In June, I had a chance to sit in on one of the Animikiig  workshops for young playwrights of First Nations/Metis/Innuit  backgrounds. It’s a 2 year program with the goal of training playwrights to develop scripts for production. Some sessions are built around exercises, and some are readings and discussions, and I attended the reading/discussion of Blue Moon Girls, by Jessica Lea Fleming – the story of returning to a place of one’s youth, and remembering and confronting the reasons for leaving.

All the participants in Animikiig collaborate with a dramaturg as well, and are working towards preparing pieces for the Young Voices night of the Weesageechak Begins to Dance Festival (November 9 – 22, 2015), which is a fantastic chance to see the best work of young indigenous playwrights.