READ UP ON PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES
Satori Shakoor in ‘da Kink in my Hair. Photo by Dahlia Katz.
PlayPEN
A series of online training workshops presented by Expect Theatre
REALLY EFFECTIVE WEAPON: Writing Comedy with Mark Crawford
Dates: March 10-Apr 7 (Mondays)
Time: 6:30-9pm EST over Zoom
Fee for participants: $325
Subsidized spots are available, email Breanne at breanne@expect.org to inquire.
Mark Twain said, "The human race has only one really effective weapon, and that is laughter." Join acclaimed Canadian playwright Mark Crawford to explore different ways that humour can be a playwright's best friend. Over five sessions, we'll explore various topics and dive into writing exercises designed to unlock your comic potential. *No actual weapons will be used in this course. Only funny bones.
-
Mark is one of Canada’s most popular playwrights. He is the author of eight plays that have been produced across the country and internationally. Mark has been long-listed for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and nominated for PGC’s Comedy Award. Also an actor, Mark has performed on stages from coast to coast.
ME, IRL: Turning Awkward Life Moments into Sketches with Aurora Browne
Dates: March 5-April 2 (Wednesdays)
Time: 6:30-9pm EST over Zoom
Fee for participants: $325
Subsidized spots are available, email Breanne at breanne@expect.org to inquire.
Aurora Browne of Baroness Von Sketch Show takes you through the process of turning your worst personal moments into comedy gold. Learn to be comfortable exposing your pettiest, most embarrassing tendencies to the world. From recognizing usable moments through to the final edit.
-
Aurora Browne (BFA York U 1995) is an alumna of The Second City Toronto and best known to audiences as one quarter of Baroness Von Sketch Show. She is a veteran of Toronto’s sketch and improv scene and past recipient of The Canadian Comedy Award Best Female Improviser. She has taught improv, acting, musical improv and sketch writing for Second City, Bad Dog Theatre, Comedy Bar, The Assembly and Randolph Academy.
OH. THEY’RE SUDDENLY SINGING: How Musicals and Narrative Songwriting Work with Kevin Wong
Dates: March 4-Apr 1 (Tuesdays)
Time: 6:30-9pm EST over Zoom
Fee for participants: $325
Subsidized spots are available, email Breanne at breanne@expect.org to inquire.
Kevin Wong will lead a workshop on how musicals work, focusing both on the structure and methodology of narrative songwriting, and also how songs function in the long-form narrative of musical development. Text/lyric based participants ideally have written some form of long-form narrative before (novels/plays/etc). Musical participants do NOT need to be composers, but ideally can come up with some melodies and chords. Participants can also be a hybrid of both disciplines.
-
Kevin Wong is a composer-lyricist, singer/musician, and dramaturg. His musicals include: Recurring John: A Song Cycle; Polly Peel (with Julie Tepperman); Out of Stock; Drama 101 (with Steven Gallagher); In Real Life (with Nick Green); Believers (with Ali Joy Richardson), Take Me Back (with Amir Haidar); and Soft Magical Tofu Boys. Kevin streams online concerts weekly on the streaming service Twitch (twitch.tv/kevinywong). He is a member of the vocal group Asian Riffing Trio (with Chris Tsujiuchi and Colin Asuncion), is currently part-time faculty at Sheridan College, and is a three-time winner of the Playwrights Guild of Canada’s Tom Hendry Dan School of Drama & Music Award for New Musical. As of 2023, he is the Creative Lead on the Musical Stage Company’s UnCovered concert series. Most recently, he can be heard on his albums Small Ways to Move and Covers (available on streaming services).
SLIDING OVER TO THE MIC: How to adapt your craft to perform behind the mic with Dee Shipley
Dates: March 24-Apr 21 (Mondays)
Time: 6:30 pm - 9:00 pm EST over Google Meet
Fee for participants: $325
Subsidized spots are available, email Breanne at breanne@expect.org to inquire.
This workshop is for performers who have honed their craft but aren’t sure how to adapt their skills to behind the microphone. As in, learning how to perform without using your face!
Let’s walk through all areas of the voiceover industry, some practical voiceover techniques, vocal safety and care of your instrument, and how voice-acting is different from any other medium. Learn what makes the busiest voiceover artists so successful. Come ready to think on your feet, be silly and fearless.
