ACTING COMPANY

Marsha Knight Elena

Marsha hails from the heart of Turtle Island—Winnipeg, Treaty One Territory, with Metis Ojibway heritage. As a thespian, her work covers both theatre and film, many behind-the-scenes projects, teaching female-identifying at-risk youth and teaching at the University of Winnipeg. Select theatre: Norm Foster’s Kiss the Moon, Kiss the Sun (Theatre Northwest); Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare in the Ruins); Drew Hayden-Taylor’s Crees in the Caribbean (Magnus Theatre); Tomson Highway’s The Rez Sisters (three productions); and Ian Ross’s fareWel (three productions). She has also just finished recording her third audiobook. Marsha is absolutely thrilled to be making her debut at the Belfry. Love to Robert, at home taking care of the fur-babies.

Lois Anderson Bern

Lois Anderson has won multiple awards as a theatre deviser, director, and actor. She is an original member of Leaky Heaven Circus and The Flying Blind Collective, which workshopped and toured in Australia and Canada. Lois was artistic associate with Runaway Moon and is an actor at Bard on the Beach (Viola, Kate, Helena, Rosalind, Mistress Overdone, Goneril, and Paulina). Lois directed the short film, Siiye’yu, which documented the site-specific collaboration of Coast Salish performance company Tsatsu Stalqayu and Mortal Coil. In 2020 she wrote an article for Canadian Theatre Review with Quelemia Sparrow entitled “Lysistrata and Camas Lilies”, reflecting on their creative process during the adaptation of Lysistrata for Bard on the Beach. Lois is the dramaturg and director for Tai Amy Grauman’s new adaptation, Romeo and Juliet: A Metis Love Story, and is adapting Henry V for Bard on the Beach, 2023.

čačumḥi – aaron wells (he/they) Seamus

ʔuukłaas čačumḥi aaron wells ʔuukłaasƛa—my name is chahchum-hi, aaron wells is what I am also called. I come from the ʔiiḥatis tribe (Zeballos) of the nuučan̓uł nation and the lax kw’alaams tribe (Port Simpson) of the ts’ymsyen nation as well as English settler heritage. I raise my hands in thanks to the Lekwungen speaking peoples of the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations who have been stewards of this land for far longer than we can fathom.

The Belfry’s production of Proud was the first play I saw while I was a student at CCPA, and since then I have been looking forward to this day. I have a small collection of connections to this theatre, so it feels like coming home. My first Belfry appearance was a livestream presentation of HIV in My Day in January 2021. I first saw Reneltta as Emily Dictionary in the Belfry’s production of The Rez Sisters, and have had the privilege of working with her on and off since graduating in 2016. I want to thank her for bringing me home. English words cannot describe how elated I feel so: čumqƛsiš luu’am guudl s’ygoy’n ƛeekoo ƛeekoo.

Recent works include: The Breathing Hole (NAC English Theatre and Indigenous Theatre), Pawâkan Macbeth (Akpik Theatre), They Call me Princess (Globe Theatre), Children of God (Segal Centre), The Coyotes, The Nutcracker (Caravan Farm Theatre), and The Unplugging (Gwaandak Theatre). Čuu

Krystle Pederson – Musician, Composer and Sound Designer

Krystle Pederson is a Cree/Metis actor, singer, and songwriter whose performing talents have taken her all across North America and New Zealand. Krystle’s list of acting credits include: The (Post) Mistress (Belfry online programming), Gabriel Dumont Wild West Show, The Penelopiad, Lynx Lamour Goes to Nashville, Reasonable Doubt, CBC Gem television debut in Zarqa, and most recently, Frozen River (presented in Victoria by Kaleidoscope Theatre). Krystle is very excited about composing and performing music at the Belfry for The Unplugging as part of her sound composition internship with the theatre this year. Krystle will be sound designing over the next six months, working on developing her skills as a composer/designer, and is excited about kicking off this learning experience here in beautiful Victoria. Krystle hopes you enjoy the show and is excited to be back on the stage for this amazing production. Kinanâskomitin (thank you).

Creative Team

Yvette Nolan Playwright

Yvette Nolan (Algonquin) is a playwright, director and dramaturg. Her works include many plays, the dance-opera Bearing, the libretto Shawnadithit, and the short play-for-film Katharsis. She co-created, with Joel Bernbaum and Lancelot Knight, the verbatim play Reasonable Doubt, about relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in Saskatchewan. From 2003–2011, she served as Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts, Canada’s oldest professional Indigenous theatre company. Her book, Medicine Shows, about Indigenous performance in Canada was published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2015, and Performing Indigeneity, co-edited with Ric Knowles, in 2016. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Public Policy at Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy.

