NTS Ontario Provincial Showcase 2019 Who’s Waiting… in the Wings
Workshop Schedule
NTS Ontario Provincial Showcase 2019
Workshop Leaders
(Click on the button to view a full detail printable PDF with images of their workshop)
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Erum Khan | Attempting to Create Your First Play
(2 hour workshop, 25 participants max. May 9th & 10th)
Conversations. Reading. Watching. Listening. Trying. Failing. Repeat.
In this workshop, we will examine and experiment with various techniques and tools to help prep in writing your first full-length play. By looking at diverse forms of work and talking about our struggles and journeys of creation, this workshop aims to support you in finding the best unique ways of drafting your work from start to finish.
Erum Khan is a film and theatre maker. She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology from the University of Toronto. She is currently the Youth Coordinator for the Rendezvous With Madness Festival, has worked in the programming department at TIFF, and was part of the 2017/18 Emerging Creators Unit at Buddies In Bad Times Theatre. Her first full-length play Noor premiered at The Aga Khan Museum this past October. Recent projects include: Co-creator/performer for زبانکی پتھر/patthar ki zabaan (Rhubarb Festival); creator/performer for Becoming (Rhubarb & Ottawa Fringe); assistant director for Acha Bacha (Theatre Passe Muraille/Buddies In Bad Times Theatre); production assistant for 7th Cousins; performer & assistant director for Concord Floral (Theatre Centre, Canadian Stage, PuSh International Performing Arts Festival); filmmaker for Banjaare ka ghar (Toronto Independent Film Festival). Erum is an alumni of the NTS Festival, Central Region.
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Shaista Latif | How I Learned to Serve Tea
(2 hour workshop, 25 participants max. May 9th & 10th)
Participants enter the space where they are greeted by an array of carefully arranged items. Sitting in a circle, we are made to interact with the objects and prompted to action by a series of questions that provoke the participants to delineate and delegate. As implied in the name, tea is also served. Through a facilitated debate, we get to explore the dynamics of power in acts of servitude; confronting the ways we make space for others. As a facilitator, I act as a benevolent interrogator, but participants are encouraged to take the reins and to question the space as well. This workshop investigates positions of authority and class by helping to build collaborative languages of care and placemaking. How I Learned to Serve Tea is an invitation and a meditation on the politics of radical hospitality in the creative process.
Shaista Latif is an artist, director and facilitator. Her works have been presented at Ontario Scene Festival, SummerWorks, Why Not Theatre’s Riser Project, the AGO, and Halifax Queer Acts Festival. Her play Graceful Rebellions was recently published in Queer/Play: An Anthology of Queer Women's Performance and Plays edited by Moynan King. Latif is also a voice actor and voiced the character Soraya in the Oscar nominated film The Breadwinner. In 2019, she is touring her performance work The Archivist. Shaista is an alumni of the NTS Festival, Toronto Region.
Treasa Levasseur | Singing is Acting
(1 hour workshop, 12 participants max.
May 10th Only)
You don’t need to be a technically gifted vocalist with a huge range and tons of tricks to be a great singer! Commitment to the text, confident breathing, correct choice of key, clarity of thought and connection to your body can elevate your performance from good to outstanding, no matter what level of skill you may currently believe you have. This small group workshop will begin with a few group activities, and then apply those learnings to short individual presentations and constructive feedback designed to take your big number to the next level. Come with a verse/chorus of a song you know by heart, preferably from musical theatre, to present a cappella (optional).
Treasa Levasseur is a Juno-nominated singer-songwriter with 3 full length albums and 2 eps. She plays accordion, mandolin and piano in many bands as well as fronting her own project, and recently wrote a one woman one act play about her journey as a musician, which is in workshop and was presented in August at Hugh’s Room. She is a regular columnist on CBC’s The Next Chapter, a graduate of Ryerson Theatre School’s acting program, and a long time collaborator with Fixt Point Theatre. Currently Treasa coordinates the Developing Artist Program at Folk Music Ontario, and serves as the Canadian Representative for Folk Alliance International. In 2018, Treasa (and her colleague Jody Boston) presented a 3-part performance project called Showgame Showdown at the Art Gallery of Hamilton, led a choir at Summerfolk Festival, served as musical director for two camps at Theatre Aquarius, developed and delivered a multidisciplinary arts program for the Toronto Regional Conservation Authority, and facilitated improv music classes for youth with lived experience of adversity at the Boys and Girls Club of Hamilton. Treasa has served on juries for the Canada Council for the Arts, the Junos, FACTOR and the WCMAs. Treasa is an alumni of the NTS Festival.
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Andrea Nann | The Authentic Performer
(2 hour workshop, 25 participants max.
