User:Liz1886/sandbox

Possible improvements to stub: Waawaate Fobister


 * 1) add sections - compare to other playwright bios
 * 2) Intro
 * 3) Life and Career (or two sections: Early life, Career) - some referenced in existing sources
 * 4) * Grew up in Grassy Narrows First Nations reserve in Ontario
 * 5) * Member of Anishinaabe community
 * 6) * Other details of childhood?
 * 7) * Realized he was two-spirited at 18
 * 8) Education (possibly included in Early life)
 * 9) * Attended primary/secondary school at...
 * 10) * Attended college at...
 * 11) Prizes, awards, nominations
 * 12) Bibliography/Works ("Two-Spirits Acts: Queer Indigenous Performances" Playwrights Canada Press 2013)
 * 13) External sources? (important sites to link to that may not be appropriate to link to in the article body)
 * 14) Update professional activity - what is he doing now? Last info is from 2009.
 * 15) Twitter account might have leads/recent activity (thru Nov 2020)
 * 16) Articles from academic sources

Look into:

Jim Compton writer/producer of recent play, "Frenchie"?

Seems to prefer them/they pronouns per recent bios at royalmtc.ca (2021) and intrepidtheatre.com (2019)

https://www.thekickandpush.com/blog/call-for-proposals-2021

X Curator - Indigenous Content (March 2021)

X https://royalmtc.ca/Festivals-Events/The-Bridge.aspx (March 2021)

X Panelist for "Dance Ogichidas" at The Bridge: A Festival of Ideas (March 18-21, 2021) at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre.

FROM BIO:

They/them pronouns

Currently resides in Winnipeg.

Awards: Dora Awards (already in article), Humber College Outstanding Actor (year) (also cited as Distinguished Performance - Male Award from Humber College Theatre Performance Program at https://electriques.ca/filles/en/artiste/fobister_wa)

Nominations: Ontario Premiers' Award (year), K.M. Hunter Award (year), Sterling Award - Edmonton (year)

Studied Theatre Arts - Performance at Humber College

Studied Indigenous Dance at Banff Centre for the Arts

Summer school intensives at Toronto Dance Theatre and Kaha:wi Dance Theatre

X Currently (2021) teaches at the Manitoba Theatre for Young People

X Currently (2021) commissioned to write a 10 minute play to be performed at the Human Rights Museum (location)

X https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/waawaate-fobister-reclaims-first-nations-two-spirited-traditions-1.2709297

Realized he was two-spirited at 18

Agokwe is partly autobiographical

Agokwe was performed during the Queer Acts Theater Festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia, July 17-20, 2014 at the Bus Stop Theater

http://www.doollee.com/PlaywrightsF/fobister-waawaate.php

Agokwe brief synopsis.

First produced: Buddies in Bad Times, Toronto, Sep 23, 2008

Published in "Two-Spirit Acts: Queer Indigenous Performances" published by Playwrights Canada Press 2013 (cover image thumbnail)

Obaaberima brief synopsis.

First produced: Buddies in Bad Times, Toronto, Sep 15, 2012

Not published.

X http://mikwchiyam.com/artist/waawaate-fobister/

TEDxTORONTO talk

Member of Anishiinabe community, Grassy Narrows First Nation - one hour north of Kenora. "small community, about 1000 people, isolated, in the bush"

Waawaate is his spirit, Native name which he also uses as his stage name. Got his Native name at 18 when he started to become more interested in his native spirituality. Met with a medicine woman to get his spirit name. She saw dark sky, lights, dancing...the Northern Lights. NL represent spirits dancing and telling a story which clicked with him and confirmed the career path he needed to pursue: storytelling.

