The Springboard Initiative

vAct’s Springboard Initiative is a series of workshops over the season, intended to launch artists of any level into inspiration and get them excited about collaboration and new creations.

All workshops are FREE.

Stage Combat Workshop with Affair of Honor‘s Nathania Bernabe and Jackie T. Hanlin

September 23-27, 2024 | 5:30-9:30pm | in-person | Russian Hall (600 Campbell Avenue)

Come fight, move, and play with Affair of Honor. Four days of training in physical theatre and stage combat with a showcase on the final class. This workshop intensive is all about moving and having fun while doing it. With stage combat, we will be getting close, moving fast, and moving with a partner to execute a dynamic, hard hitting, complex fight sequence. Through the choreography, we will begin to layer on different ideas to help with chemistry, including active connectivity, and non- verbal communication. Through physical theatre, you will be following simple to complex movements and explore how your body can move! We will focus on enhancing dynamic movement, animal flow, and how we connect our mind and our body while building an ensemble.  This will all culminate in a big group number full of movement and fight choreography that will be presented as an ending showcase for friends and family. 

About Affair of Honor:

Affair of Honor is a Jessie-nominated fight and movement-based theatre and performance company, focused on continuous training in the art of performance combat, ensemble building and multiple mediums of physical theatre. Affair of Honor is committed to creating visually stunning fight and movement-based productions as well as providing a platform for emerging artists, showcasing our diverse BIPOC & LGBTQIA+ communities and cultivating stories with women at the forefront.

The Stage Combat Workshop is now full. If you would like to be added to the waitlist, please email Katie Voravong at katie@vact.ca.

Intimacy for the Stage with Lisa Goebel

October 7, 21, and 28 | 6-10pm | in-person | Carousel Theatre for Young People’s Studio B – (1411 Cartwright Street)

Intimacy for the Stage is geared towards artists who are interested in developing a consent-based approach in their own practice. Through movement-based exercises, this workshop focuses on communication, safety, and consent during the rehearsal process. Participants will explore open communication and how to advocate for themselves and fellow artists in a respectful way, creating opportunities for the work to become more dynamic and specific. With an emphasis on clear physical storytelling, different types of relationships will be explored including intimacy outside of a romantic or sexual context. Artists will develop an understanding of how to navigate scenes of intimacy with or without an intimacy director present through script analysis, scene work, and creation-based work.

About Lisa Goebel:

Lisa Goebel (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist working as an actor, choreographer, intimacy director, and producer. As an intimacy director she has worked with companies including Arts Club, Bard on the Beach, The Firehall Arts Centre, Gateway Theatre, Pacific Theatre, Touchstone Theatre, and Urban Ink. Recent credits: associate movement director and intimacy director for Choir Boy (Arts Club), movement consultant for Red Velvet (Arts Club), and choreographer and intimacy director for Hamlet (Bard on the Beach). She completed her Intimacy Certification through Intimacy Directors and Coordinators and is a graduate of Studio 58. Upcoming: intimacy direction for Die Flerdermaus (Vancouver Opera) and puppeteering for Otosan (Gateway).

Space is limited. Sign up.

IBPOC Artist Jam: Getting in the Room with Jasmine Chen, Jivesh Parasram, and Raugi Yu

October 26 and 27 and November 2, 3, and 9 | Various times | BMO Theatre Centre (162 W 1st Avenue) and Green Thumb Theatre (5522 McKinnon Street; November 3 only)
Supported by Bard on the Beach’s Community Access Program

Introducing the IBPOC Artist Jam: Getting in the Room, led by Jasmine Chen, Jivesh Parasram, and Raugi Yu. This five-day workshop is for IBPOC artists who wish to reflect, engage and connect more deeply to who you are and the work. This workshop is an accumulative process meant to support IBPOC artists with where they’re at in their performing practice and to provide learnings and tools that will support you in your own creation, rehearsals, and/or auditions. Throughout this workshop, together with your cohort and instructors, you’ll be working through various exercises and practices—touching on mindset, creation, technique and more, leading to a mock audition on the final day. Please see here for more information about about what each day will look like.

About the instructors:

Jasmine Chen is a second-generation Taiwanese-Singaporean immigrant artist based in the unceded lands of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and Səl̓ílwətaɬ Nations and T’karonto. Jasmine is a director, writer, and performer whose multilingual interdisciplinary work has been featured in CBC Arts, The LMDA Conference, NOW Magazine, The Georgia Straight, and more. Her work as an actor encompasses theatre, film, TV, and voiceover with roles on NBC, Hallmark, SyFy, CBC, and Amazon.

Jasmine is an alumnus of the National Theatre School Artistic Leadership Residency. She is a recipient of the Gina Wilkinson Award for Female Directors, the Jon Kaplan Canadian Stage Performer Award, and the Stratford Festival Jean Gascon Award. She is the creator/performer of Jade Circle, a solo performance in Mandarin and English. msjasminechen.com.

Jivesh Parasram is a multidisciplinary artist of Indo-Caribbean descent currently based out of Vancouver (Unceded Coast Salish; MST). In 2009 he co-founded the internationally acclaimed socio-political collective Pandemic Theatre and became the Artistic Director of Rumble in 2018 following three years as the Associate Artistic Producer at Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto. Jiv has received numerous recognitions for his work and sectoral contributions including a nomination for the Governor General’s Literary Award in Drama, awardee of the Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award, and two Harold Awards for contributions to Toronto’s Independent sector including the Ken MacDougall Award in Direction. Internationally, he is a co-recipient of a Herald Angel from the Edinburgh Festival. Recent local credits – in varied capacities-  include: Measure for Measure (Bard), Someone Like You (Arts Club), East Van Panto: Beauty & The Beast (Theatre Replacement/The Cultch), Fat Joke (Neworld/Rumble/Cultch), Isolation Suite (Theatre Conspiracy/Rumble), Szepty/Whispers (Rumble/V.West).

Raugi Yu is a graduate of The Dome Theatre in Montreal and The BFA Acting program at UBC.  He has acted in various theatres across Canada and the U.S.  Moving seamlessly between stage and film. You may recognize him from roles in, Hurricane Mona (The Cultch), Bad Parent by Ins Choi, world premiere (vAct, PTE, Soulpepper) The Shoplifters, The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time (Arts Club), Measure For Measure, Comedy Of Errors (Bard On The Beach), The East Van Panto: Jack and the Beanstalk, Wizard Of Oz, Alice In Wonderland. On-screen acting in Mr. Young, jPod and Kung-Fu. Director for feature film Attic Trunk on Apple and episodes of Some Assembly Required. 

Raugi is also an instructor, private coach and mentor to many IBPOC actors. His favourite teaching and learning tools are love first, then genuine curiosity and he is always curious about the, “Who am I?”

Space is limited. If you are interested in taking part of this workshop, the deadline to apply is end of day on Friday, October 4. Please see here for more information.