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Announcing new Residency Artists!

July 14, 2025

The Theatre Centre is thrilled to announce its first slate of new Residency Artists since 2020. From 150 applications to this competitive program, five projects conceived by seven artists were selected to join Residency: Ann-Marie MacDonald and Alisa Palmer, Brandon Hackett and Jonathan Langdon, Philip Geller, Gregory Prest, and Jennifer Goodwin.

Artists were selected by The Theatre Centre’s General & Artistic Director, Aislinn Rose, and Associate Artistic Director, liza paul.

Collage of incoming Residency artists

From l:r, Jonathan Langdon, Brandon Hackett, Philip Geller, Alisa Palmer, Ann-Marie Macdonald, Jennifer Goodwin, and Gregory Prest

 “We had an overwhelming response to our call for new Residency artists this year – nearly 150 applications! We went on to have 42 incredible conversations with artists, all of whom brought us great ideas that could be beautifully supported by a program that promises long-term support and access to dedicated space. We regularly hear ‘there’s no program like this anywhere else,’ and I think that’s been demonstrated by the response to the call.

 One of the things we tried to be clear about this time around was that the program as it’s designed best supports artists who are mid to senior career, which we’ve been told is refreshing in a sector where the feeling is if you’re not emerging as an artist, then you’re submerging. We are thrilled to welcome these new artists into the fold of an already incredible roster of artists, and I can’t wait to see where their experiments take them.”

— Aislinn Rose

The Theatre Centre is renowned for its unique Residency model. Projects born out of The Theatre Centre’s Residency program receive space, funding, and mentorship from the company, along with the connections required to bring partners on board to fully realize the work. The most recent Residency Production, Loss by Ian Kamau, was the recipient of a National Arts Centre Creation Fund investment and was most recently presented by The Apollo as part of Under the Radar festival in New York City.

Ann-Marie MacDonald & Alisa Palmer, as well as Brandon Hackett & Jonathan Langdon  were selected to join the main Residency Program with a minimum two-year commitment to creation. 

“After decades of acclaim for Ann-Marie MacDonald’s canonical work as an author, actor, playwright, and broadcaster, we were excited by the provocation that Best Soldier would be her most deeply personal project yet. This piece will delve into volatile autobiographical material, while requiring a completely different way of working as a creator and collaborator. That she will be embarking on this vulnerable experimentation as a senior artist makes this an investigation ripe with potential.”

— Aislinn Rose

“Hackett and Langdon are a solid example of what meticulous attention to craft in comedy can generate. Having seen the magic they made in half an hour at Comedy is Art 2024, we are confident that their full-length comedy show will be a total riot”

— liza paul

Philip Geller, Gregory Prest join the Explorations streams, which allows artists to spend a year supported in their pursuit of burning questions that may impact a larger work, or the future shape of their practice. Jennifer Goodwin joins the Finishing stream to take her work that has been in development for years into an intensive period of design and technical experimentation. 

“We receive so many great ideas from artists that require time and space but don’t necessarily fit within the structure of Residency, so these streams allow us to support these artists in new and different ways. 

Philip’s Trickster immediately felt like it needed a methodology that was not based in product but in, potentially, life-long investigation. With Gregory and Quorum we’ll have the opportunity to test the core concept in myriad ways without needing to point it in a specific direction. Jenn told me about the incredible idea behind The Changeover several years ago. This piece, and the idea behind it, has had a hold on Jenn that just won’t let go, and these are the kinds of ideas that The Theatre Centre can play a tangible role in seeing through.” 

— Aislinn Rose

Incoming Residency Projects:

Ann-Marie Macdonald has glasses, short brown hair, and Alisa Palmer has short cut blond hair. They are both wearing black, smiling to the camera. Their photos are collaged together in one box.

