A Look at Agokwe Playwright and Performer Waawaate Fobister

As an actor, dancer, playwright, choreographer, and performer, Agokwe's Waawaate Fobister embraces it all. Add in a dash of both brilliance and bravery and you have above all else, a master storyteller.

Coming from a man whose very name represents the tale of the northern lights, sharing stories is clearly the role Waawaate was made for. Hailing from a long line of storytellers, Waawaate is a proud Anishinaabe from the Grassy Narrows First Nation of northwestern Ontario who learned that the most powerful story one can tell is their own.

Growing up on the reserve, Waawaate's family would take the hour long journey every Friday into Kenora for weekly provisions. It was on one such trip that a chance encounter with another boy would alter this young man's life forever. This is the story of unrequited love, the story of Agokwe, performed exclusively by Waawaate himself and deemed both refreshingly daring and inconsolably tragic.

Originally created as a short monologue, Waawaate partnered with director Ed Roy through the Buddies in Bad Times Young Creators Unit to turn the piece into a one man play. From there the success of Agokwe skyrocketed to claim national praise and a grand total of six Dora Mavor Moore Awards. Not bad work for a young man who needed to take a chance to get his story heard.

Agokwe runs from January 17 - 22 at The Cultch. Tickets start at $15 and are available online at tickets.thecultch.com, or at The Cultch Box office by phone 604.251.1363 or in person at 1895 Venables Street. For more information on this award-winning production, visit The Cultch's site.

And click here to watch Waawaate Fobister talk about how to tell very personal stories at TEDxToronto. Well worth your time!

The Cultch and Queer Bash present...TWO SPIRIT, LET'S HEAR IT!

A celebration of queerness and two spirit culture, TWO SPIRIT, LET'S HEAR IT! is the official launch of The Cultch's hit show AGOKWE by Waawaate Fobister about growing up two spirit on the reserve, opening January 17.

With DJ JEF LEPPARD & DJ TRACEY DRAPER, plus join our drag sister JAYLENE as we celebrate our two spirit brothers and sisters!

Unlike a usual Queer Bash, this is not a dress-up event, but you will definitely require your dancing shoes. Party goers get a discount on tickets to The Cultch's run of Agokwe! For more details, click here.

Canadian choreographer brings her smarts to the stage

What does it mean to be together? More specifically, what does it mean to move together, to dance together? Can it be possible to maintain individuality while embracing unison? Or, is unison the death of all independence.

These questions and more are explored from January 25th - 29th in relay, choreographed by the adventurous dancemaker Ame Henderson. Deemed a daring dance "experiment," Henderson takes a creative leap with her Toronto-based company Public Recordings and the result is both highly cerebral and visually stunning!

Throughout relay, Henderson stays true to herself drawing on her fondness of creating cross-disciplinary works by delicately intertwining movement with live music. Bonding together 8 dancers with 2 musicians, Henderson creates a world in which the analytical and the abstract unite. A deeply collaborative process, relay was designed from the memories of past performances from all dancers involved. It's a show of intelligent creation using the dancers to lead the audience through an unexpectedly tactile experience. In this world the act of both watching and experiencing movement are the tools Henderson uses to explain her unique take on the idea of togetherness. 

Full of adventurous risk-taking, unexpected happenings and extreme investigations, relay is art worth talking about.

Tickets to relay are available online at https://tickets.the cultch.com, or at The Cultch Box office by phone 604.251.1363 or in person at 1895 Venables Street.