Friday, November 21, 2025
Join us for the opening night of Weesageechak Begins to Dance 38 Festival, featuring an opening welcome and remarks, followed by presentations of Children of the Bear by Todd Houseman and Squeaky by Tara Beagan. There will be an opening night reception afterwards.
Presentation
Children of the Bear
by Todd Houseman
Children of the Bear is an open-world, Indigi-fantasy play about a young, low-income family’s attempts to rise above the colonial structures that surround them. Using a tabletop D&D-style design, audiences help the family either by escaping more deeply into the game of fantasy or becoming the Crees their ancestors want them to be.
Creator: Todd Houseman (Nehiyaw)
Mentor: Erin Goodpipe
Co-produced by Outside the March
Performers:
Todd Houseman
Joelle Peters
Dillan Chiblow
Kole Durnford
Zara Jestadt
Jeremy Proulx
Vance Banzo
Other Showings: November 23
Todd Houseman, Creator
Todd Houseman is a nehiyaw, actor, writer and improviser from Edmonton, Treaty 6. He is a graduate of the acting program and a current teacher at the National Theatre School of Canada. He is the co-creator of the award winning play Whiteface (with Lady Vanessa Cardona) and the author of Ayannisach which can be found in Moonshot Vol. 1 The Indigenous Comic Book Collection. In 2020 Todd was awarded Alberta’s Best Actor at the Alberta film and Television Awards (Rosies). Todd is currently working with Toronto’s Outside the March on his new play The Children of the Bear, which has been in development as a large-scale, immersive, indigi-fantasy. Recently, Todd was awarded the 2024 RBC Emerging Artist Award at the Governor General Performing Arts awards. In his free time, Todd enjoys building masks, making knives, or climbing mountains in Treaty 6.
Erin Goodpipe, Mentor
Erin Goodpipe is a dakȟóta wíŋyaŋ from Standing Buffalo Dakota Nation, with Dakota, Anishinnabe, Nêhiyaw bloodlines. A multidisciplinary artist, educator, and researcher, Erin’s work centers diverse layers of storywork. Erin is engaged in Indigenous research, co-leading projects focused on land-based education, arts-based community research, Indigenous youth wellness, and cultural safety in education and health systems. Her theatre and film contributions include performance and directorial roles and she co-founded the Making Treaty 4 Collective, using arts to share Indigenous stories across Treaty 4 territory. On screen, she has hosted RezX (Access), The Other Side (APTN) and Treaty Road (APTN), where she also served as Host, Researcher, Director. Erin holds a Bachelor of Indigenous Education from First Nations University of Canada and is pursuing her Master’s in Indigenous Education. Most importantly, she is a mother, wife, aunty and eldest sister.
Presentation
Squeaky
by Tara Beagan
Squeaky is a dramatic comedy exploring belonging, the impact of media, and the ubiquity of true crime by drawing parallels between each Trudeau prime ministerial era. Nanette Susan Cromme grew up in a series of foster homes, always lacking a sense of belonging. Of great intelligence and few social skills, she inserts herself into any conversation within earshot, swiftly making no friends at all.
Creator: Tara Beagan (Ntlaka’pamux)
Mentor: Anand Rajaram
Performers:
Anand Rajaram
Tara Sky
Other Showings: November 22
Tara Beagan, Creator
Tara Beagan is a proud Ntlaka’pamux and Irish “Canadian” halfbreed. She is cofounder & codirector of ARTICLE 11 with Andy Moro. Eight of her 37 plays are published. One won a Dora Award. In 2020, Honour Beat won the Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama. She has worked at NEPA in many capacities, including community liaison, co-artistic associate and artistic director. Beagan was the 2020 laureate of the Siminovitch Prize for theatre, playwriting."
Anand Rajaram, Mentor
Anand is an award-winning actor, improviser, playwright, director, musician, teacher & puppeteer. He has performed at The Belfry Theatre, Canadian Stage, Second City, Stratford, VideoCabaret, and others. He is an accomplished film and tv performer as well as voiceover artist for video games and cartoons. He recently directed As You Like It for Canadian Stage's Dream in High Park, Low Pay Don't Pay at George Brown theatre school, and 3 audiobooks with Penguin Audio (Swimming in the Monsoons and Mansions on the Moon by Shyam Selvadurai, and Tell Me Pleasant Things About Immortality by Lindsay Wong), and narrated novels, including Kill The Mall by Pasha Malla and Tell It To The Trees by Anita Rau Badami. He is artistic director of VideoCabaret, artistic director of @N@f@N@ and creates digital content with Cardboard Dreams. Social media: HRH Anand Rajaram.