Niizh

By (author): Joelle Peters

It’s summertime on the rez. The frybread is sizzling, and the local radio station plays bluegrass, Anishinaabemowin lessons, and Friday-night bingo numbers. Lenna, the youngest of the Little family, is preparing to leave home for her first year of college, with little enthusiasm or help from her stubborn father and reckless brother. Amidst lingering doubts about departing the family flock, Lenna collides into a meet-cute with the charming and awkward Sam Thomas, who is returning to the reserve after many years away. With the promise of a romance budding between them, Lenna is caught in a whirlwind of uncertainty, wondering if she’s ready to bid farewell just as she’s about to take flight.

Filled with Indigenous humour, small-town seasoning, and dream-world interludes, this heartwarming love story captures the bittersweet highs and lows of a rural teenage upbringing. A love letter to community, Niizh is a refreshing coming-of-age romcom about two young lovebirds leaving the nest.

AUTHOR

Joelle Peters

Joelle Peters is an Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) playwright and actor from Walpole Island First Nation in Southwestern Ontario. A graduate of Seneca College’s Acting for Camera and Voice Program, Joelle has appeared on Shoresy (Crave/Hulu) and in the film In Her City. She is also Interim Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts. In 2020, Joelle was named the Siminovitch Prize Protégé by Laureate Tara Beagan. Joelle’s other plays include Niizh (developed with Native Earth Performing Arts and commissioned by the Blyth Festival) and do you remember? (commissioned by Burnt Thicket Theatre for the We Treaty People audio series, supported by Punctuate!/Pemmican Playwrights Unit).


Reviews

“ltpgtI was excited about this play the first time I read it Its smart and funny and its exactly what we need right nowltpgt”
Keith Barker

“ltpgtIn ltigtNiizhltigt Joelle Peters offers up a profound love and simultaneous longing for family and community She stages generational strengthshumour caring and insightfulnessalongside generational wounds that can keep our dearest at arms length This disarmingly simple story is artfully crafted with dialogue featuring a uniquely Petersian dry wit ltigtNiizhltigt is a celebration of the joys beauties and challenges of a young and fiercely capable Indigenous womanltpgt”
Tara Beagan

“ltpgtJoelle can write the rez Conveying the history the hardship but more than anything the humour and the beauty of our complicated communities And to see those spaces on stage is a powerful thingltpgt”
Falen Johnson

“ltpgtWhats most satisfying is how many themes Peters layers into the scriptincluding the loss of Indigenous language and culture the fear of failure of those embarking on something new and most poignantly the shame and anger around abandonmentltpgt”
Glenn Sumi

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Details

Dimensions:

112 Pages
8.38in * 5.37in * .25in
.25lb
1.00gr

Published:

October 08, 2024

ISBN:

9780369105219

Book Subjects:

DRAMA / Women Authors

Language:

eng

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