Seasonal Workshops 2016
February & March 2016
April, September, & October 2016
THE SPACE WANTS YOU - February 1st - Yukon Arts Centre Studio: Gwaandak Theatre and the Yukon Arts Centre present an evening of dance improvisation with Yukon artist Aimee Dawn Robinson, as part of our Ensemble Theatre Training Series. THE SPACE WANTS YOU is an introduction to Dance Improvisation. Drawing from 20 years experience studying and performing live improvised dance, Aimée offers a foundational workshop in improvising techniques including: phrasing, solo & ensemble work, musicality & silence, polyphony, imagery, chance procedures, working with scores, and fun partner work.
Storyweaving - February 21st - KIAC's Odd Fellows Hall: Gwaandak Theatre presents a 1-day theatre workshop with Yvette Nolan and Michelle Olson, working with the Storyweaving technique developed by the legendary Spiderwoman Theater. This workshop is offered in association with the Yukon Arts Centre, KIAC, Dänojà Zho Cultural Centre and Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in First Nation. Participants will explore how to generate and layer images, movement, sound and text to animate their own stories.
NOTE: This workshop takes place just before the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in First Nation’s Myth & Medium gathering from February 22nd-25th.
Direct a Play in a Day - March 13th - Yukon Arts Centre Studio: Gwaandak Theatre and the Yukon Arts Centre present "Direct a Play in a Day", a eight-hour directing workshop with director Clare Preuss. Participants will be given the play "Cake", by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, a week in advance of the workshop. Each participant will chose a short excerpt of the play that they would like to stage. They will find their own cast and will be prepared to stage the excerpt chosen in one day. This is a rare opportunity for emerging directors to develop their craft with mentorship from an established artist, while learning techniques for effective text analysis, staging, and design. Cake is a highly allegorical play with plenty of room for innovative interpretation. At the end of the workshop, participants will share their pieces with each other.
Play Study For Actors - A History of Breathing - April 3rd - Yukon Arts Centre Studio: Gwaandak Theatre, in association with the Yukon Arts Centre and Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre, presents the public reading of A History of Breathing by Daniel Macdonald as the culmination of all the work the participants have done during the Play Study for Actors Workshop with Yvette Nolan.
Two boats float aimlessly on an ocean that conceals the remains of civilization and history. One boat carries a father and daughter, the last survivors of an unspeakable catastrophe; the other carries the only hope for a new beginning. Daniel Macdonald crafts a stunning tale of myth and reality at the end of the world and at its creation.
The play is directed by Yvette Nolan and features actors/participants Carrie Boles, Andra Hunter, Doris John, Sally Lutchman, Lea Roy Bernatchez and Nate Wood.
Thank you to our funders and sponsors: Canada Council for the Arts, Yukon Arts Operating Fund, CITF, What’s Up Yukon, Air North, Mauro Family Foundation
Dance Movement - April 6th - Yukon Arts Centre Studio: Gwaandak Theatre and the Yukon Arts Centre present Dance Movement, an evening dance workshop with Yukon artist Andrameda Hunter, as part of our Ensemble Theatre Training Series. This class includes techniques from yoga, ballet, modern and belly dance which will help develop body alignment, balance, strength, and spatial awareness.
Creative Vocal - April 27th - Yukon Arts Centre Studio: Unleash your voice and discover the ancient power of the chorus! An evening vocal workshop with Yukon artist Scott Maynard, as part of our Ensemble Theatre Training Series. After a comprehensive and relaxing warmup, we will exercise and explore our voices using a variety of material, from simple rounds and canons, to 20th century German spoken chorus music. In the second half of the workshop we will develop, as a group, a collective reading of a beat poem from 60's America.
Technical Direction - September 18th - Centre de la francophonie’s Training Room: This workshop led by David DeGrow will train the participants in the direction and management of technical theatre, looking at areas such as the construction and installation of sets, the installation and interaction of lighting, sound, and projection in the lead up to a production, and the interaction between a theatre production and a theatre venue during the installation and run of a show. In particular, this workshop will focus on technical direction for theatre venues in Whitehorse, and in other venues around the Yukon Territory.
David DeGrow is a designer, production manager, teacher and academic. Recent lighting designs include: A Moment of Silence (Nowadays/Modern Times); Pyaasa (Theatre Passe Muraille); Tap-Ex: Metallurgy (Tapestry); The Beaux’ Stratagem and The Enchanted (George Brown); Monday Nights (Sixth Man/Theatre Centre); Morro & Jasp: 9-5 (UNIT Productions/Factory Theatre); Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue (Spiderwoman/Native Earth); Tapestry Briefs: Booster Shots (Tapestry Opera); Dreaming of Rob Ford (Mike Daisey/Crow’s Theatre); The Hours That Remain (Gwaandak/New Harlem), Of Mice and Morro and Jasp (UNIT Productions); The Power of Harriet T (Carousel Players); the tin drum (Unspun Theatre); Passion Play (Outside the March/Sheep No Wool/Convergence); 501: Toronto in Transit (Theatre Passe Muraille); Almighty Voice and his Wife (Native Earth). David is Co-Artistic Director of Theatre Jones Roy, and has worked as a Production Manager and Technical Director for Mirvish Productions, Luminato Festival, the National Arts Centre, Canadian Stage, Theatre Passe Muraille, Native Earth, Modern Times, Company Theatre, Birdland Theatre, Unspun Theatre, Outside the March, Convergence Theatre, Sheep No Wool, and the Mission Business among others. David has been nominated for three Dora Mavor Moore Awards, and is in the third year of his PhD at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on performance spaces and how they shape, and are shaped by, the theatre companies that use them.
Public funders: Canada Council for the Arts, Yukon Arts Operating Fund
Centered Creativity - September 24th - The Guild Hall: Gwaandak Theatre and The Guild Hall present Centered Creativity, a four-hour workshop designed to help us create from our artistic core with Toronto artist Clare Preuss. This workshop will focus on daily, weekly and monthly self-care rituals that can help us go deep into the creative self-amidst the hustle of everyday life. We will look at ways to carve out time, space and energy to nourish our artist-self every day. Through techniques such as yoga, visualization, meditation, journaling and solo artistic excursions, we can encourage our creative self to be available and ready for artistic play. Participants will have the opportunity to devise their own life-plan for effective, consistent creation.
Performance - October 4th-8th - Centre de la francophonie Community Hall & Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre Artists Studio: Performance is a multi-day workshop with acclaimed director, actor and choreographer Michael Greyeyes. Over the course of five days, Greyeyes takes participants through an array of exercises that introduce the role of the actor in contemporary performance. Discussion and analysis of genre and methodology balances alongside hands-on studio work as actors reinvigorate their own approach to performance.