Beagan is co-founder and co-director with Andy Moro of ARTICLE 11, Indigenous Activist Arts creation and production company.
RECENT and UPCOMING:
Reckoning debuted at Theatre Centre in Toronto, April 2016.
Invited by Canada Council for the Arts and Australian Arts Council as part of Indigenous delegation for APAM Brisbane 2016
co-director of ARTICLE 11 performance installation work DECLARATION to ran at the National Arts Centre’s Ontario Scene and for Aboriginal History Month at the ROM, 2015.
Director/playwright of ARTICLE 11’S In Spirit at Harbourfront’s Planet IndigenUs, 2015.
Directed Dreary and Izzy for Theatre Northwest, in the 2015/2016 season.
Writer-in-residence at the Berton House, Dawson City, Y.T. Oct-Dec 2014.
Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts from February 2011 to December 2013.
A member of the advisory board for Canadian Theatre Review
AWARDS and ACCLAIM:
Pauline McGibbon Award nominee, 2015
Debut play, Thy Neighbour’s Wife, nominated for three Dora Mavor Moore Awards, winning for Outstanding New Play.
Thy Neighbour’s Wife nominated for three Betty Mitchell Awards (Calgary), including Best Production.
Miss Julie: Sheh’mah, for KICK Theatre, five Dora nominations, including New Play.
One of NOW magazine’s Top Ten Theatre Artists of 2007
Miss Julie: Sheh’mah named in the Top Ten Theatre Productions of 2008, by the Globe and Mail.
Short film 133 Skyway (a Big Soul Production, co-written with director Randy Redroad) won for Best Canadian Short Drama at the 2006 imagineNATIVE festival.
Multiple nominee for the K.M. Hunter Award
PLAYWRIGHT – Selected Productions
April 2016 Reckoning ARTICLE 11 at the Theatre Centre in Toronto.
September 2015 In Spirit ARTICLE 11 with Gordon Tootoosis Nikaniwin Theatre at U of Regina’s Performing Turtle Island.
June 2014 A Soldier’s Tale SIGNAL Theatre. NAC/Canada Dance. (see below)
February 2014 A Soldier’s Tale SIGNAL Theatre, debuting at enwave theatre with
DanceWorks, created/directed by Michael Greyeyes.
February 2014 In Spirit Native Earth Performing Arts directed by Beagan
September 2013 Dreary and Izzy Western Canada Theatre/Persephone/Gateway/Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company, directed by Tara Beagan
March 2012 free as injuns Native Earth Performing Arts directed by Ruth Madoc-Jones
November 2011 Jesus Chrysler Praxis Theatre directed by Michael Wheeler
October 2010 Foundlings imagineNATIVE directed by Tara Beagan
March 2010 The Mill: The Woods Theatrefront, directed by Sarah Garton Stanley
Now in print, in The Mill Anthology, Playwrights Canada Press
November 2008 Miss Julie: Sheh’mah KICK Theatre, directed by Melee Hutton
Available in an anthology, New Canadian Realisms, Playwrights Canada Press
February 2006 Here, Boy! halfbreed productions, Rhubarb! Festival, directed by Patrick
Beagan
December 2005 Dreary and Izzy Native Earth directed by Ruth Madoc-Jones
Now in print through the Playwright’s Canada Press
July 2005 TransCanada Native Earth Performing Arts directed by Yvette Nolan
June 2004 Thy Neighbour’s Wife UnSpun Theatre directed by Leah Simone Bowen
FILM AND RADIO WRITING
2006 Hometime CBC Radio one, directed by Ho Che Andersen and produced
by Marcia Johnson. Starring Michelle St. John and George Leach.
2006 133 Skyway Big Soul Productions. Co-writer with director, Randy Redroad.
Starring Derek Miller, Terry Barnhart and Falen Johnson.
COLLABORATOR/CREATOR, Collective Creations – Theatre
Sept/Oct 2007 The Fort at York Crate Productions, head playwright and co-director with a cast of fifteen
February 2006 Suck and Blow Rhubarb! Festival, directed by Michael Rubenfeld
July 2005 Head-Smashed-In
Buffalo Jump UnSpun Theatre, Toronto Fringe 2005.
directed by Brendan Gall
October 2004 Ever Sick Tonto’s Nephews, at NEPA’s Weesageechak Festival,
directed by Herbie Barnes
DIRECTOR – Theatre
“Well, what you’ve done is… you’ve made the play better than it is.”
