The story behind the production is that before Lauzon and Cardinal agreed to perform together in Thunderstick, they got into a fight. Well, sort of. Both seasoned television vets wanted to play the same character: Jacob Thunderchild. "Jacob's just more fun to play,” says Lauzon. “Even though he looks like a failure and a loser, he's got that instinct that good journalists have. That's what he runs his life on basically: his instinct and KFC," adds Cardinal. The deal: Lauzon and Cardinal decided to trade roles every night, giving them each fair and equal Jacob time, not unlike the production of Sam Shepard's True West where Philip Seymour Hoffman and John C. Reilly swapped roles nightly. “We both wanted to play the same character, so we just kinda said why don’t we do both?” Cardinal says, “No shows are going to be the same because we’re two different actors with two different approaches.” Not to mention the fun adventure each night is for the audience. "It's pretty cool how we set it up. Whoever is playing who, this is where we're going to end up. How we're going to get from A to B is the interesting part because Craig is crazy and I'm the sane one holding the show together." Cardinal jokes.

Thunderstick is a native play, but one that is changing the stereotype of what that means. "Not once do we use the term 'band office' in this play. Or dreamcatcher. It's about guys, two guys," says Cardinal. “It’s tough to get people to do native-oriented plays because they get afraid of it… or they’re afraid it’ll get too dark. There are all these thoughts or associations that come with trying to do native plays, and some people think that there’s not a lot of people who will come see it. But there are so many great native playwrights out there right now writing incredible stuff, and it deserves to be done on the bigger stages.” Audiences need to see Native people onstage more often. Cardinal recalls that when Thomson Highway's Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing debuted in 1989, he mistook the newspaper's photo of the cast for something entirely different. "I remember opening The Globe and Mail and there was a big font page review with, like, six Indians on the front and I thought 'Oh, there's a stand-off somewhere!'" he chuckles. "Aside from being aboriginal, they're just two guys being guys together—it's probably the only play out there that ends with a bag-tag," Lauzon says.

“Williams seems to have a real hit on his hands.” (Colin MacLean - Edmonton Sun)

“The two (Cardinal & Lauzon) work effortlessly together, bouncing off each other as if they really were the mismatched cousins they play on stage.” (Colin MacLean - Edmonton Sun)

"Alternating between bouts of laughter that had my sides hurting and powerful moments that had tears rolling down my face, Thunderstick surprised me at every turn." - Dustin Blumhagen, The Gateway

“The audience laughed heartily from beginning to end.” (Colin MacLean - Edmonton Sun)

This last January, he won the Fully Committed category of the 10 Days of Madness’s 24-hour playwriting competition with a play called Deserters, which was organized by the University of Alberta Bookstore in Edmonton. He also had a workshop and staged-reading of Gordon Winter at the 2009 Weesageechak Begins to Dance festival in Toronto. He is the first Aboriginal writer to earn an M.F.A. in Playwriting from the University of Alberta. He currently resides in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Recent directing credits include: Buddy; Without You; Alias Godot; Misery; A Beautiful View; Closer and Closer Apart; Hockey Mom, Hockey Dad; the Sterling award-winning play Summer of my Amazing Luck; True West; Girl in a Goldfish Bowl; The Leisure Society; Hosanna; Marion Bridge; A Skull in Connemara; Midlife; The Sterling award-winning glam rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again, Lawrence & Holloman, A Guide to Mourning, Problem Child and High Life.

His directing has been featured at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and in Birmingham, England. His directorial efforts for Persephone Theatre have included Waiting for Godot, For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again, and John & Beatrice. Del has received forty award nominations in the last two decades and been awarded Vancouver’s Jessie Richardson Career Achievement Award. He is married to Johnna Wright, an actor, director and the co-founder and co-Artistic Director of Solo Collective in Vancouver. They have one child together.

He then enrolled in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at the University of Alberta. “[It was the] best investment I’ve made in myself — ever.  And it paid itself off immediately after I graduated,” he says. “I got jobs because of my training and technique over other people, who were talented but they didn’t have technique.” (Lorne Cardinal) He had even gotten acting offers while he was still in school. He turned down a big one, on North of 60, to finish his education.

People assume his career started with Corner Gas, but he was in eight series of various lengths before that. He emerged from school eager to play all sorts of roles. He saw himself as a working actor and, eventually, director. "I want to play Shakespeare, I want to do all these great characters.” He says, “I want to play Irish guys. I want to play Swedes, whatever. If I can pull off the accent there's no reason why I can't be doing that."

