EMERGING VOICES
Artistic Mentorship for Young Writers and Creators
Infinithéâtre’s Emerging Voices program is an exciting mentorship program designed to encourage youth ages 12-18 to try their hand at playwriting, to uplift and build the confidence of young creators, and to strengthen the bond between youth and the theatre.
Through in-class playwriting workshops, we aim to guide students in writing their own plays, which can then flourish in our playwriting competition for youth, The-Write-Stuff, and our public play reading series, Park N’ Play.
Alongside assisting students through playwriting and expanding their creative voices, the program additionally offers students with a chance to win $500, and free access to Infinithéâtre’s mainstage productions.
“The students were so happy after the workshop. They were so inspired! They could not stop talking about it and wanted to have another workshop! One student wanted to go home and do this all over again with her friends!”
The mentorship program follows 5 steps
In-Class Playwriting & Theatre Creation Workshops with local professional artists. The workshops will be offered throughout December to April to guide students into the world of playwriting.
Plays will then be submitted to The-Write-Stuff, our annual playwriting competition for youth ages 12-19. Up to 10 finalists are selected by a jury of professional theatre artists. All finalists will be offered mentorship through a series of one-on-one dramaturgical feedback sessions, leading to further play development of their scripts.
Selected finalists will be included in our annual Park ‘N Play open-air play reading event in which the finalists’ plays will be presented in a public reading, read by professional actors under the guidance of a professional director, followed by a talkback session with the audience and artists.
All finalists will be awarded a pair of complimentary tickets to one of Infinithéâtre’s mainstage productions of the current season. Cash prizes will be awarded to the top five scripts, with the first place receiving a $500 cash prize.
Infinithéâtre will proudly promote the playwrights and their works within our network and local media. The winning playwright will additionally be invited to join in the following year’s The-Write-Stuff jury.
To book an Emerging Voices workshop for your class, contact manager@infinitheatre.com or
call 514-987-1774 ext. 101.
Our 2023-24 mentors
Banafsheh Hassani
Banafsheh Hassani (any/all pronouns) بنفشه حسنی is an Iranian, Montreal-based emerging theatre creator and producer. They're currently in their final year of studies in Performance Creation at Concordia University. Banafsheh's joys in life are her cats, her rats, literature about difficult feelings and wrighting plays that help them understand the world around. Most recent credits include GRIEF directed by Jessica Carmichael, Blood Family (Sometimes Not) and À Confirmer / T.B.C. (Montreal fringe festival 2023) by The Sky is the Limit Theatre. Her work mostly centers home, memory, loss, blood and illness.
Masha Bashmakova
Actor, playwright, theatre creator, teacher, Infinithéâtre’s 21/22 Emerging Artist in Residence
Masha Bashmakova is a Montreal-based theatre artist from Russia and the UAE, navigating the ways in which creative expression serves as a deep and necessary language in expressing interpersonal and social challenges. A graduate of Concordia’s Performance Creation program, her current practice spans visual and performing arts, with a specific focus in performance, theatre directing, and interdisciplinary creation. Masha’s recent work explores fragmentation in forms of episodic storytelling, diving into the points of encounter between image-based, audio and text-based storytelling languages.
Poonam Dhir
Poet, playwright, Infinithéâtre’s 22/23 Emerging Artist in Residence
Poonam Dhir (they/she) is a queer playwright, poet, Punjabi descendent, and settler currently based in Tiohtiá:ke (Montréal), on the traditional, unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka people. Poonam’s work explores identity, trauma, memory and the relationship between belief and belonging. They contemplate themes of migration, displacement and loss. They are the recipient of a 2022 Lambda Literary Fellowship in Playwriting and a finalist for the 2021 PEN Canada New Voices Award, Poetry. Poonam was selected to participate in Nightwood Theatre’s 2022-23 Write From the Hip Program led by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard.
Oren Safdie
Playwright, Dramaturg, Teacher, Associate Artist - Youth Play Development at Infinithéâtre
Oren Safdie was the artistic Director of the Malibu Stage Co. He’s taught at University of Miami, Douglas College & CSArts. Four of his plays were New York Times Critics’ Pick, and one was cited as one of the top ten plays of the decade by the Wall Street Journal. His film You Can Thank Me Later starring Ellen Burstyn, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Newport Film Festival, and he wrote the film Bittersweet. He is Head of New Play Development at Infinithéâtre.
Emerging Voices is proudly supported by The Azrieli Foundation and Caisse Desjardins de la Culture.