"Agokwe: Gay Love on the Rez" based on a true even from his life, an infatuation with another native boy in Kenora. About two-spirited people in society then vs. now. At 16 he could not come out of the closet, his culture was very homophobic. Explores his first realization that he was gay. Every Friday was Kenora day for groceries, banking, etc. Sees a boy in a store and locks eyes. He would return every Friday hoping to see the boy again for about 1.5 years. Then big native hockey tournament weekend comes and he knew the boy would be there. He thought they could finally meet. They walk a bit, the boy smiles, and Waawaate walks away. A couple months later, W goes to the boy's reserve for a powwow. They finally get to talk after 2 years of looking at each other. Then W moves to Toronto for acting training, but he always had the boy in his mind. Decided to make a theater position on the boy's reservation. W is on the rez for a couple weeks, it's small, about 500. W doesn't see the boy anywhere, finally asks a friend who tells him the boy died by suicide a couple days earlier. W wonders if he had told the boy he was coming, if it could have prevented his death. Combines the story of two-spirits and W's very personal story. Very vulnerable and bare.

Two-spirit: male spirit and female spirit intertwined in one body. Before colonization two-spirited people had responsibilities and roles in aboriginal communities. They were more connected to the spiritual world by more powerful, stronger connections. Made medicine people and healers.

X https://www.artscape.ca/event/agokwe-by-waawaate-fobister/

Agokwe summary.

Directed and dramaturged by Ed Roy, written and performed by Waawaate Foister.

Performed at the Aki Studio Theatre, Feb 20-24, 2013

X

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4108184/

X Actor known for Famous, currently in post-production (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5230406/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_cl_sm) and The Time Traveler (2009) (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1736683/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_cl_sm)

https://intrepidtheatre.com/shows/agokwe/

Agokwe plot summary.

They/them pronouns in bio.

Original Agokwe team credits.

Performed at Metro Studio Theatre Feb 6, 2019

X https://humber50.ca/our-alumni/waawaate-fobister (edu)

Humber College alumni page

Some new bio info (dad, grandpa mentioned)

https://queerbio.com/wiki/index.php/Waawaate_Fobister

Wrote the play Medicine Boy in 2012.

X

https://www.newconstellations.ca/artist-pages/waawaate-fobister

Waawaate means Northern Lights.

Grass Dancer

Awards: two Dora Awards

Nominations: Ontario Premiers' Award, K.M. Hunter Award, Sterling award

Studied at: Humber College, Banff Centre for the Arts, School of Toronto Dance Theatre, Centre for Indigenous Theatre, Kahawi Dance Theatre

X Playwright in residence at Native Earth Performing Arts (Toronto, 2019-20 season https://www.nativeearth.ca/mskominigiizis/2019artists/) and Magnus Theatre (Thunder Bay)

Choreographed a musical in PEI seen by Prince William and Princess Kate (date?)

X http://nomorepotlucks.org/site/the-two-spirited-rebirth-of-indigenous-nations-an-interview-with-waawaate-fobister/

Interview?

History of two-spirits in Native culture, effect of colonization.

Agokwe is an Ojibwa word

Play short summary

W talks about his mission as a storyteller

History of the term "two-spirit" coined in the 1990s

First in his extended family to graduate from high school

Re-emergence of two-spirited people in society and native culture

W performed an earlier play called Savage - toured it to public and private schools

W wants to reach out to marginalized communities of young people

"Agokwe" Twenty-first century drama: the first decade. 2012, v. 1 p. 47-51. Gale, Cengage Learning (2012) 9781414490427. Gale ebooks.

Intro

Literary and historical context

Themes and style

Critical reception

X https://nowtoronto.com/waawaate-fobister

Second play, Medicine Boy

Some childhood details - drug use, parents partying, family history of boarding schools

Some personal details - engagement (2012)

X https://www.mooneyontheatre.com/2012/08/13/review-medicine-boy-anishnaabe-theatre-performance-2012-summerworks-review/

Medicine Boy review

https://www.aptnnews.ca/national-news/new-dance-raises-concerns-around-mercury-poisoning-in-grassy-narrows/

Omaagomaan review/interview