Margo Kane

By the age of twenty, Kane had taken up residence on Skid Row, was living off social assistance, and was dependent on drugs and alcohol. Eventually, Kane was able to disentangle herself from her substance abuses, and move away from Skid Row and enroll in Edmonton’s Grant McEwan College (MacEwan University) for performing arts; it was here that she excelled in dance, acting, and singing. Her performance at McEwan College led to scholarships with Banff School of Fine Arts and Circle in the Square Theatre Company in New York.

Full Circle: First Nations Performance is Kane’s own theatre company; it was established in 1992 by Kane, who fulfills the role of managing and artistic director. The mandate for the theatre company is to "create opportunities for Aboriginal artists, writers and performers to express the reality of First Nations experiences and to work in harmony with First Nations traditions while engaging modern, interdisciplinary theatrical techniques". Collaboration and Networking are integral to Full Circle’s mandate; much of what is produced is a collaborative effort of the artists involved.

Kane won a Canadian Achievement Award from the National Capital Commission in Ottawa in 1991.

Moonlodge premiered at the Women in View Festival in Vancouver in 1990. Since its premiere, the play has seen performances in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Australia. It has also been adapted for CBC radio in 1994.

During the 1980s, Kane became involved with the National Native Role Model Program, which highlights the accomplishments of ordinary First Nations, Metis, and Inuit Youth. Through this program, Kane went to Prisons, recovery centres, and group homes. It was around this time that she landed a small part on the CBC's first nations tv series, Spirit Bay, in which she was cast as the school teacher.

Margo became the "first Native artistic director of Spirit Song Native Theatre School in the 1980s". It was here that she realized that she was teaching performance more than performing herself. "I realized there weren’t a whole lot of roles for me out there – particularly since I was too old to be an ingenue and too young to be an interesting old lady" (Kane). She used her experience as a "cultural worker" to create roles for herself. Most of her work is autobiographical. She is probably best known for her acclaimed solo-voice drama Moonlodge which has toured for over ten years. Her performances blend traditional ritual with storytelling, song, poetry, and dance. A list of her most notable works can be found below.

Margo received national attention during the late 1970s with the play The Ecstasy of Rita Joe by George Ryga, performed at Citadel Theatre in Edmonton Alberta. During 1982, Kane toured with Prairie Theatre Exchange’s production of The Ecstasy of Rita Joe. Margo has also involved herself with a national youth caravan which brought theatre to small native communities across Canada.

Agnes is a girl snatched from her home and family by Child Welfare government services. She grows up in a series of foster homes, apart from the warmth and support of her family and her cultural community. Popular media depicting Aboriginal people both entice and repel Agnes. Later, in the 1960s she joins many others hitchhiking across America and in that journey she begins to discover the authentic voice inside her that had been silenced but never lost.

Margo Gwendolyn Kane (born August 21, 1951) is a Cree-Saulteaux performing artist and writer known for her solo-voice or monodrama works Moonlodge and Confessions of an Indian Cowboy, as well as her work with Full Circle First Nations Performance.

Kane wrote Moonlodge as a tribute to the women in her life that have encouraged her, and who continue to encourage and guide her. While Moonlodge does not draw directly from Kane's childhood experiences, much of the content can seem biographical. Kane drew on stories and personal experiences of children who were displaced from their homes and families by the Children's Aid Department in the 1950s.