Theatre Outside the Box

From site-specific, immersive, and devised theatre, to large-scale puppetry and movement-based work, to digital performance and VR — theatre conventions are in constant evolution, especially in the age of a pandemic. This eye-opening workshop explores unconventional theatre-making from around the world. Our goal is to make even the most unenthused student think: “whoa… theatre is cool.”

The purpose of this workshop is to expand the students’ understanding of what theatre is. Over the course of 90min, workshop facilitators Sarah Dennison and Sophia Fabiilli will lead students on a digital exploration of theatre works from near and far, including:

• ● Handspring Puppet Company — Innovative puppet-makers who created the puppets for international productions of War Horse (South Africa)
• ● Punch Drunk — Immersive and movement-based theatre company who created the Macbeth-inspired Sleep No More and other large-scale, acclaimed productions (UK)
• ● Fruit for the Apocalypse — Creators of “site-responsive” theatre such as The Surrealist Taxi where performances take place in the back a moving car (UK)
• ● Kidd Pivot — Helmed by internationally-celebrated choreographer Crystal Pite, Kidd Pivot has created some of the most innovative contemporary dance theatre (CANADA)
• ● Outside the March — Toronto-based site-specific theatre company which has created multiple socially-distanced performances (Toronto, CAN)
• ● Grand Acts of Theatre — National Arts Centre series during COVID-19 (Ottawa, CAN)
• ● FOLDA — Festival of Live Digital Art (Kingston, CAN) — and more!

this workshop includes

• ● This 90-minute workshop is an eye-opening exploration of theatre-making practices from around the world led by Thousand Islands Playhouse artists
• ● PDF of Assignment Suggestions that can be executed post-workshop