FESTIVAL WORKSHOPS:
Breath, Voice, Imagination
Tanya Elchuk
Come take a deep dive into breath, voice, and imagination. Discover how allowing your breath to flow freely and connecting voice with imagination support freeing your voice to express fully and powerfully. Breathe, imagine, and unleash your voice!
Tanya Elchuk is a theatre artist, writer, and acting teacher, with a specialization in voice, speech, and embodiment. She is on faculty at Douglas College and has taught at the University of British Columbia, York University, Capilano University, and more. As an actor and theatre maker, Tanya has written, performed, and produced original works throughout Canada and the United States. She holds an MFA in Theatre (Acting) and post-graduate Voice Teaching Diploma from York University, where she received a SSHRC Canada Master’s Graduate Scholarship and was named one of Canada’s Top 5 Storytellers for her research on the neuroscience of acting. https://www.tanyaelchuk.com
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Dancing the Story
Erika Babins
"What do Hamilton, Chicago, The Lion King, and Cats have in common (other than being blockbuster musicals)? They all have distinct physical storytelling that goes beyond the dance moves and towards a cohesive visual style for the whole show. In this workshop, we'll explore a piece of choreography through a character physicality and visual storytelling lens. Leaping beyond the dance steps and towards a cohesive piece of theatre!"
Erika is director, choreographer, and theatre educator originally from the traditional lands of the Haudenosaunee and Mohawk nations and currently residing and working on the traditional and unceded lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. As someone who grew up dancing, she loves to bring movement into her storytelling on stage. She believes that dancing is a fun and creatively stimulating way to exercise the mind and the body and that actors have much to discover from how they move their body through space, regardless of their technical skills as a dancer. Favourite directing and choreography credits include: [title of show] (Play on Words Productions and First Impressions Theatre), Jasper in Deadland (Awkward Stage Productions), Cry-Baby (Choreographer – Awkward Stage Productions), The It Girl (Choreographer – DNP), Hadestown, Cinderella, Tuck Everlasting, Godspell, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Arts Umbrella). https://vimeo.com/user116053355
Participants To Bring: Wear comfortable clothing, bring a note pad, pen and hair elastic or other way to keep their hair out of their face.
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Intro to Stage Lighting Design
Alan Brodie
Lighting designer and educator Alan Brodie will preset an overview of the principals and tools used in imagining and implementing creative and effective lighting design for the stage.
Alan Brodie has spent 35 years as a lighting designer for theatre, opera and dance, working at home in Vancouver, across Canada and internationally. Key collaborators include Crystal Pite, Morris Panych, Ken Macdonald, Kim Collier, Glynis Leyshon and Michael Shamata, with companies that include Vancouver Playhouse, Arts Club Theatre, Bard on the Beach, Vancouver Opera, Ballet BC, Pacific Opera Victoria, Belfry Theatre, Theatre Calgary, Canadian Stage, Shaw Festival and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. He has been instrumental in a number of significant Canadian theatre productions, most notably "The Overcoat", which was born as a piece of movement theatre in 1997 and went on to become a film and an opera over a period of twenty years. He has been recognized with numerous awards for lighting design both at home and in the USA. Now calling Arts Umbrella in Vancouver home as Manager of Theatre Operations, Alan plays a central role in the recently launched Arts Umbrella Stagecraft program, which is available to students ages 13-19.
Participants To Bring: Wear comfortable clothing and bring a note pad and pen.
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Introduction To Makeup Artistry for Stage and FIlm
Amy Van Wormer
In this workshop, Amy will dive deep into the art and techniques that bring characters to life on stage and screen. Stage and film makeup is much more than just enhancing beauty—it’s about storytelling, creating illusions, and helping actors embody their roles in a way that captivates audiences. From bold, dramatic transformations to subtle, realistic touches, makeup plays a crucial role in setting the tone, defining characters, and making an impact.
Amy Van Wormer is a seasoned professional makeup artist with over 20 years of experience. She began her career in film and television in 2005, working on notable projects such as Percy Jackson and The Olympians, Fear the Walking Dead, Star Trek: Beyond, Arrow, and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. For the past decade, she has also shared her expertise as an instructor in the Makeup for Film and Television Diploma Program at Vancouver Film School.
