Arts and Entertainment

Wonderful opportunity arises for Orangeville actor James Gerus

April 2, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

In addition to Sandra Laronde’s tender, award-winning novel She Holds Up the Stars, she is creating and directing a groundbreaking project.

Red Sky Performance, a leading company of contemporary Indigenous performance, is returning to the TSO and Roy Thompson Hall with this World Premier production.

It tells of a young Indigenous girl, Misko, returning reluctantly to her home, to her reservation. She comes to her grandmother in the hope of solving a mystery about her mother’s disappearance.

On the farm property next to the reservation lives a young boy, Thomas, 12, the son of an abusive father, who has a horse that he plans to put down because he says it is too wild.

This world premiere is the story of two young people dealing with their pasts and looking for answers in befriending a horse, a life-changing experience.

Orangeville actor James Gerus plays the role of twelve-year-old Thomas. After struggling with his own methods, Thomas becomes anxious to save the horse and begins assisting Misko in her efforts to calm the animal.

This is a multimedia production featuring life-sized puppets, 50 musicians, and a tale that wholly involves Indigenous storytelling.

Impressed with the production’s puppet horse, Gerus said it needs three puppeteers inside to manipulate it, along with a dog and others. Reminiscent of War Horse, the craft of building and handling the puppets brings them to life in a startling way.

Gerus was speaking to the Citizen from the small Toronto apartment he rented for the duration of the rehearsals and the show itself to talk about his auditions, subsequent hire and the thrilling career break this show is giving him.

“My first audition was in November, 2024. The role is a twelve-year-old boy,” he said. He taped an audition and sent it along.

“I just wanted to see what it was all about. And I actually forgot about it,” he claimed, until February, 2025, when he was invited to do a second audition on Zoom. “Actually, I forgot about that one, too.”

A month later, he was asked to come to the studio in Toronto for a third audition, and pretty soon after, his acting agent told him that he had been offered the part of Thomas.

The music TSO plays accompanies the storytelling throughout. Gerus’s role is that of a son suffering the blows of an abusive father, but at risk of learning from him too.

Gerus was emphatic in acknowledging and appreciating the influence of his days with Theatre Orangeville. His first leading role was as the Giant in a TOV production of the Giant’s Garden.

“I would not be here at the Roy Thompson Hall if it weren’t for TOV and David Nairn,” he said.

Offering a few comments about She Holds Up the Stars, he remarked, “We were next to the rez on the farm owned by my abusive dad. There are issues for Thomas. We all have our own demons.”

He sees this moment as a turning point in his life and speculates that the show may go on after it finishes in Toronto.

She Holds Up the Stars runs at Roy Thomson Hall from April 13 to 19, but is open to the general public only on April 19. Tickets are available at https://www.tso.ca/concerts-and-events/events/she-holds-up-the-stars

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