Germination : A Workshop to Nurture New Ideas and Dramaturgical Skills

This Zoom workshop is designed to take your idea to the next stages of development, whether that is putting pen to paper, gathering a team, or finding the medium to best support your vision. Germination is a space for collective dreaming, to nourish creative sparks to future steps. We will also give you self-producing tools, so you can work on your own timeline and take the future of your piece into your own hands.”

Gillian Clarke (Nouvelle-Écosse) biography

Gillian is a multidisciplinary theatre creator and the artistic co-director of Keep Good (Theatre) Company. She resides in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal, with a large part of her heart in K’jipuktuk/Halifax. She is a recent graduate of the National Theatre School’s playwriting program. Her work has been presented across Canada, England and India.

Her plays include: The Ruins (Two Planks and a Passion Theatre), Harmony Mall (Runner-Up for the Playwrights Guild of Canada’s 2019 RBC Emerging Playwright Award), Drums and Organs (commissioned by Dalhousie University for the 2018 graduating acting class) and Let’s Try This Standing (her touring solo show and winner of Outstanding Performance at the 2017 Summerworks Performance Festival). She has held residencies with Outside the March and 2b theatre.

She is also a two-time nominee for Best New Play at the Nova Scotia Robert Merritt awards. Upcoming writing projects include The Game and Adventures with Keep Good (Theatre) Company.

Histoires pour faire des cauchemars

Creation and production of a first version of the show in April 2022, which will be presented to young people from schools in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood following a cultural mediation activity that will have taken place beforehand in the form of a writing workshop with the author of the play, Étienne Lepage, as well as a puppet/object theater workshop led by actress Chantal Dupuis. The public will come and see a free and exclusive play. A discussion will be hosted with the audience after the performance to gather their impressions.

Jocelyn Pelletier (Québec) biography

A graduate of the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Québec in 2005, Jocelyn Pelletier has participated in several productions of Théâtre Péril and co-founded the company tectoniK_ .
A 2018 graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, his creation De l’instant et de l’éternité based on Seneca’s Phaedra is presented at the Trillium in February 2018 and at Usine C in March 2018. He conceived Mac(death).Presented at OFFTA 2018, Mois Multi 20 in February 2019 and at La Chapelle Scènes Contemporaines in March 2020. He directed Dévoré(s) by Jean-Denis Beaudoin at Théâtre Périscope in October 2019. Edwidge’s Hands at the Time of Birth by Wajdi Mouawad at Théâtre La Bordée in January 2020. He recently directed La terre tremble by Alexandra Badea with the graduates of the École supérieure dein the winter of 2021.

Director, actor, author and occasional teacher who, for several years in the company of various collaborators, has aspired to understand how distinct technologies, through sensory research and contemporary scenic approaches (video, performance, visual art, sound art, etc.) can intensify the experience of the spectator. In this way, it initiates a continuous study of traditional practice as well on the level of the substance as of the form.

Roots of creation

Roots of Creation is a free theatre creation and performance program that will be offered to Black, Nova Scotian youth in the Dartmouth, Cole Harbour and Preston areas. It will provide classes in dance, acting, costume design, music composition, playwriting and more: delivered through a collaborative, accessible lens with a focus on decolonization. All classes will be taught by Black artists from or with strong connections to those communities, providing lessons in these specific art practices but also about how the art can connect to everyday life and traditional studies.

Riel Reddicks-Stevens (Nouvelle-Écosse) biography

Riel Reddick-Stevens is a multidisciplinary artist and arts educator from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. She is a Randolph College graduate and in her final year of the acting program at National Theatre school of Canada. Theatre has always been a huge part of her life and has taught her many skills that she uses both inside and outside of performance, she has been extremely grateful to have the training opportunities she has had but also recognizes that they are not accessible for all.

Riel strives to create art and programs that are easily accessible and open to voices that haven’t always been heard in the western education context by creating alternative, collaborative ways of learning through theatre and art.