May 9th & 10th)
This movement-based workshop will use a range of exercises to assist young performers in developing a stronger awareness of the ‘self’ and others in space. Developing this awareness is essential for creating more dynamic, authentic work on stage. Dance artist Andrea Nann will incorporate aspects of Gyrokinesis, a methodology that uses Qigong, Yoga and Dance to encourage performers to enhance their ability to observe and to respond to others with a deeper sense of self and connection. Participants will progress through a sequence of movement patterns, rich with image and texture in both solo and group focused exercises designed to assist them in discovering their authentic bodies and voices.
Andrea Nann is a Toronto-based contemporary dance artist and the founding artistic director of Dreamwalker Dance Company. Andrea creates works for the stage, film, and outdoor sites. Andrea was a full-time member of the Danny Grossman Dance Company from 1988-2003. Her long-time creative collaborators include dance artists Brendan Wyatt and Sarah Chase, visual artist Elysha Poirier, musician Gord Downie, and writer Michael Ondaatje. Andrea has received seven Dora Mavor Moore Award Nominations, one of these she shares with Brendan Wyatt for their work Beside Each Other. Andrea frequently appears as a guest artist with Peggy Baker Dance Projects and Astrid Dance. She created/produced 9 editions of the Whole Shebang Toronto (2004-2015). From 2012-2016 Andrea devised/produced a 4-year/4-city multi-arts collaborative project; the Ontario Shebang. Andrea is a certified GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® trainer. In 2016 Ontario Contact recognized Andrea as Artist of the Year for her contributions to the Performing Arts touring sector in Ontario
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Ngozi Paul | rEvolution of Making Art Through Personal rEvolution
(2 hour workshop, 25 participants max. May 9th & 10th)
In this workshop you will be guided through a series of exercises that will assist you to create and identify your own personal practice as an artist. We will be taking an holistic approach to storytelling that includes being grounded and understanding that your “self" is your tool. Please bring or come ready to talk about a personal item that connects you to why you got into theatre.
Points of Discussion: tools to locate yourself; choosing methods of storytelling that resonate; what is for you and what is not for you - learning to know the difference; movement, breathing and creative excavation exercises; tools that help to bring you back to your centre.
Ngozi Paul is an award winning actress and creator. Most recently her play The Emancipation of Ms. Lovely which she penned and starred in was nominated for 6 Dora awards and won Outstanding New Play and collaborators DJ L’Oqenz and Waleed Abdulhamid won Outstanding Composition. Some acting highlights include the wide-eyed beauty, Starr in the hit series, ‘da Kink in my Hair which she also co-created, Her in Crow’s Theatre’s A&R Angels and Julia in Canadian Stage’s in Fernando Krapp Wrote Me This Letter: An Attempt at the Truth. Ngozi has extensive credits in both film and television. Her new play The 1st Time Project focuses on intergenerational and intercultural conversations exploring women’s relationship with sexuality from culture to culture and from one generation to the next and is a proud member of Crow’s Theatre’s docu-playwrights unit. Ngozi is passionate about human rights, particularly girls’ rights, and is a proud ambassador of Plan International’s Because I am a Girl initiative. www.ngozipaul.com
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Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah | Collective Creation & Devised Ensemble Work
(2 hour workshop, 25 participants max. May 9th Only)
Carve your own path as an artist and learn to create your own work from the ground up. Inspiration for creation can be found all around us, please come prepared to talk about what inspires you. This workshop will employ the practices of collective creation to generate material from something as small as a morsel of an idea, a dream, or the memory of a meal. Elements of physical theatre will be used to build on the basis of an inspired concept or idea. Working collaboratively by sharing their unique social awarenesses and backgrounds with each other, participants will learn new skills and a creative vocabulary to generate new works.
Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah is a Dora and ACTRA nominated and My Entertainment Award winning actor, writer and producer. With an Afro-Caribbean and Muslim upbringing, living her life at a multitude of intersections has motivated Khadijah's efforts to create meaningful and socially relevant work that is reflective of our social landscape. Notable credits include The Second Life of Samuel Tyne and The Book of Negroes for audio recordings, Lila in Kat Sandler’s Bang Bang, Laertes in Ravi Jain’s The Prince Hamlet, Claudette in How Black Mothers Say I Love You for the stage, American Gods, What We Do In The Shadows, Workin Moms, and Designated Survivor for television. Check out what else Khadijah is up to next on IG @dijyro and Twitter @dijyroberts.
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Erin Brubacher, NTS Festival Director
(2 hour workshop, 25 participants max. May 9th Only)
Workshop: TBA
Erin Brubacher is a director, multidisciplinary artist and educator. Recent projects include: Director/co-creator for Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre); co-creator/performer for 7th Cousins, (Nightwood Theatre); director for Noor (Generous Friend at the Aga Khan Museum); and co-director/producer for Concord Floral (Brubacher/Spooner/Tannahill at The National Arts Centre, Canadian Stage, The PuSh International Performance Festival and others). Erin holds a BA in Fine Arts from Mount Allison University; a BEd from Memorial University of Newfoundland; and an MA, with distinction, in International Performance Research jointly from the University of Warwick and University of Amsterdam. www.erinbrubacher.ca
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