Workshops

The Workshop Series:

Pre-registration for workshops is required. Most workshops have limited enrolment. 

Pre-register by emailing dapopolivein@gmail.com

Pre-payment is necessary to confirm your spot.  Suggested donation: $20/session (e.g. if 2 sessions, $40) unless otherwise specified. Workshop fees are non-refundable.

Sundays: October 5th, 12th, 19th & 26th || 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM 

@ The Living Room

Kid’s Creation Workshop 

Facilitator - Zach Faye

Ages 6-12 || Max 12 participants

Participants encouraged to attend all four sessions.

**The suggested minimum donation for this workshop is $25 per session.**

DaPoPo is offering its third annual theatre workshop for kids! DaPoPo Theatre's Zach Faye will guide participants to create their own group performance. Through games, story telling activities, and explorations in music, we will discover our own compelling story that celebrates everybody's perspective. The four sessions will culminate in a final performance during the last half hour of the fourth session, Sunday Oct. 26th, to which families are invited to come watch.

Zach Faye is a theatre artist and has been working as a theatre educator for over five years. Zach's passion for working with kids comes from a strong belief that everyone, no matter what age, has something beautiful and important to offer. Allowing younger people to express themselves as loudly and clearly as they wish is his goal whenever entering a class environment.

Tuesday, October 7^th || 7:00 PM-10:00 PM @ The Living Room

The Hero's Journey: Engaging the Power of the Universal Story

Facilitator - Frank Forrestall

Maximum 12 Participants

In our workshop we will map out the 17 common “keys” of the hero cycle drawing parallels with ancient myths and modern popular films; then - as a group activity - we will put the keys of the cycle to the test by collaboratively creating a unique story with the group. We will discuss how storytellers can adapt this archetypal pattern to create powerful narratives and characters that resonate with readers.

The “Hero's Journey” is an archetypal narrative pattern which forms the foundation of myths and stories across cultures, centuries and genres. Scholar and Mythologist Joseph Campbell theorized that myths from around the world have survived, and resounded in their audience, because they share similar structures and elements. In this workshop we will discuss how storytellers can adapt this archetypal pattern to create powerful narratives and characters that resonate with readers.

In his book, Campbell summarized the hero's journey as follows: “A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder. Fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won. The hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.”

Frank Forrestall has worked extensively in the Film/TV, Advertising and Publishing industries as a Designer, Director, Illustrator, Animator and Visual Effects Artist. His Design, Animation and Directorial work has been commissioned by DreamWorks SKG, CTV National, TeleToon, National Geographic and CBC. Hi short film work has been included in film festivals around the world. Frank works from his studio in Middleton Nova Scotia.

Thursday, October 9th || 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM @ The Living Room

Finding YOUR musical theatre voice 

Facilitator - Laura Caswell

Min 4, Maximum 20 Participants

Do you love musical theatre but just can't seem to nail your favourite song? Want some tricks and guidance on how to make a song your own? This workshop will focus on finding your true singing voice and how to use its full range. We will use different vocal techniques, physical exercises and acting methods to connect to lyrics, the story of a song, and you as an artist. Skills such as belting, breath control, and diction will finally be made clear! Bring your favourite musical theatre song and one you are afraid of. Accompanist will be provided, but karaoke tracks can also work.

Laura Caswell has been a professional musical theatre artist for over fifteen years. With starring roles all over the country she has the reputation of being a versatile performer with a huge singing range. Last year she earned a broadwayworld.com nomination for her performance of Polly in "Crazy for You" for Theatre By the Bay. She trained in New York and London, England earning an MA in Performance. With over five seasons at Neptune Theatre, featured roles include Miss Andrew in "Mary Poppins" and currently the Witch in "Into the Woods".

Saturdays: October 11th, 18th & 25th || 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM 

@ The Living Room

A Blaze of Light in Every Word: Songwriting 101

Facilitator - GaRRy Williams

Maximum 12 Participants

With gentle guidance and wee tutorials, participants will look behind the curtain at the craft of song-writing: lyrics, melodies, rhythmic hooks, basic chord structures, and accompaniment. Sessions are casual. All levels of experience and training are welcome.

GaRRy Williams is, among other things, a singer, songwriter and occasional music director. He received a Merritt nomination for his original score for VPT's The Jew of Malta, and last year one of his songs was selected for the revue "Touch Me: Songs for a (dis)Connected Age" in Calgary. He holds a B. Mus from Mt. A, and studied Musicology at Manhattanville College, NY and the FU, Berlin. He is a founding member and Artistic Director of DaPoPo Theatre.

Tuesday, October 14th & Thursday, Oct 16th || 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM 

@ The Living Room

Finding the blue: a meditation based approach to navigating the complexities of life. 

Facilitator - Seth Daley

Participants will attend two sessions

Minimum 10 – Maximum 40 participants 

(Note: If high numbers will look at alternate location)

In the somatic experiencing work of Peter Levine, situations and experiences are categorized on a spectrum of their effect on the nervous system. Things that agitate or disturb (running into someone you owe money, being chased by a tiger) are called 'red'. Things that help settle the nervous system (walking in the park, seeing an old friend, the way you feel when a puppy looks at you with its head tilted) are called 'blue'. Most people shift between red and blue experiences throughout the day, but the red ones can be 'sticky'. It can be hard for us sometimes to let go of being in the red. Everyone has had that experience of something negative spoiling their whole day.

