{"id":17607,"date":"2024-12-16T13:09:02","date_gmt":"2024-12-16T18:09:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/?page_id=17607"},"modified":"2024-12-16T13:09:48","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T18:09:48","slug":"the-menasa-initiative","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/fr\/the-menasa-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"The MENASA Initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Created in partnership between PWM, Tarragon Theatre, Modern Times Stage Company, and independent theatre artist Makram Ayache, <em>The MENASA Initiative<\/em> aims to bring about sectoral change in theatre for and with artists from&nbsp;Middle Eastern, North African, and South Asian (MENASA) communities, on and offstage.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Summer of 2023, PWM (Fatma Sarah Elkashef &amp; Leila Ghaemi) began discussions with Tarragon Theatre (Mike Payette &amp; Heather Caplap), Modern Times Stage Company (Rouvan Silogix), and independent theatre artist Makram Ayache about how to build community and increase visibility for Middle Eastern, North African, and South Asian artists in a long-term and sustainable way. It was decided that the first step would be to hold facilitated consultations with MENASA artists in Montreal and Toronto in Spring of 2024, and share an essay reflecting on the experience with the theatre community.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These meetings focused on MENASA representation (or lack thereof), the term \u201cMENASA\u201d itself, the artists\u2019 professional experiences and relationships within the theatre community including with arts organizations, and their hopes for the future of Canadian Theatre.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The conversations, reflections, and questions were framed in an essay written by Makram Ayache, titled: <em>All We Are and All We Could Be.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-getwid-section\"><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-section__wrapper\" style=\"padding-bottom:0px\"><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-section__inner-wrapper\"><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-section__background-holder\"><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-section__background has-background\" style=\"background-color:#f1dec5\"><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-section__foreground\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-section__content\"><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-section__inner-content\">\n<p><strong>\u201cIn some ways, the term MENASA orients the entire conversation. Who is included? On what basis? Who is excluded? Why? The Middle Eastern, North African, and South Asian lands are massive \u2013 the cultures are pluralistic, the ethnicities and races are far ranging, the languages just as vast\u2026 So, how does this vast and multivariable community come together under one limited umbrella? In what context?<\/strong> <strong>Can we?\u201d- Makram Ayache<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Thank you to all of the artists that took part in these initial conversations, and for sharing your voices with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These consultations in Montreal and Toronto were the first step of a larger exchange.\u00a0The second step is to expand the conversation to other cities across Canada with creators and arts organizations in order to grow the network of MENASA artists and plan for concrete steps towards change in theatre and the arts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-getwid-section\"><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-section__wrapper\" style=\"padding-bottom:0px\"><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-section__inner-wrapper\"><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-section__background-holder\"><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-section__background has-background\" style=\"background-color:#f1dec5\"><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-section__foreground\"><\/div><\/div><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-section__content\"><div class=\"wp-block-getwid-section__inner-content\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-black-color has-text-color has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Read the full essay:<a href=\"https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/FINAL-MENASA.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> <em>All We Are and All We Could Be<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Our partners:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.moderntimesstage.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Modern-Times-Logo-Full-Black-1024x289.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17468\" width=\"209\" height=\"58\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Modern-Times-Logo-Full-Black-1024x289.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Modern-Times-Logo-Full-Black-300x85.png 300w, https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Modern-Times-Logo-Full-Black-150x42.png 150w, https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Modern-Times-Logo-Full-Black-768x217.png 768w, https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Modern-Times-Logo-Full-Black-1536x433.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Modern-Times-Logo-Full-Black-18x5.png 18w, https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Modern-Times-Logo-Full-Black.png 1997w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 209px) 100vw, 209px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tarragontheatre.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Tarragon-vector-logo-RED-1024x189.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-17464\" width=\"158\" height=\"29\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Tarragon-vector-logo-RED-1024x189.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Tarragon-vector-logo-RED-300x55.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Tarragon-vector-logo-RED-150x28.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Tarragon-vector-logo-RED-768x142.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Tarragon-vector-logo-RED-1536x283.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Tarragon-vector-logo-RED-2048x378.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Tarragon-vector-logo-RED-18x3.jpg 18w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 158px) 100vw, 158px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">THE MENASA INITIATIVE was made possible through the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"188\" src=\"https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Canada-Council-logo_web-1024x188.jpg\" alt=\"Canada Council logo\" class=\"wp-image-3991\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Canada-Council-logo_web-1024x188.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Canada-Council-logo_web-300x55.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Canada-Council-logo_web-768x141.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Canada-Council-logo_web.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 706px) 89vw, (max-width: 767px) 82vw, 740px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Created in partnership between PWM, Tarragon Theatre, Modern Times Stage Company, and independent theatre artist Makram Ayache, The MENASA Initiative aims to bring about sectoral change in theatre for and with artists from&nbsp;Middle Eastern, North African, and South Asian (MENASA) communities, on and offstage.&nbsp; In the Summer of 2023, PWM (Fatma Sarah Elkashef &amp; Leila &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/fr\/the-menasa-initiative\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continuer la lecture<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> de &laquo; The MENASA Initiative &raquo;<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":17255,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"ub_ctt_via":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-17607","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/2024-25-MENASA-Initiative-Website-Banner-4.png","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v15.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The MENASA Initiative - Playwrights&#039; Workshop Montr\u00e9al<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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