Looking down the road
Arviat director wants to take play to different communities
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, March 25, 2015
ARVIAT
The youthful Arviat Drama Club is reviving a play it did four years ago to keep hammering away at the plague we know as suicide.
And, if things were to fall in place for the troupe, they just might get the chance to take The Bright Blue Mailbox Suicide Note on the road in 2016.
Director Gord Billard has been wanting to take one of the club's productions to another community for a number of years.
Billard said the cast is currently rehearsing the play, which will see Andy Evaloakjuk and Ramon Kaviok reprise the roles of Moe and Ken, respectively, they played in 2011.
He said usually, however, he selects the roles for the cast members as the rehearsals go along.
"Certain students will tell me they're interested in a role and they'll start reading for it," said Billard.
"And, if they stick with it and keep coming to rehearsals, they usually end up with that role.
"I don't have someone in mind to fill every role this time around, but I'd say we're about 70 to 80 per cent there.
"We're getting a good turnout at rehearsals and it's starting to look like we're going to have a good cast for this production."
Billard said the rehearsals are a combination of experienced actors and those new to the stage.
He said the club came back to the Bright Blue Mailbox Suicide Note because he'd really like to take the play to other communities.
"I'd like to bring it to Rankin Inlet for a couple of performances over the course of a weekend.
"That means, of course, looking for funding sources to finance the play.
"I really wanted to take this to Rankin when we performed it back in 2011.
"We couldn't find a source of cash to be able to do it, and that was tremendously disappointing."
The most obvious fundraising opportunity would be to ask for a bingo slot to finance the road trip.
A good bingo night in Arviat can raise upwards of $10,000 to $12,000, which should cover the cost of bringing the show to Rankin.
However, every hamlet has its own policy on what groups it supports with bingo slots and Billard's not sure if the drama club would qualify.
"We're also going to look at other funding sources to see if we can raise enough money to take it on the road," said Billard.
"It's important to me - and the kids too, I think - that if we're going to take a play on the road, we want to go with one that has a good message to it, and that's why we went back to the Bright Blue Mailbox Suicide Note.
"A play like this leaves something with the people who watch it, certainly more so than something like an Agatha Christie murder mystery which we were looking at doing this year.
"And, God knows, everyone in this territory could use a positive message on how important it is to keep an open dialogue on suicide.
"It's important for us to continue to let the kids know there's no shame in reaching out to someone if you're feeling that way and that's, basically, what this play is all about - you have to talk to your friends when you're feeling down and not keep it bottled-up inside."
The Bright Blue Mailbox Suicide Note is an issue play that features a cast of nine main characters.
The play was written by Canadian playwright Lindsay Price and its subject matter, suicide, resonates with people everywhere.
Price's work has been performed across North America at various levels, including the Arizona State
Thespian Festival.
Billard said if this season's production proves to be a success, he would hope to take it on the road the following school year with the same cast.
He said the play is "pretty fresh" with most of the cast, who weren't involved with its 2011 production.
"Apart from bringing the message abroad, the experience of bringing the show to another community, acting it on a new stage, and having to adapt and adjust to the differences that will occur is an education in itself in learning how to reproduce a show elsewhere that you've done in Arviat.
"That's a valuable skill for an actor to learn and we rarely have the opportunity to do it up here.
"Since we have no Arts Nunavut to help fund our initiatives, I often think Sports Nunavut should cater to the one or two little arts outfits we have to allow the drama team to go off and showcase their talents and spread an important message that needs to be heard.
"If I was offered the opportunity of a year off to take this play to every community in Nunavut, I'd jump at the chance because it's a great vehicle for getting people to talk about a problem that's rampant up here."