Participants To Bring: Wear comfortable clothing and bring a note pad and pen.
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Introduction to Costume Design
Sarah Sosick
From basic t-shirts to extravagant gowns, costume design is an essential part of story-telling. Together we will explore the role of a costumer in theatre, learn the basics of script analysis and paperwork, and delve into creating a costume rendering.
Sarah is so thrilled to be a part of BC NTS DramaFest 2025 and can't wait to share the world of costuming in her workshop! Costume design: Home Deliveries (United Players); Grandma. Gangsta. Guerilla. (Ruby Slippers); Maps of Utopia (the frank theatre). Assistant costume design: Jersey Boys (Arts Club); Hamlet (Bard on the Beach); East Van Panto: Robin Hood & Beauty and the Beast (Theatre Replacement); Rodgers + Hammerstein Cinderella (Gateway Theatre); Stupid F*cking Bird (The Search Party); Starwalker (Urban Ink).
Participants To Bring: Wear comfortable clothing and bring a note pad and pen.
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Introductory Swordplay & Swashbuckling
Robinson Wilson
This workshop is an introduction to the classical study of stage fencing and rapier play. Students will learn parries, footwork, cuts and thrusts from the classical schools and practices of sword fighting dating back to 1500s. Along with basic stage combat safety practices and protocols, we will celebrate the glorious art of stage fighting and swashbuckling as seen in films such as Zorro, The Princess Bride, and many others! Za!
Robinson Wilson is an associate Member of the Society of American Fight Directors and the Nordic Stage Fight Society in Scandinavia. He has directed and choreographed stage combat since 1997, with over 100 productions. He has provided stage combat and safety consultation to Bard on the Beach, Vancouver Island University, and ACTSAFE BC.
Participants To Bring: Wear comfortable clothing and bring a note pad and pen.
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Intuitive Character Creation through Music
Claire Love Wilson
Get out of your head and into your body. Find character inspiration by reconnecting with your senses and exploring the shapes and sounds that live within. A fun, embodied character creation workshop that combines walking musical meditation, impulse exercises, and loop pedal soundscaping to seed characters in a way you likely never have before.
Claire Love Wilson is queer white/Scottish settler multidisciplinary artist living on the ancestral and unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil- Waututh) First Nations. She works as a theatre-maker, actor, playwright, singer-songwriter and creative producer. Claire has been featured as a creator and performer at the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Vancouver Fringe Festival, the rEvolver festival and in collaboration with companies like The Only Animal, Urban Ink, ITSAZOO, Aphotic theatre, and the frank theatre. Claire has also facilitated workshops on her personal loop-based performance practice “Song-Walking” locally and internationally. Claire is the co-creator, lead performer and co-producer of the experimental musical “Morag, You’re a Long Time Deid”, which works to queer traditional Scottish ballads through loop-based soundscaping and storytelling. As a work in development MORAG was showcased at the National Theatre of Scotland, The Scottish Storytelling Centre and at PushOff in Vancouver. The production premiered as part of Touchstone Theatre’s 45th anniversary season in June 2022, and recently toured Scotland, Ireland and England including a run at the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. https://clairelovewilson.com/
Participants To Bring: Wear comfortable clothing and bring a note pad and pen.
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Place and Presence
Andy Toth
You know that thing where sometimes some people are just thrilling to watch, and others... well... Using techniques derived from the work of Patsy Rodenburg, Robert Cohen, Michael Chekhov and others, actor/director Andy Toth will take participants beyond the words on the page, and demonstrate that ANYONE can have that undeniable, magnetic presence on stage, when the right tools are applied. Students will work in small groups to share a version of Shakespeare's Sonnet 23. Content note: the poem uses love as a significant motivator for speech. Participants should be willing to speak out loud in small groups using either the poem supplied or feel free to bring their own of less than one minute in length.
