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Electric Innovations Performance!
Thursday 12 August at 7:30 PM

After working and learning from some of the country’s top theatre artists, our Electric Innovations participants devised a digital production under the mentorship of their lead artist mentor, Neil Silcox.

In this piece, you’ll learn more about our seven participants through creative, theatre-driven storytelling. You don’t want to miss this one-night-only event, celebrating these vibrant young talents. This event is open to all and will be followed by a Q&A.

This presentation is free to attend. If you wish to support Suitcase in Point’s Arts Mentorship Program, donations can be made via canadahelps.org.

Register Today!

Get to know some of our Electric Innovations Participants

Kendra Humphries

Sia Mahra

Isabelle Roberge

Haleemah Adebayo

Adam Kleinsmith

Aarti Dhiman

About Electric Innovations

Electric Innovations is a two-week online theatre intensive for creative folks, with one week of public workshops for all ages and an in depth theatre intensive for eight selected participants between the ages of 15-18. We look forward to sharing the 8 young artists that will be a part of this program, running from July 19 – 30. This rare program will offer participants a unique opportunity to develop their own creative practices; explore and develop their artistic voices and provides a chance to collaborate on the creation of an original digital production. We proudly offer this unparalleled program in partnership with the good people at the National Theatre School of Canada.

WHY WE ARE DOING THIS: We believe in investing in the training and development of young artists. We believe in retaining the talent that exists in our industry and providing a space for new talent to emerge, create, play, and find their artistic voices. We aim to develop original programming centred around community, collaboration and training to break down some of the barriers and challenges young people in this age range are facing due to COVID-19. 

WHO IS IT FOR: Electric Innovations was created in order to bring together the powerful, thoughtful, and undefined magic that exists in the Niagara Region. We at Suitcase in Point recognize the brilliance in people that we encounter throughout the world, and aim to reflect that brilliance in our art. We think art is more interesting when it is created by a talented group of exciting, provocative, curious, folks that come from different walks of life; it is integral to this program that we find those artistic voices. We are dedicated to promoting equity across race, gender identity, sexual orientation, class, creed, age, national origin and physical and mental abilities. Priority will be given to BIPOC and 2SLGBTQ+ applicants who live in the Niagara Region and are between the ages of 15-18.

WHEN IS IT: Week One (July 19 – 23): Public presentations and private workshops led by professional artists. Week Two (July 26 – 30): Devising a digital theatre piece under the mentorship of a professional artist.

Risk Taking & Play

with Miriam Fernandes

Tuesday 20 July at 11am

Join us to explore how various training traditions can lead to the creation of a different kind of theatre.

Graduate of École International de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq, Miriam will talk about theatre training beyond Canada. She’ll speak about her own experience training in physical traditions of theatre creation from across Europe, America and Japan. We’ll do a deep dive into her time in Paris at Ecole Jacques Lecoq, and how the school uses the body as a centre of storytelling, looking at the traditions of mask (neutral mask, full mask, commedia dell’arte), mime, buffon, and clown, among others. We’ll explore risk-taking and play, the importance of failure, and creation through improvisation. We’ll also touch on training with the SITI Company in New York who train in two practices: Viewpoints (developed by choreographer Mary Overlea) and Suzuki Training (created by Tadashi Suzuki in Toga Japan). Join us to explore how various training traditions can lead to the creation of a different kind of theatre.

Mental Health & Original Creation

with Samson Bonkeabantu Brown

Wednesday 21 July at 11am

Join us for an open conversation about the relationship between yourself and your creativity.

Come get a glimpse into the world of Ancestral Anthropology, Conduit Writing, and working in your creative purpose with Samson Bonkeabantu Brown. Samson will share what it looks like to take a backseat in your creative practice. This talk is an open forum where questions are encouraged.

Theatre Ecology & Structure

with Ali Joy Richardson

Thursday 22 July at 11am

Join us for an invigorating discussion about the realities of pursuing a career in theatre.

What’s it really like to be a professional theatre artist? And what does “professional” really mean?

It’s time to bust some myths and shake up the old stories about what constitutes a successful artistic career. Join Ali for a talk about pursuing sustainability over stardom, escaping the pressure to Only Do Art, and why not all the career advice you get in high school is worth following.

Innovation & Design

with Miquelon Rodriguez

Friday 23 July at 11am

Join us in gather.town to talk about digital design and creative virtual spaces.

Despite the pandemic, theatre artists across the country continued to tell stories and present creations by trying their hand at some form or another of digital content creation. And though the first few months of “panic content” seemed to be stuck on Zoom, the more daring of us realized a future where the virtual and digital spaces could exist alongside the live performance spaces more openly and more collaboratively than before the digital was all we had left. This public module will explore some of the basic concepts and tools needed by the artists willing to take the dive into online forms of content — thankfully, beyond Zoom — while going through some of the design thought-processes from the live space that thrived in the virtual space, and new ways of thinking from the digital realm worth continuing into our physical spaces. (And we’ll be doing most of it in gather.town.)

Meet the Team!

Tamara Jensen

Samson Bonkeabantu Brown

Nyasha Nherera

Neil Silcox

Miriam Fernandes

Miquelon Rodriguez

Michelle Mohammed

Marcel Stewart

Kaylyn Valdez-Scott

Holly Keus

Deanna Jones

Cole Forrest

Ali Joy Richardson

Thank you to our partners and funders!