— ABOUT THE PROJECT

In my residency last year I participated in a writing project with Erin Shields which resulted in a first draft of a two hander play called “ས་ཏོག་ Jhutok.” This is an expression that roughly translates to“mind your business” in Tibetan. We often hear this when we stick our noses into other people’s business or are acting nosey. It’s unfortunately the expression we hear a lot when we inquire about issues that arise in our community; it’s something I’ve heard when asking about abuse in the community. Inspired by the women in my community who’ve endured so many hardships in exile, in womanhood and in the community, I wrote this play to become a catalyst for us to have a space where we can share in a story that is removed from us enough to reflect on ourselves and the ways we’re internalized patriarchy and gender based violence in our community. Set in a rural refugee settlement, the story is about two Tibetan women who are waiting for their coworker to show up for work but she never does

— BIOGRAPHY

རིན་ཆེན་སྒྲོལ་མ་|Rinchen Dolma(Indepedent residencies, 2026) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist who for the last five years has been growing her practice as a director, playwright, dramaturge, performer and veteran community arts practitioner. Originally from the roof of the world, Rinchen was born in exile in Kathmandu, Nepal; she is primarily based in Tkarón:to (TO) but currently resides in Tiohtià:ke (MTL). She is the founder and Artistic Director of MADE IN EXILE, a grassroots community-arts based initiative that engages young Tibetan creatives in exploring their complex identities through contemporary mediums of storytelling in exile. Rinchen completed her Metcalf Foundation Performing Arts Program in Artistic Direction at Theatre Passe Muraille (TPM), was part of the 20/21 Foundry cohort at Factory Theatre, completed the 50th edition of The Banff Playwrights Lab in 2023. This past November she participated in the 2024 Relay Lab in Bodø, Norway facilitated by Nightswimming (CAN), Seachange Lab (DK) and Davvi-Centre for Performing Arts (NOR). She is also currently in TPM’s 24.25 Buzz-In Development program working on her first full length play ཁྱིམ་ཚང་ Khimstang.

Rinchen’s recent work includes Orlando (Talk is Free Theatre, 2022), Transfers (SummerWorks, 2022), Eventually, We Land (Tarragon x TMU, 2023) and Lysistrata (Toronto Metropolitan University, 2024).