A graduate of New York's prestigious American Musical and Dramatic Academy, Andy has been directing, coaching, teaching and performing in Vancouver for 25 years. Local directing credits include The Fantasticks, Assassins, Oliver, West Side Story with the Chilliwack Academy of Music, and Anne of Green Gables for the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra. Andy also had the pleasure of directing the late Canadian Icon and CBC radio legend Jurgen Gothe in his hilarious wine show Up Your Glass… a wine entertainment. As a performer, local audiences may remember Andy as Edna in Hairspray at Theatre Under the Stars and the Arts Club, as Brian in Avenue Q for the Arts Club, and much more. Andy also has a thriving voice-over career having voiced hundreds of cartoons and commercials over the past 20 years. Andy is in demand as an adjudicator, workshop leader and coach for individuals and groups of professionals and community performers alike. He has been a guest speaker for auditions, courses and conferences at SFU, UBC, and Capilano University and businesses like RBC, FirstWest, and others. Andy also served as Musical Director for the smash hit production of Spring Awakening at Studio 58, and is the former Artistic Director of Awkward Stage Productions, a leading youth theatre production company.
Participants To Bring: Wear comfortable clothing and bring a note pad and pen.
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Shadow Puppetry
Mind of a Snail
Workshop content can include the basics of shadow puppetry using the overhead projector, silhouettes, other light sources, and a variety of storytelling techniques for devising and crafting shows.
Mind of a Snail is a shadow theatre duo currently based out of Vancouver B.C. Canada, on the unceded traditional territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlil̓wətaʔɬ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Since 2003, Chloé Ziner and Jessica Gabriel have been developing a multilayered style of visual storytelling using handmade projections. Their performances play at the intersection of puppetry, visual arts, clowning & music. They have recently been integrating live video and interactive live-streaming into their tool kit. As artistic collaborators, they love exploring beyond the boundaries of traditional theatre, and creating magical immersive experiences for their audiences. Mind of a Snail’s shadow theatre is like an early animation created live before your eyes.
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Stage Manager's POV, Pre-Production & Proactivity
Tessa Gunn
The stage management team is the oil that keeps the wacky theatre machine running without hiccups, and when there are hiccups, we can calmly and readily react. We ultimately want to know everything that is going on at all times during a show so that we can anticipate and negate any issues. BUT that sounds INSANE? How does anyone manage all of that information!? Much of this information can actually come from the script, and we can know it even before rehearsals begin. In this seminar we will discuss what information the stage managers can glean from the script, creating pre-production paperwork, taking blocking notes & creating "running" or tracking documents.
Tessa is a local Stage Manager who grew up in North Vancouver, and attended the BC Drama Festival herself! She started out as an actor onstage before realizing there was much more fun to be had backstage, and received her training through the Technical Theatre program at Capilano University. She became an Equity Apprentice Stage Manager and worked for many companies including The Arts Club, Bard on the Beach, Chemainus Theatre Festival and Carousel Theatre for Young People. She now works as a Stage Manager with the Arts Umbrella's Musical Theatre troupe (Granville Island), and hopes for more opportunities to bring Stage Management curriculum to high school students. Tessa loves musical theatre above all else and can usually be found humming in the halls or belting in the car. Her current favourites include Hadestown, Waitress, and Between The Lines.
Participants To Bring: Wear comfortable clothing and bring a note pad and pen.
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The Actor in Motion
Kathleen Duborg
A workshop to play and expand on the actor’s physical presence and vocal expression. In this time, we will be focusing on the value and flexibility of the actor in action utilizing rhythm, expression, amplification and grounding.
Kathleen is a respected teacher and coach, presently an adjunct professor of acting and directing at the University of British Columbia and leads film acting classes and workshops. As an actor, recent credits include; Percy Jackson (Disney), Happy Face (Paramount), Breeder amongst others. She develops and teaches voice and movement to enhance and support the physical behaviour and embodiment between actors, dancers, text, design elements and audiences. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0239488/
Participants To Bring: Wear comfortable clothing and bring a note pad and pen. Be prepared to work in bare feet.
