The Hnatyshyn Foundation - University of Saskatchewan Scholarship for Indigenous Students in Drama
This program, inaugurated in 2022, consists of a $10,000 scholarship to recognize the academic achievement of an Indigenous undergraduate student in drama studying at the the University of Saskatchewan’s wîcêhtowin Theatre program.
The Foundation is particularly proud of this partnership because Ray and Gerda Hnatyshyn were both alumni of The University of Saskatchewan.
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The wîcêhtowin Theatre program is a transformative certificate program in performance and theatre design. This comprehensive and experience-based learning approach for emerging First Nations, Métis, and Inuit actors, playwrights and designers—as well as students interested in an Indigenous perspective—delivers meaningful and principled skills in the areas of performance and technical theatre design.
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Darius Kiskotagan
Darius enjoys the collaborative nature of theatre and hopes to establish an independent company where emerging artists like him can showcase their work.
“I know a number of creative, hard working artists that have yet to be fully recognized. I hope this venture could serve as a stepping off point into larger opportunities.”
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Leze Pewapsconias
Leze Pewapsconias is from Little Pine First Nation reserve in Saskatchewan. Her hope is to bring theatre training back to the reserve, explaining:
“I ultimately believe the arts and drama are a gateway to self-actualization, positive mental and physical health, and [that they] will continue to set my people down, as they have for me, a positive path of healing.”
In the summer of 2023, Pewapsconias worked with SUM Theatre in Saskatoon as an actor in an ensemble cast. At the University of Saskatchewan, she has been in multiple Greystone Theatre productions, including The Secret in the Wings by Mary Zimmerman, directed by Treena Stubel, Gordon Winter by Kenneth T. Williams, directed by Deneh'Cho Thompson, and Sir John A. Acts of a Gentrified Ojibway Rebellion by Drew Hayden Taylor, directed by Deneh'Cho Thompson.
Image from Concord Floral by Jordan Tannahill. Directed by Natasha Martina, shown at Greystone Theatre, University of Saskatchewan Campus. Nov 17-27, 2021. Leze played Character 8 (Fox)
