— ABOUT THE PROJECT

In this project, a group of 10 students (ages 8 to 16 years old) will be invited to participate in several parts of a puppetry design and workshopping process. These activities will both share with students puppet building techniques, as well as introduce them to part of a theatre creation process conducted by a collective of theatre professionals.

Theatre students will get first-hand experience of the process of creating a work of puppetry, including theatre-making, writing and performance workshopping. They will also get hands-on experience in the design and creation of large puppets.

Theatre students will be able to give invaluable contributions to the creative process, helping to make the show more appropriate and interesting for young audiences.

— BIOGRAPHY

Murdoch Schon (Directing, 2020) 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 provocation, vulnerability, and the role of risk and failure in art making. Murdoch believes that theatre rises to its true power through the practices of ritual liminality, community and imagination. Murdoch is enamoured with scale, the breadth and sweep of history.  They insist on the wondrous nature of theatre as a transformative space where rulers can fail, heroes can rise and monsters seem more familiar than angels. 

Mentors at NTS: Jackie Maxwell, Tanja Jacobs, Lezlie Wade, Michael Wheeler, Sarah Garton Stanley, Clea Minaker, Dean Fleming, Seana McKenna, Jean Asselin, Eda Holmes, and Rose Plotek. 

Selected directing credits: it felt empty when the heart went at first but it is alright now  by Lucy Kirkwood, The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter, Celestial Serendipity  by Russell Wiitala, The Woods Witch  by Murdoch Schon, and  Little One  by Hannah Moscovitch.

Murdoch also has a BFA, Specialization in Theatre and Development, from Concordia University.