“OH, THE PLACES WE’LL GO THEN,”
DURING THE YEAR TWENTY-TEN
SEPTEMBER EVENT
Dahl-It-Yourself (DIY)
Drama, Music & Writing Workshops
Theatre Direct’s Wychwood Theatre & Christie Studio
Saturday September 11; 12-4
Workshop All Access Pass $21 (Includes Movie Matinee & evening Storytelling Soiree)
Individual Workshops $7
When you are old enough to write a book for children, by then you've become pompous and grown-up. You've lost all your jokiness. - Roald Dahl
The cornerstone of Small Print Toronto’s Roald Dahl Festival, hosted by Theatre Direct, is a series of workshops conducted by leading local creators, each designed to help young scribes and tunesmiths cultivate their individual ‘jokiness’
Drama (8-10) with Lynda Hill
11:00 am: Christie Studio.
Ever want to step inside one of Roald Dahl’s novels? This workshop will offer young thespians an opportunity to do so by playing with his words, images and worlds.
Songwriting (8-11) with Kevin Barrett
12:00 pm: Christie Studio
Can you dance to Dahl’s words? Budding songwriters will get a hands-on opportunity to learn the steps of writing a song based on Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes and key scenes in The Twits. Participants are encouraged to bring an instrument. (1hour)
Building Characters (10-14) with Robert Weston
12:00pm: Wychwood Theatre
From The BFG to Matilda, Roald Dahl created some of the most memorable characters in literature for young readers. This workshop begins with a warm-up observation activity and then moves to a silly game to help budding storytellers remember the most important components of shaping a character. (1 hour)
Storywriting: Teen Beat (13-15) with Natalie Ghent
1:00 pm: Christie Studio
Roald Dahl’s narrators often relay stories that they have heard from other characters. Young authors will get a chance to practice this story-within-a-story technique by crafting a monologue based on The Twits.
Storywriting: Volume One (8-12) with Natalie Kertes & Evan Munday
1:00 pm: Wychwood Theatre
The focus of this workshop is on young authors producing their own picture books, inspired by The Twits. (1.5 hours)
Songwriting (12-15): with Don Kerr
2:30 pm: Christie Studio
Can you dance to Dahl’s words? Young songwriters will get a hands-on opportunity to learn the steps of writing a song based on Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes and key scenes in The Twits.
Poetry/Spoken Word (12-14): with Natalie Zina Walschots
2:30 pm: Wychwood Theatre
Elaborate, exquisite, and elongated wordplay is one of the hallmarks of Dahl’s writing. Using Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes as a starting point, this workshop will give young scribes an opportunity to create poems in his style. (1.5hours)
After an afternoon of workshops, what better way to unwind than with a film?
Movie Matinee: The Unexpected & Fantastic Mr Dahl
4:00 pm: Wychwood Theatre
To showcase the long tradition of Roald Dahl’s stories being adapted for the screen, we will show selected episodes from the 1980s British television series Tales Of The Unexpected, and, Wes Anderson’s recent stop motion adaptation of The Fantastic Mr Fox.
Saturday September 11: 5:30-9pm
“Scrumdiddlyumptious Storyteller Soiree”
Theatre Direct’s Christie Studio & Wychwood Theatre
Artscape Wychwood Barns 601 Christie Street
Sat Sept 11: 5:30-8:15pm
Tickets $10 Adults / $8 Kids (Non-Walkers Free)
Tix Now Available at our virtual Kiosk Below
Scrumdiddiliyumptious Soiree
5:30pm: Christie Studio
Come join us for a buffet of decadently delectable dishes inspired by Dahl’s Revolting Recipes. And a cash bar.
Dahl-It-Yourself Showcase
6:45pm: Wychwood Theatre
Enjoy the musical stylings of Don Kerr & The Muggle-Wump Orchestra featuring young artists from the afternoon Dahl-it-Yourself sessions and Theatre Direct summer camp.
Book Launch: Donald Sturrock & Joseph Kertes
7:30pm: Wychwood Theatre
We are delighted to host an exclusive North American appearance by Donald Sturrock, Artistic Director of The Roald Dahl Foundation, UK.
Roald Dahl’s characters are familiar to generations of readers. But the author himself remains an enigma. What kind of character was the shadowy Roald Dahl? To celebrate the release of his eagerly awaited book, The Storyteller: The Authorized Biography of Roald Dahl(McClelland & Stewart),Sturrock will shed some light on this literary mystery during a conversation with Joseph Kertes, Dean of the Humber School of Creative and Performing Arts. There will be a Q&A session.
THE STORYTELLER Anyone who ever wished as a child to meet Willy Wonka or hang out with the BFG will be fascinated to learn in this engrossing, authorized biography of the late Roald Dahl that his own life was far, far more strange than even his fiction.
