The Associates is a rare program in Canadian theatre: an invitation to develop a project over three years in pairing with one of PTC’s dramaturgs, seeing an idea through to flourishing completion.
Applications for the next intake of The Associates (2025-2028) have now closed. Stay tuned and subscribe to our newsletter to find out about the cohort which will be announced in the near future.
The current slate of PTC Associates includes: Mily Mumford, creating “it lives in my bedroom” with dramaturg Davey Calderon; Kamila Sediego, working on “Engkanto,” and José Teodoro, creating “Binary Star,” both with dramaturg Joanna Garfinkel.
The three Associates are developing fantastic new projects:
Mily Mumford’s it lives in my bedroom is a heightened “art house horror” immersive theatre and multimedia experience, explores how survivors of sexualized violence with PTSD navigate subsequent relationships from a queer, gender diverse and trans survivor’s voice and perspective. The audience is led through a maze of rooms akin to a haunted house experience to be transported into the narrative.
Kamila Sediego’s Engkanto explores trauma and its relation to Filipinx folklore and storytelling, the choice of answering your legacy’s call, and the care necessary to ensure spiritual safety. In it, a child learns her elderly father has been haunted by engkantos, human-like malevolent spirits, who have followed him to Canada, and must rescue a long lost sister trapped in another realm.
“Through Engkanto, I found such a strong connection back to my motherland. I wasn’t aware it was something I wholeheartedly needed. It was healing for me to ground back to where I come from and celebrate the values of being a Filipina and strengthen my sense of identity.” – Unscripted: Engkanto audience member.
José Teodoro’s Binary Star unfolds in two halves. In the first, Fátima, a Vancouver-based Brazilian-Canadian dancer-choreographer, traverses British Columbia in the fire-choked summer of 2003. Fátima takes an impromptu detour, only to find herself stranded on a lonesome backroad, surrounded by wilderness, and haunted by memories. The second half transpires over the course of a single afternoon in March 2020, the very start of the pandemic. David, a Canadian architectural historian, is in Buenos Aires for a (soon-to-be cancelled) conference. Luz, a local curator, invites David to explore Victoria Ocampo House, an architecturally fascinating—and seemingly haunted—heritage site where she is mounting a (soon-to-be cancelled) exhibition. The creation of Binary Star has involved research into architecture and forest fires, and hugely informative workshops with choreographers, actors, a projection designer, and dramaturg.
The PTC Associates have been in residence with PTC for three years beginning in the summer of 2021, developing a central project – and their practice – with PTC dramaturgs. The writers receive a stipend, process design, dramaturgical collaboration, workshops with actors, studio space, support finding producing partners, digital and technical experience and support; and opportunities to present their work in progress directly to the communities they are in conversation with, online, and in programs like our Unscripted Series. They participate in regular collegial discussions with each other and PTC staff.
