Decolonise Your Ears 2024
October 3rd - 6th, 2024
Red Beti Theatre is proud to announce the launch of the 4th annual Decolonise Your Ears New Play Reading Festival. Decolonising theatre means expressing culturally specific ideas, mythologies, music, and dance; Indigenous, Black and racialized bodies occupying space in celebration of our unique identities; and subverting rigid hierarchies in favour of a more equitable approach. It means having time to explore our voices, develop our practices and explore lesser-known cultural forms without having to negotiate, conform or squeeze into parameters that we did not choose.
4th Annual
Decolonise Your Ears
New Play Reading Festival
Theatre Aquarius, Norman and Louise Haac Studio Theatre
October 1st - 6th 2024.
THIS YEARS PLAYS
Lost Scribe
By: Shaharah Gaznabbi
In a life of cosmically predetermined endings, who are we meant to blame for the way our lives have
Unfurled? Inspired by the story of Sheherazade from 1001 Arabian Nights, Lost Scribe is a Queer-Muslim exploration of what it means to create your own legacy. This quirky, poetic piece follows Imum, an intelligent, quick witted, whip smart Imam and Wazir who paints the narrative of Queenie, a young, spirited Sultana figuring out how to take on the reins of her life. She has so many stories buzzing around in her head, and therefore hires a series of Scribes to help her write them. Though, when none of these Male Sultans seem to understand the stories she wishes to tell, Imum offers her daughter, aptly named Scribe. This introverted writer who does not divulge much of herself must learn to work with this human embodiment of a Monster Energy drink of a Sultana.
October 5th 7:00pm
How to Love a Desi Woman in Ten Easy Steps
By: Sheetala Bhat
Grappling with her desire, longing, and loss, a South-Indian woman in Canada re-narrates a Hindu mythological story in an effort to come out to her family. Her re-narration upturns the lives of the goddesses who now seek understanding and revenge. As the mortal and immortal realms collide, both the goddesses and the humans are challenged to confront questions on culture, shame, diaspora, caste, and queerness together.
October 3rd 7:00pm
The Story of Tituba
By: Shiann Croft
October 4th 7:00pm
The Story of Tituba is a powerful exploration of Black motherhood, womanhood, and healing, set against the backdrop of colonization and its impact on the Black female body and matriarchal lineage. Narrated through the voices of six generations of women, the play weaves poetic monologues with African drum, jazz, and ballet to tell the story of Tituba—the first woman accused of witchcraft during the 1692 Salem trials. Tituba, an Afro-Caribbean woman, was kidnapped from the Guyana region and sold into slavery on a Barbados plantation before being transferred to Salem, Massachusetts. Accused of witchcraft after the death of her mixed-race newborn, Tituba's story is one of rebellion and reclamation. She used her knowledge of Ancient African spiritual traditions, voodoo, and herbalism to resist oppression, providing fertility management and herbal abortions for herself and other enslaved women. The play captures the historical period of sugarcane slavery, highlighting the cultural nuances of being a Black Caribbean woman in a world that punished her for both her identity and her magic. The Story of Tituba delves into the legacy of racism and the enduring effects of slavery, drawing a line from the past to the present, where the impacts of these histories continue to shape the lives of Black women.
Professional Development Workshops
Limited spots: APPLY SOON!
Submissions requirements differ
Please send expressions of interest to: submissions@redbetitheatre.org
Workshops will run from October 4th - 6th 2024
Located at Theatre Aquarius, Hamilton
Schedule:
Friday, October 4th - Makambe's Solo Show Creation Workshop 10 am - 1 pm
Saturday, October 5th - Donna-Michelle's Spoken Word/Hip Hop Workshop 10 am -1 pm
Sunday, October 6th - Anand's Acting Workshop 9 am - 12 pm
Sunday, October 6th - Aaron's Directors Workshop 1 pm - 4 pm
Our Workshop Facilitators
Donna-Michelle St. Bernard
Actor Submissions:
Submit A PAGE OF POETRY AND A SYNOPSIS OF YOUR. Those of interest will be contacted. Must be able to participate in THIS workshop AND ATTEND DYE plays.
Poetry in Play: Explore approaches to integrating poetry, hip hop or spoken word into theatrical text with emcee/poet/playwright Donna -Michelle St. Bernard.
