The team behind Frances Koncan’s Women of the Fur Trade share their reflections and recommendations for sustainable production in theatre creation. Listen to NAC Indigenous Theatre’s Artistic Director Kevin Loring, Native Earth Performing Arts’ Artistic Director Joelle Peters, NAC Indigenous Theatre’s Production Manager Spike Lyne, and Sustainability Consultants Ian Garrett and Laura Phillipps reflect on the process and share their tips for how theatres can incorporate environmental sustainability in new theatre productions. The sustainable creation of this production was made possible through the 2023 Ray Ferris Innovation and Sustainability Grant awarded to Native Earth Performing Arts.
This production of Women of the Fur Trade was a co-production between NAC Indigenous Theatre, The Great Canadian Theatre Company, and Native Earth Performing Arts, and it ran at the National Arts Centre in January 2024.
Frances Končan (she/they) is an Anishinaabe and Slovene playwright currently living in Vancouver, British Columbia, within the shared, unceded, ancestral territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Originally from Couchiching First Nation, they grew up on Treaty 1 territory in Winnipeg, Manitoba and attended the University of Manitoba (BA Psychology) and the City University of New York Brooklyn College (MFA Playwriting). They are currently Assistant Professor of Playwriting at the University of British Columbia. Select plays include Women of the Fur Trade, Space Girl, and zahgidiwin/love.
Dramaturge d’ascendance anishinabe et slovène, Frances Končan (elle/iel) vit à Vancouver, en Colombie-Britannique, sur les territoires ancestraux non cédés et partagés des Nations xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) et səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh). Originaire de la Première Nation de Couchiching, Frances Končan a grandi sur le territoire du Traité no 1, à Winnipeg, au Manitoba. L’artiste est titulaire d’un baccalauréat en psychologie de l’Université du Manitoba et d’une maîtrise en écriture dramatique du Brooklyn College de la City University de New York. Frances Končan enseigne également la dramaturgie à l’Université de la Colombie-Britannique. Parmi ses œuvres, citons Women of the Fur Trade, Space Girl et zahgidiwin/love.
Nlaka'pamux Nation, B.C.
Kevin Loring (Nlaka’pamux, Lytton First Nation) is a Canadian playwright, actor, and director, currently serving as the first Artistic Director of Indigenous Theatre at the National Arts Centre. He has received numerous accolades, including the Governor General’s Award for English-language drama and the Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Original Script for Where the Blood Mixes (2009), which also received a nomination for the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play. His 2019 work, Thanks for Giving, was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for Drama.
Loring began his studies at Cariboo College (now Thompson Rivers University) and completed his theatre education at Studio 58, Langara College. He was recognized as a distinguished alumnus by Thompson Rivers University in 2015 and later awarded an honorary doctorate in 2024. In 2017, he received the REVEAL Indigenous Arts Award from the Hnatyshyn Foundation, and in 2021, he was recognized with an honorary doctorate from the University of Ottawa.
As an actor, Loring’s stage credits include Saint Carmen of the Main, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, and an all-Indigenous production of King Lear at the National Arts Centre in 2012. He has appeared in film and television series, including Arctic Air, Health Nutz, Pathfinder and Bones of Crows. His writing credits feature Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer, Battle of the Birds, and The Boy Who Was Abandoned. In 2023, he collaborated with true-crime author Peter Edwards on Lytton: Climate Change, Colonialism and Life Before the Fire, reflecting on the community’s history and its significance to the Nlaka’pamux people after the devastating wildfire in 2021.
Loring has served as co-curator of the Talking Stick Festival, Artist in Residence at the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre, and current Artistic Director of Savage Society in Vancouver.
Membre de la Première Nation Nlaka’pamux de Lytton, Kevin Loring est un dramaturge, un acteur et un metteur en scène canadien; il est le premier et l’actuel directeur artistique du Théâtre autochtone du Centre national des Arts. Il a reçu diverses récompenses, notamment le Prix littéraire du Gouverneur général en théâtre de langue anglaise et le Prix Jessie-Richardson du meilleur texte original pour sa pièce Where the Blood Mixes (2009), qui a également été mise en nomination pour un prix Dora Mavor Moore de la meilleure nouvelle pièce. En 2019, sa pièce Thanks for Giving a été finaliste aux Prix littéraires du Gouverneur général dans la catégorie théâtre de langue anglaise.
Après des études au Collège Cariboo (aujourd’hui l’Université Thompson Rivers), Kevin Loring parfait sa formation au Studio 58 du Collège Langara. L’Université Thompson Rivers lui a remis un Prix de distinction en 2015, avant de lui décerner un doctorat honorifique en 2024. En 2017, il a remporté le prix en art autochtone REVEAL de la Fondation Hnatyshyn et a reçu en 2021 un doctorat honorifique de l’Université d’Ottawa.
Au théâtre, on a pu le voir dans Saint Carmen of the Main, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, et la production entièrement autochtone de King Lear au Centre national des Arts (2012). Au cinéma et à la télévision, il a joué dans Arctic Air, Health Nutz, Pathfinder (Le sang du guerrier, en VF) et Bones of Crows (L’ombre des corbeaux, en VF). Comme auteur, on lui doit notamment Little Red Warrior and His Lawyer, Battle of the Birds et The Boy Who Was Abandoned. En 2023, il a coécrit avec l’auteur spécialiste en affaires criminelles Peter Edwards, Lytton: Climate Change, Colonialism and Life Before the Fire, un ouvrage qui retrace l’histoire de Lytton et de la communauté Nlaka’pamux et s’interroge sur l’avenir de la ville après l’incendie dévastateur de 2021.