In a performance you are often asked to spend great lengths of time in the characters red, but your nervous system does not make the distinction between imagined and experienced red. In this series of workshops we will look at various techniques to sensitize us to the shifting waves of red and blue, and how to better identify those things which return our nervous system to a settled experience. We will use meditation practices to learn how to find the blue aspects even within intensely red situations. We will discover ways of shifting an established pattern so that we can move into agitating situations without the fear that we will become stuck there.

From his first yoga class at the local gym in Amherst in 1999, Seth Daley knew he was hooked. In 2008 he established the only traditional daily Mysore program east of Montreal, first at the Yoga Loft, then at The Ashtanga Yoga Shala and now at The Mystic Harp studio in Halifax. Seth has participated in several Yoga Teacher Training programs, including level two YTT with his principal teacher, John Scott, in New Zealand. Seth has also been blessed to have traveled to India to study with many great teachers, including his late Guru Shri K. Pattabhi Jois. Outside of India he has worked with Mark & Joanne Darby, Allison Ulan, Hart Lazer, Swami Nityamuktananda, David Swenson and Tim Miller. Most recently Seth has been studying therapeutic yoga with Hart Lazer and is in the process of completing Hart's advanced therapeutics training for students suffering from trauma.

Tuesday, October 21st || 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM @ The Living Room

A Theatre Of Limitations: Producing for the Fringe

Facilitator - Evan Wade Brown

Intended for those with little 'Fringe experience. A workshop for new producers hell-bent on tackling a 'Fringe Festival. A pragmatic, no nonsense breakdown from the initial application, budgets and grants, scripting and cast, schedules and staff, tech time, design, and the last thing people think of: marketing.

Evan Wade Brown is an award winning theatre producer, dramatist, and designer whose resume is impossible to summarize in 50 words. He has 'teched over forty shows in the Atlantic Fringe as a venue technician and his own one man show, Problems With Authority, was a 'Fringe Hit in 2011. 

Saturday, October 25th || 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM @ The Living Room

All art is political: Lifting the veil of appearance 

Facilitator - Sebastien Labelle

Maximum 29 participants

"All art is political in the sense that it serves someone's politics." - August Wilson

How do we determine the 'politics' of art? Who is served and who is left out? The study of ideology allows us to answer these questions and critically examine the role of art in shaping, bolstering or subverting social norms and conventions. Culture both weaves and reflects the understanding we have of the world around us, and what we say or (more importantly) don't say tells us a lot about how we believe our world is or should be. By looking at examples from popular culture we can determine what some of those norms and beliefs might be, and who they serve.

Sebastien Labelle is Vice-President for Culture at the Halifax-Dartmouth & District Labour Council and chairs the organizing committee for the Mayworks Halifax Festival of Working People and the Arts. Sebastian is also a union organizer for the Service Employees International Union Local 2 and a long-time political activist in Halifax. He has served on the board of the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group, fought deportations with No One Is Illegal and is currently a member of Solidarity Halifax. Sebastian graduated from the acting program at Dalhousie University and received Merritt Award nominations for his work with 2b Theatre and Shakespeare By the Sea. He has apprenticed at Bread & Puppet Theatre in Vermont and is a founding member of Puppets Et Cetera.

Sunday, Oct. 26th || 1:30 PM – 4:30 PM @ The Living Room

Challenging Conventional Beauty: Perspectives on the Headshot

Facilitators - Trevor Poole, Emily Jewer

Join us as we discuss and play with the process of both posing for and taking our own unique “headshots.” This workshop is a fun, interactive look at what makes a headshot work for you. Participants will have the opportunity to both participate in posing for, and taking their very own headshots.

Emily Jewer is a Halifax based theatre artist and photographer. She graduated from Mount Allison’s BFA program in 2010 and has since started her own company MJ Photographics. Through her company, Emily has taken headshots for many performers and production stills for several local theatre companies, including Eastern Front Theatre, Halifax Theatre for Young People, Neptune Theatre, Halifax Summer Opera Festival, DaPoPo Theatre and more.

Trevor Poole is a designer, performer, writer, magician, pool player, bartender, photographer, and he has been doing these things in Halifax for a while.

Tuesday, October 28th || 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM @ The Bus Stop Theatre

Positive Obstructions in Art-Making 

Facilitator - Kim Parkhill

Min. 3 – Max. 25 participants

More "play"shop than workshop, this session offers tools, time and space to access the skills and imagination of the ensemble-du-jour to create short performance pieces. Rooted in DaPoPo's devising methods, mashed-up with the ensemble movement and composition techniques collected by the facilitator from the depths of Latvia and up-state New York, this is an invitation to step into a way of theatre-making. Note: Involves physicality and some pre-assigned reading. Which will be FUN!

Kim Parkhill is a theatre maker and performer who appreciates a good story and imagination in the telling of it. She has contributed to the creation of several new works for the stage - collaboratively or individually - through collective devising, workshops, adaptation and/or writing. She trained with Neptune's PPTP, IUGTE and the SITI Company Summer Intensive and has been a core artist of DaPoPo Theatre for nine years. She sometimes looks at paintings upside down, because a different perspective can be quite thrilling.