Familiar face is new artistic director for GTNT
- EFN Staff | December 14, 2016
Big changes at GTNT: a visionary heads to the front lines and a playwright throws out the script
After 14 productions, 5 years, 4 Circle Of Voices programs, 4 newly written scripts, 2 publications, and 3 houses Curtis Peeteetuce says good-bye to GTNT.
When asked why he was moving, on he had this to say: “One way to see Indigenous Artists in Canada is that each company is a team of sled dogs, and in a team of sled dogs there is a leader, this leader is never the leader for the entire life of the team, let alone an entire race. eventually the lead dog gives way to a new dog, So I see it as me rejoining the pack, helping pull the artistic weight and following someone else’s lead. Also I won’t be completely gone after my term at GTNT, I will be more available to them as an artist."
Kenneth T. Williams is a Cree playwright from the George Gordon First Nation in the Treaty 4 territory. He was the first Indigenous person to earn an MFA in playwriting from the University of Alberta. He has had numerous plays produced across Canada. He has had a long-standing relationship with the Gordon Tootoosis Nīkānīwin Theatre, which premiered his plays Thunderstick, Bannock Republic (in coproduction with Persephone Theatre), AWOL, and, his latest, In Care, which had its world premiere this past October. He has taught playwriting at the University of Saskatchewan since 2010 and is also the playwright-in-residence for the U of S Drama Department.
More GTNT news:
- Kohkoms in Toyland
- Gordon Tootoosis Nīkānīwin Theatre announces 2016-2017 Theatre Season
- GTNT welcomes COV alumni as new GM
- Child welfare focus of GTNT play
Kenneth T. Williams is excited to be programming the new artistic vision for GTNT, the company that produced his first professional play, Thunderstick. He plans to stay true to the legacy put forth by Gordon Tootoosis, and is very excited to be working with young artists by mentoring and helping them build their craft. Kenneth also strives to be innovative with the way GTNT presents its art. Inspired by William Shakespeare’s “All the world’s a stage,” he plans to look at Saskatoon’s cityscape and find key places that are significant to Indigenous history, and hopes to share that knowledge with all Saskatchewanians. He believes in the power of telling Indigenous stories by Indigenous people, and leading the premiere professional Indigenous theatre in western Canada is the best place to do that!