Creative Team

Producers: Akpik Theatre & Theaturtle

Directors: Reneltta Arluk & Carmen Braden

Writers: Reneltta Arluk, Rawdna Carita Eira, Alon Nashman

Performers: Julia Ulayok Davis, Salik Lennert, Elin Oskal

Cultural Envoys: Rawdna Carita Eira, Wilbert Papik, Tiffany Ayalik

Composer: Carmen Braden

Set Design: Hailey Verbonac

Video Designers: Chimerik 似不像 & Hailey Verbonac

Lighting Design: Itai Erdal

Costume & Props Design: Samantha McCue

Choreographer: Mique’l Icesis Dangeli

Stage Management: Sandy Plunkett & Jessica Campbell-Maracle

Film Production: Davis Heslep & Barry Bilinsky

Collaborating Filmmakers: Riddle Films & Artless Collective

Dr. Reneltta Arluk Writer/Director/Producer

Reneltta is an Inuvialuk, Denesuline, Gwich’in, Cree mom from the Northwest Territories. She is founder of Akpik Theatre. Raised by her grandparents on the trap-line until school age, this nomadic environment gave Reneltta the skills to become the multi-disciplined artist she is now. For nearly two decades, Reneltta has taken part in or initiated the creation of Indigenous Theatre across Canada and overseas. Under Akpik Theatre, Reneltta has written, produced, and performed various works creating space for Indigenous led voices. Reneltta is the first Inuk and first Indigenous woman to graduate from the University of Alberta’s BFA Acting program and is the first Inuk and first Indigenous woman to direct at renowned The Stratford Festival. There she was awarded the Tyrone Guthrie – Derek F. Mitchell Artistic Director’s Award for her direction of Governor Award winning playwright, Colleen Murphy’s The Breathing Hole. She also directed The Breathing Hole at Canada’s National Arts Centre. She co-directed award winning Messiah/Complex with Against the Grain Theatre, with soloists from every region of Canada, including many Indigenous performers singing in their language. In 2024, Reneltta received an Honourary Doctorate of Letters from the University of Alberta for her commitment to decolonial change.

Alon Nashman
Writer/Producer

Alon is a performer, director, creator, and producer of theatre. Selected acting credits include: The Breathing Hole (National Arts Centre), Birds of a Kind, Hirsch (Stratford Festival), I send you this cadmium red (Art of Time Ensemble), Much Ado About Nothing, Forests, Scorched, Democracy, Remnants, Alias Godot (Tarragon Theatre), Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well, Botticelli in the Fire/Sunday in Sodom, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, THIS (Canadian Stage), The Wild Duck (Soulpepper), Hedda Gabler (Volcano/Buddies in Bad Times), If Jesus Met Nanabush (De-ba-jeh-mu-jig Theatre), and Tales of Two Cities (Tafelmusik). Alon established Theaturtle in 1999 to create essential, ecstatic theatre that touches the earth and agitates the soul. With Theaturtle, Alon has been involved with the creation and touring of numerous theatre pieces, such as Adam Nashman’s The Song, Wajdi Mouawad’s Alphonse, Kafka and Son developed with Mark Cassidy of Threshold Theatre, and The Snow Queen, scored for string quartet and narrator by Patrick Cardy. Alon wrote the libretto for Charlotte: A Tri-coloured Play with Music which premiered at Toronto’s Luminato Festival and has toured to Taiwan, Israel and Europe, including the Czech National Opera.

Rawdna Carita Eira
Writer/Cultural Envoy

Rawdna is a Sami/Norwegian writer and playwright, born in Elverum and raised in Brønnøysund. She writes in Norwegian and Northern Sami. As a playwright, Eira debuted with the monologue Elle muitalus / Elens historie in 2003, where she played the lead role. She has since written several plays for the Sami National Theater Beaivváš. In 2012, her play Guohcanuori šuvva / Sangen fra Rotsundet, was staged at Beaivváš Theater. The play was nominated for the Ibsen Prize. Eira now lives in Guovdageaidnu and works as a director at Beaivváš Sami National Theater. Eira is also a lyricist and vocalist in the band Circus Polaria with musicians Roger Ludvigsen and Kjetil Dalland. Eira has written the text in the Sami part of the opera Two Odysseys: Pimooteewin / Gállabártnit. In 2020, the opera was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for “Outstanding Opera Production” and was awarded the prize for “Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble”.

Julia Ulayok Davis
Performer

Julia (she/her) is an Inuk singer/actress, currently residing in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She recently completed her second year of study with the Village Conservatory for Music Theatre and premiered her piece, Aqqaq (Northern Lights), at the year-end showcase. Julia also holds a Bachelor of Music (Vocal Performance) from the Desautels Faculty of Music at the University of Manitoba. Julia has worked with theatre, opera and film companies around Winnipeg, such as Manitoba Underground Opera, Gilbert and Sullivan Society of Winnipeg, MTYP, Sarasvàti and Eagle Vision.

