Published in the Summer 2006 401 Richmond Update
Mounting a brand new play is never an easy task - doing it with a cast of graduating theatre students who don’t know the language in which it is written is nothing short of a challenge. The Centre for Indigenous Theatre ( CIT, Studio 205) certainly rose to the challenge in their year-end show Gegwah, which played over the last weekend in April. Gegwah was written in Odawa, the language of the Anishnaabec nations, by CIT’s Artist in Residence, Playwright Alanis King.
CIT’s Artistic Director/Principal Rose Stella said: “it’s a very important project for us, the students, and the community of people who are speakers of the language striving to keep it alive. It’s wonderful to watch the students concentrate and be so excited about working with the language. Gegwah started small and has just gotten bigger and bigger.”
Like Gegwah, CIT has experienced its own growth and development over the past thirty-two years. Started as a four week summer program in 1974 called the NativeTheatreSchool it changed its name to the Centre for Indigenous Theatre in 1994. In 1998 it expanded into a full-time, three-year program and two introductory summer programs that bring together classical theatre training and traditional teachings to support and enrich Aboriginal voices through, self-exploration, song, story and performance.
The school is not just a training facility, but is working to explore creating a methodology that is tied to indigenous cultural practices and documenting work that is being cultivated in all theatrical disciplines. The artist in residence program is reflective of the new relationships being forged by the school to ensure that voices have a platform and a legacy.
“There are a lot of people in Canada doing great work and these are the kind of people we are trying to bring to the school to nurture while they nurture our students. If we don’t say how amazing they are, they’re going to disappear. We have a responsibility to make sure that they’re held up, like Dorothy, the woman who is helping us with our language in Gegwah. She’s a humble, quiet woman who teaches in the school system, but she is working with the language making sure the words are true to their intent. It seems like a small thing on one level, but in the larger picture of preserving and reviving our language and culture it is so important.”
The Centre for Indigenous Theatre have just in the last two years managed to secure space so that all three years of their training programs can be delivered out of one location and rely on partnerships with other educational institutions, like the University of Toronto and Trent University, for performance space. CIT is still very small for theatre school standards. The idea of having their own theatre is the dream of Artistic Director Rose Stella, but Managing Director JL Watson is a little more realistic about some of the burdens this can create. As JL explains: “I think were taking baby steps towards sustainability around physical plant. Things are better than they were, and they will continue to get better. There’s freedom in having a theatre, but there’s also extra financial pressure.”
For the time being, CIT is focused on ensuring that they are delivering the best possible education for their students and creating an atmosphere of support for new artists. The school is the only one to offer first year students the opportunity to stage their own monologues, based on work done in a story creation class, in March of every year.
They also work diligently to attract the best faculty possible who act as valuable guides to the students. Essentially, the school acts as a kind of artistic incubator that not only fosters creative expression, but makes sure that expression is respected, supported, and given a chance to be heard.
Rose sounds like a proud mother when she talks about the accomplishments of her students and the talents of the CIT staff. “Everyone has their own richness. Sara Richardson our Development Coordinator and Holly Pichette are artists, and how many languages does Deepa Kanal our Marketing Coordinator speak that she’s so shy about? JL has a valuable background in producing. They have immense abilities. It is an organization that is rich with lots of vibrant talent, not just faculty, but our staff as well. I need to commend them.”
Deepa spoke of a Native Theatre School graduate Harmony Rice who is now the Editor of Spirit Magazine, “students have gone on to create their own theatre companies, go back into their own communities and do community theatre with youth, among other things.” We also talked about Candace Wild, a graduate who has become a Producer and Amy White who has developed a monologue from her first year story creation class that was recently part of the Wisagachuck Festival put on by Native Earth Performing Arts.
The Centre for Indigenous Theatre should be proud of their accomplishments and they have many more to look forward to. The school will be starting it’s year in September with a Metis fiddle and dance workshop at the Native Canadian Centre and is hosting a workshop with Playwright Tomson Highway that’s open to the public. Also, the school has been fortunate enough to have Muriel Miguel, Co-founder of the Spiderwoman Theatre Group and Author, join their faculty for four months next year.
Rose didn’t want to give anything away about next years year-end show, but we could tell from her restrained excitement that it will be something spectacular.
For more information visit: www.indigenoustheatre.com
CIT Staff left to right: Managing Director JL Watson, Artistic Director/Principal Rose Stella, Outreach Program Coordinator Holly Pichette, Development Coordinator Sarah Richardson, and Marketing Coordinator Deepa Kanal.
