Category: Residencies

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PWM+MAI Joint Support for Artists Featuring Ülfet Sevdi

Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal and the MAI (Montréal, Arts Interculturels) are thrilled to announce that the PWM + MAI  Joint Support for Artists will feature Ülfet Sevdi and her work Motherhood.

The Artist

Ülfet Sevdi is a writer, theatre director, dramaturge, visual artist, and Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner based in Montreal.


She graduated in Fine Arts and Theatre in Türkiye in 2001. She holds a Research and Creation Master in the INDI program at Concordia University. She is now a PhD candidate in the INDI program at Concordia University. Her work deals with oral history and social narratives. Her approach is highly conceptual, experimental, and is theoretically grounded in the critical social sciences.


She was the co-founder and artistic director of nü.kolektif (2008-2014), an Istanbul-based collective of multidisciplinary artists involved in performances dealing with political topics. She continues this line of work with Thought Experiment Productions (2015-) since coming to Montreal, a production company she also co-founded and that she co-directs.


Her past work has been funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Montreal Council for the Arts, and the Cole Foundation. It has been presented in Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Ireland, Türkiye, and the USA.

THE PROJECT

In the moment of my artistic and academic mid-career, less than two years ago, I have become a mother. I had just finished a Master thesis. It was still during the Covid pandemic. They say having a child changes your life. But you do not understand it until it happens to you. It is a deep, highly rewarding but also very demanding existential state.

How do we continue, what can be done? When will we be able to regain our normal artistic life? Our performer’s body? Our capacity to focus on reading and writing? After almost a year of pregnancy follow the first months, the first year. The body has changed; constraints –physical, emotional, psychological- are everywhere. Time flows outside, life continues.

But the artist-mother cannot keep up with all the ideas she has, cannot return to her practice. Even if she does, part of her is with the baby. You are stuck, in the physical and psychological senses of the term. You lost the freedom needed to create, both outside and inside. You lost the physical, psychological and time-related flexibility needed to create and go on stage to perform. You have to make peace with this new body. You have to find ways to understand how you can continue. As an artist, your financial well-being depends on your performance practice. You could use daycares, babysitters, but they cost money… to make money you need more money. Having a baby costs money, new needs are involved. If the system offers something, is it really enough? Is the father able to make it alone? And when you don’t have the traditional family support… To create you need time and space, to perform as well. Without time you can’t develop your ideas. Without time to create, you have nothing to perform. The experience is opening layers over layers of difficulties: the systemic, the psychological and the physical. Many different paradoxical vicious circles open up in front of you. And you’re exhausted.

This performance will be based around the technique I have developed in my last performance, Numbers Increase As We Count…, a technique I have called “Performative Acting”. It is a technique that involves specific tasks as well as dramaturgically framed open structures. I have sketched the framework for this technique in my Research and Creation Master Thesis in the INDI program, and am currently developing it further in my current PDH studies in the same program. For this project, I intend to carry this work with different artist- mothers/mother-artists from different performative artistic disciplines.

THE PROGRAM

The PWM + MAI joint support accompanies creators on their journey to develop a project and explore their practice. It is aimed at artists encountering structural and systemic obstacles to their full participation in the arts because of their claimed identity and/or perceived identity in society. 

More details about the program available here.

We are so excited to support the development of Ülfet’s project, and wish her a fulfilling creation process!

This program is a partnership between
PWM logo
Project supported by the Government of QuébEc as part of l’Entente sur le Développement Culturel and the City of Montreal, and by the Canada Council for the Arts
Canada Council logo

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Announcing the 2022 Playwrights | Dévoilement des Participant.e.s de 2022

Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal (PWM) and le Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD) in partnership with Creative Gros Morne, the Bonne Bay Aquarium, the Cole Foundation, and Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland are excited to announce the seven playwrights participating in the 2022 Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency in Newfoundland. 

