TORONTO (December 11, 2019) Native Earth Performing Arts is proud to present its production of the 2018 Governor General-nominated play This Is How We Got Here, written and directed by Keith Barker, featuring Kristopher Bowman, Tamara Podemski, James Dallas Smith and Michaela Washburnon January 26-February 16, 2020.

Lucille, Paul, Liset, and Jim – best friends, sisters, spouses stumble in the dark one year after a tragic loss. They struggle to find each other again, until a mysterious fox shows up with a curious gift. Simultaneously heartbreaking and heartwarming, This Is How We Got Here is a complex and hopeful story of letting go.

“Entirely relatable, heart-wrenchingly frank, and dazzlingly honest. What makes it special is how deftly Barker navigates emotional sucker punches, while each of his characters deals with their own shortcomings and gifts, and utterly without judgement from the author.” – Tara Beagan, acclaimed theatre artist and co-founder of ARTICLE 11.

The Algonquin Métis playwright and director Keith Barker is a multi-awarding winning artist and the current Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts, originally from Northwestern Ontario. He was the finalist for the Governor General Literary Award for English Drama for This Is How We Got Here, and won the Saskatchewan and Area Theatre Award for Excellence in Playwriting for his play, The Hours That Remain, as well as a Yukon Arts Award for Best Art for Social Change. This Is How We Got Here was recently produced at Magnus Theatre and was previously at SummerWorks in 2016 (Continuum Theatre/New Harlem Productions).

The production features an incredible cast of Indigenous performers, including television and film actor Kristopher Bowman (Haudenosaunee) who recently finished his third season at the Shaw Festival in dark British farce The Ladykillers and Mae West’s Sex, and will be returning next year for Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms and George Bernard Shaw’s The Devil’s Disciple. He also wrapped up his latest feature film role as Detective Doyle in the 80’s set comedy/horror Vicious Fun.

Tamara Podemski (Anishinaabe/Ashkenazi) is an award-winning multi-disciplinary artist, whose film and TV credits include: Dance Me Outside, North of 60 (CBC), and Heartland (CBC). She is most notable a member of the Original Canadian cast and the Broadway Company of Rent, and received the Special Jury Prize for Acting for her role in Four Sheets to the Wind at the Sundance Film Festival. Her most recent theatre performance was in Colleen Wagner’s Governor General Award-Winning play The Monument, directed by Jani Lauzon (Factory Theatre). Tamara currently stars in the CBC primetime drama Coroner, as well as the HBO comedy-thriller Run, both set to air in 2020.

James Dallas Smith (Anishinaabe) most recently appeared in Daniel David Moses’ play Almighty Voice and His Wife, directed by Jani Lauzon at Soulpepper Theatre. Other theatre credits include: Ipperwash (Blyth Festival; Native Earth), Our Town, King Lear (Soulpepper), Drawer Boy (Centaur), Hard Times For These Times (National Arts Centre), Drawer Boy (Centaur), as well as five times at Native Earth’s Weesageechak Begins to Dance festival.

Michaela Washburn (Métis) was also in Almighty Voice and His Wife (Soulpepper), as well as Guarded Girls (Tarragon/Green Light Arts), Grace (Nightwood), Animal Farm (Soulpepper) and Confederation Series (VideoCabaret, Soulpepper), for which she won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Actress. She will be performing this summer in the Stratford Festival production of Tomson Highway’s The Rez Sisters. She was also nominated for the Ontario Arts Council Indigenous Arts Award and K.M. Hunter Artist Award for Theatre.

Native Earth Performing Arts Presents
THIS IS HOW WE GOT HERE
Written & Directed by Keith Barker


Starring Kristopher Bowman, Tamara Podemski,
James Dallas Smith, Michaela Washburn


Lighting Designer Jennifer Lennon
Set Designer Shannon Lea Doyle
Sound Designer Christopher Stanton
Costume Designer Isidra Cruz
Stage Manager Heather Thompson
Production Manager Suzie Balogh


Aki Studio, Daniels Spectrum
585 Dundas Street East, Toronto


January 26-February 16, 2020
OPENING NIGHT: Wednesday, January 29, 2020
Tuesdays – Saturdays @ 8 pm
Sundays @ 2 pm


Tickets: $20-$30 | Previews: $15-$20 | Tuesdays Pay-What-You-Can
Available online at nativeearth.ca, or by phone at 416.531.1402.


For more details: www.nativeearth.ca.

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Native Earth Performing Arts is Canada’s oldest professional Indigenous theatre company.

Currently in its 37th year, Native Earth is dedicated to creating, developing and producing professional artistic expressions of the Indigenous experience in Canada. Through stage productions (theatre, dance and multi-disciplinary art), script development, apprenticeships and internships, Native Earth seeks to fulfill a community of artistic visions. nativeearth.ca

Media Contact: Ashley Belmer, B-REBEL COMMUNICATIONS, ashley@b-rebelcommunications.com, 416-617-8934.