Pursuing his passions on the stage and in the classroom

University of Saskatchewan (USask) graduate Chris Krug-Iron (BEd’21, CWT’22, BFA’23) is multi-tasking this summer at the Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan festival.

Krug-Iron, an award-winning Cree actor and educator, is taking on several roles in the festival’s production of Hamlet—as the Ghost, the First Player, and the Gravedigger—and is also serving as the understudy for Claudius, portrayed by fellow USask graduate Skye Brandon (BFA’00, MA’19). In addition, Krug-Iron is a cast member in the festival’s world premiere of Done/Undone.

Krug-Iron is pleased to return to the Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan stage after performing there in Macbeth in 2021. Coming back to the festival—and to its iconic tent alongside the banks of the South Saskatchewan River—has been a special experience for him.

“It felt like a homecoming, to be quite honest, to return to that tent,” he said.

While it can be difficult to take on so many different roles in one show—“they all require a different way of doing things,” Krug-Iron notes—he’s up for the challenge. Krug-Iron juggles flamboyant flair for the role of the First Player with the Gravedigger’s more “laissez-faire approach.”

The Ghost, meanwhile, “moves differently, he sounds differently, he talks differently—and part of it’s out of necessity,” said Krug-Iron, who performs the role with a microphone hidden in his costume.

“Because I am amplified, there’s also a large echo—which means I have to slow down and make every word very intentional and very crisp and clear,” he said. “In order to do that, you have to kind of match your mindset to the words you’re saying.”

Krug-Iron is enjoying his summer work with Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan. A bonus to returning to the festival is the opportunity to work and interact with the talented cast and crew, including Brandon, who taught Krug-Iron at USask and previously cast him in a Greystone Theatre production of Henry V. Now, post-graduation, Krug-Iron is Brandon’s understudy and fellow cast member in Hamlet.

“I did not imagine, at any point in my life, that I was going to end up in the same cast as somebody who was one of my instructors at the drama building,” said Krug-Iron. “He was my Shakespeare instructor. I don’t know if he lit my interest in Shakespeare, but he was definitely an advocate for it.”

Since graduating from USask, Krug-Iron has been balancing his passion for acting with his career as an elementary school teacher. Krug-Iron began teaching in Saskatoon’s Catholic and public school systems after earning a Bachelor of Education degree from USask’s College of Education in 2021. He is a proud graduate of the Indian Teacher Education Program (ITEP), following in the footsteps of his mother, fellow teacher and USask graduate Ida Iron (BEd’85, BA’88, PDG’97, MEd’01).

Krug-Iron originally came to ITEP with the goal of becoming a drama teacher, and went on study in USask’s wîcêhtowin Theatre program, earning a certificate in 2022, followed by a Bachelor of Fine Arts (honours) degree in drama in 2023. A member of the Canoe Lake Cree First Nation who grew up mainly in Saskatoon, Krug-Iron performed in many Greystone Theatre productions as an undergraduate student at USask, including Arcadia, Henry V, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Machinal, Frankenstein, Gordon Winter, and Unity (1918). He excelled on the stage and in the classroom, graduating with high honours from his Bachelor of Fine Arts program while raising his teenage son, who is now 20 years old, and ambitiously performing in four Greystone Theatre productions in one academic year—spending much time on the stage in the John Mitchell Building.

“My time in Greystone was phenomenal. I would not replace a second of that with anything,” he said. “I got to do my very first Shakespeare at Greystone, when I did Henry V.”

Krug-Iron first fell in love with acting as a Grade 9 student, when a teacher asked if he wanted to get involved with a one-act show. However, he had been away from the stage for more than 20 years when members of the Department of Drama in the College of Arts and Science (now part of the college’s School for the Arts) first convinced him to work toward a drama degree alongside his studies in the College of Education. He credits his introduction to the wîcêhtowin Theatre certificate program—which trains First Nations, Métis, and Inuit emerging theatre artists in the areas of performance, playwriting, and theatre design—to former coordinator Carol Greyeyes (BFA’82, BEd’88), a USask graduate and award-winning actor, writer, and director.

As a USask student, Krug-Iron was celebrated for academic excellence at the Indigenous Student Achievement Awards. In 2021, he was recognized as the inaugural winner of the $1,000 Henry Woolf Bursary in Drama at a virtual event celebrating the Department of Drama’s 75th anniversary. The award was created in honour of the late Woolf, a former faculty member and head of the Department of Drama who significantly influenced Saskatchewan’s theatre community as an actor, teacher, director, and playwright.

“Henry Woolf, just before he passed, gave me one of the best compliments I’ve ever had, which was ‘he’s a very good actor.’ I will wear that proudly for the rest of my days,” said Krug-Iron.

