Niizh
- Publisher
- Playwrights Canada Press
- Publication date
- Oct 2024
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780369105219
- Publish Date
- Oct 2024
- List Price
- $18.95
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9780369105233
- Publish Date
- Oct 2024
- List Price
- $13.99
Where to buy it
About the authors
Joelle Peters is an award-winning Indigenous (Anishinaabe) actor/playwright working in theatre, television, and film and current Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts. Her plays include Niizh, Frozen River (co-written with Michaela Washburn and Carrie Costello), and do you remember? Joelle has performed at theatres and festivals across the country, including the Stratford Festival, SummerWorks, the Thousand Islands Playhouse, Western Canada Theatre, and more. She can be seen in the hit TV show Shoresy (Crave/Hulu), the film In Her City (Raven West Films Ltd.), and Web of Lies (Discovery+). Joelle has also narrated two audiobooks with Penguin Random House Canada.In 2020, Joelle was selected as the playwriting protege for the Siminovitch Prize by laureate Tara Beagan. In 2021, Frozen River was awarded the Sharon Enkin Plays for Young People Award at the annual Tom Hendry Awards. In 2023, the premiere production of Niizh was nominated for four Dora Mavor Moore Awards. Keep up with Joelle at joellepeters.ca and on Instagram: @joellepeters.jpg.
Eva Thomas is a writer, director, and producer. She has directed episodes of CBC’s Still Standing and written for Zarqa, Shelved, Acting Good, and Don’t Even. Her short film, Redlights, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and is being developed into a feature film. She was Associate Producer on the feature film Night Raiders, directed by Danis Goulet. Eva has participated in prestigious industry programs like the BIPOC Showrunner Bootcamp, Women in the Director’s Chair, and TIFF Filmmakers Lab. Eva is a member of Walpole Island First Nation and is dedicated to diverse storytelling and mentorship.
Editorial Reviews
“In Niizh, Joelle Peters offers up a profound love and simultaneous longing for family and community. She stages generational strengths—humour, caring, and insightfulness—alongside generational wounds that can keep our dearest at arm’s length. This disarmingly simple story is artfully crafted with dialogue featuring a uniquely Peters-ian dry wit. Niizh is a celebration of the joys, beauties, and challenges of a young and fiercely capable Indigenous woman.”
Tara Beagan
“What's most satisfying is how many themes Peters layers into the script—including 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 abandonment.”
Glenn Sumi
“Joelle 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 thing.”
Falen Johnson
“I was excited about this play the first time I read it. It's smart and funny, and it's exactly what we need right now.”
Keith Barker