Life-sized horse puppet will have young audiences connecting to Indigenous identity rediscovery story

Red Sky Performance will stage the world premiere of She Holds Up the Stars at the Toronto Symphony Orchestra venue Roy Thomson Hall with two performances April 19. School shows are scheduled for April 13 to April 18.

The Indigenous-led stage production is based on the award-winning novel of the same name by Red Sky’s founding artistic director Sandra Laronde. The show is an original coming-of-age story about identity, belonging and connection.

“It's a very ambitious show,” said Laronde. “We will have large-scale puppetry, such as a life-size horse, which will be puppeteered by three puppeteers, and there'll be other creatures that inhabit this world.” 

Visual art, screen design, theatre and movement, plus 43 musicians from Toronto Symphony Orchestra are featured, said Laronde. The cast of Indigenous and non-Indigenous actors include Inuk actor Julia Ulayok Davis playing the main character of Misko, James Gerus as Thomas, Marsha Knight as Kokum, Hilary Wheeler plays Shoshana, Geoffrey Pounsett in the role of Mr. Turner, Mike Shara as Mr. Desjardins, and Kehew Buffalo as Nelson.

The multidisciplinary performance aimed at audiences ages eight and up tells the story of a young Indigenous girl searching for connection to her roots, her heritage and her family.

“This young girl, who has been living in the city, goes to a rez which she hasn’t been to since she was six,” Laronde said. “She’s 12 years of age. She makes the journey back to the rez to find out more about her mother’s life and truth about what happened to her mother.”

Throughout her journey she develops a strong connection to a horse, which leads her to discover her own courage and resilience.

“She comes upon this horse that’s being tamed, whipped, broken by a rancher and his son,” said Laronde. “And then through time, because she wants to actually save the horse, she has to go through the son in order to be able to get to know the horse. And through the horse she finds that she has this gift, and she, through the horse, she kind of comes back to herself and back to the land and back to the community.”

Laronde partnered with award-winning UK puppet designer Nick Barnes to create the striking life-sized horse puppet. Three performers will bring the creature’s spirit to the stage—Troy Feldman (heart), Brad Cook (hind), and Dayna Tietzan (head) moving together as a single entity, working through breath, rhythm and physical expression.

“Working with the horse puppet, specifically, it feels like a real horse. (The puppeteers) have this amazing control over where they can breathe together and they can make the ears move, and the tail move. They’re just so synchronized in the way that the three of them move this giant puppet. It’s like being with a real horse,” said Davis.

Being born in Nunavut but adopted into a family in Winnipeg gives Davis a real connection to her character. Around the same age as Misko is in the show, Davis also returned to her birth community and learned about her own heritage.

“I do understand that feeling of, not (being) uncomfortable, but just feeling it’s big to go back and rediscover who you are and where you came from, so I do get it,” Davis said. 

The actress said she has always been artistic and as a child loved musical theatre, which developed into her passion for acting. She also studied classical voice.

“I started doing some musical theatre and then moved into straight plays, just regular plays, and now I’m a full-time actor,” said Davis, who is now based in Vancouver.

Davis said she loved the book, so was thrilled to be chosen for the part of Misko. “And so I was really excited to see how it would be adapted to the stage.”

Working with Laronde has been an exciting opportunity, said Davis.

“She’s so creative and she is really always open to hearing our own ideas and what we think. To work in the room with her is really great, I really have loved working with her so much.”

The creative and production team includes Laronde (book, creator and director), Eliot Britton (music and sound design), Barnes (puppetry design), Scarlet Wilderink (puppetry and movement director), Jason Hand (lighting design), Ken Mackenzie (scenic prop design), Lesley Hampton (costume design), Febby Tan (video design), Dayna Tietzan (puppetry associate), and Amelia Blaine (design of other puppetry).

She Holds Up the Stars was commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra in association with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, TO Live, and the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund.

Tickets and information available at https://www.tso.ca/concerts-and-events/events/she-holds-up-the-stars.

To learn more about Red Sky Performance, visit redskyperformance.com.