Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company raises profile of indigenous peoples
The Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company has concluded another compelling season of live theatre, featuring thoughtprovoking and emotionally charged performances.
One of the most popular shows of the past season was called Dreary and Izzy, a coproduction with Western Canada Theatre, Gateway Theatre, Persephone Theatre and SNTC.
“It was a really good season for us. I am really proud of all the work of all the artists,” says artistic director Curtis Peeteetuce. According to Peeteetuce, the 2014-2015 season promises to be even better with a slightly different direction in terms of play selection.
“We’re going to focus and emphasize a little bit more of the entertainment component of theatre, so we’re keeping our programming light next season. We’re doing a couple of comedies – a few are heartwarming and will tug at people’s heart-strings in a positive way,” Peeteetuce explains.
The first show of the season is SNTC’s Christmas play called N’cimos (pronounced nee-chee-moose), which means “sweetheart” in Cree.
“Out in Cree country a lot of people have a lot of fun with the word N’cimos, so we’re really going to employ a lot of that humour into the story,” Peeteetuce says. N’cimos will also tour through several Saskatchewan communities.
The second show of the season is a Circle of Voices production. COV is the SNTC youth program. The show is called The House
You Build and is written by notable Canadian playwright Donna-Michelle St. Bernard. She was featured last year in the Persephone Theatre production called A Man A Fish.
In what will be a first for a Circle of Voice production, The House You Build will include contemporary and traditional dance.
“I’ve known Donna-Michelle for a couple of years now and it was just a blessing that she was interested in writing the next Circle of Voices play for us,” says Peeteetuce. “We’re bringing in professional dance choreographers, pop artists, as well as cultural leaders.”
Drew Hayden Taylor’s latest play, Crees in the Caribbean, will be the headlining show for SNTC in spring 2015. The story revolves around a couple whose children send them on a second honeymoon to celebrate their 35th anniversary. Neither of these elders have left their remote community before and now the couple are boarding a plane and traveling to the Caribbean.
“We’re bringing back the work of Drew Hayden Taylor because producing Drew Hayden Taylor has been very successful for us. The Saskatoon community is very well aware of his work through Persephone, through independent production and through SNTC, as well. We’re anticipating this will be a great show,” says Peeteetuce.
While it is technically the off-season right now, the SNTC crew is still very busy. The theatre company has been chosen to do a 15-minute performance piece at the opening ceremonies of the North American Indigenous Games in Regina, July 20.
The performance piece will be written by Kenneth T. Williams and directed by Yvette Nolan. Peeteetuce will also be performing in the production. The opening ceremonies will be broadcast across the United States and Canada.
Also this year, SNTC will serve as host theatre for the annual gathering of the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance, Oct. 16 to 19. SNTC will be providing entertainment each evening. Delegates from across the country will attend the conference including producers, artistic directors, playwrights, actors and directors.
As the Theatre company celebrates its 15th anniversary this year, Peeteetuce feels this makes them established.Yet he knows there’s still so much more that the organization wants to accomplish.
“We really want to aim to be a sustainable and inclusive theatre company. We don’t want our community supposing SNTC is exclusively for indigenous artists or the indigenous community. We’re very much about universal messaging and universal performance. We just come from the Cree tradition and that’s because this is the home of Cree territory,” says Peeteetuce. “And also because our founding member Gordon Tootoosis and Tantoo Cardinal, they were also Cree, so we very much honour their language and their culture and traditions.”
Peeteetuce promises the next year will bring some “big and positive changes” to SNTC. He was mum on what those changes would be specifically, but added, “they are all very exciting.”