HFTco in partnership with Theatre Aquarius & The Players’ Guild of Hamilton present
Stage Directions 2025
October 4 & 5, 2025
Two days of strategy, connection, and skills-building for Hamilton theatre and performance makers.
Registration Pricing:
DAY ONE | Saturday, October 4, 2025
10AM-4PM | The Symposium – $40 (includes pizza lunch)
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DAY TWO | Sunday, October 5, 2025
10AM-12:30PM | From Seed to Story with Chantal Lim (Workshop) – $30
1:30-4PM | Stage Combat: Introduction to Swordplay (Workshop) – $30
7-10:30PM | The Monologue Slam – $15
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Stage Directions All-Access Bundle – $92
Save $23 when you register for all four events!
Stage Directions Day Two Bundle – $60
Save $15 when you register for all three Sunday events!
Bundle discounts only apply if you register for multiple events in the same transaction. Discounts cannot be applied retroactively. Questions? Email info@HFTco.ca.
DAY ONE – The Symposium
The Players’ Guild of Hamilton (80 Queen St S)
Saturday, October 4, 2025
10AM – 4PM
“How can we all build a stronger, more sustainable Hamilton theatre community together?”
In 2014, attendees at the first Stage Directions Symposium gathered to address this question, and the work resulted in partnerships, projects, programming, and planning decisions that continue to positively impact the city’s art scene.
It’s time to re-open the discussion.
Do you want to play a part in shaping the future of theatre and performance making in Hamilton? Join us on Saturday, October 4, 2025 from 10AM to 4PM for the Stage Directions Symposium.
Who’s going to be there?
- Hamilton actors, dancers, directors, designers, writers, producers, performing artists, technicians, educators, and more.
- Arts administrators, community leaders, and stakeholders.
- Anyone passionate about growing the theatre and live performance community in Hamilton is invited!
Get involved in this vital conversation helping to shape Hamilton’s unique scene. It’s an essential opportunity to have your voice heard, to build new creative partnerships, and to connect with fellow members of the city’s incredible performing arts community.
Let’s dream out loud together.
Space is limited. Book your spot today.
Registration: $40 (includes a free pizza lunch).
Facilitated by Ground Floor.
DAY TWO – Skills-Building Workshops and The Monologue Slam
Theatre Aquarius Studio (190 King William St)
Sunday, October 5, 2025
From Seed to Story Workshop: 10AM – 12:30PM
Intro to Swordplay Workshop: 1:30 – 4PM
The Monologue Slam: 7 – 10:30PM
(Save $15 when you register for all three Sunday events. Book your spot today!)
Workshop: From Seed to Story with Chantal Lim
Theatre Aquarius Studio (190 King William St)
Sunday, October 5, 2025
10AM – 12:30PM
Hamilton is full of incredible storytellers, comedians, improvisors, and solo artists and Chantal Lim of Replay Storytelling wants to hear from you!
In this workshop, participants will take a memory or a story seed of a real life experience (a true story, from your own life) and with Chantal’s guidance and collaborative practical feedback, grow it into something bigger. Is your next Fringe show bubbling below the surface?
This workshop is open to all experience levels, from folks who’ve never performed on stage before to seasoned professional storytellers.
Space is limited. Book your spot today.
Registration: $30
Instructor: Chantal Lim
Toronto-based performer and educator who helps people jump into storytelling with fun, honesty, and heart. Trained in improv, clown, and theatre, she has performed internationally at festivals like the Manila Improv Festival and the Toronto International Storytelling Festival. Her award-winning solo show, Ancient Dying Chinese Dialect directed by Ken Hall, premiered at Toronto Fringe in 2023. Chantal teaches storytelling across Ontario and produces with Replay Storytelling, which supports both new and experienced performers through workshops, residencies, and shows. You can learn more at replaystorytelling.com.
