Travel with Red Man Caravan

Page 13

Red Man Caravan, a newly opened performing arts studio in the city, is operated by film stars Dakota House, Nathaniel Arcand and A-Channel's camera man Shane Blyan.

It opened its doors at the beginning of the year to welcome Aboriginal youth and adults who are interested in becoming involved in plays or musical theatre. Red Man Caravan, affiliated with Theatre Arts Community Outreach Society and the Aboriginal Bone Marrow Registries Association, shares a building on Edmonton's south side.

"The Red Man Caravan is basically focused on inner city youth and at risk youth. We are focusing on bringing their energy into a positive level," said House. "We are interested in giving them a chance to learn about the film industry. Many of today's youth have a lot to offer, as far as performing in plays, in dance or through art work," he said.

The caravan's goal is to produce plays based on teen issues for conferences, school workshops and community centres across Canada. Some topics that the plays will feature are peer pressure issues, how to be responsible, personal growth, suicide, teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse and physical abuse. The group's play, Rage, was recently featured at a youth conference at Edmonton's Shaw Conference Centre.

"The play deals with peer pressures, overcoming obstacles, the consequences one must pay for the actions they choose to take. I believe that for every action there is a reaction," said House. "In Rage we cover a wide range of issues such as physical abuse, drug and alcohol abuse.We also look at issues surrounding teen pregnancy and suicide," he said.

House, who played Tee Vee on North of 60 for six seasons, has also appeared in the X-Files series and has garnered awards such as best actor at two Dreamspeaker's Festivals, and was nominated as best actor in a dramatic series at the Gemini Awards in Toronto. Legends: The Story of Sewash Rock, a television theatrical drama in which House starred, was recently premiered at the 1999 Vancouver International Film Festival.

Although House and Arcand are involved in the plays and in the studio, they do not do any of the acting.

"We are there to guide the youth through their presentations. A lot of the youth are excellent actors and dancers, and some are awesome artists," said House. "We want to utilize the youth's talents, and to teach them about the film industry," he said.

The studio's goal is to create a positive setting and atmosphere where the youth feel they fit in.

"Instead of belonging to a gang who focuses on negative behavior, they can go to the studio and find all kinds of positive stuff to get into," said House. "It just goes to show that although some of these kids come from the inner city area, they can still go on to make it as an actor. It will also give them a chance to get out of the city and pass on positive messages and have the opportunity to see that there is a vast world out there."

House hopes that an opportunity such as this will give young adults a chance to set goals for themselves.

"We've been just getting everything started. We are finding that things are moving along and communities are calling us, wanting us to come into their communities to put on plays for them," said House. "Red Man Caravan welcomes everyone. If Elders want to stop by and see what we are all about, we'd like that," he said.