Suquamish Theatre Project debuts with “The Buz’Gem Blues”

 The Suquamish Theatre Project debuts with “the Buz’Gem Blues” and what Fred Saas hopes will lead to a theatrical community resource for the Suquamish community.

Sponsored by the Suquamish United Church of Christ Congregational Church, Saas is producing and directing a dramatic reading of “The Buz’Gem Blues” by Drew Hayden Taylor with a cast of Suquamish talent. The performance takes place at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 2 at the Suquamish UCCC Church, located at Division and Geneva.

The show is free but donations are appreciated.

Saas is a long-time member of the theatre community in North Kitsap and was an actor and director for the Kitsap Regional Library theatrical series.

“The Buz’Gem Blues” is a comic tale of finding love in later years. Tribal elder Amos is beginning to wonder if his younger girlfriend is really the one for him. Then he meets Martha and they have nothing in common but their age. Can two people from opposing Nations and beliefs find true love? There’s a “buz’gem” (“sweetheart” in Ojibway) out there for everyone!

“The Buz’Gem Blues” is not a play about clichés, but rather about how ritualized and institutionalized systems of maintaining and policing those clichés prevent the recognition of a common humanity within.

Taylor, the play’s author, has won many awards for his work, which includes books, humor columns, short stories and documentaries. He is from the Ojibway Tribe from the Curve Lake Reserve in Central Ontario.

For more information, contact Fred Saas at saas@embarqmail.com.

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