Barkerville Historic Town & Park
Brendan has worked and performed* in Barkerville Historic Town & Park seasonally since 2011. He is also the president of the Friends of Barkerville-Cariboo Goldfields Historical Society and is writing a book about Barkerville’s museum history (see Where the Past is Present). Brendan also edits the Friends of Barkerville souvenir newsletter.
Additionally, he has written and produced a one-actor, three-character play about Barkerville called Sawney’s Legacy (see Noble Players Theatrics and Sawney’s Legacy).
Brendan has spent 12 cumulative seasons in Barkerville Historic Town & Park performing as both Scots poet, community lobbyist, and miner, James Anderson, and Cornish miner, Richard Goldsworthy. He played series lead, Jay Fielding, in Barkerville: The Series, which was shot on site during April of 2024.
In 2017, Brendan researched, wrote, and performed the Golden Words: Gold in Words poetry discourse which told the story of BC’s gold rushes through collected excerpts of gold-rush poetry from around the world. It was reviewed on TripAdvisor as one of the site’s best discourse offerings in 2018. Brendan also assisted in developing the 2011 theatre musical variety show and as a member of the dramaturgical process for Amy Newman’s musical-drama, Bernadette’s Gold Rush Escape, both for Barkerville’s Theatre Royal under Newman & Wright Productions. He was one of the collective writers and directors of the acclaimed 2012 musical variety show (popularly reviewed by a young audience member as “a little laughin’, a little cryin’… good show”) and the writer of that season’s 1930s-era radio show’s recurring comedic serial: The Wellsian Wanderings. He is a musical theatre performer, regular street performance actor, a typesetter and blacksmith, a waterwheel demonstrative-performer, and a performative tour guide.
Barkerville’s 2026 programming begins in May.