From October 13 to 24, 2022, Sharon Bala, Lois Brown, Marie-Hélène Larose-Truchon, Johanne Parent, Alicia Payne, Julie-Anne Ranger-Beauregard, and Scout Rexe will be staying at the Bonne Bay Marine Station in Norris Point, located in Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency is a dual-lingual residency that welcomes playwrights from across the country to write, dream, share and create. The residents will have the opportunity to explore their plays during unstructured writing time, one-on-one dramaturgical conversations, and in group discussions with works being shared every evening. The program offers dramaturgy in French and English.

Look out for future social media posts about the artists and the residency.

Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal (PWM) et le Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD), en partenariat avec Creative Gros Morne, l’Aquarium de Bonne Bay, la Fondation Cole et Artistic Fraud de Terre-Neuve, sont heureux de dévoiler le nom des sept auteurs et autrices qui ont été sélectionnés pour participer à la Résidence canadienne d’auteurs dramatiques de Gros-Morne 2022, à Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador.

Du 13 au 24 octobre 2022, Sharon Bala, Lois Brown, Marie-Hélène Larose-Truchon, Johanne Parent, Alicia Payne, Julie-Anne Ranger-Beauregard et Scout Rexe séjourneront à la Bonne Bay Marine Station de Norris Point, située dans le parc national de Gros Morne, à Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador.

La résidence d’écriture théâtrale de Gros-Morne est une résidence bilingue qui accueille des auteurs de tout le pays pour écrire, rêver, partager et créer. Les résidents auront l’occasion d’explorer leurs pièces pendant des périodes d’écriture non structurées, des conversations dramaturgiques individuelles et des discussions de groupe, les œuvres en développement étant partagées chaque soir. Le programme propose une dramaturgie en français et en anglais.

Surveillez les prochains messages sur les réseaux sociaux concernant les artistes et la résidence.

Meet the playwrights / Rencontrez les auteurs

Sharon Bala, Newfoundland

PLAY IN DEVELOPMENT: UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE

Sharon Bala’s bestselling debut novel, The Boat People, won the 2020 Newfoundland & Labrador Book Award and the 2019 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, was short listed for several awards, and is in translation in four languages. In 2017 she won the Writers’ Trust/ McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize for her short story “Butter Tea at Starbucks” and had a second story on the long-list. Sharon is a member of The Port Authority, a St. John’s writing group.

Visit her at: sharonbala.com

Photo credit: ​​Nadra Ginting

LOIS BROWN, NEWFOUNDLAND

PLAY IN DEVELOPMENT: DRINKING AGAIN

Born in Corner Brook, Newfoundland and educated in Drama at The University of Alberta, Lois Brown established her cross-disciplinary artistic practice in St. John’s. She is past Artistic Animateur of RCA Theatre Company (1993-97), original member and past Curator of Neighbourhood Dance Works (1982-89, 1990-92), and past Artist in Residence and dramaturg at Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada (2010-13). In 2004, she was one of five Canadian directors short-listed for the Elinore & Lou Siminovitch Prize. In 2005, she was awarded The Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award for outstanding achievement in theatre by a mid-career Canadian artist by The Canada Council for the Arts. She has received numerous recognitions for work and has been inducted into Dance Canada Danse Encore! Dance Hall of Fame. Lois holds a Masters from Memorial University, where she has taught acting and directing. Since an accident in 2008, Lois has brought her growing interest in disability arts aesthetics, and her explorations of dramaturgy and choreography to her ongoing investigation of improvisation and of “things”. The resulting work found her aiming beyond interdisciplinariness, beyond a synthesis of disciplinary approaches towards something else, another dimension of expression and experience. 