Shipwright

Shipwright is a storytelling exhibit that combines sculpture and performance to evoke Prince Edward Island’s shipbuilding past. The public is invited to have a cup of tea at the Riverview Community Centre and witness a PEI shipyard, complete with a fleet of ships built by local craftsman Vernon Corney in their first public display. Each day, the space is occupied by a pair of shipwrights. They work and sing, sleep and eat, play banjo and do their chores, all to evoke the sense memory of PEI’s age of sail.

More information can be found on the Radiant Rural Halls website.

Patrick Jeffrey (Nouveau-Brunswick) biography

Patrick Jeffrey is a theatre maker who grew up on Epekwitk (PEI). A graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, he has performed in companies including Repercussion (Montreal), Sweetline (St. John’s), The Atlantic Repertory Company (Saint John) and the Confederation Players (Charlottetown).
He produces his own plays through his theatre company Caveman Lovechild, and recently had a showcase presentation of a new play, The Breakthrough, with Tableau D’Hôte in Montreal. Shipwright marks the first time he has bridged the gap between installation and performance, and it is an honor and a joy to be collaborating with his grandfather Vernon Corney.

Bunk #7 Capacity Building Project

Bunk #7 is a play written by the late Larry Guno based on his personnal experience of a student led riot at the Edmonton Residential School in the early 60s. The goal of the Raven Collective has been to honour the spirit of Truth and Reconciliation : to share the truth of Larry’s expériences at IRS by bringing his story to life onstage ; to work towards reconciliation by creating opportunities for and developing local Indigenous talent in Northern BC.

We were engaged as the Narrative Design Collective, a group of settlers designers, to design the show while mentoring someone from the local Indigenous community in our respective design disciplines. With the completion of our production in Terrace, our next goal is to continue our mentee’s technical training while they take the show on a regional tour of BC.

Christian Horozazck (Ontario) biography

Christian is a settler lighting designer based in Tkaronto. Previous design work includes Kviuq Returns (Qaggiavuut !/ Banff Centre), Entrances and Exits (Howland Company), Love and Information, Burning Vision (National Theatre School), All The Sex I Ever Had (Séoul, Tokyo, Kyoto et Frankfurt/ Mammalian Diving Reflex) and Sex Drugs and Criminality (Riga/ Mammalian Diving Reflex).

He is currently in his second season as an assistant Lighting Designer at the Stratford and has also assisted at Fall For Dance North. He is a graduate of National Theatre School of Canada and completed a practicum at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
Outside theatre, Christian works as an architectural lighting designer having worked on exhibits with Dior, Red Sea Musuem, Pointe-à Callière, Lightouse, Immervise and the Singapore Zoo.

BOOM !

BOOM! a play by isi bhakhomen

When purple popsicles can no longer soothe Tamara’s pain, she prays to the Great JB for guidance. To her surprise, He answers. Through the power of magic Tamara and her friends embark on an epic journey. Together, they fight off the shadows that have overtaken Tamara’s peace of mind.

Will this be their last hurrah? Or, will these teens find a way to stay connected beyond the confines of a computer lab?

With this play isi bhakhomen wants to begin a dialogue around the maltreatment of black girls within the education system. They want to build an environment of wellness that will give audience members the opportunity to debrief after each performance. Some themes explored in this play include houselessness and physical violence. These might be triggers and they want to make sure that there is time dedicated for reflection. A talking circle. This idea was introduced to them through Kamloopa: An Indigenous Matriarch Story by Kim Senklip Harvey. The Indigenous practice of reflection is something that they want to integrate within all of their theatrical projects, especially the ones that deal with hard topics.

More information

isi Bhakhomen (Ontario) biography

isi bhakhomen (they/them) is a NIGERIAN and PERUVIAN theatre practitioner that dabbles in playwriting, acting, directing, producing and criticism. In 2021, they graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada’s acting program. As a playwright they have participated in many writing circles such as Factory Theatre’s The Foundry, Tarragon Theatre’s Young Playwrights Unit, and Shakespeare in the Ruff’s Young Ruffians Program. This season you can catch them performing in Death and the King’s Horseman and Hamlet at the Stratford Festival. In addition, they were recently appointed as a board member for Cahoots Theatre.