A local playwright is bringing Indigenous stories to life.
An Anishinaabe award-winning playwright and actor from Walpole Island First Nation, Joelle Peters will be raising the curtain for the world premiere of her play Niizh in Toronto this week.
“It’s a coming of age comedy,” Peters explains. “It’s set on a nameless reserve, maybe it’s inspired by Walpole Island, maybe it’s not, but it’s set in southwestern Ontario and it follows the Little family, namely Lenna Little, who is the youngest as she prepares to leave home for the first time to go off to school.”
Peters got her start performing in Theatre Kent’s production of Peter Pan in 2007. After graduating from Wallaceburg District Secondary School, she went on to study Acting for Camera and Voice at Seneca College in Toronto.
Peters is now the Interim Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts and says telling Indigenous stories is more important than ever.
“It’s super important because it hasn’t always been there. I think about my experience growing up even just around Walpole and Wallaceburg, we weren’t always studying Indigenous playwrights or plays, so I didn’t know a lot growing up. Now that I’m’ more engrossed in the world, I’m trying to make sure that the stories I longed for growing up are there.”
Niizh opens at Aki Studio in Toronto on Wednesday, April 12 and runs through the rest of the month. CLICK HERE to buy tickets.
Peters’ other works include Frozen River, winner of the 2021 Sharon Enkin Plays for Young People award, and Do You Remember?, which is available for listening on Spotify and Apple Music. She is also performing in the Stratford Festival’s production of Women of the Fur Trade in July.
Listen to the full interview with CKXS News Director Robyn Brady: