The Magpie Club

A Night of Dread Free Program of Workshops for Youth 12 to 18

This year, Clay and Paper Theatre presents the Magpie Club, a free program of workshops for youth 12 to 18, in stilting and costume and mask making for Night of Dread. It’s also an opportunity for young people to create and share their vision and message for a better future for themselves and their community through performance and play. Guided and assisted by Clay and Paper Theatre artist facilitators, the Magpies will work towards creating a short opening performance for Night of Dread 2023 on Saturday, October 28 in Christie Pits Park. Youth can focus on one set of workshops – stilting OR costume and mask making – or they can participate in BOTH areas of creation. This means there will also be a combination of stilters and on-the-ground performers for the Magpie opening.

All workshops take place at Dufferin Grove Park at the Field House and can accommodate up to 15 youth participants. We will also have 3 to 4 adult workshop facilitators onsite.

How to Register

All participants must register at workshops.clayandpaper@gmail.com.

Workshop Schedules

Workshop Commitment

In order for us to make sure that Magpie stilters are confidant and safe to perform at Night of Dread on October 28th, you will have to attend at minimum 4 to 5 stilting sessions and be okayed by the Stilting Teacher to proceed to join the mandatory rehearsal on October 23 (rain date rehearsal is October 24).

You can also perform as a Magpie on the ground and without stilts! All Magpie performers will be welcome on Night of Dread. You will still need to attend the Rehearsal as per the above date(s).

Lastly, all Costume and Mask Making Workshops are drop-in. You don’t have to be there for the full 4 hours, but it will be important to come on a regular basis to help make and complete together the Magpie costumes for your performance. If you can attend 3 or 4 of the 6 sessions that would give you a real sense of the art making process for this project and Magpie experience. We also encourage youth participants to explore both the stilting and art making workshops.

Final Rehearsal for Night of Dread Performance

Workshop Staff

Zita Nyarady / Stilting Workshop Instructor

Zita is a Canadian dance, theatre and circus artist. She has worked on projects with Shakespeare in Action, Anandam Dance Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Nightwood Theatre, Pilobolus Dance Theatre, Nightwood Theatre, Rhubarb Festival, Native Earth, Theatre Direct, Look up Theatre, Hercinia Arts Collective and Odin Teatret. Zita is a graduate of Dell’arte International and is a PhD candidate in Performance Studies at York University. As co-artistic director of The Grand Salto Theatre Zita’s award winning interdisciplinary performances have been presented across Canada and Internationally. Zita was the 2017/18 Dramatist in Residency at The Heliconian Club in Toronto, is in the Cirque du Soleil performer database and is the mother of an awesome toddler.

Catherine Moeller / Mask and Costume Workshop Facilitator

Catherine is a multidisciplinary artist who leads a community arts program in Toronto’s Weston area. She adores giant puppets and has created them with Clay and Paper Theatre, Shadowland Theatre, Arts4All, the Weston King Neighbourhood Centre Seniors’ Art Group and the Community Arts Guild. She has also spent time in Pembroke, Ontario as a puppet maker/artist in residence at Studio Dreamshare for the performance The River is Sacred.

Tamara Romanchuk / Mask and Costume Facilitator

Tamara trained as an actor and began her career as a popular theatre educator (Theatre of the Oppressed) and cultural animator. In 2014 Tamara joined Clay and Paper Theatre as a playwright, builder, artist facilitator and artistic producer. In 2017 she became the co-artistic director of the company. Tamara continues to push the aesthetic boundaries of C&P by introducing new forms of puppetry, performance and play development. She has facilitated workshops in public space animation, giant puppet construction and puppetry as activist expression, across Ontario and Quebec. Tamara was also recently awarded Davenport‘s Platinum Jubilee Leadership Award in Arts and Culture (2022).

Afsaneh Zamani / Workshop Facilitator

Afasneh Zamani has produced and directed more than 15 shows for kids and adults, in collaboration with theater groups as a puppeteer, puppet maker, and set designer. Afsaneh has delivered several workshops in Iran, Armenia, and Canada in puppetry, storytelling and paper puppets, has experience as an art director and Jury member for many festivals in Iran, and has published articles about traditional Iranian puppetry and theatre. She was awarded the “Best in Heritage” award for the 21st UNIMA Congress and Puppetry Festival in China 2012.

Keely Krall / Workshop Facilitator

Keely has been working with Clay and Paper Theatre as a puppeteer, studio artist and event production assistant since 2021. She has appeared as a puppeteer and performer in C&P’s Art Ambulance (2021 & 2022) and the Journey to LuminUS (2021 & 2022). Keely has also facilitated C&P workshops for the Burlington Art Gallery and the Parkway Forest Park Lantern Parade. Keely is a graduate of the Humber College Theatre program, is a practicing TV, film and event make-up artist and she currently spends as much time as possible practicing her new obsession, ballroom dance. Keely will be assisting with both stilting and mask and costume making workshops.

Sophie Bouey / Workshop Facilitator

Sophie is a Clay and Paper Theatre alum of our 2022 Apprenticeship Program in Public Space Performance. She was a cast member of our summer 2022 Art Ambulance show and our winter 2022 Journey to LuminUS performance for Jamii Esplanade. She will be assisting Zita during the stilting workshops and Magpie Club performance rehearsals.

Mika Videla-Moeller / Workshop Assistant

Mika successfully graduated Central Technical School majoring in the arts program and law. He is a a multi-talented visual artist who loves to create creepy, spooky art of all media types. Mika is a Clay and Paper Theatre intern for Night of Dread. He will be assisting on a variety of creative projects for this year’s Festival, including the Magpie Club and the Open Studio Community Drop-in sessions as we build the 2023 Fear of the Year image and scenario.

Clay and Paper Theatre gratefully acknowledges the support of Kiwanis Toronto in making the Magpie Club possible for Night of Dread 2023.