About the Plays:

In this collection of two plays about the process of children becoming adults, Drew Hayden Taylor works his delightfully comic and bitter-sweet magic on the denials, misunderstandings and preconceptions which persist between Indigenous and Colonial culture in North America.

In The Boy in the Treehouse, Simon, the son of an Ojibway mother and a British father, climbs into his half-finished tree house on the vision-quest his books say is necessary for him to reclaim his mother's culture. "It's a Native thing," he informs his incredulous father (who tells him he'd never heard of such a thing from his wife): "Only boys do it. It's part of becoming a man." Of course, what with the threats of the police, the temptation of the barbecue next door, and the distractions of a persistent neighbourhood girl, Simon probably wouldn't recognize a vision if he fell over it. (Premiered in 2000 at Manitoba Theatre for Young People in Winnipeg; Cast: 1 female, 3 male)

Girl Who Loved Her Horses is the Indigenous name for the strange and quiet Danielle from the non-status community across the tracks, imbued with the mysterious power to draw the horse "every human being on the planet wanted but could never have." She is and remains an enigma to the people of the reservation, but the power of her spirit remains strong. Years later, a huge image of her horse reappears, covering an entire side of a building in a blighted urban landscape of beggars and broken dreams. The eyes of her stallion, which once gleamed exhilaration and freedom, now glare with defiance and anger. Danielle has clearly been forced to grow up. (Premiered in 1995 at Theatre Direct in Toronto; Cast: 2 female, 2 male, 1 any gender)

With these two plays, Drew Hayden Taylor rediscovers an issue long forgotten in our post-historical age: the nature of, and the necessity for, these rites of passage in all cultures.

What people say:

"…there is no mistaking this young writer's wit and humour… this playwright has made it clear to us that these rites of passages are evident in all cultures." — Kimberly Daily Bulletin

"Although both plays deal with young Native people and take place in a native milieu (one on a Reserve, the other in an urban environment), the power of the writing and the strength of the author's vision gives them a universality that should guarantee them a wide audience." David E. Kemp, CBRA 2000 – Literature and Language

About the Playwright:

Drew Hayden Taylor one of Canada's best known and most prolific Indigenous writers. An Ojibway born on Curve Lake First Nation near Peterborough, Ontario, he has worn many hats in his literary career, from performing stand-up comedy at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., to being Artistic Director of Canada's premiere Aboriginal theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts. He has been an award-winning playwright (with productions of his work in Canada, the US, and Europe), a journalist/columnist (appearing regularly in several Canadian newspapers and magazines), short-story writer, novelist, television scriptwriter, and documentary filmmaker.