Alicia Barban
Academy Artist
Soulpepper is pleased to introduce the five promising artists that will be a part of this year's Academy: Alicia Barban, Belinda Corpuz, Ben Kopp, Ruaridh MacDonald, and Haneul Yi.
ABOUT the academy
The Soulpepper Academy aims to develop highly skilled theatre artists who are equipped to make significant contributions in rehearsal halls and to the cultural landscape of Canada. Following the program’s re-launch in 2021 under Artistic Director Weyni Mengesha’s leadership, the Academy has focused on an inclusive and care-based approach to artistic training. Past faculty members have included some of Canada's leading artists: d’bi.young anitafrika, Ins Choi, Ravi Jain, Kim Collier, Gregory Prest, Guillermo Verdecchia, and Artistic Director Weyni Mengesha, who have helped Academy artists develop their artistic voice with original creations throughout the 26-week paid training program.
This year’s Academy is focused on musical storytelling and creation. Academy members were chosen for their unique musical talent and their skills as collaborators in musical creation and performance. The Academy curriculum will be taught through rehearsals, classes, studio intensives, and workshops, led by renowned artists such as Ins Choi, d’bi.young anitafrika, and the Bad Hats theatre ensemble.
The cohort will also headline Soulpepper’s mainstage production of Alligator Pie, a joyous and musical family show based on the celebrated children’s poems of Dennis Lee. Originally created by Academy alumni Ins Choi, Raquel Duffy, Ken Mackenzie, Gregory Prest, and Mike Ross, the return of this beloved holiday show will feature new contributions from the 2024 Soulpepper Academy.
Artistic Director Weyni Mengesha, a graduate of the inaugural class, and Executive Director Gideon Arthurs, a notable leader in Canadian artistic training (National Theatre School) continue to champion the renewed principles of the Soulpepper Academy. Soulpepper’s ambition to be a civic leader and provide a supportive home for all artists is brought into focus through the Academy, and it has played a significant role in the development of generations of Canadian artists and arts leaders since 2006.
soulpepper academy first term sharing
On August 29 & 30 at 7pm, we are pleased to invite audiences to the First Term Academy Sharing in the Tank House Theatre at Soulpepper. The Academy willl share five works-in-progress developed through their first term module, Decolonial Performance Praxis and Biomyth Making facilitated by d'bi.young anitafrika. Tickets are free but registration is required. Please register below to secure your spot.
Running time: approx 2.5 hrs including an intermission, followed by a talkback. Click here to view the program.
d'bi.young anitafrika
Academy Faculty
d’bi.young is a playwright-performer, director-dramaturge and activist-educator, who creates, embodies, and teaches decolonial praxis. Culminating their PhD in Black womyn’s theatre at London South Bank University (LSBU), their research centres on the emancipation of the oppressed self, through theatre making. d’bi.young developed the Anitafrika Method—a nurturant Black-queer-feminist pedagogy of transformation—offering arts practitioners globally, an intersectional framework of knowing, doing and being. A widely anthologised Siminovitch Playwright Prize finalist, three-time Dora award winner, and founding Artistic Director of Watah Theatre, Spolrusie Press and Ubuntu Decolonial Arts Centre in Costa Rica, d’bi.young has authored twelve plays, seven albums, and four poetry collections—headlining poetry & literary festivals, theatre seasons, and academic conferences globally.
Most recently they have held lectureships at Rose Bruford College of Theatre & Performance and LSBU as a decolonial theatre practice, leadership & education specialist. Utilising the Anitafrika Method, they design courses that reframe playwriting, devising, acting, performance, directing, dramaturgy, theatre design & curriculum development from an African-Xaymacan epistemological, ontological, cosmological, ethical, & aesthetic perspective. d'bi.young is lead faculty at Soulpepper and Obsidian’s theatre training programs and lectures in the theatre department at the University of Victoria on the traditional territory of the WSÁNEĆ (Saanich), lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees), Wyomilth (Esquimalt) peoples of the Coast Salish Nation.
The Soulpepper Academy is supported by RBC Emerging Artists Project, the canada arts training fund, and the generosity of Sylvia Soyka, the Kingfisher Foundation, and the Norman and Margaret Jewison Chartiable Foundation. Thank you!
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