Pure Research with Nightswimming

My collapsible cane adorned with stern felines, basking in a sunbeam.

I’m delighted to be working with Nightswimming on Pure Research #41, Collaborating with Chronic Illness.

Research focus

How might we work with chronic illness—as subject matter, as the architecture within which performance is created, and as a collaborator in its own right? In what ways can we visibilize the invisible, externalize the internal and work in rhythm with the unpredictable to crip the process of play-making? What might sustainable collaboration look like, for ill artists?

Take the Survey

Do you identify as a theatre artist or arts administrator with chronic illness?

Help contribute to this research: Survey of Chronically Ill Theatre Artists in Canada

This survey will take 10-20 minutes to complete. Deadline for responses: August 31, 2026. 

If you prefer to answer the survey verbally, please email shesaidyestheatre@gmail.com to schedule an interview. 

This is an anonymous survey. Input is welcome from anyone who self-identifies as chronically ill, and who works in theatre in Canada (creators, performers, directors, playwrights, designers, stage managers, technicians, producers etc). The purpose of the survey is to examine specific challenges and access needs for chronically ill theatre artists.

Research Collaborators: Lois Brown, Brian Quirt, Gloria Mok.

For more information: Pure Research 41 Collaborating with Chronic Illness

Artist Talk, Monday April 27, 2026

@awwe.network Artists Working With Environment is a great new international initiative bringing artists of many different disciplines together for dialogues around arts and the environment. I'm happy to be hosting dialogue #3 on Monday, April 27.

From the event listing:
A little background on Sara: She is a multidisciplinary artist from Ktaqmkuk/Newfoundland, currently based in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador. Her work bridges writing, theatre, clown and puppetry. She has written, co-written or co-created fifteen works for theatre to date, as well as the award-winning novels Skin Room and DUKE, published by Pedlar Press. She ran the feminist theatre company She Said Yes! from 2002-2016 and co-founded the Women’s Work Festival with White Rooster Theatre and RCA Theatre. Sara has taught Clown through Mask and Neutral Mask, and designed puppets for several theatre companies as well as her own puppet film, Hungry Little Shadow.

In her artist talk, Sara will share how her multidisciplinary practice has been informed by engagement with the natural environment. She’ll give a tour of The Old Stump, @theoldstump her solo travelling puppet theatre built to showcase very short plays inspired by the forest ecosystem, which is set to debut soon. She’ll also facilitate exercises to give a quick taste of the mask and clown practice that informs all of her work. Attendees will have the opportunity to practice embodying a 'neutral mask state' without using actual masks, work with imagery from nature inside the body, and do a free-writing exercise that Sara uses to begin nearly every creative project.

*Note: Participants can move as little or as much as preferred during the exercises. It will be helpful to have markers or pens and a large sheet of paper on hand, (or to tape several sheets of paper together in advance, to create a bigger surface to work with).

12-1:30pm Eastern Time, 9-10:30 AM Pacific Time (PT), 1:30-3 PM Newfoundland Time (NT) etc!

Register: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScv2eIh55f0wToH8XMEHxVGE02lL0HcF46AQo231cP7ZOBFbw/viewform

The Bear and the Tree in progress

Lead actor gets new headshots in the beautiful autumn light.

I’m currently designing a micro theatre shaped like an overgrown tree stump with moss and mushrooms and berries growing on it. It will be a soft sculpture and also a tiny theatre for small puppet plays for very small audiences. Micro theatre! First up: The Bear and the Tree. I’m looking forward to sharing more as it all takes shape.