Lumber in Norman Wells
November 27 @ 7:30 pm
All at once, Jack Bennett got dumped, fired, and evicted, and, worst of all, his beloved dog died. All he’s got now is a truck and a chainsaw. He decides to leave Alberta and flee north, really far north, into the Yukon. There he finds a new purpose in starting his own wood harvesting business. Join Jack around the fire as he tells his story of finding community in unlikely places and connecting with his home and heritage in an unconventional way.
This new one-person play from the Yukon – written, produced, and starring Métis theatre artist Colin Wolf – features storytelling, comedy, a chainsaw (or two!), and just enough therapy to hold the good ship Jack Bennet together.
Thumbs Up Good Work Theatre, created by Métis siblings Caleigh Crow & Colin Wolf in 2014, focuses on the creation of new indie projects that explode out of the black box and into apartments and parks. Their storytelling looks twice at our relationships with each other and acts out on behalf of those not served by the status quo. Thumbs Up has produced multiple world premieres that have gone on the be published – The Born Again Crow by Caleigh Crow which was a governor general award winner for literary drama and CoyWolf by Colin Wolf which has been nominated for an Indigenous Voices Award for published prose.
Colin (Bourke) Wolf is a Métis (MNA) performer, theatre maker, and activist from the North-East of Moh’kins’tsis (Calgary), AB on Treaty 7 Territory. Colin, and many of his family, are Metis Nation of Alberta Citizens. Wolf has relational ties to the Metis communities in Northern Alberta including Lac Labiche, Donatville, and Fort Chipewyan. Wolf graduated with a BFA in Performance from the University of Lethbridge in 2014 and then spent the next 5 years making theatre all over the prairies with dear friends, trusted colleagues, and complicated colonial institutions.
His theatre work has focused on the development of new, Indigenous, and politically activated theatre. Wolf co-founded Thumbs Up Good Work Theatre with his sister Caleigh Crow in 2013 when they recognized a gap for independent, Indigenous, and working-class artists in the prairies. After cutting his teeth in TYA, on regional stages, and in Indie theatre in the prairies Wolf felt the call of the North and moved to Whitehorse in October 2019 to serve as the Artistic Director at Gwaandak Theatre Society on the Territory of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and Ta’an Kwäch’än Council. Wolf’s most recent play CoyWolf, a hope-punk thriller navigating grief, was published in fall 2025 by the Playwrights Canada Press and nominated for a 2026 Indigenous Voices Award.
Creative Credits
Colin Wolf ………………………………………… Playwright, Performer, Producer
Nathan Howe ……………………………………………………………………….. Director
Sydney Moore ……………………………………Assistant Director/Co-Producer
Jensine Emiline Trondson ………………………….Costume /Tour Technician
Jesse Fulcher Gagnon ………………..Sound Composition/Tour Technician
Whitten Jason ………………………………………………………..Lighting Designer
Mackenzie Spellman ……………………………………………………Grant Support
Rebecca Ballarin ……………………………………………………….. Admin Support
@__sabrena.s ……………………………………Stage Manager/Tour Technician
