Runaway Moon was founded in 2000 after a groundbreaking community play “Not The Way I Heard it”, which brought together a cast of 163 as young as 4 and as old as 83, who presented 21 stories about the community along the banks of the Shuswap River, in a great variety of theatrical styles.

Community Engaged Art

led by professional artists collaborating with the general public. We pursue this by creating both theatrical and multidisciplinary projects mostly in and around this valley, in Secwepemc traditional territory. Our rural roots influence theme, style, and practicality. People of all ages and walks of life take part, from both Splatsin First Nation and settler populations. We follow a guiding theme for a year or more, that helps us to understand what it is to live in this place at this time.

Runaway Moon is best known for creating innovative, magical productions that infuse the communities it works in with robust, creative, inclusive activity and offers audiences narratives about contemporary themes through a lens of folklore, awe and curiosity — what could we learn about this if we looked at things a little differently?

Co-Learning

Lead artists and participants learn together through engagement in creative process. In the Shade Arts Camp, School Residency projects, and others, are usually linked to a theme we are focusing on. We are working on a Handbook (Iin collaboration with school-engaged artist Ewa Sniatycka) with principles, practice and how-to information for ideas.

Rosalind Williams, Associate Artist, co-writer, co-director, cultural consultant, is a member of Splatsin First Nation near Enderby B.C. in Secwepmec Traditional Territory. Since the 1970’s she has been gathering and sharing cultural and historical information from oral memory of the Elders of her community. She has led the detailed documentation of language with fluent speakers and has been finding ways to bring children and youth into the dissemination. Among many other projects she has created songs about the fish and the berries, written down stories that have been illustrated and printed, and developed arts-based cultural curriculum. Rosalind co-wrote and co-directed Not the Way I Heard It, Enderby’s acclaimed Community Play, and also Enough is Enough giant community shadow play, as well as being cultural consultant for Out of the Ordinary and By the River. She co-wrote Sawllkwa, as well as being cultural consultant and co-director. Her play based on the story How the Salmon Came to the Interior has been set in several different formats.  She is involved with Runaway Moon’s Calendario project, organizing a project celebrating the order of the fish, with Secwepmec artist Tania Willard. Rosalind’s work with Splatsin Tsm7aksaltn’s pre-school language and cultural programme has been highly acclaimed in the national Aboriginal Childcare community.

James F. Tait, co-director and co-writer, has directed many large scale community performances with Runaway Moon, Vancouver Moving Theatre, and in the past with Shadowland. He has collaborated with Cathy on many projects, most recently Dream as well as a present writing project. He co-wrote and directed the Enderby and District Community Play Not the Way I Heard It, the Community Shadow Play Enough is Enough, the spectacle By the River, and the marionette play Anouska and Rosa Go to Find the Sun. He directed the original productions of Dream and In the Time of Miracles at the Caravan Farm Theatre and was a puppeteer/actor with Cathy‘s puppets, in The Caucasian Chalk Circle. Recent directing includes “When the Sun Comes Out”, Canada’s first Lesbian opera, and FRESCO for Bella Luna. He has written/ directed plays involving many people on stage: his adaptation of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot, created with longtime collaborator Joelysa Pankanea;  his/Joelysa’s adaptation of Maeterlinck’s Interieur called The Life Inside (Belfry Theatre) and the award-winning Crime and Punishment for NeWorld, He writes frequently for Boca del Lupo’s outdoor plays, and has an ongoing collaboration with dancer Noam Gagnon. James has directed for the Arts Club, Bard on the Beach and Vancouver Playhouse as well as for many independent companies. He has an ongoing collaboration with dancer Noam Gagnon, He trained at Ryerson Theatre School and Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris. He frequently teaches acting and movement and spends a lot of time developing and dramaturging new scripts. 

Varrick Grimes, director, is from Lewisporte in Notre Dame Bay, Newfoundland. He began in theatre as Associate Director at Theatre Newfoundland Labrador (TNL) establishing the Gros Morne Theatre Festival. He was a founding member of the devising ensemble Number Eleven, creating ICARIA, The Prague Visitor, The Curious History of Peter Schlemihl as well as touring and conducting workshops though Canada and New York State. He has devised and performed with: Carpet Bag Brigade physical theatre in the US, Mexico and the Edinburg Fringe, Arab Canadian Theatre (ON) creating and performing Isame Dakel Faraj in English, Arabic and American Sign Language. He has long-standing collaborative relationships as a director with: Runaway Moon Theatre (BC) (In the Time of Miracles, Tale of the Unknown Island, Labyrinths, The World is Upside Down) including their collaborations with Splatsin first nation (Sawllkwa) and with D'we Maringo (Kenya); Jumbles Theatre (Toronto), Claque Theatre (UK), FIXT Point (Toronto), Bare Boards (NL), Listen to Dis Voice (SK) , Pak’sieu B’y (ON), Thinking Rock (ON) and Vancouver Moving Theatre (BC). He studied classical theatre direction in the Michael Langham Workshop at Stratford Festival (ON) where he assisted on Titus Andronicus and Hirsch. He has taught at Sir Wilfred Grenfell college (NL), the University of Ottawa and served as a sessional instructor at Humber College SCPA from 2011- 2019. He currently lives with his family in Stratford, Ontario where he is planning on deepening his understanding of the other great cultural practices through studies in Microbiology and Organic chemistry.

