What's Up Yukon Columnist Jerome Stueart has a BA in Theatre, writes fiction and enjoys seeing a good play.
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Jerome Stueart
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. Read more
Guild goes 'Into the Woods' and gets its wish: Magic
Just in time for spring, the Guild brings us Into the Woods. Thank you. It's a refreshing, colourful splash after a long, cold winter. Read more
Wicked wits of the west spar in Irish black comedy
The Beauty Queen of Leenane, the award-winning play by Martin McDonagh, challenges an audience to watch desperation and loneliness cause good people to hurt one another. Read more
The brutal, relentless comedy of The Boys
The Boys makes its Canadian debut here in Whitehorse. It had a run in Philadelphia, but Kris Elgstrand is Canadian, and he came up to Whitehorse to see his play premiered on his native soil. Read more
The Trickster as Bingo Master
Gwaandak Theatre reads the two-act play tonight, Wednesday, July 14, in the last of its Aboriginal playwrights-infused Summer Reading Series. What's the play about? In the words of Pat St. Germain.... Read more
River Walk Columns appear out of nowhere overnight
Joyce Majiski swears she put the columns up two years ago, and yet, as if I've just been given x-ray glasses, this is the first time I've noticed them. Five columns of various earth-tone colours, with metal rings girding their middles.... Read more
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. Read more
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...." Read more
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.... Read more
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. Read more
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. Read more
Follow Alice to explore your playful otherworldly self
She's leaving behind her sterile, affluent, predictable world and putting herself in the hands of the White Rabbit — who is late for an "important" date. Once in that world, she is looking for a way home. She is, in Daniel Janke's words, "the archety Read more
Gay community sees hope in The Laramie
Even in 2010, the fear that gay people have is strong. The play, concerning the 1998 brutal beating, torture and abandonment of Matthew Shepard on a fence outside of Laramie, Wyoming, because he was gay, can't help but hit gays and lesbians.... Read more
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. Read more
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. Read more
Avalanche warnings: What you think you know, can kill you
"You can't read the Avalanche Conditions Report and make it apply to backcountry skiing," Jennifer Magnuson warns me. She's the communication analyst for the Department of Highways and Public Works. Read more
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.... Read more
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." Read more
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. Read more
The 3rd annual Pivot Festival: Floating, swimming, flying
Feeling a bit like the barker in this scenario, David Skelton is proud of this third-year line-up. "The third, fourth and fifth year of a new festival are always the times when you ask — will it float, swim or fly?" Nakai's artistic director says." Read more
Issue: 2016-12-07, PHOTO: courtesy of Jerome Stueart
This is Home
Former Yukoner Jerome Stueart and Yukon author Marcelle Dubé will read together form their books on Dec. 13 at Baked Cafe. It will be an evening about fantasy novels. Marcelle Dubé is still deciding from which of her many books she will read: ... Read more
Issue: 2016-11-30, PHOTO: Jessica Simon
Write through the winter
While others hunker down against winter’s wrath, the local literary scene is hotter than ever. The winter Writers’ Roundtable organized by the Friends of the Whitehorse Library (FOWL) provides a thorough overview of events for the coming season... Read more
August 7, 2014 Issue
A week full of poetry
It was a rainy and windy afternoon in LePage Park on Friday, July 11, when author Jessica Simon started reading her poem, “A Spot to Watch the Fireworks”. Read more
Northern opry pairs budding musicians and seasoned pros
Get your cowboy hats and boots ready: this year's Northern Opry Project is fast approaching. Read more
Reviewers under review
Like mushrooms after rain, interesting mini-discussions pop up spontaneously from time to time on the ArtsNet list serve. A recent one that caught my eye concerned the age-old topic of arts reviews/critiques: what are they, what purpose.... Read more
A word (or two) about What's Up Yukon
With not one, but two new editors now in harness at What's Up Yukon, our loyal readers may be wondering what that means and how their magazine might be changing. Read more
The new world of Arctica Magazine
It's a technical wonder that wasn't even guessed at, back when Captain Kirk walked through sliding doors and talked on his "cell phone", yet it has allowed the very organic expression of ideas that has found a home in her Arctica Magazine at www.arct Read more
Alleyway perspectives
A gritty, plain alley is transformed into an artist's studio, with ever-shifting shadows to complement the portraits. Morgan "Mo" Whibley is the photographer that makes the mundane magic and the ordinary into something fleeting and original. Read more
I conclude that socks and sandals are fashionable ...
It's a walking, talking paradox ... well, mostly it's a walking paradox: If wearing socks with sandals is so wrong, why do so many of us do it? I like to think it's because we Yukoners are soooo polite. If our tourists do it, whether it be from poor Read more
Theatre reviews go interactive
I am very pleased with myself in having taken care of that first step in finding a professional theatre reviewer: Jerome Stueart is a friend of mine and has contributed to What's Up Yukon in the past.... Read more
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. Read more
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. Read more
Nebula of novelists take the NaNoWriMo challenge
The writers are all taking part in National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo as it is known; 22 of them are students in two of Jerome Stueart's creative writing classes and Stueart, himself, will be joining them for the challenge. Read more
What's new for you
We have found a new printer: Webco Leduc. It is a company that has come highly recommended and its people have bent over backwards to convince us they will do a good job for you, the readers. Read more
Giller prize winner attends Writers' Festival
Giller Prize winner Elizabeth Hay is among five authors taking part in this year's Yukon Writers' Festival which starts April 30. The five writers will be reading their work at public events in Whitehorse and Haines Junction.... Read more
Turning fact into non-fiction
At the age of 30, Jerome Stueart met his mother for the first time. It's an unusual story, but not unique. So here's the twist: Stueart knew he was adopted but hadn't even been looking for his mother; she tracked him down. Read more