its provinces and territories on the world …