Portrait credit: Jeremy Gordaneer

MARIE-HÉLÈNE LAROSE-TRUCHON, QUÉBEC

TEXTE EN COURS DE DÉVELOPPEMENT: (SANS TITRE)

À sa sortie de l’École nationale de théâtre du Canada en écriture dramatique, Marie-Hélène Larose-Truchon gagne le concours « théâtre jeune public et la relève ». Ses pièce Minuit (Leméac) et Un Oiseau m’attend ont reçu des mentions au prix Gratien-Gélinas. Elle est la lauréate du prix Gratien-Gélinas 2021 pour sa pièce Le Jardin d’Éden. Elle est aussi l’autrice des pièces jeune public Crème-Glacée et Amande-Amandine toutes deux publiées chez L’Arche Éditeur. Ces pièces ont été produites par le Petit Théâtre de Sherbrooke, le Double Signes, le théâtre de la Seizième, le théâtre de la Petite Marée et en France par Théâtre en scène et L’insomniaque cie.

Crédit photo: Jessica Garneau

JOHANNE PARENT, NEW BRUNSWICK

TEXTE EN COURS DE DÉVELOPPEMENT: PÂQUES

Johanne Parent a fait des études en littérature à l’Université de Moncton. Sa première pièce remporte le volet jeunesse du Prix littéraire Antonine-Maillet Acadie-vie en 2001. Depuis, ses textes ont fait l’objet de mises en lectures professionnelles notamment au Festival à Haute-voix du Théâtre L’Escaouette et à La Salle des machines du Centre des auteurs dramatiques.  En 2018, elle est invitée par l’Association des théâtres francophones du Canada à participer à une résidence d’écriture à Banff où elle créera les bases d’Ornithorynques. Elle habite le nord du Nouveau-Brunswick.

Alicia payne, Ontario

PLAY IN DEVELOPMENT: WHEN IT MATTERS MOST

Alicia Payne is a multi-disciplinary artist whose credits include theatre, film, television and radio. Professional memberships include, ACTRA, CAEA, Dramatists Guild of America and Playwrights Guild of Canada where she served as president. Alicia facilitates workshops with youth and adults in community and organizational settings. Presentations of Alicia’s work include: Canadian Forces Artists Program Exhibition (Group 6), Atlanta Black Theatre Festival, National Black Theatre Festival (North Carolina) and Valdez Theatre Conference (Alaska). Alicia narrated the audiobook Flower Diary by Molly Peacock and is a co-founder of Arbez Drama Projects. Alicia believes in the power of storytelling to build community.

Photo credit: Richard Yagutilov

JULIE-ANNE RANGER-BEAUREGARD, QUÉBEC

TEXTE EN COURS DE DÉVELOPPEMENT: PORCELAINES

Julie-Anne Ranger-Beauregard est diplômée de l’École Nationale de Théâtre du Canada (Écriture dramatique, 2010) et de l’École Nationale de l’Humour (Scénarisation, 2017). Sa pièce Quatre filles (adaptation du roman Little Women de Louisa May Alcott) a été présentée en mars-avril 2022 sur les planches du Théâtre Denise-Pelletier (m.e.s. Louis-Karl Tremblay). Précédemment, sa pièce Les inconnus (finaliste du prix de la dramaturgie francophone de la SACD, 2015) a été jouée à la Petite Licorne en septembre 2016 (m.e.s. Frédéric Blanchette). Prochainement, elle co-signera l’adaptation du roman Manikanetish de Naomi Fontaine, présentée au Théâtre Duceppe en mars 2023 (m.e.s. Jean-Simon Traversy).

Crédit photo: Guillaume Sauriol Lacoste

scout Rexe, Manitoba

PLAY IN DEVELOPMENT: CULT PLAY

Scout Rexe (they/she) is a playwright and dramaturg. As a writer, their work explores queer and trans identities, celebrity, sexual violence, and social change. Guillermo Verdeccia called Rexe’s first full-length play This is the August (SummerWorks, 2016) a “smart, funny play, rich with the complexities of contemporary life in the west.” Her first short play Lodged in the Body (Theatre of the Beat, 2018-2019) was commissioned and toured Canada and the Netherlands, reaching over 2000 people. Rexe is currently writing O Death, a full length play with music, and Cult Play, which they will be focusing on during their time at Gros Morne.

