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LIF(e) @ The Nest 2024

DATE: October 1 - October 31, 2024


2024 LIF(e) design by Trevor Poole: "The Devil Within".


LIF(e) 2024 EVENTS CALENDAR 


 • Performances     • Play Readings       • Special Events     • Workshops


LIF(e) @ The Nest | Week One

Tu Oct 1 Mystery Event | Inquire for more information! 7:15pm-9:30pm

We Oct 2 Even the Muse Requires Consent | Music Theory Drop-in Session w/ Garry Williams, 7pm-9pm

Th Oct 3 Soft Scars | Vernissage/Artist Talk with Noella Murphy, 7pm-9pm

Fr Oct 4 Daily Art Drop -In | special event w/ Lee-Anne Poole & Colleen Arcturus MacIsaac, 10am-12pm

Fr Oct 4 LIF(e): The Beginning | Opening Night performances, 7:30pm-9:30pm

Sa Oct 5 Daily Art Drop -In |special event w/ Lee-Anne Poole & Colleen Arcturus MacIsaac, 10am-12pm

Sa Oct 5 Even the Muse Requires Consent | Music Theory Drop-in Session w/ Garry Williams, 5pm-7pm

Sa Oct 5 Acting Through Song | Workshop w/ Riley Reign, 7:30pm-9:30pm

Su Oct 6 Daily Art Drop -In | special event with Lee-Anne Poole & Colleen MacIsaac, 10am-12pm

Su Oct 6 Blood Wedding by Federico Garcia Lorca | play reading curated by Logan Robins, 7:30pm-9:30pm


LIF(e) @ The Nest | Week Two

Mo Oct  7  Daily Art Drop -In | special event w/ Lee-Anne Poole & Colleen Arcturus MacIsaac, 10am-12pm

Mo Oct 7 Leveling Up:  Audition Repertoire | workshop and masterclass w/ Kyle Gillis, 6pm-9:30pm

Tu Oct 8 Daily Art Drop -In | special event w/ Lee-Anne Poole & Colleen Arcturus MacIsaac, 10am-12pm

Tu Oct 8 Scene Study Drop-In | Scene exploration w/ Wiljo Martin, 1pm-3pm

We Oct 9 Daily Art Drop -In |special event w/ Lee-Anne Poole & Colleen Arcturus MacIsaac, 10am-12pm 

We Oct 9 Even the Muse Requires Consent | Music Theory Drop-in Session w/ Garry Williams, 7pm-9pm

Th Oct 10 Daily Art Drop -In |special event w/ Lee-Anne Poole & Colleen Arcturus MacIsaac, 10am-12pm

Th Oct 10 Improv Storytelling | workshop with Logan Robins, 7pm-9pm

Fr Oct 11 Daily Art Drop -In |special event w/ Lee-Anne Poole & Colleen Arcturus MacIsaac, 10am-12pm

Fr Oct 11  Malleus Maleficarum | workshop reading, playwright Garry Williams, 7:30 pm-9:30 pm

Sa Oct 12 Daily Art Drop -In |special event w/ Lee-Anne Poole & Colleen Arcturus MacIsaac, 10am-12pm

Sa Oct 12   Even the Muse Requires Consent | Music Theory Drop-in Session w/Garry Williams, 5pm-7pm

Su Oct 13 Daily Art Drop -In |special event w/ Lee-Anne Poole & Colleen Arcturus MacIsaac, 10am-12pm

Su Oct 13 Grant Writing Work and Learn | workshop w/Colleen Arcturus MacIsaac, 1pm-4pm


LIF(e) @ The Nest | Week Three

Mo Oct 14 Theatre Family Potluck |celebrate community & share a meal, 5pm-8pm

Tu Oct 15 Mystery Event | Inquire for more information! 7:15pm-9:30pm

We Oct 16 Even the Muse Requires Consent | Music Theory Drop-in Session w/Garry Williams, 7pm-9pm 

