From a media release:
CTV Comedy Channel announced today that award-winning actor, director, and choreographer Michael Greyeyes is tapped to direct five episodes of the brand-new original series, ACTING GOOD. Loosely based on the life of Anishinaabe stand-up comedian and series co-creator, Paul Rabliauskas, production on the half-hour scripted comedy is currently underway in Winnipeg and surrounding areas, and is set to premiere later this year.
Joining Greyeyes as directors for the debut season of ACTING GOOD are writer, director, and video artist Darlene Naponse (Anishinaabe), as well as series co-showrunners Amber-Sekowan Daniels (Anishininew) and Eric Toth.
ACTING GOOD stars Rabliauskas as Paul, a witty but sensitive comic who returns home to the fictional Grouse Lake First Nation after a botched attempt to move to the big city. Also joining the cast is actor, comedian, and series co-showrunner Pat Thornton, who stars as Brady, the “only white guy on the rez.” The homegrown lineup of cast and crew also features Billy Merasty (Elijah) as voice of the rez and radio DJ, Roger Laughingstick, Roseanne Supernault (THE DRIVE) as reformed bad girl and band councillor, Jo. Gabriel Daniels (The Ice Road) joins the cast as big-hearted Dean, along with series producer Tina Keeper (NORTH OF 60) as the family matriarch Agnes. And in their debut acting roles, Avery Claudia Sutherland stars as Jo’s rebellious daughter Chickadee, comedian Cheyenna Sapp as Paul’s, on-again-off-again girlfriend, Rose, Jason Mason as overzealous band constable Lips, and writer, poet, and radio host Rosanna Deerchild as First Nation Grouse Lake chief, Deedee.
About Michael Greyeyes:
Michael Greyeyes is a multi-hyphenate talent – an actor, director, choreographer, and scholar whose diverse career from stage to screen spans over 25 years.
Greyeyes recently starred in the thriller Wild Indian, directed by Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr, which premiered in competition at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. He garnered a Film Independent Spirit Award and Gotham Award nomination for his leading performance. On television, Greyeyes returns for Season 2 of RUTHERFORD FALLS. He also received a Film Independent Spirit Award and Gotham Award for his role in the series, marking a historical moment as he becomes the first Native Actor with two nominations in the same year for the awards.
His film work includes the role of Traylor in Blood Quantum and Sitting Bull in Woman Walks Ahead, co-starring Jessica Chastain. He has appeared in numerous other feature films such as The New World, directed by Terence Malick, Skipped Parts, Sunshine State, directed by John Sayles, Passchendaele, directed by Paul Gross, and Dance Me Outside, a cult-classic directed by Bruce McDonald.
As a director, he has created numerous theatre works including Bearing, a searing dance opera that premiered at the 2017 Luminato Festival in Toronto, A Soldier’s Tale, from thine eyes, and wrote Nôhkom. Greyeyes was nominated for a Dora Award for his direction on Two Odysseys: Pimooteewin / Gállábártnit, a full-length evening of Indigenous opera featuring two librettos in Cree and Sami.
He is Nêhiyaw (Plains Cree) from Muskeg Lake Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. He graduated from Kent State University with a Master’s Degree in the Fine Arts at the School of Theatre and Dance and is also a graduate of The National Ballet School where he went on to join The National Ballet of Canada company. In 2010, Greyeyes founded a Canadian non-profit theatre organization, Signal Theatre, a company that explores intercultural and transdisciplinary live performance. He serves as the Artistic Director for the theatre.
About Darlene Naponse:
Darlene Naponse is an Anishinaabe writer, director, and video artist from Atikameksheng Anishnawbek, ON. Her films have premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, TIFF, and imagineNATIVE Film Festival. Her film Falls Around Her opened imagineNATIVE Film Festival in 2018, and took home the Audience Choice Award. Naponse’s fourth feature film, Stellar, in which she wrote, directed, and produced, just wrapped production.
ACTING GOOD is set in the fictional remote fly-in Grouse Lake First Nation, a world that lives by its own set of rules. The series location is inspired by Rabliauskas’ own isolated community of Poplar River First Nation.
ACTING GOOD is produced by CTV Comedy Channel, in association with Kistikan Pictures Inc., with the participation of Canada Media Fund and Bell Fund. Producers are Tina Keeper (Kistikan Pictures) and Jennifer Beasley (Buffalo Gal Pictures) with Phyllis Laing (Buffalo Gal Pictures) as Executive Producer and Paula J. Smith as Supervising Producer. Paul Rabliauskas is Executive Producer and writer, with Amber-Sekowan Daniels, Pat Thornton, and Eric Toth as writers and co-showrunners.