Cardinal's other television and film credits include Insomnia, Tkaronto, Renegadepress.com (Director & Actor), Moccasin Flats (Director & Actor), Rabbit Fall (Director), Relic Hunter, Roxy Hunter, North of 60: Distant Drumming and the Gemini-winning stop-action animation series Wapos Bay: The Series (Voice). His performance in the MOW Tecumseh: The Last Warrior earned him a First Americans in the Arts nomination for Best Supporting Actor. A new project Cardinal is involved in is Wolf Canyon, an APTN pilot comedy about a bad American TV show. He plays a punch drunk stuntman who tends to blurt out inappropriate lines from past films.

Some of the other awards and nominations he has received for his work include a 2004 Gemini Award nomination for Best Ensemble Performance in a Comedy Program or Series (for Corner Gas), a 2005 University of Alberta Alumni Horizon Award, and a 2007 Gemini Award for Best Ensemble Performance in a Comedy Program or Series (for Corner Gas).

Cardinal has used his profile to give others a hand up. He’s been the host of the National Aboriginal Achievement Awards, National Aboriginal Day, and for the four seasons, the Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards. "I love being the face of this new Aboriginal talent. Hopefully, they'll cross over because that will make this country stronger, more vibrant." (Cardinal) He also lent his profile to a new campaign fighting child sexual abuse called Man to Man. Also involved are Little Mosque actor Manoj Sood, NFL player Israel Idonije, journalist Victor Malarek, Jason Priestley and race car driver Jacques Villeneuve.

Lorne Cardinal has run the gamut of the Canadian arts scene, performing films, television and in theatres across the nation. He has worked with Oscar winners Hilary Swank, Robin Williams, Al Pacino, Susan Sarandon and Gary Sinise to name a few. He’s even performed poetry for the Queen. He also enjoys playing golf.

He entered the alternative sketch comedy scene in 1996 and 1999 was nominated for the Tim Sims Encouragement Award, a yearly prize given to promising comedic talent in Toronto, and latched onto a regular role on The Comedy Network's Chez Carla. Next, he co-wrote and starred in The Chick and Cubby Comedy Hour, a Canadian Comedy Award nominee for Funniest New Play. He has also received CCA writing nominations (Pretty Funny Writing – Television) for his own one hour special Ham I Am for The Comedy Network and CBC’s Royal Canadian Air Farce.

His first appearance on Royal Canadian Air Farce was in October 2002. He became a weekly regular in September 2004 and the following year was nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award for Best Male Performer, Television. “I felt like a kid in the candy store. Thankful and giddy with a sore belly.” – Craig said about joining Air Farce. His main caricatures on the Farce include George Stroumboulopoulos, John Travolta, Jenna Bush and a robotic impression of Stephen Harper. In 2006 and 2007, the show was nominated for the Gemini: Ensemble Cast.

Some of Lauzon other television acting credits include The Seán Cullen Show, Train 48, Much Music's Video On Trial, Monster Warriors, The Toronto Show, and Army Brats. In 2006 he co-wrote all three of the Gemini Industry Galas. He is also a member of the sketch comedy troupe Tonto's Nephews, all of whose members have Native-Canadian roots. They have performed in communities all over the country. Craig himself has performed at It’s Always Something, the Gilda’s Club Gala, Raising The Roof, Hubcap Comedy Festival, We're Funny That Way, The Canadian Comedy Awards, the Upper Canada Brew HaHa and the CBC Winnipeg Comedy Festival.

He also appears at community events as an MC or comedic guest speaker, capturing our most beloved high-profile citizens. Always wanting to give something back Craig works with several charities and causes. The cause closest to his heart is Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Canada. There, Craig volunteers time for annual meetings, attends as a guest entertainer, performs live and appears in presentational videos.

As part of several charity benefits, he raised money for Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Camps for Kids, while also providing charitable support for Olympic athlete Charmaine Reid. He painted a portrait for the Kidney Foundation's Brush of Hope campaign, while also staying involved with numerous other charities through Royal Canadian Air Farce.

“I love honesty. News bloopers, people walking into screen doors, slipping on ice, that is the stuff that kills me. That is probably why Buster Keaton is my hero: he did all his own stunts and pratfalls. Real peril - now that is funny.” (Craig Lauzon)

“Comedy is Tragedy plus time” - Carol Burnett

I wrote Thunderstick over ten years ago at a time when most Canadians were ignorant of Indian residential schools. I wanted to write a play about the schools that didn't shy away from the pain but could also make you laugh. That's crazy, I can hear you thinking. Why would you try such a damn fool thing like that? Because I love an impossible challenge, that's why. Okay, so I'm not the smartest duck in the pond, but I know humour heals. It's been scientifically proven. If you can't trust scientists, who can you trust? The government?