Salik Lennert
Performer

Salik is from Sisimiut, Greenland and is a graduate student at the National Theatre School of Greenland. He is twenty-eight years old and has a Greenlandic mother and a Greenlandic father with Scandivanian roots.

Salik discovered his interest in acting when he was cast as the lead character in a contemporary theatre play back in high school in 2014. Prior to studying acting, he was living and working in Ireland, providing computer technical support.

Salik is passionate about performing, creating his own projects, and dabbles with piano and guitar.

Elin Kristina Oskal
Performer

Elin is a Sami actress and singer. She has, among other things, participated in several songs together with Jon Henrik Fjällgren. She has also played the lead role Plupp in the theater play Plupp – en joikkikal and lent her voice to Anna in the Sami version of Frozen 2. In 2024, she played the lead role as Elsa in the film Stöld.

Carmen Braden
Composer/Assistant Director

Carmen is a versatile, genre-jumping musician from the Canadian sub-Arctic. Winner of the 2019 and 2020 Western Canadian Music Award for Classical Composer of the Year, Carmen is a composer/performer based in her hometown of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Hailed as “a talented, bold musician” (Up Here Magazine), Carmen is a life-long Northerner whose music has been described as “drop-dead gorgeous” (Ottawa Citizen). Carmen’s second studio album Songs of the Invisible Summer Stars (2019) was nominated for an East Coast Music Award for Classical Album of the Year. Her debut studio album Ravens was released in 2017 – both albums are on the Centrediscs label.

Hailey Verbonac
Set and Video Designer

Hailey is an Afro-Indigenous (Red River Métis) artist and theatre designer. Originally from Inuvik, NWT (on Inuvialuit and Gwich’in land), he trained at the National Theatre School of Canada in production design and technical arts. Lighting, video, watercolour, and digital artwork are his preferred media for storytelling. His primary passion is to support the development of Indigenous stories in Canada. He has been lucky enough to be involved with projects such as Hush by Sylvia Cloutier (2020, NTS), Lovesong for the Thunderbirds by Summer Bralette (2021, Grand Theatre), The Herd by Kenneth Williams (2022, Citadel/Tarragon), Echoes of the Homesick Heart by Laura Michel (2022, WCT), Feather Gardens by Jimmy Blais (2022, Hudson Village Theatre), and Bentboy by Herbie Barnes (2022, YPT). Wiyaatikosiw eeako ooma ohci aacimowinis ekwa otaacimowak. Kinanaskomitin.

Itai Erdal
Lighting Designer

An award winning lighting designer, photographer, writer and performer, Itai is the founder of The Elbow Theatre in Vancouver. Itai has designed over 350 shows for theatre, dance and opera companies in 44 cities around the world. Some of the companies he worked with include: Arts Club Theatre (16 shows), The Stratford Festival (11 shows), New Victory (Off Broadway), The Vancouver Opera, Vancouver Playhouse, Bard on the Beach, The Electric Company, National Arts Centre, Soulpepper, Tarragon, Factory, The Citadel, MTC, The Segal Centre, The Jerusalem Lab, Haifa Theatre, Tamasha, Box Clever and Teatro Villa Velha in Salvador, Brazil.

Itai has won six Jessie Richardson Awards, a Dora Mavor Moore Award, a Winnipeg Theatre Award, the Jack King Award, a Guthrie Award, Victoria’s Spotlight Choice Award and the Design Award at the 2008 Dublin Fringe Festival. He was shortlisted to the Siminovitch Prize in 2018 and 2024. 

Samantha McCue
Costume and Props Designer

Samantha (she/her) is Anishinaabekwe from the Chippewas of Georgina Island and Ned’u’ten from Lake Babine First Nation. She grew up on the Musqueam Reserve in Vancouver, BC, and currently lives in Ottawa, ON. Samantha graduated from York University’s Theatre Production program in 2017. Selected design credits include: The Breathing Hole (National Arts Centre); Kamloopa (Soulpepper Theatre Company, Western Canada Theatre), Where The Blood Mixes (Soulpepper Theatre Company), Little Red Warrior and his Lawyer (Belfry Theatre), I Am William (Stratford Festival), Honour Beat (The Grand), Aqsarniit (Confederation Centre of the Arts), The Monument (Factory Theatre), Thanks For Giving (Arts Club Theatre Company). sammccuedesign.com

