About the Play:

This long-awaited first collection by award-winning First Nations playwright and director Alanis King presents three exciting plays interconnected by themes of hope: spiritual (If Jesus Met Nanabush), personal (The Tommy Prince Story) and cultural (Born Buffalo).

Merging Native and Western traditions, If Jesus Met Nanabush is a thought-provoking and often hilarious cosmological First Contact story. When Jesus turns up at the Champion of Champions Pow-Wow on Six Nations, the first person he meets is the fun-loving trickster Nanabush. Together they form an odd pair. Nanabush is earthy, irascible, fun-loving. Jesus is formal, introverted, a fish out of water. However, as they venture across the back roads, bars and bus depots of Turtle Island, the two will discover that they are not so different after all. Their humorous and thought-provoking conversations entertain and inspire.

The Tommy Prince Story reveals the life of Canada's most-decorated Aboriginal war veteran through the voices of "Old Tommy" and "Young Tommy." Tommy or Thomas George Prince received 11 medals for his service in the Second World War and the Korean War yet spent his last years in a Winnipeg hostel. This captivating story of the great Saulteaux warrior weaves past and present, highs and lows so seamlessly that you can't put it down. As Drew Hayden Taylor concluded: "This is Alanis at her finest."

The final play is the lively Born Buffalo which entertains the reader with an encounter between fraternal Cree twins, Lucie and Jesse, and a mysterious talking buffalo who insists they help her escape from a Saskatchewan zoo. This magical transformation tale will enchant both young and adult readers.

About the Playwright:

Alanis King has quietly become a force in Native North American drama. Born into the Odawa Nation, she became the first Aboriginal woman to graduate from the National Theatre School of Canada. She is a past Artistic Director of the Debajehmujig Theatre Group and the Native Earth Performing Arts in Toronto. She was also Artistic Director at the Saskatchewan Native Theatre where she taught risk-prone inner city youth life skills through drama. She has also produced, toured, directed and developed a wide range of plays in many First Nation communities across the continent. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario.