Youth Engagement — the frank theatre

Youth Engagement Projects

**TELLING IT BENT 2025**

Telling it Bent is an interdisciplinary writing workshop for queer, trans, Two Spirit and questioning BC youth ages 14 to 25. Throughout the program, participants will explore poetry, playwriting, and interdisciplinary creation through a queer, decolonial, future building lens. Participants will build connections with other young queer creatives, liberate their sense of imagination and play, and gain a deeper understanding of themselves, their artistic practice, and the possibilities of the stories they can tell. Telling It Bent 2025 will focus on creating one person or small cast pieces, and participants will perform each other’s work. The program will culminate in a Final Showcase as part of the Cultch’s IGNITE! Youth-Driver Arts Festival.
**PROGRAM DESCRIPTION**:
**TIMELINE:** Feb 10th - May 16th, 2025 TBC
**DAY:** Once a week, day TBC
**TIME:** 4:00pm - 6:00pm PST
**WORKSHOPS:** Total of 14

**FINAL SHOWCASE**:
The Showcase will be presented in partnership with IGNITE! Youth-Driven Arts Festival at The Cultch in May 2025
The Showcase will be presented live, with 4 in-person rehearsal dates from May 19 - 30, 2025
Each participant receives a 5 minute performance slot

**HONOURARIUM**: $250 - Upon completion of the project
TIB uses anti-oppressive and decolonial approaches to teaching and storytelling, and is led by QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, POC) Mentors and Facilitators. We strive to make our program accessible to all queer and questioning youth, including D/deaf youth, youth with lived experiences of disability, neurodivergent youth and youth on the mental health spectrum; and will endeavor to meet the access needs of the selected participants. We especially encourage submissions from QTBIPOC, with two spots reserved for Two Spirit/Indigenous youth.
**We will select 8 participants.**
**ELIGIBILITY :**
Participants must be:
● Between the ages of 14 and 25, based in BC
● Identify as Queer, Trans, Non-binary, Two Spirit, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Pansexual, Intersex, on the Asexual spectrum and/or Questioning
● Must have access to a computer to participate in online video workshops
● Please note the frank theatre is reserves 1-2 spots annually for Two Spirit / Indigenous youth
For further information: email anais@thefranktheatre.com

FACILITATOR & PROGRAM PRODUCER: Adonis Critter King

Adonis Critter King, is a Black and nonbinary, inter-disciplinary writer, theatre creator, director, facilitator, and activist. Their arts practice is rooted in social justice as daily practice, revolution as habit that starts in the home, and QT2BIMPOC safe space curation. Their work uses afro-surrealism, visionary fiction, and The Poetic Surreal to explore the joys and complexities of mad and disabled QT2MBIPOC life, the unsettling nature of becoming, and the difficult choices we must make to liberate our futures.

Adonis was the 2016 Youth Poet Laureate of Victoria, the 2017 recipient of the VACCS (Victoria African & Caribbean Cultural Society) Community recognition Award, and in 2020 they received the Witness Legacy Award for Social Purpose and Responsibility Through Art.

Recent mentorship credits include: The Parallel Project (2023) with Momentum 180 and Telling it Bent (2023) with The Frank Theatre Company.

MENTORS:

PLAYWRITING MENTOR:

Anais West: Queer, trans playwright, producer & performer, and a 2nd generation Polish settler. The 2023 winner of the Wildfire National Playwriting Competition, the 2018 winner of PTC’s Fringe New Play Prize, and nominated for two Jessie Richardson Awards, including Outstanding Original Script. Their work has been presented by the frank theatre, Zee Zee Theatre, Queer Arts Festival, Theatre Passe Muraille, Rumble Theatre, ITSAZOO, the PuSh Festival and more. His writing has been published in This is Beyond: A Time Capsule of Queer Experience with Playwrights Canada Press.

SCREENWRITING MENTOR:

Karter Masuhara: Non-binary artist and arts manager. They have worked for a variety of artistic companies in administrative and communication roles with a focus on creating opportunities to uplift diverse voices. As an artist they have written and directed an award-winning short film, Where to Piss, which has been entered into multiple film festivals globally. They have also written and self-produced their own play, Before They Cut Down Our Tree, which was presented at the 2023 Vancouver Fringe Festival. They have a Masters in Screenwriting from Leeds Beckett University.

Youth Engagement Projects

TELLING IT BENT 2025

FACILITATOR & PROGRAM PRODUCER: Adonis Critter King

MENTORS:

“Whatever it is, the way you tell your story can make all the difference.”