Tag: Announcement

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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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Introducing the Cole Foundation Mentorship Emerging Translators

Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal and The Cole Foundation are thrilled to announce the participants to this year’s Cole Foundation Mentorship for Emerging Translators, Rhiannon Collett and Elaine Normandeau.

THE ARTISTS

Rhiannon Collett

Headshot of Rhiannon Collett
Photo credit: Yuula Benivolski

Rhiannon Collett (they/them) is an award-winning non-binary playwright, performer, director and translator based in Montreal and Toronto. Their work explores the ritualization of grief, gender performativity, queer/trans identity and the psychological effects of sexual objectification.

Selected playwriting credits include Miranda & Dave Begin Again / Miranda et Dave recommencent encore (2016 Playwrights Guild of Canada RBC Emerging Playwright Award, presented in French at the 2019 Festival du Jamais Lu, and the 2020 Festival les Petites Formes, Martinique); Wasp (commissioned by Nightswimming, presented at the 2019 Rhubarb Festival, and developed at the Stratford Festival Lab), The Kissing Game (commissioned by Youtheatre and Young People’s Theatre, developed at the 2018 Banff Playwrights Lab, produced by Youtheatre, awarded the META for Outstanding New Text 2019); Tragic Queens (commissioned and devised with CABAL Theatre/Wildside Festival 2018); There Are No Rats in Alberta (created as a part of the 2017-18 Buddies in Bad Times Emerging Creators Unit, presented at the Rhubarb Festival 2018 ), and the English language translation of Chienne(s) by Marie-Eve Milot and Marie-Claude St-Laurent (in development with BoucheWHACKED! Theatre Collective). Rhiannon’s work is funded by the Toronto
Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

Rhiannon was a guest artist at the LungA festival in Seyðisfjörður, Iceland and artist-in-residence at the Mauser Eco House in Costa Rica. They are a graduate of Generator’s Performance Criticism Training Program, Buddies in Bad Times Emerging Creators Unit, Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal’s Young Creators Unit and Black Theatre Workshop’s Artist Mentorship Program.

Rhiannon is a settler in Toronto, on the traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the New Credit First Nation, the Huron-Wendat and the Haudenosaunee peoples, and in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal), on the traditional, un-ceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka people.

Play in translation: Ces regards amoureux de garçons altérés by Éric Noël

Elaine Normandeau

Headshot of Elaine Normandeau
Photo credit: John Lederman

For 25 years, after studying law and then theater, Elaine Normandeau has worked as an assistant director and stage manager in French and English theatre.

During these years, she had the privilege of working on landmark productions such as Le Procès and Siegfried by Wagner directed by François Girard, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Le misanthrope directed by Michel Monty, Belles-Soeurs directed by René Richard Cyr, Intérieur and Au coeur de la rose directed by Denis Marleau, Variations énigmatiques, Un fil à la patte and Equus directed by Daniel Roussel,  Une musique inquiétante/Old Wicked Songs directed by Martin Faucher, Waiting for the Barbarians and Amadeus directed by Alexandre Marine and Top Girls directed by Micheline Chevrier. In 2017, Elaine Normandeau participated as linguistic director in the film  Hochelaga, terre des âmes by François Girard, immersed in Mohawk and Anishnaabe cultures. She also works as a translator and creates surtitles for the theatre.

Play in translation: Muliats by Charles Bender, Charles Buckell, Marco Collin, Xavier Huard, Natasha Kanapé Fontaine et Christophe Payeur (le collectif)

THE PROGRAM

The translation of new work for the stage is a core part of our programming. Since its inception in 2013, the Cole Foundation Mentorship for Emerging Translators (formerly Cole Competition for Emerging Translators) has been guiding the next generation of translators from French into English. 

With the expert guidance of acclaimed translator Maureen Labonté and in partnership with the Cole Foundation, PWM has built a program that mentors emerging translators through every stage of the process. The successful candidate receives a $1,000 honorarium and an eight-month mentorship with Maureen Labonté which includes a workshop with actors and a public reading.

More details about the program available here.

This program is a partnership between
Logo of the Cole Foundation
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Introducing PWM+MAI joint support artist Tanha Gomes

Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal and MAI (Montréal, Arts Interculturels) are thrilled to announce the inaugural season of PWM + MAI joint support for artists interested in working with a dramaturg with artist Tanha Gomes and her project Wreaths of Ashes!

THE ARTIST

Headshot of artist Tanha Gomes
Photo by Daniele Barroso

Visual artist and cultural worker, Tanha Gomes has worked in several artist-run centres and art galleries in Montreal. Since 2011, she has been involved in initiatives that bring art to communities with people of all ages.

Born into a multicultural family in Brazil, she moved to Canada as a teenager and has since lived between these two worlds. Her immigration experience leads her to explore the links between displacement, death and memory. Fascinated by the traces of personal history on people’s bodies and trajectories, she uses photography in order to conduct intimate and delicate explorations of identity. She seeks to create contemplative works using time as raw material, often with long exposures that require bodies to remain still. Tanha’s images are marked by a performative aspect, through simple imprints or a promise of movement. Recently graduated from a master’s degree in Arts Education, she aspires to develop her artistic practice around cultural identity.