Kevin Loring a œuvré comme coorganisateur du Festival Talking Stick, artiste résident au Vancouver Playhouse Theatre et directeur artistique de la Savage Society à Vancouver.
Joelle Peters (she/her) is an Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) award-winning playwright and actor from Walpole Island First Nation in Southwestern Ontario. A graduate of Seneca College’s Acting for Camera and Voice Program, Joelle has appeared on Shoresy (Crave/Hulu), Web of Lies (Discovery+), and in the film In Her City (Raven West Films Ltd).
Selected theatre credits: Dreary and Izzy (Theatre Northwest), The Election (Nightwood/Theatre Direct/Commonboots/Passe Muraille), Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth (Western Canada Theatre/Thousand Islands Playhouse), Two Odysseys: Pimooteewin (Signal/Soundstreams).
She is also the Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts.
In 2020, Joelle was named the Siminovitch Prize Protegee for Playwriting by Laureate Tara Beagan. Joelle’s plays include Frozen River (co-written by Carrie Costello and Michaela Washburn, winner of the 2021 Sharon Enkin Plays for Young People award), Niizh (commissioned by the Blyth Festival, premiered at Native Earth Performing Arts), and Do You Remember? (commissioned by Burnt Thicket Theatre, supported by Punctuate!/Pemmican Playwrights Unit) which is available for listening on Spotify and Apple Music.
Instagram: @joellepeters.jpg
Twitter: @j0ellepeters
Joelle Peters (elle) est une dramaturge et actrice Anishinaabe (Ojibwé) primée, originaire de la Première Nation de l'île Walpole dans le sud-ouest de l'Ontario. Diplômée du programme de théâtre et de voix pour la caméra du Collège Seneca, Joelle a joué dans Shoresy (Crave/Hulu), Web of Lies (Discovery+) et dans le film In Her City (Raven West Films Ltd).
Parmi ses crédits théâtraux sélectionnés, citons Dreary and Izzy (Theatre Northwest), The Election (Nightwood/Theatre Direct/Commonboots/Passe Muraille), Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth (Western Canada Theatre/Thousand Islands Playhouse), Two Odysseys: Pimooteewin (Signal/Soundstreams).
Elle est également la directrice artistique de Native Earth Performing Arts.
En 2020, Joelle a été nommée protégée du Prix Siminovitch pour la dramaturgie par la lauréate Tara Beagan. Les pièces de Joelle incluent Frozen River (co-écrite avec Carrie Costello et Michaela Washburn, lauréate du prix Sharon Enkin Plays for Young People en 2021), Niizh (commandée par le Blyth Festival, première au Native Earth Performing Arts) et Do You Remember? (commandée par Burnt Thicket Theatre, soutenue par Punctuate!/Pemmican Playwrights Unit), disponible à l'écoute sur Spotify et Apple Music. Instagram : @joellepeters.jpg Twitter : @j0ellepeters
Ian Garrett is Associate Professor of Ecological Design for Performance at York University; director of the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts; and Producer for the mixed reality production company Toasterlab. He maintains a design practice focused on ecology, technology and scenography and he is currently working with Rulan Tangen on Groundworks, looking at native lands in Northern California through the collaborations with artists from Pomo, Wappo, and Ohlone communities; and with Swim Pony Performing Arts in Philadelphia on Story Trails focusing on the trails in watershed areas of Philadelphia through geolocated immersive audio. Other projects include the mixed-reality geolocated project Transmission (FuturePlay/Edinburgh and Future of Storytelling Festival/New York), the set and energy systems for Zata Omm's Vox:Lumen at the Harbourfront Centre and Crimson Collective’s Ascension, a solar 150’ wide crane at Coachella. With Chantal Bilodeau, he co-directs the Climate Change Theatre Action. His writing includes Arts, the Environment, and Sustainability for Americans for the Arts; The Carbon Footprint of Theatrical Production in Readings in Performance and Ecology, and Theatre is No Place for a Plant in Landing Stages from the Ashden Directory. He serves on the Board of Directors for Associated Designers of Canada.
Ian Garrett est professeur associé de Ecological Design for Performance à l’Université York; directeur du Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts; et réalisateur pour la compagnie de production de réalité mixte Toasterlab.Il mène une pratique de design axée sur l’écologie, la technologie et la scénographie, et travaille présentement avec Rulan Tangen sur Groundworks, examinant les terres autochtones dans le nord de la Californie par l’entremise de collaborations avec des artistes des communautés Pomo, Wappo, et Ohlone. Il collabore également avec Swim Pony Performing Arts à Philadelphie sur Story Trails, portant sur les sentiers dans les bassins versants de Philadelphie à travers d’audio immersive géolocalisée. Parmi ses autres projets, on retrouve le projet de réalité mixte géolocalisé Transmission(FuturePlay/Edinburgh et Future of Storytelling Festival/New York), le décor et les systèmes énergétiques pour Vox:Lumende Zata Omm au Centre Harbourfront et Ascension ipde Crimson Collective, une grue solaire de 150’ de largeur à Coachella. Avec Chantal Bilodeau, il co-dirige the Climate Change Theatre Action. Il a notamment signé Arts, the Environment, and Sustainability pour Americans for the Arts; The Carbon Footprint of Theatrical Production pour Readings in Performance and Ecology, et Theatre is No Place for a Plant pour Landing Stages from the Ashden Directory. Il est membre du conseil d’administration d’Associated Designers of Canada.