Robert Chafe (Artistic Fraud),  Sara Dion (CEAD), Fatma Sarah Elkashef (PWM) and  Emma Tibaldo (PWM)  will collaborate as partner-dramaturgs for the group.


Robert Chafe (Artistic Fraud),  Sara Dion (CEAD), Fatma Sarah Elkashef (PWM) et  Emma Tibaldo (PWM) collaboreront en tant que partenaires-dramaturges pour le groupe.

Logo of the Cole Foundation
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The Resident Creators of the 2022 Glassco Translation Residency

The Glassco Translation Residency invites playwrights and translators from across Canada and beyond to come together for ten days in Tadoussac, Quebec, to work in-depth on their translation projects. The chosen participants are provided with a unique opportunity to focus on their projects and to share expertise in a retreat environment. 

After a two-year hiatus, we are delighted to welcome seven resident artists to translate five different plays during the Glassco Translation Residency in 2022! 

MEET THE RESIDENT CREATORS

Click on their portrait to learn more about each resident artist

QUEUE CERISE

Translation from French to English

 Amélie Dallaire – Playwright

Gabe Maharjan – Translator

THE CANDOR OF DINOSAURS

Translation from English to Portuguese

Michael Mackenzie – Playwright

Isabel dos Santos  – Translator

COPEAUX and MURS

Translation from French to English

Mishka Lavigne – Playwright

 David Gagnon Walker  – Translator

HAVRE

Translation from French to Spanish

Mishka Lavigne – Playwright

Emilio Iturbe-Kennedy  – Translator

Translation Dramaturg

We’re also pleased to welcome award-winning translator Maryse Warda, who will serve as translation dramaturg and residency host.

Born in Egypt, where she spent her childhood, Maryse Warda has been active on Quebec stages since 1992, and has translated more than seventy plays. Her work has helped introduce French-speaking audiences to many Canadian authors such as John Mighton, Morris Panych and George F. Walker. She has also translated for many  American, British, Scottish and Irish authors including Howard Barker, Margaret Edson, David Greig, David Hare, David Ives, Cindy Lou Johnson, David Mamet, Arthur Miller and Harold Pinter.

In 2011, she received the Governor General’s Award for her translation of the play The Toxic Bus Incident by Greg MacArthur. Her translation of Anthony Black’s One Discordant Violin – inspired by a short story by Yann Martel – was the subject of her work at the Glassco Translation Residency in 2019 and will be presented at La Licorne in the fall of 2022.

Since 2006, Maryse has benefited from the wonderful Glassco Translation Residency in Tadoussac on nine occasions. This is the first time that she will serve as translation dramaturg and host.

ABOUT THE GLASSCO TRANSLATION RESIDENCY IN TADOUSSAC

Over the past 16 years we have offered space, time, and dramaturgical expertise to over 63 translation projects into languages such as Cantonese, Catalan, Cree, English, French, Innu-aimun, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Tamil, Tagalog and Urdu.

The Glassco Translation Residency in Tadoussac is made possible through our partnership with the Cole Foundation’s Intercultural Conversations Program, the dedication of Residency Producer Briony Glassco, and the support of the friends and family in memory of the great Canadian theatre artist, Bill Glassco. We are also grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Conseil des arts de Montréal for their ongoing support.

Supporters: The Cole Foundation, Friends and Family of Bill Glassco, The Canada Council for the Arts, Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
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2022 Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency

Image of a shoreline in Gros Morne featuring colourful salt box houses. The image has a blue banner with white text which reads: “2022 Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency”

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

The Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency is a Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal (PWM) and the Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD) program, created with the participation of Artistic Fraud, and in partnership with the Cole Foundation, Creative Gros Morne, and the Bonne Bay Marine Station. It is a dual-lingual residency that will welcome writers from across the country to Gros Morne, Newfoundland.

