BAM North Productions presents

Women's Comedy Training Camp

Jane Luk, Anne Fenn, Rachelle Elie

July 11-14th 2014

Location: BAMs Spanish Riviera near Sudbury, Northern Ontario

4 days, 3 nights, all meals – Earlybird price to May 1 $475 / Regular price $499

(To reserve your spot a deposit of $125 is all that is required! Balance June 11)

We’ve come a long way baby- and yet some bastions within the arts and entertainment industries still clearly disadvantage women. Roles are few and far between, and interesting roles fewer still. Sadly, too often comedy reinforces the status quo rather than challenges it. Be you a woman writer, actor, comic, or director, we invite you to join this 4 day workshop to accelerate your craft, hone your skills, and expand your repertoire in a supportive, creative, and uber- fun skills camp. Give and get feedback, expand your network, have some exquisite “down time” too on the dock, swimming, paddling, hiking, cycling, power lounging.

Whether you are just launching your career as an artist or are a seasoned pro, we WANT YOU here for some incredible collaboration and rejuvenation.

For more information or to register: email beth@BAMNorth.ca or call 705-866-2077.

For this our 2nd year, we have invited these 3 accomplished women of comedy to lead workshops on Improvisation, Stand Up, and Comedy Writing:

Jane Luk, Anne Fenn, and Dawn Whittwell

See Bios below!

Comedy Improv Jane Luk

Improvisation is a spectacular comedy art form in its own right – credited with much of what we enjoy as sketch humour. It is also an incredibly challenging way to stretch artistically with others regardless of how you wish to deliver comedy. Improv can be a powerful tool to flesh out character development or expand on storylines when writers block can bring you to a standstill on paper. The skill of heightening and exploring can bring amazing insight and unimagined possibilities into what was originally seen as an “ordinary” moment. The session will focus on deriving comedic characters and situations from an organic place rather than a forced one. As comedy and a sense of humour is an intensely subjective art form. Learning to trust your gut instinct and committing to your follow-through will be encouraged and facilitated in a safe environment.

Jane Luk is an actor, writer, comedian, improvisor, producer and director. Her performance career of over 20 years has taken her all across Canada both on stage and in film and television projects.

Jane is a founding member of The Wrecking Crew (Improv Troupe) and produced Comedy on the Danforth and Kittens of Comedy for many years. She is a four-time nominee for the Canadian Comedy Awards for Funniest Female Improvisor and won as an ensemble player of Monkey Toast in their first year. Jane is a senior member of the improvisational company, The Bad Dog Theatre Company and facilitates corporate improv classes. She has also facilitated improv workshops for Second City and Young People’s Theatre.

Jane wrote, produced and directed her video short "How To Be More Chinese" which received critical acclaim from national and international film festivals and enjoyed a two-year run on the Comedy Network.

Comedy Screenwriting Anne Fenn

Whether you’re writing a sitcom, half-hour comedy, reality show or web series, Character = Story. And if there's one thing Anne Fenn loves, it's funny female characters. In this workshop we'll watch and discuss existing comedy series to learn about how to write a comedy series – including premise, plot, structure, style/tone, from outline to script, with a strong focus on character. What makes strong comic characters (and what doesn’t?!) There will also be helpful shoptalk on topics like original series vs. spec scripts, pitch documents, writing rooms, role of producers, networks & agents and how to deal with them – and more!

Anne Fenn is a writer, teacher, story editor, independent producer and development executive. A graduate of the University of Toronto and the Canadian Film Centre with a dozen produced TV/film writing credits to her name, Anne has over 20 years' experience writing comedy for film, TV, radio, stage and print media. As a story editor and development executive at Amaze Film & Television and CTV, Anne has developed more TV series, MOWs and films than she can remember. She has had several of her own comedy series in development at CBC and CTV, and is currently developing many of her own and other people’s projects for TV/film/web. Her diverse experience also includes satirical songs for CBC Radio and more recently, standup comedy.

Anne teaches screenwriting at Humber College (Comedy Writing & Performance) and The Comedy Bar, and is conducting an innovative writing workshop with the playwrights-in-residence this summer at the Soulpepper Academy.

Clown Rachelle Elie

Rachelle has been developing her over-the-top/charismatic stage persona for the last 20 years. The focus of this workshop will be on helping comedians find their own character/clown persona. The process of finding your inner clown involves letting your clown out, accepting it, loving it and finally sharing it with the public. Through exercises and games you will get a clearer idea of who your on stage personality is while developing an exaggerated version of your self. Exercises focus on play, stage presence, impulse and élan. For those with clown training, this workshop will help you go deeper. For those new to clown training, this workshop will give you a good start and leave with a better understanding of your comedic voice and personality. Her own work is a hybrid mix of clown and stand up and her teaching focus is on blending both forms to come up with one's own individual style.

Rachelle Elie is an exuberant and dynamic performer, whose strengths lie in character and physical theatre. Over the last ten years Rachelle has created and performed four original solo works across Canada and has been described as “…an exquisite performer” by SEE Magazine and “….frighteningly intelligent” by the Montreal Gazette. In 2008 Rachelle won an Outstanding Comedy Award at The Ottawa Fringe Festival for her show JOE: The Perfect Man. She is co-producer of two very popular Cabaret 's in Toronto: Rag Bag Cabaret and SHINE. She is a regular comedian and host at Montreal's Comedy Nest and performs weekends at Absolute Comedy in Toronto and Ottawa. Rachelle studied clown with John Turner and Mike Kennard (Mump & Smoot), David Shiner (Kooza), Francine Cote (Formation clown), James Keylon (Cirque de Soleil), Karen Hines (Newsroom) and Sue Morrison (Institute of Canadian Clowning). She has also studied bouffon and character with Master Teacher Philippe Gaulier and “Bouffon King” Adam Lazarus. Her teaching style is a blend of her years of performance experience and her studies with various Master teachers.