The Investigator
Set in a world out of time and place, The Investigator by Wren Brian explores complicity and capitalism through the characters of a Weaver and an Investigator. In this interactive digital experience, the unexpected visitor is played by each individual audience member who makes several choices for the character.
This storytelling piece gives power to each audience member – or “user” – to customize how they experience the website as well as the Investigator’s decisions.
The experience will take 40 to 70 minutes depending on the choices you make (and how long you take to make them). It is designed to be used on a computer (Chrome, Edge or Firefox). You know you have reached the end when you see an end menu. If you get stuck along the way or experience any other glitches please send us an email or email info@youaretheinvestigator.com
Are you ready? Click here to experience The Investigator now.
This experience is being offered for free to limit the barriers of accessing art. However if you have the means we gratefully accept donations to help us keep creating and sharing our artistic work. Donate here.
Credits & Bios
Wren Brian – Creator & Co-Artistic Producer & Assistant Developer
Wren is a playwright and producer who is dedicated to creating characters that can be played by actors of any gender, ancestry, ability, and/or age. Her play Anomie won the 2017 Harry S. Rintoul Award for Best New Manitoba Play at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival. Her play Bystander had its world premiere at Gwaandak Theatre in October 2018, and she was one of 50 international playwrights commissioned for Climate Change Theatre Action 2021 and 2023. She was also recently shortlisted for the John Hirsch Emerging Manitoba Writer Award in 2022. For more information visit: wrenbrian.com
Patti Flather – Dramaturg & Co-Artistic Producer
Patti Flather is an award-winning playwright, director, dramaturg, theatre artist and arts producer in Whitehorse. She is a co-founder and past Artistic Director for two decades of Gwaandak Theatre, dedicated to nurturing and sharing Indigenous and northern voices. Patti’s play Paradise toured nationally (MT Space/Gwaandak Theatre); it’s published with Playwrights Canada Press. Selected other plays include Sixty Below (written with Leonard Linklater), the solo show West Edmonton Mall, and the collectively created work Map of the Land, Map of the Stars, which toured the Yukon, B.C. and Ontario. Patti is of settler ancestry, originally from North Vancouver, B.C. and grateful to live on Kwanlin Dün First Nation & Ta’an Kwäch’än Council territory since 1988.
Harrison Sparrow – Developer
Harrison is an undergraduate at the University of Calgary graduating Spring 2023 with a Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering. He is passionate about developing and creating software in general. He has always enjoyed creating things with his own hands and seeing what he can make. Harrison has worked as a Q&A and automation engineer, as well as a web development contractor. He likes to develop and play videogames in his free time. Harrison hopes to have creative freedom in his future as a software engineer so he can work on things he deems impactful, and so he can express his own creativity and designs through his work.
Jordy Walker – Sound Designer, Composer, Audio Producer
Jordy Walker is a musician, composer, sound designer, record producer, and sound artist based in Whitehorse, Yukon. With a passion for experimental music and sound design, the ability to play and compose on several instruments as well as proficiency and experience in the recording studio, he has maintained a career with much flexibility and variety. He has produced/engineered over 50 records and worked on an equal number of films, theatre and contemporary dance pieces.
Meredith Pritchard – Audio Recording Director & Voice Actor
Meredith Pritchard (she/they) is a queer multidisciplinary artist with a focus in theatre creation, poetry writing, and textile making. Born and raised in Mohkinstsis (Calgary, AB) she is grateful to be a guest living on the traditional lands of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation & Ta’an Kwäch’än Council.
Meredith holds their BFA in Dramatic Arts from the University of Lethbridge (2014).
As a theatre artist they’ve worked as a director, performer, and improviser for the last 10 years. Her current passion lies in mentorship with youth directors and performers in pre-professional development through productions that focus on realistic youth experiences, current events, and queer identity.
Christine Genier – Narrator
Born and raised on her ancestral lands, Christine Genier is a Wolf Clan citizen of the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council. She is a writer, poet, performer, a collector of stories, and a language and culture worker. Christine parlayed her theatre training into a career in broadcasting, where she stayed firmly planted for almost two decades.
Her story collection work has been published with Inuit Arts Quarterly as well as local community publications. She wrote a poem which received 5 upvotes and two comments once on a writing prompt subreddit. She was pretty excited about that.
Christine shares a lived experience that spans over four decades of bridging culture and recovering the Indigenous Space with those prepared to engage.
Ken Green – Voice Actor
Ken Green is grateful to be living as a settler in Whitehorse, the traditional territories of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and Ta’an Kwäch’än Council. He is a creative interested in sound and words, and the places where these meet and overlap. Ken co-produced two short documentary films “Whalefall” and “Inspiration in Nature”. He did sound recording and interviews for “Inspiration in Nature.” He co-wrote the feature-length family comedy Perfect Family (optioned by 3DEvolution) and is co-developing a comedic series that takes place in the Yukon and a comedic puppet web series.
Carman Lam Brar – Voice Actor
Vancouverite-turned-Yukoner Carman Lam Brar wears many hats, including Public Programs Librarian, anti-racism educator, mother of two, student of Cantonese, and actress when times allows. Past roles include Juliet in Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet and Ernestine in The Anger in Ernest and Ernestine. She is honoured to be performing in The Investigator for her digital theatre debut and hope it leaves you thinking deeply about all the grey that lies between “right/wrong” and “good/bad”.
Ames Val – Voice Actor
The Investigator was funded by Canada Council for the Arts with rehearsal space thanks to @YAC Residency Program and Yukon Government Department of Tourism and Culture.
Original one act play researched & developed with funding from Canada Council for the Arts. Development support from Manitoba Association of Playwrights for a half day workshop with Yvette Nolan as dramaturg. Special thanks to weaving consultant Heather Meiklejohn.