ABOUT THE GROS MORNE PLAYWRIGHTS’ RESIDENCY

The Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency will bring together seven Canadian playwrights over a twelve-day period, from October 13 to 24, 2022. This unique dual-lingual residency is offered by two pan-Canadian organizations, PWM and CEAD, with the participation of Artistic Fraud of NL. It will take place at the Bonne Bay marine station in Norris Point, located in Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland and Labrador.

English language playwrights are asked to apply through PWM and French language playwrights through the CEAD. These two organizations will assess submissions from all across the country and select three English and three French applications. A seventh spot is reserved for a playwright from Newfoundland and Labrador.

The residency will be led by Fatma Sarah Elkashef, artistic director of PWM, Emma Tiabldo, dramaturg at PWM, and by Sara Dion, dramaturg at CEAD. The residency is an opportunity for solo writing, punctuated with moments of exchange and reading of texts as a group. The Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency provides playwrights with transportation, accommodation, meals, an honorarium of $800.00, and dramaturgical support.

Applications for this residency are now closed.

HOW TO APPLY

Submission deadline: May 20th, 2022 at 11:59 PM

Please send English submissions by email to: residency@playwrights.ca

With the subject line: 2022 Gros Morne Playwrights’ Residency

Incomplete submissions will not be considered. Selection will be made by an internal committee set up by PWM and CEAD. We will only notify the selected applicants. The selected playwrights will be informed no later than July 8, 2022.

For more information about the residency, please contact residency@playwrights.ca

Eligibility:

  • Be a playwright, writing in English, and having at least one dramatic work workshopped, published, or professionally produced;
  • The play would ideally be in the early stages of development (first draft or slightly beyond);
  • Be available for the whole residency;
  • Be willing to participate in all activities prepared during the residency;
  • For playwrights writing in French please see link to CEAD here.

PWM welcomes all applications to our programs. While recognizing that the identity of each person is fundamentally plural, multidimensional, changing and evolving, we strongly encourage applications from artists who are: Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit), Black, POC, racialized (including recent immigrants), 2SLGBTQQIPAA+, neurodivergent, disabled, living with chronic illness and/or chronic pain. PWM is strongly committed to supporting a wide range of cultural identities and lived experiences, therefore we encourage applicants to self-identify in their application if they are comfortable doing so.

Your submission package must include:

  • A statement of your interest in the residency and how it will benefit your process; 
  • A description (PDF, video or audio) of the play (maximum 1 page/2 minute video or audio) with an excerpt of the play in progress (minimum 10 pages, maximum 12 pages);
  • A CV (2 pages maximum) and a short bio (100 words maximum);
  • A copy of your last published, workshopped or produced play.

Please submit all of the above as a single PDF file including links to the audio or video description if relevant.

If you need assistance with this application, please contact Heather Eaton at heather@playwrights.ca.

IMPORTANT

The holding of the residency is dependent on the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic in Québec and in Newfoundland and Labrador. The residency and its parameters could be reassessed or postponed prior to the residency.

PLACES TO CREATE DURING THE GROS MORNE PLAYWRIGHTS’ RESIDENCY

Bonne Bay Marine Station

Since 2002, the Bonne Bay marine station, located on the magnificent west coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, has had the primary mission of expanding knowledge in marine ecology. In addition, the station also engages in community and artistic activities. Nestled in the small coastal community of Norris Point and with breathtaking views, it is equipped with laboratories, offices, a library, a multimedia theatre, an aquarium, and a building with individual rooms. 

www.bonnebay.ca 

The residence is wheelchair accessible. However, the library and theatre space at the Bonne Bay Marine Station which is used often by the playwrights requires the participant in a wheelchair to leave the residence, travel across the parking lot, into the main lobby entrance to access the library/theatre space.

Gros Morne National Park

Soaring fjords and moody mountains tower above a diverse panorama of beaches and bogs, forests and barren cliffs. Shaped by colliding continents and grinding glaciers, the ancient landscape of Gros Morne national park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

www.pc.gc.ca/fra/pn-np/nl/grosmorne/index.aspx

SCHEDULE FOR THE GROS MORNE PLAYWRIGHTS’ RESIDENCY

October 13, 2022

Travel via plane and car to Norris Point, Newfoundland and Labrador (anyone departing West of Ontario will have to add a day of travel).

