INTRODUCING OUR 2024 WORKSHOPS!
To register for these workshops, please send an email to [email protected].
ASK A DRAMATURGE (or the dramaturge will ask you)
SATURDAY MARCH 02 & SUNDAY MARCH 03 @ 11 AM - 2 PM
In this two-day workshop, participants will work with award-winning playwright & dramaturge, Santiago Guzmán, to further develop their new plays. Participants will talk about their script, the story, and their characters, and Santiago will provide dramaturgical questions, provocations, and prompts to unlock storytelling possibilities in their writing. No completed draft is needed to participate- an idea, a couple of pages, or some scenes could work! This workshop will focus on process, as opposed to a completed product.
SANTIAGO GUZMÁN
Santiago Guzmán (he/they) is an award-winning playwright, dramaturge, performer, and director originally from Metepec, Mexico, now based in St. John’s, NL. He is the Artistic Director of TODOS Productions & the Interim Artistic Director for Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre.
Santiago’s work as a writer aims to put local, under-represented narratives and characters on the frontlines, whilst inviting audiences to appreciate the vibrancy of Newfoundland and Labrador from a diverse perspective.
Their work has been supported, developed and/or produced by theatre companies and festivals such as TODOS Productions (NL), Resource Centre for the Arts Theatre Company (NL), White Rooster Theatre (NL), Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland (NL), Poverty Cove Theatre Company (NL), Rising Tide Theatre (NL), Neighbourhood Dance Works (NL), Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), Eastern Front Theatre (NS), PARC (pan-Atlantic), Ship's Company Theatre (NS), Theatre New Brunswick (NB), Boca Del Lupo (BC), Paprika Festival (ON), Stratford Festival (ON), Lemontree Creations (ON), Banff Playwrights Lab (AB) and the National Theatre School of Canada’s Art Apart Program (QC). He is a member of Playwrights Canada Press's inaugural editorial committee.
His one-person show, ALTAR, world-premiered in 2021 with the Resource Centre for the Arts Theatre Company and toured across high schools in Newfoundland and Labrador as a digital offering, as well as national presentations at Prismatic Arts Festival, (NS) and Aluna Theatre’s RUTAS Festival (ON). This same production received a summer presentation at the Gros Morne Theatre Festival with TNL in 2023, and an Atlantic Canadian tour in 2024. ALTAR received a second production by Theatre New Brunswick in the winter of 2023 and toured their province alongside the world premiere of his new TYA play, S.T.O.P. Santiago co-wrote a documentary theatre piece about immigrants and refugees to Newfoundland and Labrador with Vanessa Cardoso-Whelan and Nabila Quershi titled NewfoundLanded, which will premiere in November 2024 in St. John’s, produced by TODOS Productions in association with White Rooster Theatre.
Santiago’s play Urn received the Senior Dramatic Script Award of the Newfoundland and Labrador 2022 Arts and Letters Awards & was shortlisted for the NLCU Fresh Fish Award 2022. Santiago was the inaugural recipient of the John Palmer Award 2022 through the Playwrights Guild of Canada for being a change-maker in the theatre industry with his advocacy in the arts regarding equity, diversity, and anti-racism. Most recently, they were inducted into the YWCA’s St. John’s Circle of Distinction with the Inspired Innovation Award.
As a dramaturge, Santiago has focused on supporting equity-seeking, emerging writers to tell their stories, as there is a need in our community to see these stories on stage. Through his theatre company, TODOS Productions, he has supported several pieces in development alongside Robert Chafe in the 2020 and 2021 TODOS’ Writing Unit. They have participated as lead and assistant dramaturge at PARC’s 2021, 2022, 2023 & the upcoming 2024 Playwrights’ Retreat (pan-Atlantic), and has offered dramaturgical support through PARC’s Home Delivery program. Santiago was the dramaturge for the Fundy Fringe Festival in NB in 2020 and Plain Site Festival (NB) in 2021 and has offered dramaturgical support to Theatre New Brunswick (NB). He co-dramaturged with Natércia Napoleão CAHOOTS Theatre’s Playwrights Unit (ON), Hot House Crossing in 2022, and recently was a dramaturge of the 2023 Women’s Work Festival (NL). Santiago worked with Halifax Theatre for Young People as a dramaturge on Newcomers: Stories of Refugee and Immigrant Children.
