Tackle Box — a workshop reading

Tackle Box is a coming of age story based on Cheyenne Scott’s real life experience salmon fishing with her Tsawout/Norwegian family. Performed as a one-person show, Spring, puts the pieces of herself back together by reflecting on her relationship to family and the land, while in pursuit of catching her first Chinook salmon. The Tackle Box carries stories as gifts or good medicine and important teachings. The story is told through a series of vignettes or memories: from collecting slugs, to learning to set up the fishing rods, and grieving a wounded seal pup. During this phase of development the team is experimenting with form, staging, and introducing a touch of the soundscape.

Development support has been provided by First Peoples Cultural Council, Intrepid Stages and Spaces, Cahoots Theatre Hot House Program, Toronto Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council

Credits

Written by — Cheyenne Scott

Co-Directed by — Jessica Schact and Julie McIsaac

Accessibility

Sensory warnings: Audience interaction/participation

Content warnings: Adult language

About the Artist

Cheyenne Scott is a member of the SȾÁUTW̱ (Tsawout) First Nation/Norwegian settler descent, and an actor, playwright, and creative producer with a focus on new works. Having learned theatre through a colonial lens, she is working to Indigenize her process through her W̱ SÁNEĆ values, land-based methodology, and storytelling. She is a multi Dora Mavor Moore nominated artist for co-creating/performing Now You See Her (Quote Unquote Collective/Nightwood/Why Not Theatre) which was published by Coach House, and for The Home Project (Howland/Native Earth/Soulpepper). Cheyenne was named the protégé of Lori Marchand for the Mallory Gilbert Leadership Award. She is an Artistic Associate for Urban Ink and Associate Artistic Director for Western Canada Theatre. Select Acting Credits include: Children of God (Urban Ink/NAC, Citadel/WCT, Segal Centre), The Herd (Citadel/Tarragon), The Last Five Years (Blue Bridge) Joyride (Caravan Farm Theatre), The Drowning Girls (WCT), Mistatim (Red Sky Performance), Trojan Girls and the Outhouse of Atreus (Outside the March/Factory).

Julie McIsaac is a versatile director, dramaturg and creator of theatre and opera, Julie earned her Master’s in Theatre from the University of York (UK), and is also a graduate of Carleton University and the Canadian College of Performing Arts. She is a Jessie, Ovation and BroadwayWorld award winner, a founding member of the Honest Fishmongers (Critics’ Choice Innovation award nom.), a previous Artist-in-Residence with Pacific Opera, and in 2019 was named Director/Dramaturg-in-Residence at the Canadian Opera Company, where she led the critically-acclaimed premiere of Ian Cusson and Colleen Murphy’s Fantasma. Directing highlights include the premiere of The Nightingale of a Thousand Songs (Canadian Children’s Opera Company), The Last Five Years (Blue Bridge), Beauty’s Beast (East Van Opera), The Exquisite Hour (Playhouse Fringe award), Pride and Prejudice (Chemainus) and the multiple award-winning Poly Queer Love Ballad by Sara Vickruck & Anais West. Julie is the playwright and award-winning composer/arranger/sound designer of The Out Vigil which was featured in the New American Voices Festival in London’s West End and premiered in Vancouver in 2016, receiving a total 5 Jessie nominations including Outstanding Production.

Jessica Schacht is a director, dramaturg, and writer living gratefully on Quw’utsun territory, Vancouver Island. She comes from Métis and Canadian families and her work and ethos centre around exploring identity and relationships through the cultural, environmental, and personal experiences that shape us. She is a graduate of the University of Victoria’s Theatre Program and has honed her craft at the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity’s Dramaturgy for Dance residency, Theatre Replacement’s New Aesthetics Performance Intensive, as well as PTC’s Block A program. As a theatre artist she has worked across genres of theatre, opera, and dance. Select credits include: Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley (Director – Chemainus Theatre); TheFiancee (Director – Chemainus Theatre); In the Shadow of the Mountains Workshop (Dramaturg– Visceral Visions); Gather in Nature (Dramaturg – New World Theatre/Pacific Theatre); SisNe’Bi-Yiz: A Mother Bear’s Journey (Associate Director/Dramaturg– Heart of the City Festival); Dialogue Dances (Dramaturg – National Ballet of Canada); Kamloopa (Fire Igniter – WCT/The Cultch/Persephone/GTNT). Jessica has been the Artist in Residence at Pacific Opera Victoria and the Artistic Associate at TheatreOne.