The crazy has been contagious. Watching Lorne and Craig bring Isaac and Jacob to life has been a gut-busting experience. I thank them for their hard work and insane commitment to doing both roles. The insanity doesn't stop with them as Del and Brad agreed to co-produce and co-direct, thank you both for your bravery and foolhardiness. I also need to thank the original producers, Donna Heimbecker and Kennetch Charlette from the Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company for making Thunderstick their very first professional production in 2001.

Thank you,
Kenneth T. Williams, Playwright

A (slightly) fictionalized phone conversation:

Del: It’s going to be great co-directing with you Brad -- we hardly ever get a chance to be in a rehearsal hall with another director you know, to learn from, steal tricks, heckle...

Brad: Thanks for offering up the idea Del.  Yeah, usually in a co-production with two companies, there’s only one director. Our colleagues will be taking bets on who will be the last man standing!  Hey, I just got off the phone with Lorne and he wants to role-swap with Craig. 

Del: What do you mean? 

Brad: That he and Craig would change roles each show, taking turns playing Jacob and Isaac.

Del: I don’t know -- that’s a lot of work for the actors.

Brad: Yeah, but we’ll get to share the director’s load.

Del: I love it!  They’ll be doing two jobs while we’re doing half a job each.

Brad: Great fun. What a wonderful opportunity to collaborate and catch up on our sleep.

Del: So do we take turns directing, or what?

Brad: Don’t worry about it -- just do what I say!

Del: Maybe more to the point would be for us to be doing what Lorne and Craig say . . .

Brad: Ain’t that the truth. I’m worried that Cheryl is going to throttle us.

Del: You’re right. Our stage manager will be working harder than all of us combined!

Q: What inspired you to write Thunderstick?

KTW: I first started writing it over 10 years ago, so it's kind of hard to answer this one. What I remember is this - I wanted to write a fun play with serious undertones that had Aboriginal characters that hadn't been seen on the stage before. It was also my first attempt at a comedy.

Q: Describe what it was like working with two directors?

KTW: I think the best way to ask this is - what was it like working with these two directors? I don't think this experience would've been the treat it was without Del Surjik and Brad Moss. They had utmost respect for me and my script. I always had the last say. But I had immense trust in their instincts and ideas. We were able to work together very well.

Q: Describe your writing process.

KTW: It all starts with the character. Sometimes a title will come to my head first but it never moves beyond that until I get a great sense of who the characters are. So I spend a lot of time getting to know them. They drive the plot by their actions. I love the workshop process. I consider actors my first audience. If they have questions, the audience will have questions, and more often than not, they'll have the same questions. I give them total freedom to tell me anything about the play, especially where they're having problems. In the end, though, it's always my script. It begins and ends with me. But I really work it through with actors. I'm not afraid to kill a scene if it don't work.

Q: How does being a journalist affect you as a playwright?

KTW: I'm not a working journalist anymore. On the positive side, I got to meet some remarkable people, got to hear their stories and it made my writing more naturalistic and authentic. It also made me write fast since I had incredibly tight deadlines. On the negative side, it was so creatively draining that I was burned out after work and it impeded my writing process.

Q: Did you know from the beginning that Thunderstick would have a sequel?

KTW: No. That wasn't the plan at all. But the characters weren't done with me.

Q: Who or What inspires you?

KTW: Actors.

Q: When and why did you start writing plays?

KTW: I wrote my first play when I was 7. It was a puppet show for a summer camp I was attending. I think it was called the Haunted Hotel. It was an unmitigated disaster. But I bounced back - 15 years later. I always knew I was a writer but I had nothing but a bunch of unfinished short stories and aborted novels. Someone recommended I take an introduction to playwriting course through the U of A's drama department and it was like I was struck by lightning! This is how I write. This is how those voices were clamoring to get out. Problem was, I'd never been involved in theatre in any way until then. I had a huge learning curve. I had to learn how to talk to directors, actors, set designers about my work. I'm still learning.

Q: What advice would you give up-and-coming playwrights?

KTW: Listen, learn and get a life. Do something totally unrelated to theatre that gets you involved with the outside world.

Q: If you had to sum up your career in one word, what would it be?

KTW: Feral.

Q: As a former journalist, you’ve interviewed many people. If you had to interview yourself, and could only ask one question, what would it be?

KTW: Why do you always wait so long to do stuff?