co-presented with
Prismatic Arts Festival and The Fountain School of Performing Arts have partnered this year to bring opportunities for sharing space with and learning from the expertise, craft, knowledge, and experience of leading Indigenous artists and artists of colour from across the country. Students, artists, industry stakeholders, and the general public are invited to grow, connect, and learn.
The processes of both teaching and learning require us to open ourselves to others. Prismatic’s Masterclasses invite this openness and cultivate a connection between the people sharing and receiving knowledge, experience, and craft. Creativity thrives on both sides of this connection. Your presence, your creativity, and your openness are all essential to the Masterclass experience.
* due to the venue's current protocols, the masterclasses will be available only for
FSPA students at this time *
Theatre du Poulet
Mask Work
Friday, September 17th | 1PM- 2:30PM | Dalhousie Arts Centre – Room 327 (Studio 2)
Chun Shing Au and Carmen Lee from Theatre du Poulet bring their Settle Elsewhere show masks to demonstrate character mask technique. Their Masterclass brings a unique sensibility to students with their approach to mask performance that fuses political, environmental, and social issues with theatre creation. As one of Nova Scotia’s first Asian-owned theatre companies, they encourage students to share stories that uncover unheard voices in Canada’s diverse communities and bring diversity and distinctive theatre art forms to students.
Morgan Toney
Mi’kmaq Connections
Friday, October 1st | 4:30PM – 5:30PM | Dalhousie Arts Centre – Room 406
This songwriting experience features First Nations Fiddler and Mi’kmaq singer, Morgan Toney, and his Mi’kmaq Connections. Morgan’s Masterclass consists of modernizing traditional Mi’kmaq songs by singing them accompanied by guitar, drum, and fiddle, and playing songs that he has written with ECMA Winner, Keith Mullins. These songs are rooted in the Mi’kmaq tradition and feature well-known Mi’kmaq phrases and philosophies. The workshop includes an introduction to traditional Mi’kmaq instruments, like the drum and its role in traditional Mi’kmaq songs, and the Jigamahan. This Masterclass is designed to introduce First Nations culture through music.
Owen O’Sound Lee
Songwriting
Monday, October 4th | 11:30AM – 1:30PM | Dalhousie Arts Centre – Room 121
Owen O’Sound Lee is an artist, musician, songwriter, vocal arranger, and producer from Toronto, Ontario, who extended his musical reach to the East Coast of Canada in 2014. He is the Minister of Music at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Upper Hammonds Plains, the Program Coordinator of the African Nova Scotian Music Association (ANSMA), and touring keyboardist for Classified. Owen plans to take a dive into the influence and thought process behind his lyricism through this Masterclass, as well as conduct an activity to explore different songwriting styles!
Clyde A. Wray
Poetry & Dramatic Writing
Friday, October 8th | 1PM – 2:30PM | Dalhousie Arts Centre – Room 327 (Studio 2)
Clyde A. Wray invites you to his poetry and dramatic writing Masterclass:
“Downstairs in a grocery store in a Black Box Theatre, dreams and aspirations were being born right here in Halifax on Gottingen Street. A New Yorker and Iranian came together for one production. Years later they came together again at Eastern Front Theatre in Dartmouth N.S for another production. Shahin Sayadi founder of the hugely popular Prismatic Arts Festival, producer, director, actor, and writer. Clyde A. Wray the author of books of poetry, playwright, director and producer and what he likes to call a sometime performer, share in common perseverance. Today the weight of the Prismatic Arts festival is in the skillful and accomplished hands of Raeesa Lalani, who generously asked the cast of We Were Here to perform at the Neptune Theatre and for that sometime performer to speak here at Dalhousie.”
– Clyde A. Wray
