About the Program
Dialogue Dolls is a script development program designed to support IBPOC trans women and trans femmes who self-identify as emerging playwrights through mentorship, participation in a playwright’s unit, and one-on-one dramaturgy. No social and/or medical transition is required in order to participate in this program. Throughout the months of July 2023 to March 2024, participants work towards the completion of a full-length play with the opportunity to share their work publicly with the support of a professional director and performers. This program will be an intimate space with only 2-3 playwrights accepted per season, allowing for plenty of one-on-one conversation and sharing within a tight-knit group. We are looking for intersectional feminist content and there is no age limit to apply. Participants will receive a $2,000.00 CAD honorarium.
Please note: We accept applications from Ontario-based artists, especially encouraging applicants from rural communities. Meetings throughout the year will be held using Zoom technology with the potential for in-person gatherings.
Meet the 2023-2024 Dialogue Dolls
Kïkeyah Alina (she/her) is a xicana pilipina earth worker, seed keeper, curator and transdisciplinary artist. To name a few, she plays in mediums such as natural dyeing, instrument building, dance and performance, film, screen printing, beading, and drawing and painting. Her practice is rooted in the land and guided by divine trust and her blood. Her practice includes holding space and workshops surrounding farming, crafting and natural dyeing. Most recently, she made her theatre debut, playing role of spirit guide in the ritual theatre production titled “Umawit Queer Earth”, produced by Greenhouse Theatre. As well this past summer she curated and showed in “I Have Always Been Here and I Will Always Be Here” a group show exhibition at Toutoune Gallery. Kïkeyah is nourished by and most devoted to her love and relationship to earth and community.
Scarlett Jodha is an aspiring comedian and writer. She took part in a group of trans femme artists called the Trans Gemmes as a writer and performer in their shows Trans Gemmes and Trans Gemmes 2.0. Scarlett loves to explore the gloomier parts of life and have honest dialogue about them while injecting her personality and humour into the equation. Her aim is to entertain people with her work and give them insight on the trans experience.
Leon Tsai (they/she) is a Taiwanese trans-femme and settler-immigrant storyteller (un/re)learning in Tkaronto. Most recently debuted their self-written, self-directed, and self-produced showcase as part of the Paprika Festival’s creative producers’ residency back in Spring 2023. While continuing to seed softness through grief and madness, she invites the world on this journey together as well as forward: planning, caring, and preparing for the softest revolution yet where none is left behind. May we blossom softer, so we don’t break further.
Meet the program Leader
Bilal Baig is a queer, trans-feminine, Muslim playwright, performer and workshop facilitator. Baig’s first play, Acha Bacha, was published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2020 and nominated for the Dayne Ogilvie prize by the Writer’s Trust of Canada in 2022. Baig works at non-profits such as Story Planet and Paprika Festival, where they develop and facilitate workshops for youth in underserved neighbourhoods in Toronto focused on creative writing and literacy (Story Planet), and playwriting for emerging writers (Paprika Festival). Baig is the lead and co-creator of the Peabody Award winning CBC/HBO Max/Sphere Media series, Sort Of. They were also named in TIME magazine’s “Next Generation Leaders” class of 2022.