Pic Mobert Actor Returns To Northshore

Written by admin on 22 November 2010

**Scroll down for a video interview with actor Meegwun Fairbrother who, as the son of a teacher, lived in many Northern Ontario communities including nearby Pic Mobert First Nation and Thunder Bay, Ontario. Photos/interview by Karina Hunter

Manitouwadge Teachers Bring Arts Alive With Touring Aboriginal Play

The cast speaks with their audience, answering the children's questions and inspiring them to think of what they have seen.

Theatre production a catalyst for Arts education in 33 North Ontario communities.

Cara Gee plays Angelina, she shared with students "I’m Ojibway and English with some Spanish and Irish mixed in!"

MANITOUWADGE, ON – Last week, Spirit Horse was performed for Grades 3 to 8 students attending Our Lady of Lourdes (OLOL), Manitouwadge Public School and Ecole Public Franco-Manitou. A minimum of 40 teachers in each of the local public and Catholic boards will also receive 10 hours of hands-on professional development (PD) provided by the Superior Greenstone ETFO and Superior North OECTA locals. The Ontario Ministry of Education has funded this project, the first joint initiative ever undertaken by the two teacher affiliates.

OLOL Principal Diane Nelson told cast members after the performance that she had come into the gymnasium, where they were performing, ‘just to check in’ but became enthralled by their performance and before she could realize it had ended without her ever leaving.

“Along with raising issues of cultural pride and identity, the professional development piece provides teachers with the tools to make drama, dance, music and visual arts come alive in the classroom,” says ETFO President Colleen Lemieux. “The Spirit Horse initiative supports the new arts curriculum released by the Ministry of Education last year.”

Spirit Horse is a powerful adventure about the challenges faced by two Aboriginal children whose family is caught between the traditional ways and contemporary urban culture. The cast, including a live musician and three actors who play over 65 characters, are all of First Nations descent. Canada’s Roseneath Theatre commissioned celebrated Ojibway playwright Drew Hayden Taylor to do an adaptation of the internationally acclaimed British play TIr Na N’Og written and directed by British Olivier Award winner Greg Banks. Banks accepted Roseneath Theatre’s invitation to direct Spirit Horse.

“For many children living in remote communities, this may be their first opportunity to experience a live professional theatre production,” says OECTA Local President Lisa Lacaria. “For teachers, this northern project offers a rich opportunity to teach the arts, address issues of social justice and help meet educational, social and emotional needs of students.”

Meegwun Fairbrother was raised in Northern Ontario and thrilled about his homecoming; right is on-stage musician Alex Lamoureux.

More information on Spirit Horse and its tour dates can be found at www.spirithorse.ca, a website where students can also post drawings, poems and stories arising from the play. The play’s tour began October 20 and continues through December 10, 2010.

A play about two Aboriginal children that challenges cultural stereotypes is igniting imaginations-and the arts-in classrooms across Northern Ontario this fall. That’s the goal of a 33-community tour of Roseneath Theatre’s production of Spirit Horse organized by the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) and the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association (OECTA).

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