I promise I’ll go first.
-
Dee Shipley is a twice Emmy-nominated Voice Director and Casting Director. She has worked on several feature films and over 80 animated series for Netflix, Disney, AppleTV, Paramount, NBC, PBS, CBC, Sony Pictures, Nat Geo Kids, BBC, The Henson Company, Amazon, Canal +, Adult Swim, Teletoon and Youtube among others.
Her recent credits include Sony Pictures’ Hotel Transylvania, the feature film Around the World (Cottonwood/Canal+) Doomsday Brothers (Adult Swim/Teletoon), Thomas & Friends and Barbie for Mattel. Dee is an Emmy judge in the voiceover performance categories, and a member of the CDC, CSA, and the Academy of Cinema and Television.
WORKING TOGETHER: An Agent & Playwright, in Conversation with Colin Rivers & Marcus Youssef
Monday, February 3, 2025 - 7:30-9:00 PM EST
Marcus Youssef is a playwright and Colin’s client. Colin Rivers is a literary agent and Marcus’ representative. Drawing on their 10-year collaboration and friendship, Marcus and Colin discuss the playwright-agent dynamic, the business of playwrighting, and their shared and differing perspectives on the rapidly changing text-based Canadian theatre industry.
Marcus will talk about anything. Colin may be more circumspect and attuned to the business implications. The conversation should be lively.
-
Marcus Youssef is a playwright, director, actor and cultural advocate. The author and co-author of more than a dozen plays, Marcus is the recipient of The Siminovitch Prize for Theatre, Berlin’s Ikarus Prize, the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award, the Rio-Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award, the Chalmer’s Canadian Play Award and numerous local awards in cities across Canada and the US. Marcus has been represented by Colin and Marquis Entertainment since 2013, and he considers their collaborative relationship an essential part of his creative practice.
Colin Rivers is co-owner of Marquis Entertainment and Marquis Literary, in partnership with Robert Richardson. Founded in 1996, Marquis Entertainment was launched with a purpose of producing Canadian theatrical plays/productions that exhibit national and international appeal. Marquis Entertainment quickly established itself as a leader in the industry and expanded its focus to include representation and promotion of Canadian theatrical work for both national and international markets, as well as selectively co-producing international theatre productions in Canada.
CRITICAL THINKING: The role of theatre criticism & how to use it with Glenn Sumi
Monday, February 24, 2025 - 7:30-9:00 PM EST
Now that your show is up and running, how are you going to get the word out about it? And what do people outside your circle of friends, colleagues and family think of it?
That’s where the theatre critic comes in. But who are these critics, where do they come from, and do their assessments matter — or not? This workshop looks at the role of theatre criticism and arts feature writing, and how both have changed in the world of shrinking traditional media and growing social media influence. It also examines how you can use press coverage to sell tickets and support grant applications.
-
Glenn Sumi has been a theatre critic for several decades, first at Toronto’s NOW Magazine, where he wrote about theatre for nearly 25 years, and more recently as a freelance writer for publications like the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail and Variety. In late 2022, after NOW changed ownership, he launched his own newsletter, So Sumi.
WRITING FOR MUSIC THEATRE: A Step by Step Guide with Beau Dixon
Monday, March 3, 2025 - 7:30-9:00 PM EST
Actor, Musician, Playwright, and Multi-Instrumentalist Beau Dixon will lead you through his process for creating his award-winning, solo chamber musical Beneath Springhill: The Maurice Ruddick Story; and guide you to create your own. You’ll go through brainstorming, identifying moments for song, and writing song lyrics.
-
Beau Dixon is a multi award-winning playwright, actor, composer and sound designer. He is also founding artistic director for Firebrand Theatre based in Peterborough, Ont. Recent performance credits include: The Father (Coal Mine Theatre); Guys and Dolls, HMS Pinafore (Stratford Festival); Hamlet (Tarragon Theatre); Ghost Quartet (Crows Theatre).
