FRIDAY, JANUARY 9
STACON26
Subject to change
Morning Yoga
Friday January 9, 2026 - 7:30am NST
The Narrows, Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland
Coffee, Tea, Yogurt & Cereal
Friday January 9, 2026 - 8:00 am - 9:00am NST
Reception Hall, Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland
PS02: "No court in Europe is too good for thee" - Keynote Presentation with Philip Parr of the European Shakespeare Festivals Network
Friday January 9, 2026 - 9:00am - 10:00am NST
Salon A/B, Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland
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Come and learn about the European Shakespeare Festivals Network from its founder Philip Parr. The ESFN was founded in March 2010 with an aim to not only to promote the works of William Shakespeare and the exchange of information, but also to produce new and innovative interpretations of the plays and various educational programmes. They support new translations and academic research and create a network of artistic and educational exchange.
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Break
Friday January 9, 2026 - 10:00 am - 10:30am NST
Reception Hall, Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland
PS03: "They Training Hath Been Noble" - Stratford's professional actor training program
Friday January 9, 2026 - 10:30am - 11:30am NST
Salon A/B, Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland
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What does it take to build and maintain actor training in the professional theatre? Since its inception, in 1953, the Stratford Festival has provided some training for the actor. In part, one could argue, that this was the result of its rural location, far from any major urban centre and the resources that might otherwise be available for the artist. But whatever the reason, this ‘ethos’ became an intrinsic part of the institution. Every artistic director, since Tyrone Guthrie, has included a vision for supporting and nurturing the professional development of the artist within the demands of the repertory company. So, with this legacy, comes the huge responsibility of evolving and re-imaging training on an ongoing basis. In 2020, during the height of the pandemic and a huge cultural change in the theatre, the Festival, once again, took on this process. During this talk, Janine Pearson, previously Head of Coaching and presently director of the Birmingham Conservatory, will share the values that guided this evolutionary process – the joys, the failures and the ongoing lessons.
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Lunch Buffet |
Global Cohort Luncheon - gathering for non-US-based companies |
PS04: "Tongues in Trees" - Performing Shakespeare’s Forest Comedies Now
Friday January 9, 2026 - 12:30pm - 1:45pm NST
Court Garden, Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland
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In an age of ecological crisis, our performances ask: can theatre help rebuild our relationship to nature — and our responsibility to it? Through interactive staging and moments of direct audience participation, we invite spectators to step into the forest world and share a sense of stewardship for the natural world.
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Break
Friday January 9, 2026 - 1:45pm - 2:00pm NST
AB03: "Did I Not Dance With You In Brabant Once?" Movement as Universal Language through the Lens of Love's Labour's Lost
Friday January 9, 2026 - 2:00pm - 3:15pm NST
Salon A/B, Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland
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Take two movement-oriented directors, and arguably the most language-dense Shakespeare play, and what do you get? This panel will explain and demonstrate! Justin and Lynn come from completely different companies, but both happen to have text processing disorders, and both directed Love’s Labour’s Lost in summer 2025. As artists and directors, their experience is that dance, movement, and physicality makes Shakespeare more accessible and is a wonderful way in for telling clear story for the audience and the actors. There will be an short on-our-feet component/participating option (non-compulsory) so that these directors can both talk the talk AND walk the walk.
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EB03: “The Safety and Health of This Whole State” Part One - Navigating Discomfort in Creative Workspaces
Friday January 9, 2026 - 2:00pm - 3:15pm NST
Salon B/C, Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland
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In an increasingly mental-health-aware industry, we are getting better and better at recognizing and validating individuals’ histories of trauma, nervous system activation, and accessibility needs. But while our awareness and understanding are increasing, it can be hard to translate knowledge into action. Creativity depends on a sense of safety, but that drive to tell a story can also include a degree of discomfort. But, in educational settings especially, we see increasing tension around both. So what does safety even mean? How much discomfort is too much discomfort? And how on earth is a teacher or director supposed to navigate all this? This session will open with a conversation delving into the science of trauma response and nervous system activation. Using Polyvagal Theory to understand what happens when bodies feel safe or unsafe, we’ll apply this neurobiological framework to better understand the lines between discomfort and danger. We’ll then explore trauma-aware tools that provide not only care but also agency for greater creativity and collaboration. Finally, we’ll close with a conversation about what might make a Shakespeare rehearsal room or studio different from others across the theater industry. While the conversation will be focused towards educational and training settings, these topics and tools can be applied in any rehearsal room, and even modified to suit staff or board meetings. This session will provide a useful framework for both observation of and participation in “The Safety and Health of This Whole State” Part Two, immediately following.
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MB03: "Words, Words, Words" - structuring our language in policy and practice
Friday January 9, 2026 - 2:00pm - 3:15pm NST
Avalon/Battery, Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland
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As calls for theaters to embrace more inclusive practices are growing, small, flexible organizations are leading the way and showing what is possible. Bigger theaters are curious about what limitations they might face in implementing a radically welcoming workplace framework. Join Aili Huber, creator of the Take 5 framework, in a discussion with leaders from Carnegie Mellon University (the oldest degree-granting theater program in the United States) and Island Shakespeare Festival (a mid-sized theater that has been implementing the Take 5 framework since 2022), as well as Sammi Cannold (whose Tony-nominated production How to Dance in Ohio was lauded for its inclusive practices). The conversation will address questions of how to scale radical welcome to organizations of any size or context, with input from those who have done it.
