THEATRE PREVIEW

OCTOBER 2025 | Volume 256

 

THE ARTS CLUB THEATRE COMPANY’S PRESENTATION OF

YOU USED TO CALL ME MARIE…
AN EPIC MÉTIS LOVE STORY

By Tai Amy Grauman
A Savage Society & NAC Indigenous Theatre Production
On Tour October 15 to November 9

The Arts Club Theatre Company’s presentation of the Métis love story You used to call me Marie…begins a five-city tour across the Lower Mainland. Following its run at the Olympic Village Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre, the Savage Society &NAC Indigenous Theatre Production by playwright Tai Amy Grauman will begin its tour in Surrey on October 15, and travel to Coquitlam, Mission and Burnaby before its final performance in New Westminster on November 9.

Music plays and ponies dance as the epic story of Marie Callihoo and generations of Alberta’s Métis women unfurls through time. Follow Marie, Iskwewo, Napew, and Mistatim (“horse” in Michif) in intertwined celebrations of love and resilience as the Métis Nation emerges across the plains. Robust in scope yet intimate, You used to call me Marie… explores the fur trade and political uprisings in the 1930s to the present through era-spanning dance and live music, from French fiddle to contemporary country.

“Bringing Savage Society’s production of You used to call me Marie…, written by Tai Amy Grauman, to audiences across the Lower Mainland is an honour,” said Ashlie Corcoran, Arts Club Theatre Company Artistic Director. “This production is even more meaningful to us at the Arts Club as Tai wrote the first draft of this play as part of the Arts Club’s LEAP Playwriting Intensive. Through her compelling characters and the piece’s persuasive music, she invites the audience to join her on a deeply personal and transformative journey. It is an incredibly meaningful moment for our company and our community to see this production on tour throughout the Lower Mainland.”

You used to call me Marie… has toured Alberta and Saskatchewan and been produced at NAC Indigenous Theatre, in Ottawa. The Arts Club Theatre Company’s partnership with Savage Society continues the creative journey of this production following its run at the Olympic Village Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre. Savage Society was founded in 2004 to support its members in telling their own stories as practicing Indigenous theatre and film artists. They develop work that reflects their worldview, sourcing traditional stories and cosmologies and contemporary realities as Indigenous people for both professional and community settings.

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Tai Amy Grauman (MFA) is Métis from Ardrossan, Alberta.  She is a Callihoo and Beauregard from St. Paul des Métis, from her paternal lineage, and a Turner from Cutknife, Saskatchewan, from her maternal lineage. Tai is a writer, actor, director and producer.  She has been involved in over 20 theatre productions across the country as an actor. As a writer, her play ‘You used to call me Marie…’ has toured Métis communities across Alberta and Saskatchewan while also premiering at the Cultch and the National Arts Centre in 2024.  Her play for young audiences, ‘Where have all the buffalo gone?’ is in its second year of touring Canada.  Tai’s most recent play, ‘Rose and James:  A Metis Scottish love story’, was recently presented at Métis Crossing and will travel to Scotland in February 2026

CAST

Carmen Alvis (Ensemble/Dancer), Lynny Jeanne-Marie Bonin (Iskwewo), Sophie Dow (Ensemble/Dancer), Kathleen Nisbet (Fiddler/Composer/Band Captain), Aren Okemaysim(Napew/Musician), Krystle Pederson (Ensemble/Musician/Composer/VocalCaptain/Dance Captain)

CREATIVE
Lois Anderson (Director), Andrea Menard (Composer), Yvonne Chartrand (Jigging Choreographer), Cecilia Vadala (Set Designer), Evan Ducharme (Costume Designer), Alaia Hamer (Costume Designer), Jeff Harrison (Lighting Designer), Aaron Macri(Sound Designer), Rick Colhoun (Associate Sound Designer),Candelario Andrade (Projection Designer), Jack Chipman (Video Programmer), Graham Andrews (Michif Language Consultant), Eloi Homier (French Language Consultant), Michelle Olson (Assistant Director),Chengyan Boon (Assistant Lighting Designer), Matt Oviatt(Technical Director), Stephanie Elgersma (Props Manager), Philomena Sondergaard(Stage Manager), Sophie Kaplan (Apprentice Stage Manager)

TOUR VENUES AND DATES

SURREY	Surrey Arts Centre604.501.5566	October 15 to 25
COQUITLAM	Evergreen Cultural Centre604.927.6555	October 28 to November 1
MISSION	Clarke Theatre604.687.1644	November 3
BURNABY	Shadbolt Centre for the Arts604.205.3000	November 5 & 6
NEW WESTMINSTER	Anvil Centre604.521.5050	November 8 & 9

ABOUT THE ARTS CLUB THEATRE COMPANY
The Arts Club Theatre Company is situated on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish Peoples, in particular thexʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations, We invite you to reflect on your relationship to these lands.

The Arts Club is one of the largest not-for-profit theatre organizations in the country and is the principal gathering place for the theatrical arts in British Columbia. Comprising three unique venues across Vancouver, the Arts Club welcomes more than a quarter million guests annually, tours provincially and nationally, and engages students and artists alike through educational and professional programs.

Above all, the Arts Club is dedicated to the advancement of local artists telling stories from around the globe and, in particular, those of our region. From this, we believe that culture expands, an understanding of differences is nurtured, and art bursts forth. The Arts Club was founded in 1964 and is currently led by Artistic Director Ashlie Corcoran and Executive Director Peter Cathie White.

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