“Where Have All The Buffalo Gone?” Creative Team
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Introducing the talented team of artists who we had the pleasure of working with on Where Have All The Buffalo Gone? by Tai Amy Grauman. Where Have All The Buffalo Gone? specifically shares scenarios from the Callihoo family’s stories, incorporating fiddle music, jigging and a magical buffalo puppet. Inspired by historical events of the Métis people of Canada, this original play for young audiences explores the loves, the losses and the fight of Treaty 6’s Métis people – and their love and kinship to the buffalo.
CREATIVE TEAM
Tai Amy Grauman Playwright
Tai Amy Grauman (MFA) is Metis from Ardrossan Alberta. She is a Callihoo and Beauregard from St. Paul from her paternal lineage and a Turner from Battleford Saskatchewan from her maternal lineage. Tai is a writer, director, producer and actor. She is currently directing and project managing a ten part docuseries called ‘Michif Matirachs’ (working title) that is being produced by Indigenous Geographic and the Metis National Council. The docuseries showcases twenty Metis women from across the homeland with a focus on Metis women’s stories and the Michif language. Her play ‘You used to call me Marie…’ has toured Metis communities across Alberta and Saskatchewan while also premiering at the Cultch, the National Arts Centre and the Arts Club. Her play for young audiences ‘Where Have All the Buffalo Gone?’ is in its third year of touring around Canada and has been nominated for several Jessie Richardson Theatre awards for the 2024/2025 season. Tai has also been involved in over 20 theatre productions across the country as an actor and has assistant directed. Selected acting credits include Mary's Wedding: A Métis love story, (Citadel Theatre), Honour Beat (Grand Theatre), Thanks For Giving (Arts Club). You used to call me Marie… (Savage Production Society, the Cultch, National Arts Centre).
Amanda Testini Co-Director
Amanda Testini (she/her) is an Italian-Canadian choreographer and director based on the unceded and ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Amanda has worked with Arts Club Theatre Company, Bard on the Beach, the Cultch, Theatre Replacement, Firehall Arts Centre, Belfry Theatre, Gateway Theatre, Savage Society, Theatre Under the Stars, shameless hussy productions, Neworld Theatre, Studio 58, TheatreUBC, Electric Company, Vancouver Opera, Axis Theatre, the Glimmerglass Festival, and Edmonton Opera. After working on three iterations of Tai’s You Used to Call Me Marie, she is grateful to be directing Where Have All The Buffalo Gone? With Chris McGreggor and Axis Theatre.
Chris McGregor Co-Director / Sound Designer
Chris is a third generation settler from Scotland and England. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Drama from Bishop’s University and a Masters in Theatre in Directing from the University of British Columbia. He has taught physical theatre, Commedia dell’arte, mask and Red Nose Clown at the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, Bishop’s University and Studio 58. He has directed more than 60 productions across Canada, has won four Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards and been nominated for three Ovation Awards for directing. Chris has adapted the children’s books: SOMEBODY LOVES YOU, MR. HATCH, FROG BELLY RAT BONE and CRY, HEART, BUT NEVER BREAK into puppet plays for the stage.
Dusty Hagerüd Production, Props, and Puppet Designer
Dusty Hagerüd, a member of the Ktunaxa/Kinbasket people of the Lower East Kootenays, has been obsessed with the animated object from childhood. A puppeteer, puppet designer and fabricator at Color Sound Lab, Dusty has been performing and designing in Puppetry for 25 years in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver in theatre, advertising, film and television. He was brought on Nickelodeon’s “The Barbarian and the Troll” as Puppet Wrangler and On Location Puppet Fabricator. He followed that in the same roles with The Jim Henson Creature Shop on Fraggle Rock Back To The Rock.
Kathleen Nisbet Fiddle Music (recording)
Kathleen Nisbet is a fiddle player, multi-instrumentalist, singer and composer from Vancouver, BC. Classically trained early on, she returned to her Métis roots, pursuing more traditional folk music. Since then she has worked with artists in a variety of genres. A regular accompanist with V'ni Dansi, Métis traditional dance, credits also include work with the Arts Club, Pacific Theatre, Mortal Coil, Citadel Theatre and Mascall Dance. Kathleen is an active member of Vancouver's thriving bluegrass, old time and folk scene. She performs and tours internationally with her band Viper Central and is known for her live music productions including the East Van Opry.
Alais Hamer Costume Designer
Alaia is a Vancouver theatre designer originally from the Gulf Islands. Recent projects she has worked on include costume design for Million Dollar Quartet, The Cull, Beneath Springhill, The Birds and the Bees (Artsclub), The East Van Panto: Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid (Theatre Replacement), HMS Pinafore, Carmen Up Close and Personal (Vancouver Opera), costume design for Beautiful Man (PI Theatre), set design for God Said This (Pacific Theatre), Seventeen (Western Gold). She has worked on a variety of smaller shows through Vancouver and has a passion for costuming dance. Alaia is a graduate of the UBC Theatre Design program in 2017 and holds an English literature degree from 2012.
Jack Goodison Lighting Designer
Jack (He/Him) is a Sound and Lighting Designer originating from the UK, living on the ancestral, stolen lands of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh nations. He works to create an atmosphere that immerses the audience into the world of the show, letting them escape reality and lose themselves in theatre.
In Canada, Jack has designed for Axis Theatre (Where Have All the Buffalo Gone?), As and When It Happens (Willilish’d), Rumble Theatre (Las Pasiones de Don Pasquale) Douglas College (Orlando; Mad Forest), Vancouver Opera (The Pearl Fishers), Massey Theatre/UBC (We Deserve to Work), Jeb Beach Productions (Terminus).
Eloi Homier Jig Choreographer
Born and raised on traditional Algonquin territory, Eloi Homier usually dances, canoes, and stargazes on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations. Everything Eloi undertakes – from dance and theatre, to storytelling canoe adventures, to sash-weaving, to astronomy – has its raison d'être in his search for authentic identity.
With family lines stretching back 400 years and beyond on the territory now called Québec, Eloi is on a lifelong journey to weave his distant Gallic origins with his sprinkling of Wendat, Abénaki, Algonquin, and Nipissing roots in a way that gives a voice to his ancestors.
Amy Harris Set Builder
Amy has an absolute passion for her craft, with skills ranging from designing, puppet making, scenic carpentry, scenic painting and prop manufacturing. Originally from South Africa she has gained extensive experience touring internationally with world-renowned Musicals, including Jersey Boys, Singin’ in the Rain, Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Chicago the Musical which has taken her across the globe. Amy obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Performing Arts Technology (Cum Laude) at the TUT, South Africa. She recently won an Ovation Award for the puppet build of Audrey 2 in The Little Shop of Horrors at the Arts Club Theatre Company.
Costume Build by Darryl Milot
Sound Recordings by Stephen Bulat
Cultural Consultant Andrea Menard
