A Guide to Creating a Respectful Creative Environment for Artists With Mixed Abilities

Saturday, January 22, 2022
1:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Location: Green Thumb Theatre.
Address: 5522 McKinnon St, Vancouver, BC V5R 0B6

Tickets are $25
If you would like to attend the workshop and are facing a financial barrier, please email info@theatreterrific.ca.

ONLY 30 SPOTS ARE AVAILABLE

Theatre Terrific is following COVID safety protocols provided by the Provincial Health Officer, Ministry of Health, WorkSafeBC, and BC Centre for Disease Control.

Vaccination proof and face masks are required for entrance.

This workshop is ASL interpreted

About The Workshop:

Establishing diversity and inclusion in theatre is not a simple process. Thus, Theatre Terrific chooses not to follow many of the steps traditional theatre usually takes. We have learned over decades, many of the traditional Eurocentric theatre processes do not promote authentic inclusion; they actually hinder it. We do not look at diversity in theatre and performance as a simple display of difference, but as a process that collaboratively reconciles the many intersections of humanity as a huge untapped vein of artistic riches. Therefore, our classes, workshops and productions honour and deeply value the physical, mental, cognitive, cultural, gender, age sectionalities that are the true reality of our society today. 

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We ask those who enter the "sacred space" of collaborative theatre creation, be given the right to “be” - who they are first and foremost - and, from the respect of their being, explore with rigour, take risks and ultimately contribute, with their truth, to the theatre/performance art form. This is what we define as RADICAL, PROUD, COLLABORATIVE, INCLUSIVE THEATRE. Join us!

We welcome teachers, professional and community artists who chose to step, "together," into the world of "Radical Proud Collaborative Inclusive Theatre."

Susanna Uchatius and Angelo Moroni, both longtime artists working in development and enacting inclusive theatre creation with Theatre Terrific, will walk with you through the building blocks that support respectful inclusive theatre collaboration.

The workshop will be three hours, two hours spent physically working through the building blocks and the last hour spent sharing, exchanging and questioning the process and each other. 

About the instructors:

Susanna Uchatius has worked for over 35 years directing, writing, acting and teaching theatre. Her BFA is from SFU School for Contemporary Arts, voice at Banff Centre for the Arts with Richard Armstrong, the UBC National Voice Intensive, and work with Anne Bogart of Siti Theatre NY to name a few. She is an Equity, CAEA and IFTR (International Federation of Theatre Research) member. Susanna has been the Artistic Director of Theatre Terrific, Western Canada’s longest-running inclusive theatre company in Vancouver, since 2005. Having collaboratively developed over 30 professional, community and site-specific productions, she pioneered an accessible, respectful, rigorous and risk-taking collaborative ensemble process, unifying professional and emerging actors who may or may not identify as living with physical, cognitive, mental health, gender, cultural and age differences. All works speak to universal human issues relevant in today’s personal, family, societal and global community. Awards include Nightswimming Pure Research Award for voice exploration, Metro Vancouver Inclusion Through Innovation Award, Jessie nomination for Vancouver NOW 2016 “For persistent and ongoing commitment to inclusive casting and creative processes.” The Glass Box was published in Playwrights Canada Press, scenes from Egni’s Eye were juried to perform at the School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies, University of Warwick, England. Roy & Janet was a finalist for the Vancouver Fringe Festival Risk Award. Susanna is honoured to collaboratively create inclusive theatre; respectfully learning “from and with” the voices, perceptions and lived stories of the human community, in all its diverse, mosaic wonder.

Angelo continues to collaborate with Theatre Terrific (TT) as a musician/composer/creative collaborator since 2012, participating in 10 theatre productions. He has been practicing and exploring the techniques of Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) for 15 years and trained with Theatre for Living. He studied classical theatre at UNAM University, Mexico City, in 2008. Angelo has adapted the techniques of TO for children and has given workshops to the mentally diverse and visually impaired communities, including, the Newcomer Immigrants. He’s given extensive workshops in Mexico City and Vancouver, facilitating TO at Neighbourhood Houses, Community Centres, at UBC & SFU, and with Amnesty International. As an actor/performer/musician he has collaborated with an array of theatre, modern dance and performance artists and companies in Mexico and Vancouver. He also has credits as a musician/composer in 6 Freejazz, experimental music productions by Jazzorca Records. He is also the founder and Artistic Director of SITE Theatre and has presented original work at the Vancouver Fringe Festival, Museum of Anthropology, UBC, and the Vancouver Art Gallery North Plaza. Angelo continues giving Theatre of the Oppressed workshops at Burnaby Family Life, and with Cross Border Conference. Apart from being an artist, Angelo has co-designed a children’s program that focuses on social skills, problem-solving and creative expression at Kitshouse. Plus, Angelo has finished his studies in Addictions Counselling (VCC, 2018). He currently is a Counsellor at Watari Counselling, and Family Support Services, supporting 8 organizations in the Downtown Eastside, Vancouver