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The Business of Acting
Claire Myers
Have you ever dreamed of auditioning for a Marvel movie but felt unsure about how to take the first step? Or perhaps you've been told by teachers or parents that pursuing a career in acting isn’t practical? This workshop is here to prove otherwise and show you how to get you foot in the door! Join two experienced agents from Trisko Talent Management, one of Vancouver’s leading talent agencies, for an engaging session focused on the business side of the Film & TV industry. You'll gain valuable insights into securing and maintaining representation, learn effective strategies for marketing yourself as an actor, and develop a clear understanding of the opportunities and dynamics in Hollywood North. This is your chance to take the next step toward making your acting aspirations a reality!
Trisko Talent Management Inc. is a Vancouver-based agency that represents actors for film, television, motion capture, commercials, and voice over. We are proud to partner with both established and developing talent in all departments as well as numerous US based agencies and managers. We believe in providing artistic opportunities that challenge and inspire our clients. We are committed to providing equal opportunities to all talent regardless of age, ancestry, color, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, genetic information, mental or physical disabilities, race, religion, or any other basis. We encourage artists’ exploration of their craft and assist in the development of their full potential. Working with our clients to achieve their dreams is the driving force behind the Trisko Talent team. https://www.triskotalent.com/
Participants To Bring: Wear comfortable clothing and bring a note pad and pen.
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The Joy of Creative Writing
Quelemia Sparrow
The Joy of Creative Writing for Theatre and Film and TV: From Ideas to the page. In this workshop you will be lead through a creative process and leave with a story of your own. We will write monologues and/or dialogue scenes. This is a fun, relaxed, no-pressure supportive environment. We can all create stories and writing is for everyone, so even if you think you 'can't write', this workshop is for you.
Quelemia is a multi-disciplinary Indigenous artist from the Musqueam Nation. She is a writer, actor, director, performer/storyteller, host and dramaturge. Though she works in various forms, much of Quelemia’s work centres Indigenous perspective. Her writing and theatre practice is land-based and has been driven by a deep desire to reclaim Musqueam placenames, language and history. Decolonizing her work occurred out of necessity leading her to develop her own Musqueam-based creation methodology Indigenizing the dramaturgical and devised theatre process with Musqueam culture and protocols. Over the past 20 years, she has been disseminating sχʷəy̓em̓ (Musqueam history), knowledge of placenames, stories and teachings. She represented the Musqueam Nation during the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Olympics and since then has continued to do Welcomes on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh people. Quelemia has worked across Canada as an actor, writer and director for various theatre companies including Bard on the Beach, the Arts Club, Globe Theatre, WCT and The Stratford Festival. Some of her favourite Film and T.V acting credits include Until Branches Bend, Motherland: Fort Salem, Common Ground, Blackstone and Da Vinci’s Inquest. Quelemia wrote and directed, a narrative podcast called, ‘Almost Real’ by Necessary tomorrows that you can listen to on Spotify. ‘Almost Real’ is a speculative fiction about the first Indigenous AI. You can also listen to an interview on CBC Unreserved about ‘Almost Real’ and Indigenous data sovereignty. Recently she completed an Arts-Laws fellowship focusing on data sovereignty, cultural intellectual property and AI’s role in Indigenous storytelling. She has been exploring decolonial narratives and the intersection of Indigenous culture and technologies. A Highlight this year so far is giving the Keynote Speech for the PuSh performing arts festival on Indigenous Futurism.
Participants To Bring: Wear comfortable clothing and bring a note pad and pen.
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The Magic of Props
Caroline Alarie
Come and make some theatre props in this fun, hands-on workshop. Using skills and techniques used to create the props for the stage in the Douglas Theatre program, we will be designing and crafting vintage camp penants.
Caroline is a DIY expert born and raised in Montreal and earned diplomas in Fine Arts and Stage Craft from CEGEP Lionel-Groulx in Québec, where she worked on numerous television shows, concerts and stage plays. She also enjoyed a long career as an animator for popular children's tv series after receiving her diploma in 3D animation from Vancouver Film School. But she missed the hands-on work of Stage Craft, and returned to her career in theatre a few years ago.
Participants To Bring: Wear comfortable clothing and bring a note pad and pen.
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