Les Filles du Roi | 2023

Feature film directed by Corey Payette. Screenplay by Corey Payette and Julie McIsaac. Music composed by Corey Payette with lyrics by Corey Payette and Julie McIsaac. Executive Producers Melissa Tsang, Corey Payette and Julie McIsaac. Featuring Kaitlyn Yott, Julie McIsaac, Raes Calvert, Claire Johnstone, Chelsea Rose, and Sean Sonier.

★ Best Musical Score and Best Production Design – 2024 Leo Awards

★ Outstanding Feature Film Writer – Reelworld Film Festival

★ Best Musical – Wild Rivers Film Festival

★ Best Film, Best Director and Best Score – Flathead Lake International Cinemafest

★ Best Music – Hamilton Film Festival

“Les Filles du Roi blossoms from stage to screen”

~V.S. Wells, Georgia Straight

UPCOMING SCREENINGS:

• Caravan Farm Theatre Indigenous Film Festival (Armstrong, BC) June 27, 2025

PAST SCREENINGS:

• Rhode Island International Film Festival (Providence, U.S.A.)
• Vancouver International Film Festival (Vancouver, BC)
• Hamilton Film Festival (Hamilton, ON)
• Orlando Film Festival (Orlando, U.S.A.)
• Bridges International Film Festival (Corinth, Greece)
• CineWorld Film Festival (Sarasota, U.S.A.)
• St. Louis International Film Festival (St. Louis, U.S.A.)
• Spokane International Film Festival (Spokane, U.S.A.)
• Flathead Lake International Cinemafest (Flathead Lake, U.S.A.)
• Victoria Film Festival (Victoria, BC)
• Chemainus Theatre Festival (Chemainus, BC)
• Huronia Museum Film Series (Midland, ON)
• The Cultch (Vancouver, BC)
• Eastern Front Theatre (Halifax, N.S.)
• Festival International Présence Autochtones (Montréal, QC)
• Wild Rivers Film Festival (Brookings, U.S.A.)
• Bruce County Museum (Southampton, ON)
• Stoodis Film Festival (Nelson, BC)
• Saskatchewan Film Festival (Saskatoon, SK)
• Key City Centre Ed Fest (Cranbrook, BC)
• Reelworld Film Festival (Toronto, ON)
• Hibulb Cultural Center Film Festival (Tulalip Bay, U.S.A.)
• Red Nation International Film Festival (Woodland Hills, U.S.A.)
• Prairie Theatre Exchange (Winnipeg, MB)
• Capitol Theatre (Nelson, BC)
• Indigenous North American Film Festival (Stuttgart, Germany)

To learn more about the film and book a screening in your community: www.lesfillesduroifilm.com

 

Les Filles du Roi | 2018

A new musical by Corey Payette and Julie McIsaac

★ BroadwayWorld Vancouver Award – Best New Work

★ 4 Jessie Awards – Outstanding Direction, Set Design, Costume Design, Sound Design & Original Composition

★ 3 Ovation Awards – Outstanding Set Design, Costume Design and Lighting Design

★ Playwrights Guild of Canada’s Stage West Pechet Family Musical Award shortlist

“Les Filles du Roi’s trilingual, feminist-Indigenous musical is a triumph . . . a work of monumental importance”

~Kathleen Oliver, Georgia Straight

“A true Canadian vision fractured through European and Indigenous perspectives”

~Fiona Morrow, The Globe and Mail

“A sumptuous reimagining of our history . . . reimagining the story of Canada – in ways that respect First Nations and women. It’s thrilling.”

~Colin Thomas, colinthomas.ca

Les Filles du Roi is a gorgeous new trilingual musical from the creators of the groundbreaking Children of God. The powerful story of Kateri, a young Mohawk girl, and her brother Jean-Baptiste whose lives are disrupted upon the arrival of les filles du roi in 1665. They forge an unlikely relationship with young fille Marie-Jeanne Lespérance – whose dreams of a new life are more complicated than she could have imagined. Over the course of a year, Mohawk, French and English journeys collide, setting the stage for the Canada we know today. Payette’s music connects the heartbeat of the drum and the soaring voices of our female ancestors in a thrilling contemporary score, weaving three languages and rivalling the beauty of Canada’s most stunning landscapes.

A Fugue Theatre & Raven Theatre production in association with Urban Ink and The Cultch

Music by Corey Payette. Book & Lyrics by Julie McIsaac and Corey Payette. Directed by Corey Payette. Featuring Kaitlyn Yott, Julie McIsaac, Raes Calvert, Laura Di Cicco, Andrew Cohen, Chelsea Rose Tucker, Synthia Yusuf, Kayla Dunbar, Lisa Goebel, Cecilly Day, Merewyn Comeau. Production Designer Marshall McMahen. Music Director/Piano Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa. Movement Director Patrice Bowler. Co-Orchestrators Elliot Vaughan and Martin Reisle. Lighting Designer Jeff Harrison. Sound Designer Kyra Soko. Co-Fight Directors Mike Kovac and Ryan McNeil Bolton. Associate Movement Director Lisa Goebel. Musicians Molly MacKinnon, John Kastelic, Rebecca Wenham. Videographers Markian Tarasiuk and Ryan McDonald.

 

The Out Vigil | 2016

A new play by Julie McIsaac

★ Jessie Award – Outstanding Sound Design & Original Composition 

★ Jessie Award nomination – Outstanding Production

★ Jessie Award nomination – Outstanding Direction

World Premiere by Twenty Something Theatre (now Firepot Performance) presented at the Firehall Arts Centre, March 2016. 

Subsequent productions at the Evergreen Cultural Centre (April 2017) and the Gros Morne Theatre Festival (Summer 2017).

Hours before the opening of the perilous king crab fishing season, Danny, a young Newfoundlander, arrives in Alaska, desperate for a job.  A local fisherman, Cal, grudgingly agrees to help him out, but past and present collide when Lizzie, a feisty young woman from home, shows up.  A modern fable steeped in maritime lore, The Out Vigil questions our ability to accept the natural world for all that it is, both beautiful and terrifying.

Written by Julie McIsaac. Presented by Twenty Something Theatre (now Firepot Performance). Directed by Sabrina Evertt. Dramaturgy by Peter Boychuk. With Alison Jenkins, Stephanie Izsak, Christina Cuglietta, Zac Scott and Matthew MacDonald-Bain.* Music Direction, Original Music & Arrangements by Julie McIsaac.* Set & Lighting Design by Ian Schimpf. Sound Design by Jay Clift* and Julie McIsaac* Stage Management by Melanie Thompson. Photos by Emily Cooper. (*2016 Jessie award winners)

“The Out Vigil sings with passion and humour”

~Colin Thomas, Georgia Straight

“The harmonies are heart wrenching . . . rollicking, rousing music composed and arranged by the playwright, an amazing, multitalented actor/composer/writer”

~Jo Ledingham, joledingham.ca

“The Out Vigil sizzles in the right places“

~Erika Thorkelson, The Vancouver Sun

“The birth of not only a new play, but that of a promising new playwright . . . a uniquely Canadian love story filled with the sounds, dreams and superstitions of both a people and a nation.”

~Mark Robins, Vancouver Presents

“The Out Vigil is a love story that spans the entirety of our country and spills just over our borders . . .  it speaks of ‘home’ in such a clear, honest and magical way.”

~Stephen Drover, Associate Artistic Director, Arts Club Theatre