{"id":13516,"date":"2022-02-28T16:34:14","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T16:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/black-theatre-workshop-celebrates-50-years-with-vision-celebration\/"},"modified":"2022-02-28T16:34:14","modified_gmt":"2022-02-28T16:34:14","slug":"black-theatre-workshop-celebrates-50-years-with-vision-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/black-theatre-workshop-celebrates-50-years-with-vision-celebration\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Theatre Workshop celebrates 50 years with Vision Celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">While it may have been from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=CYBYeaq-zFY\">a safely distanced livestream<\/a>, Montr\u00e9al\u2019s Black Theatre Workshop still found much to celebrate for this year at their annual Vision Celebration. A night celebrating the city\u2019s Black artistic community, BTW\u2019s Vision Celebration is a night of awards and bursaries, as well as a means to reflect on the Canadian theatre institution\u2019s legacy and look to the strides it is taking towards the future.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Hosted by Black Theatre Workshop member and school liaison Becks Lefranc, the night was studded with stirring performances by award recipients and alumni alike. From the start of award-winning spoken word artist Roen Higgens\u2019 introduction with her piece Casting Black Joy, the night\u2019s tone was set through the jubilant examination the powerfully uplifting force that BTW has been for the city; Victor Philips award-recipient Rapha\u00ebl Joseph gave a bravely vulnerable and resolutely sensitive exploration of masculinity and Black identity across several of his works; playwright-actor Maryline Chery, who received the Gloria Mitchell-Aleong award, performed an excerpt of her show Afrodisiaque; and the event was closed with a heartening performance of classic Hairspray track \u201cI Know Where I\u2019ve Been\u201d by actor and musical artist Joy Mwandemange.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">An Intergeneration Dialogue served as a profound discussion of the organization\u2019s past, present, and future. In a talk between veteran BTW supporter and member Leon Llewellyn and actor Schubert Pierre-Louis, ideas of community and finding one\u2019s path were explored, the experiences of both holding wisdom. Pierre-Louis spoke of joining the company\u2019s Artist Mentorship Program as \u201cfinding my tribe\u201d, and highlighted the difference it made in his path:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThe feeling I had before joining AMP, before connecting with BTW, was that I felt lost at sea. I was kind of just floating at sea. And finding BTW was like a lighthouse in the fog\u2026 I hadn\u2019t realized I had a voice until then.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Llewellyn spoke of the direction and purpose that BTW gave him as an artist, as well as the audience it amplified for him in creating designs for their posters and other works. In relation to the organization\u2019s importance, he recalled an African proverb:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cUntil the lions can tell their own story, tales of the hunt will always favour the hunter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Interim artistic director Tyrone Benskin spoke of the present and near-future of Black Theatre Workshop, including the reinstating of two awards for the coming year. \u201cI\u2019m proud to say we are far-reaching and constantly growing,\u201d stated Benskin. \u201cBut it always comes back to community. And we\u2019re confident that these changes will continue to allow us to reflect on the passion and the power and the beauty that is the Black voice and Black stories.\u201d He went on to highlight <a href=\"https:\/\/www.art-critique.com\/en\/2022\/01\/nina-lee-aquino-appointed-as-nacs-english-artistic-director\/\">BTW\u2019s partnership in co-curating the National Art Centre\u2019s upcoming seasons<\/a>, thanking the institution for \u201chelping Black Theatre Workshop open stages and create a presence for our stories and our storytellers, thereby adding to that legacy\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">With 50 years behind Black Theatre Workshop, they are Canada\u2019s longest-running Black theatre company, and a fixture not only in their home of Montr\u00e9al but on the national scale. A half-century of creation, eight years of their focused artistic mentorship, and the 36th Vision Celebration to honour the company\u2019s growth and excellence, BTW is rich with experience and purpose. As the theatre scene itself shifts and changes in uncertain times, the legacy of this cornerstone is never in question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While it may have been from a safely distanced livestream, Montr\u00e9al\u2019s Black Theatre Workshop still found much to celebrate for this year at their annual Vision Celebration. A night celebrating the city\u2019s Black artistic community, BTW\u2019s Vision Celebration is a night of awards and bursaries, as well as a means to reflect on the Canadian [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Black Theatre Workshop celebrates 50 years with Vision Celebration - United Arts Agency | UAA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/black-theatre-workshop-celebrates-50-years-with-vision-celebration\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Black Theatre Workshop celebrates 50 years with Vision Celebration - United Arts Agency | UAA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"While it may have been from a safely distanced livestream, Montr\u00e9al\u2019s Black Theatre Workshop still found much to celebrate for this year at their annual Vision Celebration. 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