Th Oct 17 Scene Study Drop-In | Scene exploration w/ Wiljo Martin, 1pm-3pm

Th Oct 17 The Blazing World | Group reading, playwright Colleen Arcturus MacIsaac, 7pm-9pm

Fr Oct 18  Little Patches | Baby & Caregiver Music Therapy group w/ Kristi Anderson, 1pm-1:30pm

Fr Oct 18  Storytelling Games Night | one-off play session with Kai McGilligan Oliver, 6pm-10pm

Sa Oct 19  Even the Muse Requires Consent | Music Theory Drop-in Session w/ Garry Williams, 5pm-7pm

Su Oct 20  DaPoPo Birthday Brunch | Join us to celebrate DaPoPo’s 20th!, 11am-2pm

Su Oct 20  Best Light | excerpts from James Thornton’s trilogy, 7:30pm-9:30pm


LIF(e) @ The Nest | Week Four

Mo Oct 21 Abstract | Performance/Feedback workshop with Logan Robins, 8pm-10 pm

Tu Oct 22 Panel Discussion | Local Approaches to TYA Theatre w/HTYP, 5:30pm-7:30pm

We Oct 23 Even the Muse Requires Consent | Music Theory Drop-in Session w/ Garry Williams, 7pm-9pm 

Th Oct 24 Panel Discussion | Leaning Into the Chaos w/Amy Reitsma 7:30pm-9pm

Fr Oct 25 Little Patches | Baby & Caregiver Music Therapy group w/ Kristi Anderson, 1pm-1:30pm

Fr Oct 25  The FEAR Project | Read & Sing Through w/ Kristi Anderson & Garry Williams, 7:30pm-9:30pm

Sa Oct 26  Even the Muse Requires Consent | Music Theory w/ Garry Williams, 5pm-7pm

Su Oct 27  Halifax Songwriters Workshop | group led by Tyler Cox and Kam Hayes, 6pm-9pm


LIF(e) @ The Nest | Week Five

Mo Oct 28  Macabaret | Spooky performances w/ Logan Robins & Jessie Walker, 7:30pm-9:30 pm

Tu Oct 29  Mystery Event| Inquire for more information! 7:15pm-9:30pm

We Oct 30 Even the Muse Requires Consent | Music Theory w/ Garry Williams, 7pm-9pm

Th Oct 31 HalloWords | Closing Night performances, 7:30pm-9:30pm

Fr Nov 1 Little Patches Baby & Caregiver Music Therapy group w/ Kristi Anderson, 1pm-1:30pm

Sa Nov 2  Even the Muse Requires Consent | Music Theory w/ Garry Williams, 5pm-7pm


To reserve your spot or make a donation by e-Transfer, R.S.V.P. admin@dapopotheatre.com



This year, we are celebrating DaPoPo’s 20th anniversary and bringing back one of our signature events… DaPoPo’s Live-In Festival! 


Founded in 2004, DaPoPo has been making theatre for 20 years with collective creations, new plays, original musicals, cabaret nights, interactive and immersive performance events, and a great number of creative endeavours.


From 2010-2019, the company ran The Live-In Festival (LIFe) , conceived by Bonnie Archibald-Awalt, Steven Enman-Beech, Sher Clain, and Jodey Cocker to pay for rehearsal space at the now defunct TNS Living Room. 


From left: Juanita Peters, Kathryn MacLellan, special guest Sharon Pollock, Tessa Mendel, Lee-Anne Pooole, and moderator Colleen Arcturus MacIsaac at the 2015 Live-In festival at another lost venue, KAZAN Co-Op's Waiting Room.


Now, having relocated to our new shared office space, we’ve slimmed down the festival.  LIF(e) @ the Nest includes play readings, workshops, performances, and special events upstairs at 6068 Quinpool, in conjunction with our fellow Nesters, exploring this year's theme: ‘The Devil Within’. 


