In partnership with Gordon Tootoosis Nīkānīwin Theatre, the Indidgenous Playwrights Circle meets monthly to read and discuss the work of all participants. Led by Yvette Nolan and open to Indigenous playwrights of all levels, the program creates an encouraging atmosphere for participants to grow as dramatists. The group meets six times per year, and activities may include field trips outside the province to see special performances.
Please contact us if you would like to get involved.
Yvette Nolan is a playwright, director and dramaturg. She was born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan to an Algonquin mother and an Irish immigrant father. Her plays include BLADE, Job’s Wife, Annie Mae’s Movement, Scattering Jake, Two Old Women, the libretto Hilda Blake and the radio play Owen. She is the editor of Beyond the Pale: Dramatic Writing from First Nations Writers and Writers of Colour, and of Refractions: Solo, with Donna-Michelle St Bernard. Directing credits include Café Daughter by Kenneth T Williams (Gwaandak Theatre), for which she won the Bob Couchman Award for direction, Marie Clements’ Tombs of the Vanishing Indian, Salt Baby by Falen Johnson, A Very Polite Genocide by Melanie J Murray, Death of a Chief, Darrell Dennis’ Tales of An Urban Indian, The Unnatural and Accidental Women by Marie Clements, Annie Mae’s Movement (Native Earth), The Ecstasy of Rita Joe at Western Canada Theatre Company April 2009, in a co-production with the National Arts Centre, The Only Good Indian…, The Triple Truth(Turtle Gals Performance Ensemble). In 2007, she received the Maggie Bassett Award for service to the theatre community, and in 2011, the George Luscombe Award for mentorship in professional theatre. She was President of PUC (now Playwrights Guild of Canada ) from 1998 to 2001. From 2003-2011, she served as Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts in Toronto.