-Edward Bond, upon witnessing the Beagan directed reading of his
Red, Black and Ignorant for Sheep No Wool’s Edward Bond Festival, 2012
April 2016 Reckoning ARTICLE 11 at the Theatre Centre in Toronto.
September 2015 In Spirit ARTICLE 11 with Gordon Tootoosis Nikaniwin Theatre at U of Regina’s Performing Turtle Island.
February 2015 Things I Cannot Speak by Kumari Giles, YCU for the Rhubarb! Festival, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Toronto. (d/d)
June 2014 The Ministry of Grace by Beagan. ARTICLE 11 workshop production in partnership with the City of Toronto Fort York.
February/ In Spirit by Beagan with Native Earth Performing Arts, at Talking Stick Festival
March 2014 Rutas Panamericanas
Sept 2013 Dreary and Izzy by Beagan at Western Canada Theatre and
March 2014 Persephone/Gateway/Saskatchewan Native Theatre
August 2012 Medicine Boy by Waawaate Fobister, Anishnaabe Theatre Performance,
SummerWorks Festival
May 2012 Untold by Cole Alvis and Donna Michelle St. Bernard, NEPA. Co-director with Cole Alvis
Nov/Dec 2008 A Very Polite Genocide by Melanie J. Murray, Assistant Director to Yvette Nolan. A Native Earth production. AD funded by the OAC’s ACD program
August 2008 Foundlings, Director/writer, halfbreed productions, SummerWorks Festival October 2010 ImagineNATIVE festival
Sept/Oct 2007 The Fort at York, co-director/head writer, Crate Productions
August 2007 Quilchena, director/writer, halfbreed & Red Pepper Spectacle Arts, SummerWorks Festival
WORKSHOPS/MENTORING
Centre for Indigenous Theatre, Diaspora Dialogues, Cahoots Theatre Projects, NEPA, Taatsikiisapo’op Middle School, Toronto Disctrict School Board, Coldwater Band, Kingcome Inlet, Gwaandak Theatre, Saskatchewan Writer’s Guild, Playwrights Workshop Montreal.
GUEST INSTRUCTOR/READING ENGAGEMENTS
University of Guelph with Ric Knowles, York University with Michael Greyeyes, Queen’s University with Daniel David Moses and Armand Ruffo, University of Regina with Spy Denommé-Welch, Western University with Kim Solga, University of Northern B.C. at First Nations House.
PLAYWRIGHT RESIDENCIES
2014 – Writer’s Trust of Canada writer-in-residence at Berton House October to December
2010 – 2011 National Arts Centre
2009 – 2010 Native Earth Performing Arts
2007 –2008 Cahoots Theatre Projects
PUBLISHED WRITING
2006 – Dreary and Izzy, Playwright’s Canada Press
2007: “Status Static” published in first annual First Nations issue of Toronto’s NOW magazine.
2011 – The Mill, a four part series. Playwright’s Canada Press
2011 – “Elder up!”: A Mentor/Mentee Memoir in Canadian Theatre Review,147:68
2012 – New Canadian Realisms: Eight Plays, edited by Kim Solga and Roberta Barker, Playwright’s Canada Press. My work Miss Julie: Sheh’mah is in this anthology
2014 – included in Refractions: Solo edited by DM St. Bernard & Yvette Nolan
2015 – In Spirit, complete script, ELQ/Exile Quarterly, Volume 38, No. 4
2016 – Performing Indigeneity edited by Ric Knowles & Yvette Nolan, essay titled Arthome
2016 – Upcoming from Scirocco Press, Reckoning.
SELECTED EDUCATION
1997-1998: University of Alberta – Bachelor of Arts in Drama with a minor in English.
1993-1995: Red Deer College – Theatre Studies Performance Program.
~ACTING CREDITS listed under menu tab “ACTOR”~
tara beagan 