When he looks back on his acting career, Krug-Iron said so far “the single most important show” to him has been LEAR, directed by USask graduate Bob Wicks (BFA’03) and Jennifer Dawn Bishop. Presented by Gordon Tootoosis Nīkānīwin Theatre (GTNT), La Troupe du Jour, and Never Never Shakespeare, LEAR had its world premiere at the Remai Arts Centre on April 25, 2024, and was presented in Cree, French, and English without the use of sur/subtitles.

In LEAR, Krug-Iron took on the role of Gloucester and his lines were spoken in Cree. He drew on the Cree his mother taught him over the years, as well as his education in ITEP and the wîchêhtowin Theatre and drama programs. Acting in the play was a transformative experience.

“It’s the one that I hold closest to my heart, because when LEAR was conceptualized the idea of doing a trilingual play had never been done—at least not that I know of—in Saskatoon, and that was the first by Bob Wicks, who was also one of my instructors in the drama program. When I had talked to him during our classes, I had mentioned the idea of Cree being a language where one word would say a lot of things at once,” said Krug-Iron.

“LEAR was instrumental in me reclaiming my mother tongue. I spent a lot of time learning the Cree words for that, which was much different than having to memorize Shakespearean text. It was more of an effort to try to memorize the Cree than it was the Shakespeare but, in the end, it still worked out great.”

LEAR was a made-in-Saskatchewan adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear, created by local Indigenous and fransaskois artists who translated and adapted the work for a modern audience. While “diving headfirst into the Cree in this show was a big jump,” Krug-Iron said, he enjoyed working with his castmates and was pleased by the audience members’ reactions to the production.

“There was an audience member who was trilingual in English, French, and Cree, and he loved every second of it. It was incredibly fulfilling,” he said.

Krug-Iron is pleased his acting career has offered him the opportunity work with many different theatre professionals and theatre companies, and he “feels diversity is a strength and abundant source of inspiration.” Krug-Iron’s other recent credits include Baba’s Magic Mitten (Dancing Sky Theatre), wâhkôhtowin (Sum Theatre), and the Short Cuts 10-minute play festival (On the Boards Staging Company).

Krug-Iron emphasizes that he is grateful for the support he’s received over the years from instructors, directors, and castmates, as well as other people at USask and within the local theatre community.

“Angus Ferguson, my sessional instructor for two of my acting classes and artistic director at Dancing Sky Theatre in Meacham, was instrumental in giving me the encouragement needed in pursuing the acting program by audition,” he said.

“The early morning acting class with Raymon Montalbetti (BA’84, BEd’91) was what initially gave me an understanding of the joys that theatre can bring and how actors can affect the world around them. Julia Jamison (BMus(MusEd)’77), Pamela Haig Bartley, and Bob Wicks were my voice instructors and genuinely wonderful people; every one of them in the John Mitchell Building are. Natasha Martina was my movement instructor, pushing me to throw myself into my work and pursue excellence; Natasha also stepped up in a truly helpful way when I ran into some difficulty in finishing my degree,” Krug-Iron added.

“Skye Brandon, Curtis Henschel (BA’08), and Kenn McLeod were all fantastic instructors, each providing great insights into theatre—both in school and beyond. Carol Greyeyes and Deneh’Cho Thompson were extraordinary in ensuring that my own Indigenous background was respected and nurtured with expression through the wîcêhtowin Theatre program.

“With courses that ensure we get an understanding of how the overall workings of theatre operate, Carla Orosz (BFA’04), Beverly Kobelsky (BFA’87, BA’91), Ken MacKenzie, Dwayne Brenna (BA’77, MA’83), Iain Rose (BA’06), and David Grainger were all marvelous in ensuring that my education there was not only well-rounded but also a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Beyond school, now I’ve gotten to work with Angus and Bob with their direction in Baba's Magic Mitten at Dancing Sky and LEAR via Never Never Shakespeare/GTNT/La Troupe du Jour, respectively. This summer I’m getting to share the stage with Skye once more, who I’m blessed to get to learn from once again.”

When Krug-Iron isn’t acting or teaching, he enjoys trying new recipes at home, spending time with his wife—who works as a nurse at St. Paul’s Hospital—and happily pursuing many different hobbies. Once the Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan festival wraps up on Aug. 25, he will get ready to return to the classroom as a teacher. This fall, Krug-Iron will be teaching students in Grades 2 and 3 at Charles Red Hawk Elementary School at Whitecap Dakota First Nation.

While Krug-Iron will have a full-time teaching job, he plans to continue to pursue his passion for acting and take on theatre projects as he can.

“Where I can balance theatre and teaching, I do,” he said.

“It is an incredibly fulfilling thing to be involved in the arts and pursue my own passions, but also to help my students, when I teach them, find whatever it is that they are passionate about.”