Art is in the House is a collection of accessible activities for people living under the same roof. All of these activities are created by collaborating artists from NTS.

Be theatre makers with us! Let us see your creations on Instagram by using the hashtag #artisinthehouse.

This initiative is inspired by our friends at the Saskatchewan Commonweal, visit them for more activities and inspiration!

Download the activities for free here!

Soundmapping

An activity created by Debashis Sinha

Listen together and create an artwork that makes sound visible.

In this activity, you’ll get together with your household to make sound maps - maps of sounds of a place that you know or decide on going to.

Sound maps can take many forms - some of them are real maps that list sounds (they do this a lot online - here’s one of the London Underground, and here’s a huge map of sounds from all over the world and some artistic responses to the sounds recorded). The online maps are pretty fun and interesting to explore (so please do so!) but for this exercise we are going to stay in real life for a while, and make a real picture on real paper.

Let's do this!

About Debashis Sinha

Driven by a deep commitment to the primacy of sound in creative expression, Debashis Sinha has realized projects in radiophonic art, music, sound art, audiovisual performance, theatre, dance, and music across Canada and internationally. Sound design and composition credits include numerous works for Peggy Baker Dance Projects and productions with Canada’s premiere theatre companies including The Stratford Festival, Soulpepper, Volcano Theatre, Young People’s Theatre, Project Humanity, The Theatre Centre, Nightwood Theatre, Why Not Theatre, MTC Warehouse and Necessary Angel. His live sound practice on the concert stage has led to appearances at MUTEK, the Guelph Jazz Festival, the Banff Centre, The Music Gallery, and other venues. He has released many independent CDs and is readying a double album to be released on Establishment in 2021. Sinha teaches sound design at York University and the National Theatre School of Canada, and is currently researching sound and cultural futures through the lens of machine learning and AI, funded by the Canada Council for the Arts.

Memory Book

An activity created by Chelsea Woolley

Think of a house you know well….Maybe it’s Grandma’s, or a best friend’s, or a cousin or two…Maybe you haven’t been there in a while. Do you remember what the house sounds like? Smells like? What things you did inside…?

Memory Book Activity: After visualizing the rooms from a loved one’s home, create a book where each page illustrates a different room and memory from a time you spent there.

Why a Memory Book? During this time of quarantine and social distancing, so many of us miss visiting the homes of those we care about most. This project invites participants to reflect on memories shared between four walls, recreate these memories on the page, and perhaps gift the finished book to the loved one whose home you have written about.

Let's do this!

About Chelsea Woolley

Chelsea Woolley (Playwriting, 2017) is a playwright whose work includes: Enormity, Girl, and the Earthquake in Her Lungs (Nightwood Theatre’s Groundswell Festival), The Mountain (Geordie Productions, Spinning Dot Theatre), and These Peaceable Kingdoms (New Words Festival). Chelsea’s work has been recognized through a number of awards including: Tarragon Theatre’s RBC Emerging Playwright (2019), The Playwright Guild of Canada’s SureFire List, The Ellen Ross Stuart Opening Doors Award, and the Toronto Fringe New Play Contest. She has attended the Banff Playwright’s Lab and the National New Play Network’s MFA Playwright’s Workshop at the Kennedy Centre in Washington DC. As an arts facilitator, Chelsea has worked with the Toronto Boys and Girls Club, the Harbourfront Centre, Crows Theatre, Scarborough Arts Centre, Young People’s Theatre, and Project Humanity. Chelsea is the creator and program director of a youth program at Red Door Shelter where last spring she and eight teens co-wrote a play titled One Day. Chelsea is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s Playwriting Program.

Modern Pet & Toutou Portraits

An activity created by Jimmy Blais

What is a Pet or Toutou Portrait?
Well, simply put, it’s a portrait of your pet or toutou but it is way cooler.

It’s a way to appreciate your favorite friends around the house and immortalize them forever in a beautiful way.

It makes a perfect gift for yourself or for a loved one.