Reneltta Arluk Director

Reneltta is an Inuvialuk/Dene/Cree from the Northwest Territories. 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. She is founder of Akpik Theatre, a northern focused professional Indigenous theatre company. For nearly two decades, Reneltta has taken part in or initiated the creation of Indigenous-led theatre across Canada and overseas. Her director credits include: The Breathing Hole (National Arts Centre), Bound & Messiah/Complex (Against the Grain Theatre), The Birds (Studio Theatre), All That Binds Us (Azimuth Theatre), The Breathing Hole (Stratford Festival) where she received the 2017 Tyrone Guthrie – Derek F. Mitchell Artistic Director’s Award, The Unplugging (Gwaandak Theatre). Radio plays: The Unplugging (Common Boots Theatre), Niitahtaastsi (Jupiter Theatre), I Count Myself Among Them (Akpik Theatre), Ndoo Tr’eedyaa Gogwaandak – Forward Together (Gwaandak Theatre). Co-director credits: Kuekuatsheu Mak Muak (Anorae Productions) and Aklavik Journals (Stuck in a Snowbank Theatre). Reneltta has extensive directing experience working within Indigenous communities across Canada in self-created work.

Daniela Masellis Set & Lighting Designer

Daniela Masellis is a theatre designer and artist based in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta), on the Treaty 6 territory. Daniela’s training includes a BFA of Theatre Design from the University of Alberta, a Diploma of Fine Arts, and a design apprenticeship in Italy at Teatro alla Scala Milano. She has designed in theatres large and small across Canada, collaborating on over 85 professional productions. Her credits include work with such companies as the Stratford Festival, the Citadel, the Arts Club, Soulpepper Theatre, Workshop West, Mile Zero Dance, Western Canadian Theatre, Akpik Theatre and many others. Daniela works mainly in the areas of set, lighting, and projection design for live performance and film. She is a proud member of the Associated Designers of Canada and IATSE 659.

Catherine Hahn Costume Designer

Catherine has designed sets and costumes, masks and pageants, for theatre, dance, film, television, multi-media and international expos for over 40 years. She has garnered several Dora, Jessie and Gemini nominations for her work. Her long association with the Caravan Farm Theatre helped develop and hone the populist spectacle style for which they have achieved renown. She also designed costumes for the first all-Indigenous production of The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, directed by Yvette Nolan, co-produced by Western Canada Theatre and the National Arts Centre. She is a full member of the Associated Designers of Canada. For the Belfry: The Rez Sisters, Gracie, Here and Away and Reverberations. Elsewhere: Globe Theatre, Tarragon Theatre, Alberta Theatre Projects, Theatre SKAM, Bread and Puppet in Vermont, Toronto’s Theatre Columbus and approximately 45 shows for Caravan, plus many other theatres across the country.

Liz King Stage Manager

Liz is absolutely ecstatic to be working on her first show at the Belfry and thrilled to be working again on The Unplugging. She was the stage manager for Gwaandak Theatre’s version in 2018 and was lucky enough to travel the Yukon with it, including to Old Crow in the Arctic Circle. She has worked across Canada as a stage manager and spent the “Lost Years” as Operations Manager for the Victoria Symphony. Liz has run one marathon and had one major mountain biking crash. She cares to repeat neither.

Jalisa Gonie Assistant Stage Manager

Jalisa is grateful to be part of the team here at the Belfry Theatre. A Saskatoon based artist, they work hard to balance stage management, acting, clown and writing. They hold a BFA in Acting from the University of Saskatchewan and training from the Manitoulin Conservatory of Creation and Performance.

Selected work: Stones in his Pockets, The Fiancée, The Revolutionists (ASM, Persephone Theatre) No.7, Pot Roast (Playwright, Shortcuts). She received a SAT Award for Outstanding Supportive Performance as #2 in The Wolves (Little Big Theatre/Evil Stick/Live Five). When not in their stage management shoes, they are the other half of a Clown duo: Oblong and Oboe with Charlie Peters.

Liz Page Apprentice Stage Manager

Liz Page (she/her)(Metis) is a recent graduate of the BFA Stage Management program at the University of Alberta. Her recent select Stage Management credits include: The Immaculate Perfection of F**king and Bleeding in the Gender-Neutral Bathroom of an UpperMiddle Class High School (2022), She Kills Monsters (2022, Studio Theatre), Night (2021, Major Matt Mason Collective). Selected assistant stage management credits include Barvinok (2022, Pyretic Theatre), The Birds (2021, Studio Theatre), Don Juan Comes Back from the War (2021, Studio Theatre), and 2019 Calgary Pride (Mainstage).

Shannon Litzenberger Assistant Director

Shannon Litzenberger (Tkaronto) is an award-winning dancer, choreographer, director, embodiment facilitator and experienced cultural leader working at the intersection of art, ideas and transformational change. She creates sensory-rich, multi-disciplinary performance experiences that animate our relationship to land, community and the forgotten wisdom of the body. She has been an invited resident artist at Soulpepper Theatre, Toronto Dance Theatre, Harbourfront Centre, Atlantic Ballet Theatre, Banff Centre, Remai Modern and Memorial University. She is also a frequent collaborator with the wind in the leaves collective. Her recent work World

After Dark was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award. shannonlitzenberger.com