For movie stuntman and horse wrangler TJ Bews, the Theatre on the Hoof production we wrote about in our Summer 2012 issue has one major challenge not found in film: "It's live," he says, "you can't do a re-take!"
Bews has been performing stunts and managing horses in the film industry since the late 1980s. Titles such as Broke Back Mountain, The Englishman's Boy, and the WWI epic Passchendaele are recent examples of his work.
Bews has been living in Saskatchewan for the last five years. His experience made him a natural for the production of Spirits of the Trail, the story of the friendship between Chief Poundmaker and the NWMP officer James Walsh.
Matching horses with actors in big settings is nothing new to Bews and he takes the live action conditions in stride. "During rehearsal I line up the guys with the right horses," he says. "In this case, many of them had some riding ability."
See Bews' work in action this coming summer on the following dates in 2012:
May 27th at the RCMP Heritage Centre in Regina; Canada Day (July 1st) at the Wakamow Valley in Moose Jaw (former wild animal park); and August 11th at the RCMP Heritage Centre again.
Stay tuned for Prairies North "Horse Lovers' Special Issue" coming Fall 2012!
Learn more about Theatre on the Hoof in the Summer 2012 issue of Prairies North Magazine. Call 1-888-861-8311 or email us or get the digital version.