THE PROJECT

A sensitive exploration of the links between memory, absence, ritual and mourning, Wreaths of Ashes will consist of a video and photo installation nourished by a series of creative workshops with the public. The installation plunges the spectator into a multi-channel video lasting over an hour, played in a loop, alongside by a photo mural of the objects produced during the workshops. 

History of the wreaths

The project is inspired by a story told to Tanha by her mother. Following the death of a young cousin in the 1950s, the women of the family started to regularly pay tribute to their deceased loved ones by making funeral wreaths from plastic flowers. A few days before the Day of the Dead, they would gather around a table during tea time to weave these wreaths, which became portraits of the deceased, displaying their favourite colours and referenced their lives and some of their features. 

Tanha is the first artist supported by the PWM+MAI joint support for artists program. Over the duration of the program, she will benefit from personalized support for her project, a $5,000 fund allocation, training and reflection opportunities, access to the MAI rehearsal studios, and 30 hours with a dramaturg.

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 proud to support the development of Tanha’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
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Introducing AMPLIFIER artist Sylvia Cloutier

Photo of Sylvia Cloutier, artist of the AMPLIFIER program.

Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal, LA SERRE — arts vivants, and the Conseil des arts de Montréal are thrilled to announce the inaugural season of AMPLIFIER: a fully supported exploratory creation process for playwrights with artist Sylvia Cloutier and her project HUSH!

THE ARTIST

Headshot of artist Sylvia Cloutier
Photo by Maxime Côté

Sylvia Cloutier is an actor, musician, playwright, television and theatre producer, director, motivational speaker and mother from Kuujjuaq, Nunavik (Northern Quebec), currently residing in Montreal. 

Over the course of her twenty-five-year career as a singer, she has performed nationally and internationally both as a solo artist and in collaboration with many esteemed artists and ensembles including Tafelmusik, the National Art Center Symphony Orchestra, Florent Vollant, DJ Geronimo Inutiq Leela Gilday and Madeleine Allakariallak . 

A recent graduate of the National Theatre School in Montreal as the Indigenous artist-in-residence (2018-2020), Sylvia has worked as a performer for 25 years. Cloutier is the co-founder of the Inuit performing arts company Aqsarniit; served as Artistic Director of Qaggiq theatre company in Iqaluit from 2004-2009; and as theatre project manager in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik (2008-2010). 

Building on her talent and expertise in both theatre and music, Cloutier began writing, producing and directing for stage and screen in 1999. She has developed live shows for such prestigious events as the 1999 Inauguration of Nunavut in Ottawa and the Arctic Inspiration Prize, and concerts for both the festivals Alianait (2005-2019) and Toonik Tyme (2003-2018) in Iqaluit. Sylvia has also been a producer for six Inuktitut television series, including Niqitsiat (2015-2016) and Nunavummi Mamarijavut (2017-2018). She also produced and co-created the musical production TULUGAK (2011-2014), collaborating with Inuit artists from Canada and Greenland. 

A motivational speaker and mentor for youth, Cloutier was named “Woman of the Year” by Pauktutiit, the national Inuit women’s organization in 2009, and received an award for “Outstanding young woman of the year” by Qullit Nunavut women’s organization in 2013.

THE PROJECT

Sylvia’s project, HUSH, explores how an Inuit community is impacted by the loss of someone to suicide. The play invites the audience to Nunavik to witness the Inuit culture, its relationship with the environment, its resilience, and how colonization stripped away its power to take over and take away spirituality and sense of autonomy. 

“If we can be aware of our realities then we can learn to understand our history better. If we can understand our history and the trauma then we can work on acceptance. When we accept our pain then we can heal. When we heal, only then can we can reconcile. No more need to HUSH.”

Sylvia is the first artist supported by AMPLIFIER in English. Over the duration of the program, she will benefit from dramaturgical consultations, creation workshops, a creation production residency followed by a laboratory presentation, and receive a creation grant of $13,000.

THE PROGRAM

The Conseil des arts de Montréal, Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal, and LA SERRE — arts vivants created this program to highlight the artistic and social contributions of theatre artists from culturally diverse, indigenous, or racialized communities working creatively in one of Canada’s official languages.

AMPLIFIER tangibly supports the professional development of theatrical writers from cultural communities, and reduces obstacles faced by these artists in the Montréal theatre community, including those related to inclusion, access to resources and services, visibility and legitimization, and funding.

Additionally, it seeks to foster dialogue between Montréal’s English- and French-speaking theatre communities, as well as intercultural exchanges and greater representation from culturally diverse artists within the theatre community and on Montreal stages. In order to support artists writing in French and artists writing in English, this program is offered by the Centre des auteurs dramatiques in French under the name Voi.e.s.x Théâtrales, and by PWM in English.

The development of Sylvia’s project will take place over 2 years. We wish her an exciting creation!

This program is a partnership between
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