Ann-Marie MacDonald and Alisa Palmer

Best Soldier

With Best Soldier, Ann-Marie MacDonald brings her most deeply personal project to The Theatre Centre. Working toward a solo performance, the piece will be rooted in autobiographical material that centres movement and dance. The project asks big questions digging into the power of memory, the roots of illness, and what it means to heal. It investigates the experience of being trapped in a body that feels invaded by poltergeists and vandals – some of whom bring an urgent message, some of whom are only there to raise hell. Ann-Marie is physically fearless and a very funny performer, and we look forward to seeing what lies at the intersection of Pina Bausch, military drill, and Don Campbellock.

Additional credits: Collaborators Rose Plotek and Rebecca Harper; consultant Yousef Kadoura

Hackett and Langdon

Untitled Full-length Comedy Show

What happens when we are freed from our silos? What happens when you are proven wrong about your experience being a solitary one? What happens when you finally see the virtually invisible threads of shared identity and culture through the uniquely bizarre medium of comedy? 

This duo first met as new cast members of the long-running weekly sketch comedy troupe The Sketchersons, and for the past two decades, they have performed in various venues (often bars) across Toronto. While these venues are geared toward live comedy that requires minimal props, simple lighting and sound, occasional live music, and limited visual media, we’ve all come to the conclusion that it’s time for them to create a comedy show that is significantly bigger, more complex, and more dynamic than anything they’ve done before.

Brandon and Hackett hold hands and spin around in joy.

Explorations:

Philip is wearing large flower beaded earrings, wearing a white sweater and jeans, sitting on a tool and gazing at the camera.

Philip Geller

The Trickster Institute

The Trickster Institute is a beginning, culmination, and continuation of a lifelong practice of living alongside trickster. The Trickster is a deeply personal-archetypal figure and lives in the cracks between the undefinable. Trickster is defined by the undefinable, known as the unknowable. A gender bending, shape shifting, monstrous lover of all things, hungry and powerful, foolish and meek, one of our greatest teachers and un-learners.

Trickster is the one who teaches us about subversion and challenging power. Trickster tells us to celebrate the other, the strange, and the queer. Trickster offers a new-ancient knowledge system that is ancestral and future oriented. Through this exploration Philip offers a call to consider an alternative practice in theatre and performance that centres emergence, growth, and the unknowable, just like trickster.

Gregory Prest

Quorum

What happens when passion is trapped under protocol? And why is that so funny? Gregory Prest brings to The Theatre Centre an exploration of the emotional, comedic, and theatrical potential of a board meeting. Unintentionally hilarious, slow, procedural, sometimes dry, oftentimes passionless, ineptly quaint, deeply inspiring, and filled with jargon and rules that make one howl at the absurdity of it all… along with major decisions about artistic life being made. This is not a takedown of arts boards (Without these volunteers, where would we be?) It’s something stranger. More tender. More magical.

Comedy is at the heart of this investigation. It’s also an experiment in restraint, timing, awkwardness, recognition, and a study of non-performance as performance. Humour as connection. Boredom as staging ground. Behaviour as choreography. An exploration of the absurdity of systems, the weirdness of human interaction, and the beauty of a shared WTF moment.

Gregory has short black hair that he has combed back, and is wearing a blue suit.

Finishing:

Jenn Goodwin is wearing a cream coloured blouse, dancing to the side. Her hair moves to the dance and covers majority of her face.

Jennifer Goodwin

The Changeover

An exploration of the changeover between bands at a concert is a potent choreographic and spiritual playground. It represents an opportunity to look at change, transition, transformation, and the small yet special moments in our lives through the lens of a rock show; an event we attend to be entertained by music, performance, lighting and collectivity. The changeover is usually the time to talk, get a drink, go to the washroom, etc. At the very moment we are encouraged to look away, The Changeover shines a light. Part performance, part band practice, part installation, part sound score, part meditation, The Changeover is an homage to the in-between. A call to pay attention. The Finishing stream will allow this long-held big idea to be seen through to fruition.

