Hello From La Tuque!

On Wednesday we had our very first "road shows" in La Tuque and they went pretty well.

We were greeted in the gym by the Phys Ed teacher who immediately tried to recruit some of his students to help unload the van. We politely (and one could argue foolishly) declined his offer and went about our business setting up.

Story Wars went smoothly and the kids loved it. I think my favourite question of the day was "When are my parents going to buy me a new dog?" Our quick lunch at the local Deli, included a rather grisly run in with a Moose who James later named "Tookie.”

The audience was attentive and afterwards several of the students stuck around to chat. Charlotte talked with a girl who was involved in theatre and had a lot of questions about how to pursue a career in acting. Charlotte related her experiences and encouraged her to continue being involved within her school and her community. They also talked about their mutual passion for the feeling of being on stage.

James spoke with one of the students who had a brother who was at Dawson when the shooting happened. He told James about how his brother had changed since the incident and James gave him an envelope addressed to Geordie and told him he was more than welcome to write to us in the future.

There was another young guy that looked a lot like I did at his age (baseball cap, tattoo on his wrist, sort of slouching) who approached us after the show. He told me that he guessed he was like my character (Jake) in that he wasn't so great at school and had problems passing and got into trouble sometimes. We spoke for a while and he told me about his town and I encouraged him to finish school and to travel, mostly because I didn't really know what else to tell him.

After I spoke with him I had a kind of "Oooooohhhhhh..." moment when i was struck by the realness of what we are doing. I don't mean that in a pretentious or self -congratulatory way, it was just my first realization of how the work that we have all done, and continue to do, actually applies to the lives of the people we are doing it for.

When we finally did pack up and leave we realized our earlier folly and gladly accepted the help of the Phys Ed teacher's recruits, who we now wish we could have taken with us. After that it was a long and mostly beautiful drive to Chibougamau.

- Adam