Let's do this!

About Jimmy Blais

Jimmy is a member of the Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, he is of Plains Cree and French settler heritage.

Born and raised in Montreal, Jimmy graduated from Concordia’s Theatre Performance Program. He is a seasoned stage and film actor. He has worked professionally for over 10 years, for companies like The Stratford Festival, The Centaur, Geordie Productions, Porte Parole and La Licorne. Jimmy's most notable tv role was playing Watio for five seasons in APTN's hit series Mohawk Girls. Jimmy is also a writer, director, mentor and coach. He spent several years as a visiting artist/associate professor at Concordia University and as a mentor in Black Theatre Workshop’s Artist Mentorship Program. He was the Indigenous Artist in Residence for the 2016 Students On Ice Expedition to the Arctic. Jimmy just successfully completed the Indigenous Artist In Residence at The National Theatre School of Canada, where he spent 18 months focusing on creation and playwriting. His play “Sonny's Way” was presented at Native Earth's Weesageechak Begins to Dance festival in Toronto in November 2019. Jimmy recently continued his work in Porte Parole's The Assembly at The Segal Centre, the National Art Centre and was slated to tour multiple cities in Germany. He is presently working on a piece commissioned by Repercussion Theatre as a part of their Words With Will play development series in partnership with Native Earth Performing Arts’ Animikiig Creators Unit.

Building a character of La Fontaine's Fables

An activity created by Talia Hallmona

Get ready to explore the characters in the Fables using your body language.

Have fun as a family interpreting fables.

Let's do this!

About Talia Hallmona

Talia Hallmona is an actress, mediator, author and director. A graduate of the National Theatre School, she began her professional life in 2008 in the play Mouton noir presented by Espace K in Baie-Comeau. She was then part of the Quebec and French tour of S'Embrasent depuis 2009 jusqu'à 2017 : a youth theatre play, presented by Théâtre Bluff. Thanks to this play, she was able to travel throughout Quebec and France. She was also part of Trois une présentation d'Orange Noyée and La recette de Baklawas by Pascale Raffie. Over the past 9 years, Talia has had the opportunity to mediate cultural events with thousands of teenagers for the festival La Rencontre Théâtre Ados, forThéâtre Bluff, for the borough of Saint-Laurent and for Théâtre Fêlé. Since 2013, she has created: Moi et l'autre, her first text co-written with Pascal Brullemans, which deals with the integration of immigrants in Quebec, and she has founded her own youth theater company, Théâtre Fêlé. Moi et l'autre is still touring to this day. This year, Talia is creating a second text Olivier and Jamila. A story that questions the strength of our convictions.

Snow Queen and Jack Frost Felt Finger puppets

An activity created by Murdoch Schon

Have fun sewing and decorating finger puppets of classic winter characters!

Let's do this!

About Murdoch Schon

Murdoch Schon is a theatre maker, director and puppeteer. Winnipeg-born, they have been involved in the Montreal English theatre scene for almost a decade. Murdoch is fascinated by kindness, craft, and wonder. Murdoch believes that theatre rises to its true power through the practices of ritual liminality, community and imagination. Their work focuses on the magical nature of theatre as a transformative space where rulers can fail, heroes can rise and monsters seem more familiar than angels. 

The olfactory imagination

An activity created by Liliane Moisan

Smells are intimately linked to our memories and emotions! We associate them with moments in our lives, with people we have known, with activities we have practiced... etc.

Let's go in search of the smells of our home! Comforting or disgusting smells? We take inspiration from this odour to create a short text that we will enjoy sharing with the other participants. Will they have guessed what it is? Will it evoke the same feelings? Don't hesitate to be original and let your nose inspire you!

Let's do this!