Our Opening Night event on Friday, October 4th at 7:30pm will include performances from DaPoPo's twenty-year canon and teasers for the month's events.


Among other events, Kristi Anderson and Garry Williams will be revisiting their FEAR Project, originally workshopped at the 2015 Life-In Festival with Guillermo Verdecchia.


Esmeralda (Garry Williams) and Balthazar (Kristi Anderson), a dynfunctional sibling children entertainer duo, airing their fears. Photo credit: Ashley Pettipas.


2024 DaPoPo core members are Kristi Anderson (Executive Director), Ivy Charles, James Thornton, and Garry Williams (co-founder and Artistic Director).


Fellow Nesters include Logan Robbins (Unnatural Disaster), Colleen MacIsaac, Dan Bray (Villians Theatre), Lee-Anne Poole, Nolan Natasha, Chelsea Dickie (Matchstick), Coral Maloney, Lindsay Kyte, Darrel Cameron (Blue Acres Music), Riley Reign (Riley Reign Arts), Abby Frias, and Tessa Mendel (Halifax Theatre for Young People).


This is a grassroots festival, so all events are by donation. We hope our colleagues and the community will be able to  join us! 


Please note: the Nest is on an upper floor, only accessible by stairs both outside and inside, and is not accessible for those with mobility issues. We are actively seeking accessible swing locations. Masks are encouraged. 


Please help us by making reservations and paying for events ahead of time; space is extremely limited. Donations can be made in cash or by e-transfer to admin@dapopotheatre.com


***


In 2007, DaPoPo theatre launched what was to become an annual skill-sharing, professional development festival. For a whole month, some of DaPoPo’s core members virtually lived in Theatre Nova Scotia’s Living Room space: rehearsing, reading new scripts, offering workshops, panel discussions, and hosting social events.


Over the years, some of the artists who attended the Live-In Festival (LIFe) from across Canada included Guillermo Verdecchia, Sky Gilbert, Sharon Pollock, Jay Whitehead, Haley McGee, Erin Brubacher, and [the elephants collective].


Some of the core and associate DaPoPo artists involved with administrating the Festival included Kristi Anderson, Eric Benson, Bonnie Archibald-Awalt, Steph Berntson, Steven Enman-Beech, Andrew Chandler, Sher Clain, Zach Faye, Keelin Jack, Kim Parkhill, Quincy Russell, and Garry Williams.


2009 Live-In/When Did You Last See My Mother?

2010 Live-In at the Living Room

2011 Live-In Festival

2012 Telling Our Stories

2013 The Personal Is Political

2014 Looking Behind the Curtain

2015 Further to the Left

2016 Working Together

2017 Crossing the Lines

2018 Collision Is Inevitable

2019 LIFe 4the WKND

2020 LIFe 4EVR


New plays and musicals read, developed, or workshopped at the Live-In Festival include KAMP by Garry Williams and Jamie Bradley, Treegirl by Megan Hubley, Chasing Champions by Jacob Sampson, The Vanishing Woman by Trevor Poole, Doctor Potato Chips by Steph Berntson, as well as DaPoPo shows The Halifax Hearings, The Drinking Game, The Poor House, Making It, and The FEAR Project.


As stated in a media release in 2019: “In response to both the desire for more LIFe programming all year round and the loss of our former home at The TNS Living Room, we’ve been prompted to re-think our traditional month-long festival. Fortunately, this re-thinking has been an opportunity to both expand our favourite, and most successful, project’s programming, as well as to work in a more sustainable way, so we can have more fun.”


Since then, DaPoPo has tried to offer LIFe-style programming throughout the year, but significantly fewer in number, and spread out over the course of the year, or concentrated

over a weekend. Currently, DaPoPo is offering select programming, including the annual fundraising event Not Quite Burns Night and the ongoing workshop Even the Muse Requires Consent.


2013 Live-In poster designed by Trevor Poole.

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