The Segal Centre's Backstage Chatter

Best known for her career as a glamorous diva of stage & screen, Josephine Baker’s legacy is celebrated for acting as a spy for the allied forces in WW2 and an essential figure of the civil rights movement in the United States. She proved beyond all doubt that the tassel can be mightier than the sword (and even the pen!). 

Baker’s Burlesque Legacy: a conversations on the politics and popping pasties brings together four brilliant bombshells of Montreal's own fabulous burlesque scene, Lou Lou La Duchesse de Riere, The Foxy Lexxi Brown, Yaya Havana, and Zyra Lee Vanity, to discuss the rich history of their art and the intersection of burlesque and activism for an exciting preshow panel discussion. Feathers, fans, and fearless questions included! Moderated by the lovely and multi-talented, Votre Dame!

An enriching pre-show discussion about the journey of a show from the page to the stage!

Josephine: A Musical Cabaret

In this multi-award-winning biographical cabaret that combines music, theatre, burlesque, and dance, we follow Josephine Baker’s exploits that were groundbreaking for her time and still incredible nearly a century later. 

This dazzling panel discussion featutres Tymisha Harris (co-creator/performer), Michael Marinaccio (co-creator), Sean Cheesman (director/choreographer), and Taurey Butler (musical director) talking about how they brought this one-woman show from page to the Segal stage!

This Sunday @ the Segal is hosted by our incomparable 2022-2023 season host, Sarah Deshaies (CJAD radio).

An enriching pre-show discussion about the modern Jewish experience

Prayer for the French Republic is the latest work by multi-award-winning playwright Josh Harmon. This play explores modern antisemitism through the lens of a family living in France in 2016 amid a rise of antisemitic attacks and a pivotal election which led to the emigration of 5000 French Jews. 

This Sunday @ the Segal is moderated by our 2022-2023 season host, Sarah Deshaies, and features the Altman family who made this migration from France to Montreal in 2017 to get a deeper understanding of their reasoning and the experience of Jewish people in France. 

This interview will be conducted in French and English.

English by Sanaz Toossi is a humourous and heartwarming story about four Iranian students studying for the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), and their teacher that explores the relationship between language and identity. This Sunday @ the Segal brings together 4 theatre artists of Middle Eastern or North African (MENA) descent, Anne-Marie Saheb, Arash Ebrahimi, Leila Ghaemi, and Sophie El-Assaad to discuss their experiences within the industry, the power of representation, and the significance of producing works like these within the current global context. Hosted by our incomparable 2022-2023 season host, Sarah Deshaies (CJAD radio)!

From the minds of Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen, Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors brings together one of the greatest works of literature and a whole lot of hilarity to create a laughter-filled journey for its audience. Joy might be a universal feeling, but it takes a unique and creative mind to crack up an entire audience. This Sunday @ the Segal features local Montreal favourites Mike Carrozza, Darragh Mondoux, Sandi Armstrong, and Paul Van Dyck discussing comedy in all of its forms, the art and the industry. Hosted by our incomparable 2022-2023 season host, Sarah Deshaies (CJAD radio)!

For the third (and final!) episode of the first season of Backstage Chatter, we are revisiting a Sunday @ the Segal Panel from our virtual production of YidLife Crisis: Pandemish. In this panel, which originally aired in January 2022, we invited four Jewish-identifying panelists of different ages and experiences to talk about their relationship to Jewishness, and how it influences their lives and work. Our 2021-2022 season host, Sarah Deshaies (CJAD radio) moderated the discussion in her signature warm and insightful style, and is also our guest host for this episode. 

Our panelists and host have all developed projects through the Segal's Jewish Arts Mentorship program or the Museum of Jewish Montreal's Microgrants for Creative and Cultural Exploration.

Panelists include daph ben david, J-Rob (Half White Full Black), Yael Silver, and Hershell Blatt.

For our second episode of Backstage Chatter, we are revisiting a panel discussion that originally aired in May 2021. Moving Forward is a panel of recent graduates from five Anglophone Quebec theatre institutions to reflect on what works, what needs to change, and how to move forward.

Over the past few years, we have discovered more about the harsh reality of what many theatre students have experienced behind closed doors. As artistic practices evolve to encourage representation and space for creativity to thrive, are educational institutions also evolving to meet the needs of this fast-paced industry? In a business where techniques are constantly evolving, why do acting institutions continue to hold on to outdated theatrical traditions?

Our guest host is Gabriela Saltiel, co-founder of Acting in Good Company and the Segal Centre's Project Manager, Operations, and Assistant to the General Manager. Our moderators are Kayleigh Choiniere and Mara Lazaris, two more co-founders of Acting in Good Company.

Panelists:

• Dakota J Wellman, Bishop's University
• Camila Fitzgibbon, John Abbott College
• Rebecca Gibian, National Theatre School
• Meagan Schroeder, Concordia University
• Gabe Maharjan, Dawson College

Announcing our newest off-stage venture: Backstage Chatter, a podcast from the Segal Centre!

Like many artistic and cultural institutions, the Segal Centre was shut down in March 2020. While we waited to get back to doing what we do best, producing live theatre in front of an audience, we had the opportunity to have a lot of important and varied discussions, many of them captured and streamed online for your viewing pleasure. In Season 1 - or “Act 1” if you will - of this podcast, we’ll revisit some of our most fascinating conversations. Some were fun interviews with theatre artists from around the world and some were insightful and thought-provoking discussions on issues affecting our community.

You can find our introduction anywhere you stream podcasts, and stay tuned until next Wednesday for our premiere episode!