Chimerik 似不像
Video Designer

Sammy Chien and Caroline MacCaull are Co-Artistic Directors of Chimerik 似不像, a multi award winning interdisciplinary not-for-profit arts organization consisting of artists from underrepresented groups from various age groups, backgrounds, levels of experience, and disciplines. Chimerik 似不像 has collaborated on over 500 multi-disciplinary projects such as Art Night Venezia (Venice Biennale), Documenta 15, World Design Expo, Digital Arts Festival of Taipei, ISEA (International Symposium of Electronic Arts), Isadora Werkstatt (Berlin), Digital Carnival Festival, Taiwan Best Design 100, Tokyo Performing Arts Meeting (TPAM), PuSh International Performing Arts Festival and Vancouver New Music Festival. Dance/theatre companies they have worked with: Arts Club, Gateway Theatre, Stratford Festival, the frank Theatre, Aeriosa, Beijing Modern Dance Company, Wen Wei Dance, Dancers of Damelahamid and Raven Spirit Dance. Chimerik 似不像 has worked with influential corporations such as NIKE, Microsoft, and Google in live visuals/projection design and interactive video installations, and engaging in sectoral change projects such as Virtual Live Art Database & International Choreographic Interlink.

Davis Heslep
Film Production

Davis is an Arts Administrator, Educator, Media Artist and Producer from Yellowknife, NWT. Davis was the Programming and Out-reach Director for the non-profit arts organization Western Arctic Moving Pictures (WAMP) based in Sǫ̀mbak’è/ Yellowknife NWT serving the five regions of the Northwest Territories. In 2014, Davis developed the travelling workshop Hackspace NT which aimed to develop the digital skills of young Northerners through hands-on workshops on VR, Video Game Design, 3D modelling and printing, laser cutting, Modular Electronics and other forms of digital fabrication. Davis has been the representative for WAMP’s partnership with The Initiative for Indigenous Futures (IIF).

Dr. Mique’l Icesis Dangeli
Choreographer

Mique’l was born and raised on the Annette Island Indian Reserve, and is of the Tsimshian Nation of Metlakatla, Alaska. She is an assistant professor in the School of Creative Arts at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Her work focuses on Indigenous language revitalization, visual and performing arts, resurgence, sovereignty, protocol, and decolonization. Dangeli is a dancer, choreographer, curator and activist. As one of the youngest advanced speakers and teachers of her people’s language, she is dedicated to teaching Sm’algya̱x in community-based and university-accredited classes as well as mentoring learners and educational staff in their process of language acquisition and the creation of pre-K to high school programs. For the past 15 years, she and her husband, artist and carver Mike Dangeli (Nisga’a Nation), have led the Git Hayetsk Dancers, an internationally renowned Northwest Coast First Nations dance group specializing in ancient and newly created songs and mask dances.

Sandy Plunkett
Stage Manager

Credits include: The Drawer Boy (Assistant Stage Manager) The Berlin Blues and Ipperwash (Stage Manager), Orphan Song, Bunny, (Tarragon Theatre), The Fish Eyes Trilogy, Boys with Cars (Nightswimming), This, Flood Thereafter, (Canadian Stage Company), Dividing Lines, Madre, (Aluna Theatre), Public Servant, Weather the Weather, (Theatre Columbus / Common Boots), Gladstone Variations, Yichud (seclusion) (Convergence), The Silicone Diaries (Buddies in Bad Times), and 7 summers with Dream in High Park. Sandy is the great-grandson of Morley Plunkett of the almost forgotten WW1 Canadian Vaudeville Troupe, The Dumbells.

Jessica Campbell-Maracle
Stage Manager

Jessica (she/her) is a mixed Kanien’kéha:ka / settler theatre artist from Toronto.  She is a graduate of Humber College’s Theatre Production Program (2017) and recently just graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada in the Production Design and Technical Arts New Pathways Program. Select theatre credits include Almighty Voice and His Wife (Soulpepper Theatre), Honour Beat (The Grand Theatre), The Breathing Hole / Aglu (National Arts Centre), John and Beatrice (National Theatre School of Canada).

Wilbert Papik
Inuvialuk Elder

Wilbert was born in Aklavik, a hamlet in the Inuvik region of the Northwest Territories. His father, Josie Papik, was originally from Alaska and his mother, Sarah, was from the Northwest Territories. He’s held a wide range of vocations throughout his life, including accounting, carpentry, computer repair and teaching. Wilbert was active for many years with the Inuvik Delta Drummers and Dancers. The group toured extensively, presenting traditional drumming and dancing at festivals, museums and art galleries throughout the Arctic region, including Alaska.

Riddle Films
Collaborators

Riddle Films is a Canadian award-winning production company dedicated to capturing the world of the performing arts and culture and making it accessible to as broad an audience as possible. Helmed by producers Jason Charters and Liam Romalis, their work has aired on television screens, online and at film festivals around the world, including CBC, Bravo, PBS, ARTE, BBC, NRK, and the Toronto International Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival, the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and New York’s Museum of Modern Art.