October 14-23, 2022 

  • Unstructured writing time at Bonne Bay Marine Station;
  • Individual sessions with residency dramaturgs as requested by the playwright;
  • Daily ninety minute group meetings to read and discuss the process;
  • Possibility of a public activity with the community.

October 24, 2022

Departure for home.

A PDF of this call is available here:

Gros-Morne-Playwrights-Residency-2022Download PDF of the Call
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2022 Glassco Translation Residency

Image of the outside of the cabin where the Glassco Translation Residency is held.

The Glassco Translation Residency is a Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal Residency, in partnership with the Cole Foundation, and the support of the friends and family of Bill Glassco.

After making the difficult decision to cancel the Glassco Translation Residency in Tadoussac for our 2020 and 2021 seasons, PWM is excited to launch the call for the 2022 The Glassco Translation Residency!

Applications for this residency are now closed.

HOW TO APPLY

Please send us the following to residency@playwrights.ca:

  • A description (PDF, video or audio) of the project which includes:
    • The name of the translator and playwright; 
    • An indication of how the Residency will benefit the project including how being in physical proximity to the playwright might move the translation forward;
    • Any details on production interest;
    • A description of where you are in the translation process;
    • And whether you are interested in dramaturgical conversations around translations, including with other artists at the residency;
  • Biographies of both the playwright and translator;
  • A copy of the play in its original language.

Residency dates: June 5th-15th, 2022

Submission deadline: March 11th, 2022

Please email submissions (PDF format, 1 file only) to residency@playwrights.ca with the subject line: 2022 Glassco Translation Residency application.

If you have any questions, or need assistance with this application, please contact Heather Eaton at heather@playwrights.ca.

Find more info about the Glassco Translation Residency here.

ABOUT THE GLASSCO TRANSLATION RESIDENCY

The Glassco Translation Residency invites playwrights and translators from across Canada and beyond to come together for ten days in Tadoussac, Quebec, to work in-depth on their translation projects.

The chosen participants are provided with a unique opportunity to focus on their projects and to share expertise in a retreat environment. Translations into all languages are welcomed. Over the past 16 years we have offered space, time, and dramaturgical expertise to over 63 translation projects into languages such as Cantonese, Catalan, Cree, English, French, Innu-aimun, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Tamil, Tagalog and Urdu.

We’re pleased to welcome award-winning translator Maryse Warda, who will serve as translation dramaturg and residency co-host with Briony Glassco.

We are now accepting submissions of plays that are slated for translation. Please note that we do not fund the commission of the translation. The play should ideally have had a production in its original language. At least one component of the project needs to be Canadian.

One of the selection criteria for translation projects will be the availability of both the playwright and the translator to attend the residency together.

A vaccination passport will be required. Please let us know if you have a medical exemption and PWM will accommodate. 

An honorarium of $800 is offered to each participant. In addition, all costs for travel, meals and accommodation are covered.

PWM welcomes all applications to our programs. While recognizing that the identity of each person is fundamentally plural, multidimensional, changing and evolving, we strongly encourage applications from artists who are: Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit), Black, POC, racialized (including recent immigrants), 2SLGBTQQIPAA+, neurodivergent, disabled, living with chronic illness and/or chronic pain. PWM is strongly committed to supporting a wide range of cultural identities and lived experiences, therefore we encourage applicants to self-identify in their application if they are comfortable doing so.

ACCESSIBILITY DETAILS

The house: The residency is in Tadoussac, Québec in an 18th century log home. There are 8 steps down to the entrance of the house. Each guest will have their own room with a writing area and there are multiple locations to write throughout the home. The bathrooms are shared. The bathrooms are not wheelchair accessible. For detailed information or to ask specific questions about the bathrooms, accommodations, or workspaces please email accessibility@playwrights.ca.