As an immigrant, queer, and artist of colour, Santiago believes that representation matters.
www.sguzman.ca
SOUNDS LIKE A SHORT PLAY - SATURDAY, MARCH 02 @ 2:30 - 5:30 PM
Facilitator Monica Walsh will take the participants in this workshop through the elements of creating a short audio play. Using a simple app, you’ll record some pieces based on an idea that you bring to the workshop. This DIY approach means that at the end of this 3-hour workshop, you’ll have a very short piece to share with others in the class or maybe the audience at the Women’s Work Festival.
The thing that distinguishes an audio play from other types of plays is that the listener is generally supposed to think that they are listening to actual events. There may be a narrator, but individual characters usually have their own distinct voices, and foley work (audio special effects) provides a sense, to the listened, of actually being there.
We’ll start with a short discussion of what makes an audio play, what programs you can use to make it, etc. Then participants will go collect the elements that they want to included- it can be guerilla-style or pre-arranged, whatever you’re comfortable with- and
then we’ll return for the last part of the class to edit and complete what we’ve created.
Bringing a short piece of written dialogue is optional. You’ll be encouraged to gather some sounds (aka foley) or sound effects that you can record and capture naturally, without too much set up.
This will be a very beginner workshop where we explore creative approaches to making short audio plays. I would suggest that people download the app “Audacity” before the workshop. I will give a very introductory lesson to Audacity, which is an audio editing
software. It’s free, and easy to use which is why I like it. It’s best to have a phone, or some other way to record audio. If you’re unable to download the app and you still want to come, no problem. You can still share your ideas with us even if you will record them
in the future. If you’re more advanced and you want to come share your knowledge with us, that would be great too! This workshop is about having fun and exploring. Come either with some things recorded, or an idea to make a 60 second (give or take) audio play.
The thing that distinguishes an audio play from other types of plays is that the listener is generally supposed to think that they are listening to actual events. There may be a narrator, but individual characters usually have their own distinct voices, and foley work (audio special effects) provides a sense, to the listened, of actually being there.
We’ll start with a short discussion of what makes an audio play, what programs you can use to make it, etc. Then participants will go collect the elements that they want to included- it can be guerilla-style or pre-arranged, whatever you’re comfortable with- and
then we’ll return for the last part of the class to edit and complete what we’ve created.
Bringing a short piece of written dialogue is optional. You’ll be encouraged to gather some sounds (aka foley) or sound effects that you can record and capture naturally, without too much set up.
This will be a very beginner workshop where we explore creative approaches to making short audio plays. I would suggest that people download the app “Audacity” before the workshop. I will give a very introductory lesson to Audacity, which is an audio editing
software. It’s free, and easy to use which is why I like it. It’s best to have a phone, or some other way to record audio. If you’re unable to download the app and you still want to come, no problem. You can still share your ideas with us even if you will record them
in the future. If you’re more advanced and you want to come share your knowledge with us, that would be great too! This workshop is about having fun and exploring. Come either with some things recorded, or an idea to make a 60 second (give or take) audio play.
MONICA WALSH
Monica is a multidisciplinary artist from St. John’s and currently completing her graduate diploma in Communications Studies at Concordia University in Montreal. Monica is creator of Scene and Blurred an open mic for theatre and performance artists. She is a true believer in the DIY approach, having completed her 10th RPM album, leading her sketch series Scene and Blurred from locations from St. John’s to Austin, Texas, and her video series Mon the Go from St. John’s to Toronto. She is currently writing a full-length play titled Newfoundland Power is the persistent lover I never Had and continues to produce work with her theatre company Kanutu Theatre.
To register for these workshops, please send an email to [email protected].
For our Full Schedule CLICK HERE.