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XB03: "Signs of Nobleness" - Shakespeare & Sign Language Interpreting
Friday January 9, 2026 - 2:00pm - 3:15pm NST
Garrison/Signal, Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland
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Translating Shakespeare into ASL involves more than a literal word-for-word conversion. Sign languages use hand shapes, orientation, location, and movement to convey meaning, and interpreters must find ways to represent poetic language, rhythm, and nuanced themes visually. Translating Shakespeare's verse into sign language presents challenges, as ASL does not have direct equivalents for some English grammatical structures and concepts, like a "to be" verb. Interpreters must consider the context of the play and use creative "signplay" to create imagery and connections between characters and events. This panel will discuss the ways in which sign language Shakespeare involves closely working with a play's director to translate the story into a visual and kinetic form that captures the spirit and meaning for a Deaf audience.
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Break
Friday January 9, 2026 - 3:15pm - 3:30pm NST
AB04: "Let It Come Down" - Punk Dramaturgy: Intentional Cutting for Small-Scale Performance
Friday January 9, 2026 - 3:30pm - 4:45pm NST
Salon C/D, Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland
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What techniques, tips, and ideas can we as dramaturgs, directors, et al share for making strong, intentional choices when we cut scripts for small-scale performances? Whether it’s cutting purely for run time, or for a small-cast, or both, we often have to make difficult choices about what text to cut for our school tour, workshop, or actor-training showcase. What if, instead of thinking of cutting as a necessary evil to grit our teeth and endure, we thought of it as another artistic medium we bring to bear on Shakespeare performances? What if we looked for opportunities to be creative in our choice of cuts and doubling and gave ourself permission to honor the spirit — if perhaps not always the letter — of original practices? In this session, the actor-managers of Elsewhere Shakespeare, a punk band masquerading as a theatre company, will discuss their slapdash philosophy of punk dramaturgy and offer examples of how they try to use constraints of time and cast size to their advantage. Elsewhere will provide examples from their own work (all of their cuts are freely available on their website www.ElsewhereShakespeare.com) and they encourage you to bring examples of your own for discussion and sharing.
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EB04: “The Safety and Health of This Whole State” Part Two - Trauma-Informed Practice with Marginalized Communities
Friday January 9, 2026 - 3:30pm - 4:45pm NST
Salon A/B, Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland
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Trauma happens to everyone,
but the way you respond to it determines its impact on your brain and body. —Dr. Bessel van der Kolk Many human beings suffer some form of trauma in their lives, even in the “best” of situations. In the impoverished sectors of our communities: racism, poverty, domestic abuse, neighborhood violence, addiction, absent parents, and other societal traumas get dumped on our most vulnerable populations. We acknowledge the negative impact of cultural trauma, historical oppression, and systemic inequities on individuals and communities. Trauma is mental injury, not mental illness. There is no talk therapy that will heal trauma. There are no drugs that will cure trauma. There are no addictions that will abate trauma. The co-facilitators of this workshop are not interested in “fixing” others. Our approach is through unpacking lived experience that doesn’t ask “What’s wrong with you?” but rather “What happened to you?” To assist trauma victims to heal, they must come to understand what’s happening in their traumatized brain while the traumatic event is occurring, as well as how they are held hostage to treating cues that activate trauma going forward. Our workshop seeks to provide insights into trauma’s neurobiological effects, root causes, and underlying experiences. It will provide tools for: 1. Creating a Circle of Truth, 2. Recognizing and de-escalating trauma responses, 3. Self-care practices. Our workshop will build upon the Trauma-Informed framework Sarah Corbyn Woolf shared in her Workshop Part I: Navigating Discomfort in Creative Workspaces. Our workshop will provide a practical understanding of trauma’s neurobiological effects, root causes, and underlying experiences expressed through each of our presenter’s unique on-going Trauma-Informed practice. Our workshop will focus on minimizing the re-activation of trauma by creating a welcoming circle where trauma-informed care engages in: autonomy, building trust, collaboration, clear boundaries, consistency, emotional support, free choice, hope, lucid communication, mutual self-help, mutability, peer support, personal empowerment, reliability, resilience, safety, security, self-advocacy, shared decision-making, skill development, transparency, and well-being. |
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Participants:
12 participants will be pre-selected from the application pool. If you are interested in participating in our workshop, please send an email to: [email protected] sharing your demographic information (for diversity, equity, and inclusion purposes only) and your responses to two questions: 1. What would you like to receive (get) from participating in this workshop? 2. What will you contribute (give) to this workshop? Observers are welcome and only limited by number of seats available. |
MB04: "How Now Shall This Be Compassed?" - Finding Your Compass Points: a Leadership Exercise
Friday January 9, 2026 - 3:30pm - 4:45pm NST
Avalon/Battery, Sheraton Hotel Newfoundland
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“When I dare to be powerful—to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” —Audre Lorde
Leadership is largely the process of influencing others. Led by Perchance Theatre's chair Natasha Hart, this workshop will provide participants with a vocabulary for understanding both your own style and the style of those you work with, with the goal of refreshing, supporting and enhancing your work as a leader - at any stage of your career. The expected outcomes will be to:
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Dine Around Dinners
Friday January 9, 2026 - 6:00pm - 8:00pm NST
Performance: Madeline Sayet's Where We Belong (Madeline Sayet, Mohegan Tribe, Connecticut, US)
Friday January 9, 2026 - 8:30pm NST
LSPU Hall
Madeline Sayet’s one-person play is a celebration of language and investigation into the impulses that divide and connect us as people. The play follows Achokayis as she travels to England to pursue a degree in Shakespeare, grappling with the question of what it means to remain or leave her own home at Mohegan, as the Brexit vote threatens to disengage the United Kingdom from the wider world. Moving between nations that have failed to reckon with their ongoing roles in colonialism, she finds comfort in the journeys of her Mohegan ancestors who traveled to England in the 1700s to help her people. Achokayis’s transformation journey leaves us with the question, what does it mean to belong in an increasingly globalized world?
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