Toronto Workshops

This year’s collective creation at SITA will focus on finding laughter and joy in our stories. We will start our series by exploring stand-up comedy. We want this to be an opportunity to draw on our personal experiences to find laughter in creative ways. We will learn to write and develop the foundation of our original comedic material. After finding our stories, we will then focus our attention on physical performance through traditional clown work. Clowning is a theatrical practice that refers to an exploration of humour, play and curiosity while learning to embrace mistakes. The most important essence of clowning is not being afraid to fail or make mistakes and using it as a motivation to connect with others. We will learn to embrace our own mistakes and embrace laughter for one another through this series. We will learn to deepen our exploration of physicality and storytelling for the final performance. This will be a great opportunity for people to get loose, write, work as a team, be silly and find laughter in our stories.

Stand Up Comedy Exploration (May 21st & May 28th)

We will begin our series with stand-up comedy. Under our facilitators and with the help of comedian (and CAF veteran!) Max Ross, participants will be introduced to the foundations of comedic performance. They will learn about joke writing, stage presence, timing and other aspects that are fundamental to getting up in front of an audience and getting some laughs. Participants will begin working on the foundations of their devised piece during this time.

Attendance is not compulsory, yet we strongly urge everyone to join as many sessions as feasible to foster teamwork and foster ensemble creation. In an open, safe, and inclusive atmosphere, we'll bond and explore our individual stories through humor. No prior performance, comedy, or clowning experience is needed, nor is there any pressure to be anything other than yourself. Come, enjoy, and embrace curiosity.