Donna-Michelle St. Bernard aka Belladonna the Blest is an emcee, playwright and agitator. Her body of work includes the 54ology (The First Stone, Diggers, Cake, Sound of the Beast, A Man A Fish, Salome’s Clothes, Gas Girls, Give It Up and The Smell of Horses), opera libretti Forbidden (Afarin Mansouri/Tapestry Opera) and Oubliette (Ivan Barbotin/Tapestry Opera) works for young audiences (Reaching For Starlight, Pirate and the Lone Voice) and collaborations (The Only Good Indian with Pandemic Theatre, 501: Toronto in Transit with Theatre Passe Muraille, The House You Build with Gordon Tootoosis Nekaniwin Theatre). She is co-editor with Yvette Nolan of the Playwrights Canada Press anthologies Refractions: Solo and Refractions: Scenes, as well as editor of Indian Act: Residential School Plays. With a focus on finding subtext and nuance in the script, this brief workshop will offer participants tools to deconstruct text and enhance their performances.
Anand Rajaram
Actor Submissions:
Tell us a joke, anecdote or story (60-90 seconds). Those of interest will be contacted. Must ALSO be able to participate in Directors’ workshops AND ATTEND dye FESTIVAL plays.
With a focus on finding subtext and nuance in script, this brief workshop will offer ACTORS tools to deconstruct text and enhance their performances.
Anand Rajaram is an improviser, actor, playwright, director, musician, teacher & puppeteer. Recently, he was in A Public Reading Of An Unproduced Screenplay About The Death Of Walt Disney (Outside The March/Soulpepper), Mahabharata (Shaw Festival), Uncle Vanya (Crow’s/Mirvish), Buffoon by Anosh Irani & Mustard by Kat Sandler (Tarragon, Dora award for both), adapted/performed Rohinton Mistry’s The Scream, (SummerWorks, Best Production), and has performed at Second City, Stratford, VideoCabaret, and others. He's an accomplished film & tv performer, with notable roles in I Like Movies, Suits, Men With Broome (TV series), and others, as well as a voiceover artist for video games & cartoons. He directed As You Like It (Canadian Stage's Dream in High Park), Low Pay Don't Pay (George Brown theatre school), and 3 Penguin Audiobooks (Swimming in the Monsoon Sea & Mansions of the Moon by Shyam Selvadurai, Tell Me Pleasant Things About Immortality by Lindsay Wong), and narrated novels, including Kill The Mall by Pasha Malla and Tell It To The Trees by Anita Rau Badami. He is artistic director of @N@f@N@ (theatre) and Cardboard Dreams (digital media). Social media: HRH Anand Rajaram.
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Aaron Jan
Actor Submissions:
Submit a letter: Who you are, why you want to do this and what you hope to gain from this workshop. 3 spaces.
An interactive workshop led by award winning theatre director, Aaron Jan, where directors will learn how to work with actors at the table and on their feet.
Aaron Jan is a director, playwright and dramaturg. He has worked as a director with Factory Theatre, Canadian Stage, Theatre Aquarius, The University of Winnipeg, Theatre Direct, Theatre Erindale, and most recently with Theatre Passe Muraille. Aaron is one third of the Dora Mavor Moore Award winning Silk Bath Collective, whose production of Woking Phoenix, enjoyed a sold out run as a part of TPM's 2023/2024 season. He is the 2019 winner of the Ken McDougall directing award, the 2021 co-winner of the Rita Joe Playwriting Award, a 2021 co-recipient of Musical Stage Company's Aubrey and Marla Dan Fund for New Musicals, a 2021 Johanna Protege Recipient, and the 2022 winner of Tarragon Theatre's Urjo Kareda Award for Emerging Artists. Aaron is currently serving as a casting associate for the Stratford Festival's 2025 season.
Makambe K Simamba
Actor Submissions:
Questions for Applicants Do you have any experience with solo work (either performance or writing/creation)? (Max 100 words) What would you like to learn in the workshop? (Max 100 words) Tell me a little bit about your artistic practice. This can include things you've done, things you're currently doing, and things you aspire to do (Max 100 words) MUST BE ABLE TO ATTEND dye festival presentations!
