Kenneth T. Williams

Gabriel Dumont's Wild West Show is a flamboyant epic, constructed as a series of tableaux, about the struggles of the M tis in the Canadian West. It is a multilayered and entertaining saga with a rodeo vibe, loosely based on Buffalo Bill's legendary outdoor travelling show. In 1885, following the hanging of his friend Louis Riel, bison hunter Gabriel Dumont fled to the United States. There he was recruited by the legendary Buffalo Bill, founder of Buffalo Bill's Wild West, a gigantic outdoor travelling show that re-enacted life in the American West. It made a huge impression on Dumont, and he dreamed of putting together a similar show to tell the story of the struggle of Canada's M tis to reclaim their rights. The creative team behind Gabriel Dumont's Wild West Show - including ten authors, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, French- and English-speaking men and women - brings Dumont's dream to life in a captivating, joyously anachronistic saga. The theatrical version of Gabriel Dumont's Wild West Show presented by the National Arts Centre was one of a number of exceptional projects funded through the Canada Council for the Arts' New Chapter initiative. (Adapted from nac-cna.ca/en/wildwestshow.)

Gordon Winter is an RCMP hero, a life-long champion of First Nations rights, and a bigot. He s challenging the next generation of chiefs to stand up to the federal government when he spews a Nazi-inspired racist and homophobic rant. Suddenly, the one of the most revered First Nations leaders is now one of the most reviled human beings in Canada. While most want to consign Winter to the dustbin of history, some are quick to defend a man who did so much good in his life. Questions get asked: how should society respond to such outrageous comments from a prominent and public figure? Is it right to condemn a man based on just one moment of his life? Where did these convictions come from? The play moves forward in following Winter as he fights the criminal charge of inciting hate. It also moves backwards to show why Queen Elizabeth II pinned a medal of bravery onto his chest in the 70s, and to a critical moment in his childhood when the seeds of hate were planted by a small act of kindness.

Find out what yoga, residential schools and the missing thirteenth floors have in common in the new comedy by Kenneth T. Williams. Bannock Republic reunites the cousins Jacob and Isaac Thunderchild 10 years after the mayhem of Thunderstick. This time, a beautiful and vengeful third-party manager will wreak havoc with their lives. Jacob is working as a video journalist and barely clinging to his sobriety. Isaac is now chief of their reserve and trying to get the band out of debt. Destiny Charles, appointed to take over the band s finances, will make Jacob and Isaac realize that some secrets are better left buried.

Jacob is an alcoholic reporter, his estranged cousin Isaac is a worldly photojournalist just recently returned to Canada-and their editor pairs them up to cover a story on Parliament Hill. The problems start when Jacob vomits onto the Prime Minister, an act which is mistaken for an assassination attempt. While in jail, the cousins get information which sends them on a madcap romp to try and track down what might be the story of their lives, involving a government coverup, an international fugitive and a lesbian love nest in the Northern Ontario woods. When their car breaks down, stranding them in the woods in the middle of the night, Jacob and Isaac finally face up to their painful shared past, and come to terms with what has divided them for all these years. Thunderstick has been produced in Toronto, Saskatoon, and Edmonton, where it drew standing-room-only crowds. One paper described the characters as "An aboriginal Oscar and Felix."