University of Regina Canada Games Newsletter, June 5 2005

Tremblay Plans Most Challenging NAP Yet

For 52 young people at the 2005 Canada Summer Games, success is about co-operation and creativity and experimentation.
“Our competition isn’t against each other—it’s against time,” says Joey Tremblay, artistic director of the National Artist Program (NAP).
Each of the provincial/territorial teams coming to Regina in August includes a team of emerging artists who will work with Tremblay, a Saskatchewan-born director, actor and playwright, and eight creative mentors to create a“gold medal” performance presented August 19 at the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts. The graduate of the U of R Theatre Department, who is currently artist-in-residence with Regina’s Globe Theatre, has chosen to challenge everyone’s creative skills by making the NAP performance
a single, seamless piece, rather than the usual variety show or gala format.
Tremblay selected the seven deadly sins—pride, envy, anger, lust, greed, gluttony and sloth—as the theme for the performance because both artists and athletes feel the effects of them in similar ways. Sloth has to be overcome, pride and envy spur competition and inspiration, and gluttony can be inverted. “When does your training, or your art, begin to consume you?” he asks provocatively.
The artists, aged 17 to 23, include musicians, dancers, creative athletes, photographers and painters, writers, soapstone carvers from the Northwest Territories and throat singers from Nunavut. The amazing and interesting thing about this year’s selected artists is that so many are multi-talented and have training in two or more disciplines.
Saskatchewan’s NAP team includes Alexandra Kenyon, a Regina-born visual artist who also plays violin; Colby Tootoosis of Saskatoon, who plays Native American flute and is also a writer, storyteller and championship traditional dancer; Johanna Bundon of Regina, who specializes in modern and improvisational dance, both as performer and teacher; and Tahirih Vejdani, a music student at the U of R, who sings, acts and plays the oboe. During the first week at the U of R, the teams emerging artists will be regrouped into seven working groups of varying sizes, each led by the creative mentors to develop
a 10-minute piece on one of the seven sins. The creative mentors are Daniel MacDonald, writer, director and U of R graduate student in education; Neil Cadger, writer, director and University of Saskatchewan theatre professor; Jayden Pfiefer, actor, improviser and U of R theatre graduate; Darci Anderson, social theorist and sessional lecturer in the departments of Sociology and Women’s Studies; Elaine Hanson, choreographer and sessional instructor at the U of R; Dr. Charity Marsh, musicologist, DJ and professor in the U of R music department; Lee Henderson, interdisciplinary artist, VJ and U of R master of fine arts student; and Misty Wensel, choreographer and teacher at Dr. Martin LeBoldus High School.
During the second week, at the Saskatchewan Centre of the Arts, the teams will work with Tremblay, the mentors and the core creative team of set designer Kathleen Irwin, costumer Russ Danielson, lighting specialist Sharon Huizinga and composer Jason Cullimore to create an innovative and unified performance.
“If the 52 young artists have an enriching experience, we can’t fail,” says Tremblay.

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