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The Belfry is committed to equity, diversity, inclusion, and reconciliation, and seeks to engage with and amplify the voices of Indigenous, Black, People of Colour (IBPoC) and other artists and theatre practitioners who have historically experienced discrimination and marginalization.
We offer a number of workshops with leading theatre practitioners from across Canada. These workshops address a range of theatrical disciplines, and are designed to provide the artists in our community with exposure to new ideas and different approaches to the work we do.
“I believe this program is important and essential to the Indigenous community. My time spent in the program was amazing. I mentored in Sound Design under Brian Linds, a truly wonderful teacher, and I’ve taken the tools I’ve learned from the experience and applied them to every aspect of my career. All the staff at the theatre were extremely welcoming, and made me feel like I was immediately a part of the wonderful family feeling at the Belfry. Not once did I feel like a BIPOC artist in their care. I can’t really begin to explain how much this theatre did for me as a person and an artist.”
Lancelot Knight, 2019
In 2018, the Belfry launched the Indigenous Learning Exchange Program — a reciprocal learning opportunity. The Program provides participants with a period of paid employment and skills development in a well-established professional theatre company while providing the Belfry with an opportunity to learn Indigenous ways of creation and theatre-making. The Program also helps the Belfry to build a more understanding and welcoming relationship with Indigenous artists, arts organizations, and communities.
We welcome applications from current and aspiring Indigenous theatre directors, performing arts administrators, stage managers, production personnel, craftspeople and designers. Individual skill levels will vary from candidate to candidate, and should not be considered a barrier to applying.
These are paid positions. The length of engagement and area of focus are customized to the needs and schedules of each participant. In most cases, participants are assigned to one specific production.
Interested applicants are asked to forward a brief resume, plus a letter indicating the skills they hope to develop. This information may also be addressed by phone.
To express interest in participating, or to obtain further information, please email:
Michael Shamata, Artistic Director
ad(at)belfry.bc.ca
This program was launched through the generous support of the Victoria Foundation.
For recent graduates of training institutions in this region, and other young professionals, the Belfry offers a number of opportunities each season to assist and collaborate with seasoned professionals on one of the Belfry’s productions.
Past mentors have included: Lighting Designer Kevin Fraser (30 seasons at the Stratford Festival); Award-Winning Video & Projection Designer Candelario Andrade (Electric Company, Neworld, Boca del Lupo, Arts Club); Award-Winning Set & Costume Designer Shawn Kerwin (The Lehman Trilogy at the Belfry, plus Stratford, Mirvish, Soulpepper, and many more).
Interested applicants are asked to forward a brief resume, plus a letter indicating the skills they hope to develop. This information may also be addressed by phone.
To express interest in participating, or to obtain further information, please email:
Michael Shamata, Artistic Director
ad(at)belfry.bc.ca
In the summer of 2021, the Arts Leadership Training Program was launched by a number of arts organizations in Victoria and Regina, led by the Belfry Theatre and the University of Regina’s Faculty of Media, Arts and Performance.
Our goal is to provide members of marginalized communities with training for leadership positions in the arts.
The impetus for this initiative came from feedback provided by BIPOC artists and arts administrators during a forum organized by the Belfry in June, 2020.
While acknowledging that we are Predominantly White Organizations (PWI) with privilege, and that we have inherited—and still operate within—colonial and oppressive systems, we feel that there is value in opening our doors and sharing the institutional knowledge.
We sought to mitigate these factors by enlisting three of the country’s most experienced and respected BIPOC arts leaders—Philip Akin, Nina Lee Aquino, and Yvette Nolan—to review the applications and choose the participants.
We designed a two-part program, consisting of 12 online seminars, followed by three-month long paid internships, ideally with arts organizations of the participants’ choosing.
The participants are included in the curation of the seminar topics, and we engage over 20 more of the most experienced and respected arts leaders—predominantly BIPOC—as seminarfacilitators.
The original arts organizations who partnered on this program:
The program’s current partner organizations:
Having completed three seasons of the Arts Leadership Training Program, co-coordinators Taiwo Afolabi (Centre for Socially Engaged Theatre), Breanne Harmon (Persephone Theatre) and Michael Shamata (Belfry Theatre) decided not to put out a call for applications for the 2024-2025 season. Although internships will be continuing throughout the year, the co-coordinators are putting the program on hold, in order to spend the year sourcing funding for future editions of the program.
Each season, during the SPARK Festival, we have offered a number of artistically stimulating workshops led by recognized theatre practitioners from across the country. These workshops have addressed a range of theatrical practices, and are designed to expose artists in our community to new ideas and different approaches to the work we love to do.
As we are currently in the process of “building back” the size and scope of the SPARK Festival—following the effects of the pandemic— these PD Workshops may be on hold for a couple of years. Or not. To stay informed:
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