Mon Feb 12 8-10pm - Ahmad Meree - The Urgency of Storytelling Part 1 ($21, Max 10, no overflow gallery)
Mon Feb 19 8-10pm - Ahmad Meree - The Urgency of Storytelling Part 2 ($21, Max 10, no overflow gallery) A great way to spend family day!
ABOUT THE WORKSHOPS
Who cares? Why does this scene matter? This is a devised theatre workshop focused on motivation and the technicality of scene creation. We will practice physical theatre, ensemble movement, text writing and dialogue.
We recommend this class for performers who have done devising and improvisation before, and that you sign up for both.
ABOUT OUR GUEST TEACHER
Ahmad Meree is a Syrian Canadian actor, playwright, screenwriter and producer. He is a graduate from the Higher Institute of Theatre Arts in Cairo. Ahmad came to Canada as a refugee in 2016 and lives in Toronto.
Selected Credits: Transplant (Executive Story Editor, Writer, Actor, CTV:/NBC), Sort Of (Actor, CBC/HBO Max), Ionesco’s The Lesson (Director, Egypt), Winner Best Director Chekhov’s The Bear (Cairo’s Festival of International Theatre).
Ahmad has written and acted in three plays presented by Theatre Passe Muraille/NAC/ MT Spacr: I Don’t Know (2021), Suitcase (2019), and Adrenaline (2017).
Adrenaline was nominated for a Dora Award for Outstanding Touring Production in 2020. Suitcase/Adrenaline was published as a paperback by Scirocco Drama.
NOTE ON REGISTRATION CAPS AND FEE
The other week our Slapstick class with Adam Paolozza was amazing so fun! I feel so good that Play Play has really grown into a community.
But we were too many people!
So we've decided to put a hard maximum number of participants on some of the workshops due to space.
If you drop-in without pre-registering, and we are over capacity, we will allow you to sit and watch for free on some classes. That will be indicated on the workshop description. If you buy in advance on my website, it will say when it is sold out.
Workshops are varying from $16-21 depending on maximum numbers. I'm running Play Play on a shoestring budget so we can just make enough revenue to pay for the Sweet Action rental and teacher, because my main intention is to keep it affordable. Please help us out and buy in advance if you can. In the future if we get grant money, we'll have more wiggle room.
NEW FRONT OF HOUSE PROCEDURE
When you arrive, every person must check in with Adam or Josh. Anyone who is dropping in will be marked with a number on their hand, up to our maximum. People who arrive after we've hit capacity will be given mardi gras beads to wear and you can sit in the audience as part of what I'm calling the Overflow Gallery.
If you have a friend who is a non-performer who wants to come and watch, they can sit in the Overflow Gallery.
If you arrive late, check in with Adam or Josh before you join the workshop. We can't do check ins at the break anymore because we are going to try and maintain our maximum cap. Thank you in advance for your support and cooperation. -Janice
Our workshops are held Monday nights 8-10pm at Sweet Action Theatre, in the Artscape Youngplace building, 180 Shaw Street, Unit 106.
HEALTH, SAFETY AND ACCESSIBILITY
Sweet Action Theatre has 3 HEPA filters and air conditioning. Performers may choose to wear a mask for the entire duration. Performers are asked to self-screen and stay home if feeling ill.
Sweet Action is a wheelchair accessible venue. Performers with access needs are invited to participate and contact Janice in advance (janjolee@gmail.com)
TESTIMONIALS
“The lab pushed me hard and kept me engaged throughout. Intense warm-ups and challenging ensemble exercises created a culture of hard work, risk-taking, and deep openness. It provided the opportunity to collaborate with new people, and gain new perspectives on the work. It allowed me to see my ideas and experiments in the context of other works, and to be influenced by them. The process of seeing the whole emerge from the pieces was transformational as a performer, and provided insights into developing a director's eye. I had truly succeeded in finding joy on stage--the very cornerstone of clown-based performance. Janice is welcoming, encouraging, and enthusiastic. She has created a safe space for people to be vulnerable, to take risks, and to grow. She is very receptive to new ideas and feedback, adaptable, and deeply respectful. She is amazing to work with.”-Creation Lab Participant, Spring 2023
“Janice creates magic through having genuine relationships with the artists that revolve around mutual respect, consent and honesty at every step of the way.” -Creation Lab Participant, Spring 2023
“Janice’s style of creation and discovery just works. She set up a space that was safe but also allowed us to possibly dig into some very uncomfortable territory as we explored our various “pain pieces”. A tricky task, but it worked. She knew when to interject with a different idea or approach, or to scrap something altogether when our ensemble was experimenting with different pieces. She also just sat back at times, and let us discover some things on our own; beautiful or funny or tragic things that we could weave into the show. I never felt silly (in a self-conscious way) or left out or ignored, and I’m sure that the rest of the cast felt the same way. She made sure we felt safe sharing ideas, and gave us ample opportunity to express ourselves in so many ways.” -Creation Lab Participant, Spring 2023
ABOUT THE DIRECTOR, JANICE JO LEE
“Lee has a mischievous twinkle in her eye and a marvellous spontaneity”–Now Toronto
“An iron fist in a slowly-removed velvet glove.”–Mooney on Theatre
Janice Jo Lee (she/they) is an award-winning queer multidisciplinary artist based in Tkaronto, Ontario. She is a second generation Canadian settler and twenty-seventh generation Korean. She is a folk-soul-jazz singer, songwriter, composer, sound designer, spoken word poet, actor, clown, satirist, and educator. She has facilitated Play Play since fall of 2022 at Sweet Action Theatre.
Janice is a hard femme, queer, radical, comedian, truth-teller and satirist. She is interested in using art to build flourishing communities based in justice and joy. Her work explores gender justice, antiracism, friendship, community, ancestry and the Earth. She has created theatre with MT Space, Green Light Arts, Theatre Passe Muraille, fu-GEN, lemonTree Creations, Randolph Kids, Le Project N’we Jinan, Theatre MADA and Cosmic Fishing Theatre. Recently she completed the Musical Stage Company’s Noteworthy Program for Composers and Lyricists.
Janice composed the book and music for her critically-acclaimed one-woman musical titled Will You Be My Friend (Dir. Matt White, Green Light Arts) a searing satire on cultural assimilation in Canada. She composed original music and sound for: This Is How We Got Here (Green Light Arts 2022), Shaded by Nada Abousaleh (Cosmic Fishing Theatre 2021), I Don’t Know (Theatre MADA/MT Space 2021) Dora-nominated Suitcase (Theatre MADA/Theatre Passe Muraille 2020), both by Ahmad Meree. Lee has released three albums of original music.
Janice has spoken word training with d’bi young anitafrika, Lillian Allen, bouffon/clown training with Adam Lazarus, Nathaniel Justiniano, and Deanna Fleysher, and physical theatre training with MT Space, and Fadhel Jaibi. Janice has worked as an educator for 12 years facilitating arts, anti-oppression and leadership workshops across Canada. She has facilitated anti-oppression workshops for University of Waterloo, Laurier Student Public Interest Research, Laurier Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto Faculty of Social Work, Folk Alliance International and Vancouver Poetry House. Janice has directed theatre creation programs for racialized youth with MT Space, Le Project N’we Jinan, and Randolph Kids.
In Waterloo Region, Janice Jo Lee was voted Best Performance Artist five years running from 2016 to 2020 (The Community Edition Newspaper.) Currently she is working on a new musical satire titled Man Baby and the Earth.