Travel: In order to arrive in Tadoussac, transportation is provided typically by train or airplane to Quebec City. From Quebec City, a three-hour taxi ride or a bus ride via Orleans Express (that crosses a ferry at one point) brings the participants to the house in Tadoussac. 

Meals: PWM hires a chef to make dinner each evening. Lunch and breakfast are on a self-serve basis.  PWM asks all participants their food needs ahead of time so that we can accommodate them. The meals are communal and social distancing is not possible.

Internet: Internet access is inconsistent inside the house but PWM is working on upgrading it for the 2022 residency. 

The Glassco Translation Residency in Tadoussac is made possible through our partnership with the Cole Foundation’s Intercultural Conversations Program, the dedication of Residency Producer Briony Glassco, and the support of the friends and family in memory of the great Canadian theatre artist, Bill Glassco. We are also grateful to Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Conseil des arts de Montréal for their ongoing support.

Supporters: The Cole Foundation, Friends and Family of Bill Glassco, The Canada Council for the Arts, Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
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PWM+MAI Joint Support for Artists Featuring Jamila ‘Jai’ Joseph

Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal and MAI (Montréal, Arts Interculturels) are thrilled to announce that the PWM + MAI  Joint Support for Artists will feature Jamila ‘Jai’ Joseph with her work Wild Roots.

THE ARTIST

Headshot of Jamila Jai Joseph

Jamila ‘Jai’ Joseph is a Montreal based interdisciplinary artist with her primary mediums being dance performer 20+yrs/choreographer 10+yrs, self taught emerging singer 15yrs/song writer 15yrs, emerging theatre artist 3yrs.  

A past recipient of Black Theatre Workshop’s Victor Phillips award in 2002 Jamila has continued performing, creating, and learning, telling her stories, and sharing her expressions throughout her work. In 2015 Jamila started JaiDanse, a dance facilitation/dance performance company and has produced and co-produced shows both for stage and theatre at local venues around the city. Mothers Say I Love you, written by Trey Anthony (Black Theatre Workshop 2019) & Nicole Brooke’s a Cappella “musical odyssey” Obeah Opera (ASAH Productions 2019) in Toronto, with her first stage role being back in 2017  where she portrayed ‘Lady in Purple’ in the Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls… (McGill University’s Tuesday Night Café Theatre) and again in 2018 as an “Encore presentation…” produced by the cast (Les 6 Productions). As we all came to stand still in the last 2 years, Jamila used the time to study her crafts, sharpen her creative tools and has added some new skills to her toolbelt. Currently, she is choreographing for theatre (tba) and is also writing script and song/working on her own Performance Theatre piece entitled Wild Roots.

THE PROJECT

Wild Roots is a theatrical fantasy that glimpses into the journey of a young Canadian Caribbean woman as she explores spiritual connection to self through a unique series of events. Held within a dream, song, dance & folkloric customs set the tone for this learning session as she confronts challenging parts of herself that she must work through. Taking a deeper look at the differences in how one may go about questioning old belief systems, cultural and societal norms.

The modality of healing becomes the landscape on which this story roots itself, using an interdisciplinary approach and perspective to narrate the story further exploring how intergenerational traditions can lend itself to self-discovery and healing.

THE PROGRAM

The PWM + MAI joint support accompanies creators on their journey to develop a project and explore their practice. It is aimed at artists encountering structural and systemic obstacles to their full participation in the arts because of their claimed identity and/or perceived identity in society. 

More details about the program available here.

We are so excited to support the development of Jamila’s project, and wish her a fulfilling creation process!

This program is a partnership between
PWM logo
Project supported by the Government of Quebec as part of l’Entente sur le Développement Culturel and the City of Montreal, and by the Canada Council for the Arts
Canada Council logo

A downloadable version of this announcement is available here:

PWMMAI-Joint-Support-Artist-AnnouncementDownload

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