Residency is a structured two-year program (sometimes longer!) providing groups/artists with the necessary space, funding and mentorship to craft ideas still in their infancy into finished works that are provocative, innovative, and ambitious. We look for good ideas, drawing us to projects led by directors, designers, composers, choreographers, architects, visual artists, and even a neurologist. Residency facilitates a highly collaborative artistic process that starts by asking what do you need? 

collage of all the residency artists: Jonathan langdon, brandon hackett, jenn goodwin, alisa palmer, anne-marie macdonald, philip geller, gregory prest, danjelani ellis, stewart legere, adam lazarus, brandon ash mohammed, pj prudat, dbi young's watah theatre, nehal el-hadi

The Theatre Centre Residency Artists, from top l to bottom r: Stewart Legere, Adam Lazarus, Brandon Ash-Mohammed, PJ Prudat, dbi.young anitafrika (Watah Theatre), danjelani ellis, Alisa Palmer, Ann-Marie Macdonald, Philip Geller, Nehal El-Hadi, Jonathan Langdon, Brandon Hackett, Jennifer Goodwin, Gregory Prest.

Main Program:

  • Nehal El-Hadi — The Observer Effect
  • Adam Lazarus — Versus
  • Stewart Legere — The Unfamiliar Everything
  • Ann-Marie MacDonald and Alisa Palmer — Best Soldier
  • Hackett and Langdon — Untitled Full-length Comedy Show

Explorations allows artists to spend a year supported in their pursuit of burning questions that may impact a larger work, or the future shape of their practice.

  • danjelani ellis — Iris Malcolm Housing Co-op
  • Philip Geller — The Trickster Institute
  • Gregory Prest — Quorum (in partnership with Video Cabaret)
  • PJ Prudat — Currently exploring new ideas

Finishing creates an opportunity for an artist to take a work that has been in development for years into an intensive period of design and technical experimentation.

  • Brandon Ash-Mohammed — The Reclusive Chanteuse
  • Jennifer Goodwin — The Changeover
d'bi.young
d'bi.young anitafrika

Our Company in Residence: d’bi.young anitafrika’s Watah Theatre!

Watah Theatre specializes in the professional development and mentorship of emerging artists and was founded in 2008 by d’bi.young anitafrika.

Arts-engagement sits at the core of Watah’s commitment to provide Black artists with the tools to self-actualize, create relevant art and uncover crucial mentorship skills for each one to teach one.

Thank you
Thank you so much to BMO Financial Group for their long term support of Residency! Thank you to the George Cedric Metcalf Foundation for allowing us to create new opportunities for Explorations and Finishing this year.

BMO
Metcalf Foundation logo

Main Program vs Explorations and Finishing
The Residency program was designed in 2004 to respond to a gap in the sector for new works that required space for their development. Explorations & Finishing was introduced in 2020 to continue in that tradition of experimenting with ideas that have the potential to address gaps in creation opportunities for artists.

Explorations allows artists to spend a year supported in their pursuit of burning questions that may impact a larger work, or the future shape of their practice. Finishing creates an opportunity for an artist to take a work that has been in development for years into an intensive period of design and technical experimentation.

To reference the Residency announcement made in April 2025, please visit here. 

Coming up next at The Theatre Centre:

  • The Sankofa Trilogy featuring the biomyth monodramas blood.claat, benu, and word! sound! powah! by d’bi.young anitafrika | September 23 – October 12, 2025 | Funded in part by the Government of Canada
  • Comedy is Art 2025 | October 2025 | Funded by the Kingfisher Foundation and the Government of Canada
  • City of Craft 2025 | December 5-7, 2025

About The Theatre Centre

The Theatre Centre is a nationally recognized live-arts incubator and community hub. Our mission is to offer a home for creative, cultural and social interactions to invent the future. We make work that spans disciplines and genres; work that pushes the boundaries of what is considered “art”. Our programming and our role as a community space are inextricably linked. Art is not made in a silo: it is connected to the world around it.

Media contact

Emily Jung
Director of Communications
[email protected]

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