Workshop: Stage Combat – Introduction to Swordplay
Theatre Aquarius Studio (190 King William St)
Sunday, October 5, 2025
1:30 – 4PM
Join fight and intimacy director Brianna Love (Violence In Motion) for this beginner stage combat class using rapiers. Participants will learn positions and postures, how to move through space telling an effective physical story, safety procedures, and a short combination of fight choreography using rapiers (fencing swords provided).
You do not need any experience to participate in this class – all materials will be provided. Please wear close-toed shoes and close-fitting clothing you can comfortably bend and move around in.
Space is limited. Book your spot today.
Registration: $30
Instructor: Brianna Love
Actor, Fight and Intimacy Director based in Toronto—which is quite different from growing up in a small town with a single traffic light, and cows in her backyard. As a faculty member at multiple colleges in the province, she is passionate about equipping students with the tools to not only be their best as performers but also keep themselves safe in a challenging industry. She is a member of the Association of Acting Coaches and Educators (AACE). Learn more about Violence in Motion at violenceinmotion.org.
The Monologue Slam
Theatre Aquarius Studio (190 King William St)
Sunday, October 5, 2025
7 – 10:30PM
The Monologue Slam is back!
It’s HFTco’s performance competition where Hamilton’s finest emerging and established actors share their talent AND their process. Get a behind-the-scenes glimpse as actors adjust to feedback from industry professionals in real time, revealing what collaboration with a director really looks like – all before a live audience.
Note: content may not be suitable for children. Content is not screened in advance.
Panelists: Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, Marcel Stewart, and Mary Francis Moore
Tickets and/or Performer Application Fee: $15
For Performers:
Don’t miss out on the chance to showcase your work in front of a panel of theatre professionals, perform for a live audience, and vie for the Slam Championship title!
Selected performers present a monologue of no more than 3 minutes in length and receive feedback from the Monologue Slam panel. The panel then chooses three performers to compete in Round 2, where they have an opportunity to incorporate the panel’s feedback and perform their monologues again.
Audience members then vote to decide which of the final three performers will be crowned Hamilton’s 2025 Monologue Slam Champion!
Submit your application by the extended deadline: Sept 28, 2025 at 11:59 PM.
Your Panelists:
Donna-Michelle St. Bernard
Donna-Michelle St. Bernard aka Belladonna the Blest is an emcee, playwright and agitator. Her 54ology series includes The First Stone, Diggers, Give It Up, The Smell of Horses, Just Now, Click Click, Cake, Sound of the Beast, A Man A Fish, Salome’s Clothes, Dark Love and Gas Girls. As director, she has worked on A Poem For Rabia (Shaffeeulah), The F Word (Cheesman/Miranda), Our Fathers, Sons, Lover and Little Brothers (Simamba), Job’s Wife (Nolan), Oops! (Feld). DM is associate artist at lemonTree Creations, artistic director of New Harlem Productions and playwright in residence at Theatre Aquarius. Photo by Graham Isador.
Marcel Stewart
Marcel Stewart is a father, artist, facilitator, and arts administrator who loves smoked gouda. Marcel serves as one of the co-curators of FOLDA (Festival of Live Digital Art). When Marcel is not creating theatre, he is an arts educator who has facilitated programming and instructed courses to community youth groups, professional actors, students in university, high school, and elementary school. Marcel's curiosity about history and lineage, beyond the context of colonialism, is at the basis of his work.
Mary Francis Moore
Mary Francis Moore is the artistic director of Theatre Aquarius and a multiple Dora Maver Moore Award winning artist. Her directing credits at Theatre Aquarius include: A Christmas Story, The Musical, Beautiful Scars, Jonas and Barry in the Home, Maggie, and Home for the Holidays. She has worked at theatres across the country such as Vancouver Arts Club, The Globe Theatre, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Canadian Stage, Tarragon Theatre, Young People’s Theatre, Factory Theatre, Harbourfront Centre, as well as six seasons at The Charlottetown Festival. Her work has been seen on stages internationally such as Goodspeed Musicals, The Tristan Bates Theatre, and Universal Arts. She is published in Canada, the United States, and Brazil.
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