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 The Children of the Bear by Todd Houseman and Squeaky by Tara Beagan. There will be an opening night reception afterwards.
The 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, with Mitchell Cushman
Co-produced by Outside the March
Performers:
Todd Houseman
Joelle Peters
Dillan Meighan Chiblow
Kole Durnford
Zara Jestadt
Jeremy Proulx
Vance Banzo
Run Time: 75 minutes
Content Warning: Police brutality, Childhood sexual assault, coarse language, substance use
Other Showings: November 23
Presentation
The Children of the Bear
by Todd Houseman
Todd Houseman, Creator/Performer
Todd Houseman is a nehiyaw, actor, writer and improviser from Edmonton, Treaty 6 and a registered band member of Paul Band First Nation. 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.
Mitchell Cushman, Mentor
Mitchell Cushman is a director, creator and founding Artistic Director of Outside the March. His work has been seen on stages as large as The Stratford Festival, as intimate as kindergarten classrooms, and as far flung as London, New York, Munich, Argentina and Japan. Previous Outside the March directing credits include: Rainbow on Mars, Performance Review, The Death of Disney, No Save Points, Trojan Girls, The Tape Escape, The Flick, Dr. Silver, Jerusalem, Lessons in Temperament, TomorrowLoveTM, Mr. Burns, Vitals, Terminus, Mr. Marmalade. Other recent directing credits: The Perfect Bite, A Knives Out Experience (Netflix/Secret City); Treasure Island, Breath of Kings, Possible Worlds (Stratford); Age is a Feeling, The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale, I’m Doing This For You (Soulpepper / Haley McGee); Comfort Food (Crows); Sweeney Todd (TIFT); The Effect, Hand to God, The Aliens (Coal Mine); Brantwood (Sheridan). In 2021, he directed his first feature film Lessons in Temperament (LevelFilm), which can currently be seen on TVO. Mitchell has received the Siminovitch protégé award, two Dora Awards for Outstanding Direction, four Doras for Outstanding Production, two Audience Choice Awards, and his productions have received 14 Toronto Theatre Critics Awards. He holds an MFA in Directing from the University of Alberta. In 2019, NOW Magazine named him as one of Toronto’s Top 10 theatre artists of the decade.
Joelle Peters, Performer
Joelle Peters 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), Women of the Fur Trade (Stratford Festival).
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 (supported by and premiered at Native Earth Performing Arts and commissioned by the Blyth Festival, published by Playwrights Canada Press), and do you remember? (commissioned by Burnt Thicket Theatre for the We Treaty People audio series).
Dillan Meighan Chiblow, Performer
Dillan is an Ojibwe storyteller from Garden River First Nation. He is so excited to be at W38 ! Dillan received his professional training at Sheridan College, in their Music Theatre Performance program. He then furthered his training and obtained his Masters degree in Musical Theatre from The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Dillan has a passion for exploring stories with a re-Indigenized lens, and is thrilled to experiencing that with the Child Of The Bear team ! Select Credits : (Film/tv)Murdoch Mysteries, SkyMed, Run The Burbs . Theatre: Rez Gas (Capitol Theatre) Starwalker (Urban Ink) Children Of God (Urban Ink) Only Drunks and Children Tell The Truth (Magnus) Into The Woods (Korner Hall).
Kole Durnford, Performer
Kole Durnford is a mixed Métis/settler actor and playwright originally from Stony Plain, Alberta. A graduate of the acting program at Toronto Metropolitan University in 2022, Kole is a three time Dora Mavor Moore Award nominee for his work in Insert Clown Here (Parlous Theatre), Killing Time (Mixtape Projects),and Niizh (Native Earth Performing Arts). In May, Kole’s play HORSEPLAY was produced at Workshop West Playwright’s Theatre. HORSEPLAY received the Sterling Award for Outstanding Production and received 4 nominations including Outstanding New Play. Kole’s first play, ECHO, has also been produced three times, most recently as part of the Toronto Fringe’s 2023 Next Stage Festival. Recent credits: The Deserters (NEPA), Black Panther in the Great White North (Playing with Crayons), Insert Clown Here (Parlous Theatre), Rougarou (NEPA), Killing Time (Mixtape Projects). @koledurnford
Zara Jestadt, Performer
Zara (she/her) is an actor and performer, and a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre Actors Conservatory, the Stratford Birmingham Conservatory, George Brown Theatre School, the Etobicoke School of the Arts, and McGill University. Favourite theatre credits include: An Ideal Husband, Julius Caesar (Stratford Festival), Small Mouth Sounds (Segal Centre), Post Alice (Here for Now Festival), and A Midsummer Night’s Dreams (Shakespeare BASH’d). She currently stars in suspense web series Phantom Line. Other film and TV credits include: The Boys, Murdoch Mysteries, Hudson & Rex, CFC Close-Up ‘Beth’, and feature film ‘The Discarded’. She is beyond thrilled to be participating in the 38th edition of the Weesageechak Begins to Dance festival!
Jeremy Proulx, Performer
THEATRE CREDITS: Mischief (Neptune Theatre and Tarragon Theatre), Beautiful Scars: The Musical (Theatre Aquarius); Owl Calling (Root Sky Theatre); Where the Blood Mixes (Teesri Duniya Theatre); Of Mice and Men (Maples Repertory Theatre); The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (NAC); King Lear (NAC); One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Tony Award-winning Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia and Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, UK); Cottagers and Indians (Persephone Theatre and Thousand Islands Playhouse); Feather Gardens (Hudson Village Theatre); Bannock Republic, Bent Boy, Crazy Dave Goes To Town, Sixty Below (Centre for Indigenous Theatre); Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth (Magnus Theatre). AWARDS: BroadwayWorld.com Award for Best Actor in a Play for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Alliance Theatre) and Wilde Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Play (Flint Repertory Theatre), META nomination for Feather Gardens (Hudson Village Theatre). OTHER: www.jeremy-proulx.com
Vance Banzo, Performer
Vance Banzo is a Saulteaux/Cree comedian, writer and actor from Edmonton, Alberta, and a founding member of the award-winning sketch comedy troupe TallBoyz. Known for his sharp wit and ability to blend humour with cultural and social commentary, he has quickly become one of Canada’s rising comedy voices. In addition to TallBoyz and performances across the country, Banzo is recognized for bringing Indigenous perspectives to mainstream comedy, using laughter as way to connect and inspire audiences.
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
Performer: Tara Sky
Run Time: 45 minutes
Content Warning: Historic and contemporary violence and discussion of sexual violence
Other Showings: November 22
Presentation
Squeaky
by Tara Beagan
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.
Tara Sky, Performer
Theatre: Buddies in Bad Times; Beth in There is Violence and There is Righteous Violence and There is Death or, The Born-Again Crow. Stratford; Tiger Lily in Wendy and Peter Pan, Cordelia in King Lear and Beth Summers in 1939. Soulpepper; Christine in Where the Blood Mixes. Persephone Theatre; Ensemble in Reasonable Doubt. National Arts Center; Angel in Nativity.
Film/TV: EU.THA.NA.SIA, Delivery, The River You Step In, Ruby Sky P.I.
Training: National Theatre School of Canada, Etobicoke School of the Arts.
Instagram: @tara.kitty.sky
Et cetera: Thank you, ʼanálhzaqʷ, to the trailblazers who paved the way for people like me.