About Liliane Gougeon Moisan

Liliane Gougeon Moisan was born and raised in Montreal. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from UQÀM following her studies in creative writing and linguistics. In 2018, she graduated from the playwriting program of the National Theatre School of Canada. During her studies, her plays are directed by Jocelyn Pelletier, Véronique Côté and Michel-Maxime Legault. Her play L'art de vivre earned her the Prix Gratien-Gélinas 2019. The text is presented in a reading by Marie-Ève Milot as part of Divans-lits, a nomadic reading series organized by CEAD. As soon as the health situation permits, the play will be presented by Théâtre PÀP in a production by Solène Paré at the Théâtre de Quat'sous. Liliane is interested in translation, television writing, dramaturgical consulting and directing.

Developing a character & building a mask

An activity created by Lorena Trigos

In this activity I will be sharing a simple way to build a mask to create your alter ego or whatever is in your imagination.

Choosing colours, textures and creating a character coming from you.

Let's do this!

About Lorena Trigos

Lorena Trigos studied in Mexico City, earning a degree in arts and Interior Design with a specialization in set design and events design. In 2011 she studied Visual arts in Vancouver at Emily Carr University. She decided to stay in Canada, and in 2015 she graduated from The National Theatre School of Canada from the program of Set and Costume Design. At NTS she designed The Caucasian Chalk Circle directed by Micheline Chevrier and Electre et Oreste directed by Sebastien David. In 2015 she went to Brussels to do a puppet construction and manipulation workshop called PLAN B with set designer Natacha Belova. Lorena has designed in Montreal and Mexico and worked in several theatre projects in France and South America developing an artistic and social collective called Sin Palabras, where the use of masks and theatre work as a medium for expression. She has designed for Theatre La Roulotte Les Docoulottes directed by Isabel Leblanc, Minuit for theatre Denis Peltier Salle Fred Barry directed by Lilie Bergeron, productions ondinnok, Tlakentli, directed by Yves Sioui, Theatre Lac Brome, and has been Associate Program director for the program ARTISTA with Imago Theatre. She is now working on a project through the DémArt program at CAM with Imago theatre on a creating-writing theatre piece using the social context and experiences of living in and as a street worker in Longueuil exploring the different reality of women and society.

Shadow theatre

An activity created by Salim Hammad

Let's tell stories together! True stories, invented stories, read stories, absurd stories. Or take a story already written or a poem, such as Red Riding Hood, and make up the silhouettes of characters, objects, places and landscapes to play shadow theater.

Let's do this!

About Salim Hammad

Salim believes that art and culture can change our lives and the world for the better. Art can push our limits, can make our dreams come true in real or imaginary. It gives us hope and opens our curiosity to different spheres. Saved by art, Salim gives himself body and soul to the Theater and to living texts. Having become a puppeteer and youth actor since 1999, he creates, directs and performs shows with other artists in schools, halls, festivals and unusual places.

www.salimmarionnette.com

Observing light and shadow in your neighbourhood

An activity created by Daniel Bennett

Go for a stroll in your neighbourhood and notice the various characteristics of light!

In this activity, you’ll get together with your household and go for a walk taking pictures and describing the different lighting in your neighbourhood. After sunset is recommended.

Let's do this!

About Daniel Bennett

Daniel Bennett Bio Photo

Daniel Bennett is the Technical Director for the Grand Theatre and Co-Artistic Producer of Curveball Creative. He has also worked as a freelance Production Manager with Eclipse Theatre Company, Public Recordings/EW&FCO at the Festival Transamériques, Ame Henderson Projects, SummerWorks Performance Festival, and Director’s Lab North. Previous lighting design credits include the Grand Theatre’s productions of Cabaret and Beethoven Lives Upstairs; Festival Designer for the Paprika Festival.
Past sound design credits include the Grand Theatre’s Juno’s Reward and Beethoven Lives Upstairs; and Griffin McInnes’ Specimen.
He believes that the theatre is a place where we can collectively dissect the human condition. This can empower and engage communities to talk about delicate issues necessary for meaningful change.
Daniel is a graduate of the Production Design and Technical Arts program at the National Theatre School and holds a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience and Psychology from the University of Toronto.