YELLOWKNIFE - Yellowknife's Nadine Jackson is pursuing an acting career in Toronto and is about to perform in the first annual Luminato arts festival.

Nadine Jackson, a Yellowknife resident, uses stage equipment as props in her act. Jackson is pursuing a career in acting in Toronto. - photo courtesy of Jona Stuart

Jackson, 28, left Yellowknife in 1996 when she went travelling for a few months before hitting the books at Dalhousie University. There, she worked towards her degree in acting until 2001, when she started up a theatre company called Purple Octagon Theatre.

The Halifax-based theatre group was a collaborative effort with a group of her friends. One memorable show her group put on was a theatre version of Pulp Fiction, in which she played a female version of Bruce Willis' character, Butch.

With experience in gymnastics in Yellowknife and more recently some practice in martial arts, Jackson said she really enjoys such physical roles.

"It was such a fun show to do. It was hard though - I was real beat up by the end," she said.

After a one-year stint with the theatre group, Jackson moved to Toronto in 2002. For two years she studied technical theatre at Ryerson University before putting her skills to the test and working as an actor in town.

She started out acting in non-paying festivals, working at readings and workshops and eventually working at paying festivals. She has also had small roles in television and film, and has been an extra on the show Trailer Park Boys.

"I'll do whatever I'm cast in," she said.

Jackson now finds herself about to perform in the first Luminato, Toronto's new multi-disciplinary arts festival. The play in which she is performing is called Spirit Horse, which is a new adaptation of a play by Drew Hayden Taylor about children and for children.

The play, which has a First Nations theme, has a strong message for children according to Jackson. The play deals with the issue of racism and afterwards, a discussion takes place about it.

"It's up to all of us to make sure what happens on stage doesn't happen in real life," she said.

The cast and crew of Spirit Horse is touring schools across Ontario with the show, and will perform in Toronto during Luminato twice on Monday, June 4 and once on Tuesday, June 5.

When the play's tour is over, Jackson plans to leave Toronto, at least for the time being.

"I could stay in Toronto - I've got a couple of opportunities that might be coming up for me there - but I'm also thinking about heading out west to B.C. 'cause there's opportunity there too," she said.

She said if she came back to Yellowknife, she would probably have an easy time starting to produce, but that a career in acting would be "pretty much impossible because there's just not enough stuff you get paid for up there."

Before she decides where to take her career, Jackson plans on spending some time volunteering in Ecuador starting in July. Wherever she ends up, Jackson is focused on what she wants to accomplish.

"My goal is to be a performer for the rest of my life... I just want to be performing and involved in performance for the rest of my life," she said, adding that she would eventually like to get involved on a different level.

"I'm very interested in choreography and directing, and that's something I'll head towards later in my career, but for now acting is great..." she said.