PERFECT PITCH: How to present touring projects, productions, and scripts to Artistic Directors with Jillian Keiley
Monday, January 13, 2025 - 7:30-9:00 PM EST
Over her 30 year career, Jillian Keiley has seen nearly 200 productions through from idea to ovation from both sides of the table as both a theatre maker and producer/ presenter. She will share what is at play for Artistic Directors in selecting a season, as well as talk about the courage it takes to bring your great idea to the person who just might produce it.
-
Jillian Keiley has directed and taught across Canada and Internationally. She was the Associate Artistic Director at the Resource Centre for the Arts in St.John's, Newfoundland, and founding Artistic Director of Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland. She assumed her role as the Artistic Director of English Theatre at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa in 2012. Tempting Providence, her collaboration with Robert Chafe for Theatre Newfoundland Labrador toured nationally and internationally for 13 years. Jillian finished her tenure at the NAC in August of 2022. Jillian has directed Opera, Musicals, Children's Theatre, Music Theatre, Puppet Theatre, New Work and recognized Classics, as well as concert choreographies, an Olympic medal presentation ceremony, and large scale experiential installations. She has directed productions in Italy, Australia and Ireland. She teaches and mentors regularly, including recurring contracts with the National Theatre School in Montreal. She holds Honorary Doctorates from Memorial University in Newfoundland and Toronto's York University. She is the Winner of the Canada Council John Hirsch Prize and the 2004 Siminovitch Prize for Directing.
SMALL SCREEN, BIG STAGE: A Crash Course in TV Writing for Playwrights with Chloé Hung
Monday, January 20, 2025 - 7:30-9:00 PM EST
So you're a playwright who loves TV but you've never written for TV and you want to but you don't know where to start. Look no further! In 90 minutes, we'll talk about how your playwriting skills can translate to a TV writers' room, how to think of a season of TV, the ins and outs of being in a writers' room, and writing pilots.
-
Chloé Hung is a writer and director. Her plays include Three Women of Swatow (Tarragon Theatre, Dora Award nominee for Outstanding New Play; Centaur Theatre), Issei He Say (New Jersey Rep), All Our Yesterdays (Toronto Fringe Fest’s Patron’s Pick, Next Stage Theatre Fest). She has workshopped plays with Geffen Theatre, Great Plains Theatre Commons, Stratford Festival’s Playwrights Retreat, Banff Playwrights Lab, Factory Theatre, Tarragon Theatre, and The Kennedy Center. Chloé is a Playwrights Center Core Writer and holds the Rhimes Unsung Voices commission from IAMA Theatre. In TV and film, Chloé has written for Queen Sugar, Cherish the Day, The Watchful Eye, and developed for Netflix. She is a Film Independent Screenwriting lab fellow. Her short films include SIGNAL (Women in Film’s Production program), and GEM & SHAZ (Bell Media, available on Crave). www.chloehung.com
CREATE YOUR OWN RESIDENCY: A Resource for Playwrights, Directors, and Creators with Amiel Gladstone
Monday, January 27, 2025 - 7:30-9:00 PM EST
Discover the transformative power of creative residencies - how to find and apply for them, and how to make your own. With extensive experience in developing works for stage and guiding emerging voices in theatre, Amiel Gladstone offers an insider’s perspective on how residencies can elevate your creative journey.
-
Amiel Gladstone is a playwright and director, who has worked extensively in new plays and opera. His plays have been produced across Canada, in the United States, as well as France, Romania and Russia. His plays are published by Concord / Samuel French, Coachhouse Press and Playwrights Canada Press. He is currently the Director of Theatre Arts at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity.
From Script to Soundwaves
Join us for an immersive workshop designed for writers who are ready to harness the power of podcasting and take their storytelling beyond the stage.
This workshop provides a rare chance to explore the art of writing for audio, whether by crafting original audio dramas or adapting existing stage scripts to work in the podcasting realm. With an emphasis on storytelling that resonates in audio, participants will gain insight into the nuances that make audio drama distinct from traditional theatre.
Through engaging hands-on activities, participants will hone their skills in crafting dialogue, designing soundscapes, and experimenting with foley techniques. These practical skills will empower them to bring their stories to life in the audio medium, ensuring they leave the workshop with a strong understanding of how to produce compelling audio content.
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to elevate your craft and share your stories with listeners around the world.
Registration is now closed.