Twenty years after his death, Roald Dahl's bestselling stories continue to inspire and entertain children around the globe. But the man behind the stories remains an enigma. Despite his astonishing life as a Norwegian growing up in Wales, whose father died when he was just five, and as an ace fighter pilot, British intelligence agent, and husband for a while to one of Hollywood's top stars, Dahl nonetheless persistently embroidered the truth about himself, rewrote history, ignored reality, and defended his deep vulnerabilities with outlandish and wilfully provocative remarks. Facts bored him.
As his authorized biographer, Donald Sturrock, a wonderful writer and careful researcher, has drawn on Dahl's many previously unexamined files and a vast body of unpublished letters for this nuanced and engrossing narrative of the storyteller's long, adventurous life.
Talk and Tales
8:15 pm: Wychwood Theatre & Christie Studio
We will screen episodes from the Tales of The Unexpected series in the Wychwood Theatre. And the bar in the Christie Studio will be open for those who want to chat with Donald Sturrock and Joseph Kertes in a relaxed, one-one-one setting.
Drawing The Twits & The Great Upside Down Family Dance Party
Theatre Direct’s Christie Studio
Artscape Wychwood Barns, 601 Christie Street
Sun Sept 12: $5 Workshop / Dance PWYC At The Door
Dahl-It Yourself Workshop: Illustration (2-6) with Walker Ballantyne-Hill and Patricia Storms
12:30pm: Christie Studio
How do illustrators turn words into pictures? This workshop will give children a chance to enrich their understanding of the illustrator’s process by drawing pictures based on key scenes from The Twits. (1.5hours)
Theatre Direct’s Great Upside-Down Family Dance Party
2-4pm: Christie Studio
In keeping with The Twits, art from the illustration workshop, above, will be hung upside down on the walls of the Theatre Direct Studio. Some of your favourite local DJs will spin topsy-turvy tunes. Kids will get a chance to learn a few old school dance moves. Get ready to do the “(Roly-Poly) Bird” and the “(Spider) Monkey”. And Lisa Kelly, Artistic Director of The Centre For Art & Soul will guide kids through a whizzbanger of a Roald Dahl-inspired craft session.
COMING SOON
OCTOBER
GTA Regional Glee-off
Gladstone Hotel Ballroom, 1214 Queen St West
Thurs Oct 14; 8pm (Doors 7:30pm) $10
Which GTA High School hosts the most soulful gleeks? To celebrate the launch of Don’t Stop Believin’: The Unofficial Guide To Glee (ECW Press) by Erin Balser and Suzanne Gardner, we are staging a citywide Glee-off. Put down that slushie and start practicing your song and dance moves with between 6 and 10 mismatched friends. There will also be a solo karaoke throw-down, between the group numbers. The authors and selected musicians will act as judges. There will be prizes
Volume One Workshop & Launch
with Robert Paul Weston
Theatre Direct, Artscape Wychwood Barns, 601 Christie Street
Sun Oct 24; 1pm (Doors 12:30pm) $10
Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Turns out his estranged son, Henry Whelp, worries about becoming his old man. Just in time for Halloween, acclaimed author Robert Paul Weston will conduct a Volume One writing workshop based on Dark City (Penguin Group Canada), his brilliant new novel about the dark side of fairytales. Following the session, Weston will read and sign copies of Dark City.
NOVEMBER
Tot Studio: Kids Can Day
Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen St West
Sat Nov 6: 10pm (Doors 9:30pm) $10
Someone may be a friend. But we rarely share the exact same interests as them. After all, everyone is unique. How do we learn to accept and ultimately embrace our differences? To celebrate two new picture books from Kids Can Press that address this weighty theme in a playful manner, Spork by Kyo Maclear & Isabelle Arsenault and Way of the Ninja by David Bruins & Hilary Leung, we will stage a morning of storytelling, songs and crafts.
NOVEMBER
Lila & Ecco’s DIY Comic Book Convention
Theatre Direct, Artscape Wychwood Barns, 601 Christie Street
Sun Nov 21; 12-5 $10
In celebrated illustrator-author Willow Dawson’s latest book, Lila & Ecco’s DIY Comics Club (Kids Can Press), the titular characters discover the wonder of creating their very own graphic novels. What’s next for them? Lila and Ecco will step off the page and host a gathering devoted to the burgeoning world of graphic novels for young readers. You will get a chance to interact with some of your local heroes. Dawson will conduct a DIY workshop with esteemed author Mariko Tamaki. There will be author signings, small press tables, and on-stage conversations with the some of the movers and shakers on the comics-for-kids scene. |