Zompopo Flores (puppet builder, puppeteer, performance artist) studied music in his native El Salvador, and toured extensively with Teatro Vrecha, Teatro Guanaco, and the Guatemalan company Teatro Vivo, in Europe and Latin America. He began working with Cathy in 1987, in Montreal and then at the Caravan Farm Theatre for the original version of “In the Time of Miracles” marionette play and a puppet version of “Caucasian Chalk Circle”. He returned to El Salvador for 13 years, then came back to British Columbia 2010 to be part of The World is Upside Down, Sawllkwa, and the remount of Dream, of which he was co-creator. He is meticulous in his puppet manipulation and very thoughtful as he makes puppets, influenced by his background of having to make do.

Murray MacDonald, Musical director. Murray lives in Kingfisher upriver from Enderby and is well known in the area both as a performer and as a teacher of music for private students and for groups of small children. Murray has been the Musical Director of all of Enderby’s Community Play projects, and most recently directed a group of 50 from ages 3 - 75 in the live soundscape for the Community Shadow Play Enough is Enough.

Deb Humphries, facilitating artist, studied art (printmaking) at Alexander Mackie College of Advanced Education, Australia and also trained in education. After a short time teaching art in secondary school she became involved in the community-engaged art movement in Australia, creating huge collaborative banners with womens’ groups, and masterminding annual May-Day parades. She now lives near Vernon and maintains her community art practice, mainly through Runaway Moon: creating 75 pairs of different local bird wings for stiltwalkers to wear (Birds, Birds, Birds), co-creating processional banners celebrating the varieties of squash with children and adults (Food For Thought), and co-leading (with Cathy) the vegetable ribbon weaving project. She has done school residencies making prints of local seasonal indicators, plants, bugs, bird (Calendario) and was part of the costume team for Tuwitames Community Play. She is interested in felting and knitting as well as applique. Deb also home-schooled three children, and is an avid gardener.

Teresa Christian (Secwepemc), facilitating artist and production assistant, was raised traditionally near Adams Lake. She has worked in community health, Early Childhood development, and oral history research (with the Secwepemc Cultural Education Society in Kamloops). She joined Runaway Moon with her small daughter in 2005, and since then has been production assistant for our puppet theatre and for curriculum development, costume creator for large-scale community performance, arts camp co-facilitator, workshop leader and co-facilitator for a school arts residency. She created a suitcase show as part of Runaway Moon’s mini-theatre project “How did you Get Here?”. Teresa’s interests are grounded in her Secwepemc heritage - sewing and beading moccasins, making birchbark and pine needle baskets, designing and creating regalia, drum making, traditional dance and history.

Molly March, set design, scenic painting and colour pro, has worked with Runaway Moon Theatre since 1999, both indoors and outdoors, large scale and small.  She was part of the Labyrinth creation team and also the recent San Isidro Zoom experiment, and was stage design mentor for Robin and the Timeless Forest. Her working relationship with Cathy Stubington extends back through various shows at the Caravan Farm Theatre where she was resident set designer for many years (and still designs sets).  She helped create the original horse-drawn marionette show The Dragon’s Forge (1989-90), and was part of the design team for a puppet version of Caucasian Chalk Circle. 

She was a scenic artist for the opera in Honolulu, Santa Fe, and a Montreal-based scenic shop that exported all around the world.  As part of her undergraduate degree she studied marionette theatre in Paris.  She understands the challenges and the magic of puppet theatre, and knows how to find the simplest solution to any complex staging question. And, everything she makes is beautiful!  She is presently working on Runaway Moon’s longterm Calendario Community Arts project, and on paintings for a Syrian painting exhibition. She is the artist behind many of the posters for Runaway Moon projects and productions.

Sarah May Redmond is a Vancouver-based performer and has worked with Runaway Moon Theatre on several shows including 21 Ways to Make the World Last Longer, An Episode of Sparrows and six completely different versions of The Labyrinth, based on the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, taking place in Grindrod (home turf of Runaway Moon), Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and Salt Spring Island. She has toured internationally and around Canada with Axis Theatre (most recently in Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch ), Green Thumb Theatre, Shameless Hussy Productions and Kaleidoscope Theatre. She has worked with theatre companies all over BC, from the Arts Club Theatre and Bard on the Beach in Vancouver to the Caravan Farm Theatre (Armstrong) and Theatre NorthWest in her hometown of Prince George. Sarah May and Thomas Conlin Jones have co-created outdoor site-specific performances with Theatre on Earth Collective that have taken place on organic farms in Aldergrove and Salt Spring Island as well as the Strathcona Community Garden in Vancouver, focusing on environmental concerns and food security.

Thomas Conlin Jones is a skilled actor, puppeteers and musician, who has been part of many Runaway Moon performances including the upcoming The Miraculous (After)life of San Isidro, Patron Saint of Farmers. In the past he has performed in 21 Ways to Make the World Last Longer, Tale of the Unknown Island, The Labyrinth and The Winter’s Tale (which also played at The Belfry). He has worked with many of Vancouver’s most innovative companies including The Electric Company, Only Animal, Pi Theatre and Boca del Lupo. Thomas has also performed in half a dozen productions with the Caravan Farm Theatre, most recently as Bigelow in Coyotes, and Mr. Pugs, in The Tragical Comedy of Punch and Judy. Thomas continues to tour his solo show about the life of Woody Guthrie called “Woody Sed” and plays banjo and guitar with ‘Rogue Crows’. See woodysed.com. Tom also has skills as a mask performer and teacher.