RSA student performs musical, Kokhum and Me

By Laureen F. Guenther Times Contributor

Zach Running Coyote, a Rosebud School of the Arts (RSA) graduating student, is producing and performing Kokhum and Me, an original folk musical, June 4-8 in Calgary.
“Kokhum and Me is a play about a young man who looks in the mirror and doesn’t know who he is, and he is desperate to know,” said Running Coyote.
An aboriginal young man named Tommy is walking in downtown Calgary when he hears a ringing payphone and answers it. It’s his long-lost birth mother calling from Vancouver, asking Tommy to come and visit. Tommy hops on a Greyhound bus, where he falls into conversation with Kokhum, a Cree grandmother, who might actually be Jesus. Tommy is also being chased by Whitiko, an ice-covered monster from Cree mythology.
Running Coyote plays the role of Tommy, and Justin Lanouette, an RSA grad, plays Whitiko. Running Coyote also plays guitar and drums, and Lanouette plays bass and cello. This show is the directing debut of fellow graduating student Heidi MacDonald.
Tommy’s greatest need, Running Coyote said, is expressed when he says, “If God doesn’t see colour, then He must not see me. And if God doesn’t see me, how can I see God?
“That kind of synthesizes who he is at the time to himself. What his relationship is to God, to himself, to his family. He sets out on this epic journey to reconcile that identity and finds a character of Jesus in the most unexpected place. Or maybe the most expected place. Tommy discovers through Kokhum that he is destined to be a healer and a storyteller for his people,” said Running Coyote.
“(Kokhum and Me) is my story, my life, and my journey,” he added. “It’s the story of how I learned to look in a mirror and love myself. It’s the story of how I met Jesus, and it’s the story of why I tell stories.”
Running Coyote has performed in Rosebud Theatre shows, including Bright Star, Sherlock and the Case of the Christmas Carol, and Cariboo Magi. For 2019-20, he is set to be the artist-in-residence at Making Treaty 7 Theatre.
Kokhum and Me is Running Coyote’s final project for RSA. He plans to perform the musical again at the 2019 Calgary Fringe Festival and at Native Earth Performing Arts Theatre in Toronto this fall.
Kokhum and Me will premiere June 4-8, in the Motel Theatre space in Arts Commons. Tickets can be booked at zachrunningcoyote@gmail.com and paid for at the door.