Seasonal Workshops 2018 & 2019
March & November 2018
May 2019
Playful Playwrighting - March 1st-3rd, 2018 - Yukon Arts Centre: This workshop will give participants the opportunity to play with playwriting – to explore what process works best for them. It will be a hands-on workshop as we create character and scene breakdowns, structural outlines, dialogue and subtext. We’ll also explore how dramaturgs, directors, and actors, can improvise and workshop with playwrights by taking on these roles for each other. Each writer will bring ideas, pages, and scenes they’ve already been working on to develop further, but we’ll also create new material within the workshop. We’ll finish with a short staged reading of selected material.
David Geary will also lead several one-on-one Dramaturgy sessions. These sessions will be free to those selected.
David Geary is originally from the Taranaki Maori iwi and Ngāti Pākehā of New Zealand, and has been a Canadian citizen since 2008. His award-winning plays include Lovelocks Dream Run, Pack of Girls and The Learner’s Stand. David is also an established television writer, and currently teaches at Capilano University in Vancouver, Canada, in the Motion Picture Arts, Documentary and Indigenous Film programs. In fiction, David has a book of interlinked short stories, A Man Of The People (VUP 2003). His short story, “Gary Manawatu [1964-2008]: Death of a Fence-post Modernist”, appears in The Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Short Stories (2009), and “#WATCHLIST” was published recently in Penguin Random House’s collection of Oceanic stories Black Marks On A White Page (2017). An occasional poet, David writes haiku on twitter @gearsgeary.
Lighting & Video Design - March 8th-10th, 2018 - Yukon Arts Centre: This workshop will provide tools for artists to find ways to make visual lighting and video projections come to life. Each day will include direct use of equipment and exercises by the participants. Led by Quebec City-based lighting designer Bruno Matte.
Day 1 – global introduction
Day 2 – lighting equipment; difference and particularity fixtures, etc.
Day 3 – optic and power control, and direct application
Free to those in communities outside of Whitehorse who are travelling to attend the workshop. If funding is a barrier for Whitehorse-based attendees, please let us know.
Bruno Matte was born in Quebec City and graduated from Cegep Limoilou in 2005 in audiovisual design. His first goal was to work in cinema, but he quickly discovered lighting and a passion was born! He worked as a lighting designer on stage productions, an environment in which he continued to refine his skills. He has since designed lighting for live music (incl. Richard Séguin, Michel Rivard, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Cliff, Cypress Hill, Enrico Macias, Daniel Lanois), circus shows (with Cirque du Soleil, 7 Doigts de la Main, Flip Fabrique, Machine de Cirque and many more), dance shows (with Alan Lake, La Otra Orilla and La Rotonde), stage productions (with ExMachina and Robert Lepage’s Needles and Opium and Hamlet in Russian in Moscow, Rick Miller’s BOOM), TV shows (Belle et Bum, VoirGrand.tv, Les Chefs!), public installations (Festival des Lumières de Québec), sporting events (Velirium) and fashion shows (Festival Québec Mode). Next up: a magic and clown project!
Stage Management: From Prep to Strike - November 19th & November 21st, 2018 - The Old Fire Hall: This Workshop will outline what a Stage Manager is, their basic responsibilities, and how their jobs can fluctuate, evolve, and expand through their careers. In addition, the facilitator will walk through preparation of a Stage Manager’s paperwork and resources in order to maximize performance.
Brenda Pilatzke-Vanier has spent the last 10 years working as a Stage and Event Manager all across Canada. With credits including Chicago, Spamalot, All Shook Up (Drayton Entertainment), Mary Poppins (Theatre Aquarius), Spelling 2-5-5 (Carousel Players), Tagged (Green Thumb Theatre), and two seasons at the Stratford Festival, Brenda specializes in stage management for musical theatre, theatre for young audiences, and touring productions. Currently, Brenda works as a Venue Coordinator for the Yukon Arts Centre.
This workshop is co-presented by Gwaandak Theatre and Yukon Arts Centre, with support from Cultural Industry Training Series, Yukon Arts Operating Funds and the Canada Council for the Arts. This event had previously been scheduled for April 2017.
Shapeshifters, Tricksters, Transformers, & Writers Workshop - May 5th, 2019 - Whitehorse Public Library Meeting Room: A full-on, hands-on, deep-dive into the magical world of making sh*t up! Tools and tricks, craft and creative leaps to help playwrights survive and thrive in the world of theatre by shapeshifting into the worlds of film, fiction, documentary and poetry. It’s all good, it’s all related, they all feed the monster that is your Muse.
A writers workshop with David Geary for people with some writing experience, including emerging and established writers.
David Geary is an all-rounder. He writes theatre, film, TV, fiction and haiku on twitter @gearsgeary He also acts, directs and produces for film, theatre and documentary. He believes that being able to shapeshift and transform is the key to surviving in the arts and life. He’s originally from New Zealand of Maori and Pakeha/Settler blood, but now teaches in the prestigious IIDF Indigenous Filmmaking program at Capilano University in Vancouver. He also teaches playwriting at the PTC Playwrights Theatre Centre in Vancouver, lead writing workshops for Whitehorse’s Gwaandak Theatre in 2018 and will do so again directly after the Young Authors festival in 2019. His latest short play, Science Is Dead! was produced around the world as part of Climate Change Theatre Action, including an Italian translation in Rome. David keeps in shape playing touch rugby, teaching Maori haka, and living by the yoga mantra: Life is short, stretch it.