Joan & David's Workshop Methods: These structured workshops include warm up and improvisation games, prompted solo & group creative play / work, and a community event.  

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About the Artists:

 

Joan Chandler

Joan Chandler is a theatre producer, director, writer, arts educator, and workshop facilitator. She  will celebrate her 40th anniversary in 2025 as the founding Artistic Director of Sheatre, a professional community arts company based near Owen Sound.

 

Joan’s work celebrates the creative spirit and tackles social issues. She collaborates with groups to create art rooted in their lived experience – art that sparks connection, participation and change. An award-winning scriptwriter, she brings heart, clarity, and vision to every project. 

 

A pioneer in the field of interactive community-engaged arts, she has been at the forefront of using theatre to ignite dialogue and drive change—introducing Forum Theatre to rural Southwestern Ontario, shaping the practice of community-engaged arts in Grey-Bruce-Owen Sound, and developing the first known use of theatre as a tool for lobbying government in the modern era—an innovation that influenced Brazilian director Augusto Boal’s creation of Legislative Theatre, which is practiced around the world. Joan always looks for ways to expand the reach of resonant community-created pieces.  For example, she produced Ontario’s first interactive live Forum Theatre telecast, and launched one of the earliest fully interactive web-dramas with the award-winning film project Far From the Heart, adapted from the Forum Theatre play.

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Having produced, directed, and co-facilitated the collective creation of 117 plays and thousands of workshops across Ontario and abroad, Joan continues to explore bold, responsive storytelling. Recent projects include two podcast adaptations of Sheatre’s plays: the acclaimed Ye Canna Throw Yer Granny Off a Bus! and Mishoo Miinwa Noki ~ You, Me and Wrinkles—both created in response to the rise in elder abuse during the pandemic. She is currently collaborating with illustrator and storyteller Ryan James Terry on a graphic novel, Pterodactyl Delight.

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Joan says, “There’s more stuff.  But all of it starts in a small circle of people playing together.  Just like this. That’s where I’m happiest.”

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david sereda

david sereda has over 35 years of experience and a national reputation as theatre artist, singer/songwriter, composer, producer and activist. He has worked with Sheatre and Joan Chandler since 2002. As a singer/songwriter, he has performed at major festivals and concert halls across Canada, and has been guest soloist with notable choirs: Nova Scotia Mass Choir, Montreal Jubilation Choir, Vancouver Men's Chorus and most recently the Echo Women's Choir (Toronto). He has released three albums on his indie label Rocky Wednesday Records. 

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He is a seasoned collaborator on new music theatre productions. He was nominated for a Dora Award for best musical (Love Jive, book by Don Hannah, music, lyrics and music direction by Sereda, Tarragon). Other music direction includes Last Call! (Belfry, Victoria), Songs of a Prairie Girl (U. of Sask., Saskatoon and Prairie Scene at NAC, Ottawa), The Dressing Gown (Buddies in Bad Times), The Destruction of Eve (Company of Sirens, Toronto and School of the Arts, McMaster U, Hamilton) and The Snow Queen: A Public Dream (director Paula Jardine, Public Dreams Co., Edmonton). Most recently he led music workshops in Owen Sound, Toronto and St. Catharines for the new musical, A Desperate Road to Freedom, inspired by Karleen Bradford's novel about Freedom Seekers on the Underground Railroad.

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In addition to work as Sheatre's associate artist, sereda led songwriting workshops for Workman Arts (Toronto), developed community choral workshops for New Dance Horizons (Regina, SK), collaborated with choreographers on new works with students in Toronto (National Ballet's Creating Dances in the Schools), and managed and co-led the songwriting and recording project Where were the Mothers? in Regina schools through UMBRA, with video artist Linda Duvall and composer Ramses Calderon.

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As a producer and administrator, david helped organize successful school tours for Sheatre’s ground-breaking Far From the Heart (2008, 2009, 2011, 2012) in Saskatchewan and Ontario, and the inaugural tour of Loin du Coeur (Spring 2013, N. Ontario). He also served as Communications & Outreach Officer for the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance (2011). Since 1991, he has been producer and host of over 45 Stray Dog Salons, exuberant evenings of music, poetry and theatre in Toronto. Originally from Edmonton, Alberta, david is now based in St. Catharines, Ontario.

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Listen to david’s music on Soundcloud.

 

"david sereda sings like an angel and writes like a sinner." - Author Michael Ondaatje