PuSh Play

In this bonus episode of PuSh Play, PuSh's Artistic Director, Gabrielle Martin, speaks with Jessie Mill, co-artistic director of Festival TransAmériques (FTA) and founder of the Cliniques dramaturgiques or "dramaturgy clinics" at FTA. PuSh Play Season 5 is coming this fall, with all new episodes featuring audacious artists from around the globe who will be showing their works at the 2027 PuSh Festival, January 20 to February 7! To get a sneak peek of this winter's program, sign up for our newsletter and subscribe for more episodes. Show Notes Gabrielle and Jessie discuss:  The impulse behind creating a space that prioritizes process How to embrace failure as a part of the artistic process Centring artistic workers who are normally in the background What it means to be a dramaturg within and beyond the festival Going back to old conversations during the pandemic, and becoming a living archive What a compressed format makes possible or disrupts How the clinic process itself works, step by step—and how the matchmaking is like, and unlike, speed dating How the dramaturg can move forward with the same vulnerability as the artist The culture around dramaturgy in Montreal vs. other places like Vancouver How local artistic ecologies reshape the clinic each time they visit How to make dramaturgy more visible, and to preserve its experimental nature Weaving together the many perspectives of people in FTA's network About FTA Festival TransAmériques (FTA) is an international performing arts festival dedicated to the most contemporary expressions of dance and theatre. Since its first edition in 1985, it has sought out bold, distinctive artistic work and fresh perspectives Located in Montreal/Tio'tia:ke/Mooniyang, FTA pursues an ongoing dialogue with the city and its history, theatres, and neighbourhoods. It attracts and engages with diverse audiences, which it aims to expand and draw closer. As a coproducing festival, FTA supports the development and circulation of new work by Quebec, Canadian, and Indigenous artists, striving to establish the best possible conditions for it to flourish. The Festival aims to strengthen local artistic communities by offering spaces for sharing and mutual inspiration. Through presenting shows from home and abroad, FTA fosters the growth of our imagination and honours the complexity of the world. The Festival initiates memorable discoveries and powerful experiences that connect emotion with knowledge. FTA is a celebration of the performing arts taking place at springtime each year. About Jessie Mill As a dramaturge and artistic advisor for Festival TransAmériques from 2014 to 2021, Jessie Mill has developed a sophisticated understanding of Quebec's dance and theatre practises as well as their ties to the global performing arts scene, which she has followed closely over the past fifteen years. In June 2021, driven by a collective endeavour, together with Martine Dennewald, she became co-artistic director of FTA. Passionate about contemporary writing, she served as the international projects advisor at the Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD) from 2010 to 2014. Head of foreign programming for four editions of Dramaturgies en dialogue, she was also in charge of the centre's translation activities.   Along with Martin Faucher, who invited her to join the FTA team in 2014, she developed the FTA Playgrounds, and created the FTA Clinics in 2016. This artistic support programme designed to benefit the local theatre and dance communities quickly went global (France, Germany, Italy, Flanders), bringing together a large international community of dramaturges. In 2020, Mill co-created and hosted the FTA-produced podcast Habiter la vie. She also co-edited the book FTA : Nos jours de fête, published with Somme toute in 2018, and is currently working on a dramaturgy handbook, a joint publication forthcoming in 2022. Fostering close ties with local artistic communities, Jessie Mill supports various theatre and dance projects as a dramaturge. She has also published several essays on the performing arts, namely in the cultural journal Liberté, where she serves on the editorial board. She occasionally works as a visiting instructor, course lecturer, or mentor at the University of Ottawa, at the National Theatre School of Canada, and at the Université du Québec à Montréal, in addition to offering cross-disciplinary workshops on dramaturgy. She has been a long-time collaborator of the pan-African festival Les Récréâtrales, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, where she provides guidance to young artists as part of the LABO ELAN programme. She hopes to build bridges between her two favourite festivals. Land Acknowledgement This conversation was recorded on the unceded, stolen and ancestral territories of the Coast Salish Peoples: the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), colonially known as Vancouver. Jessie joined the conversation from what is now known as Montreal, on the traditional territory of the Kanien'kehà:ka, a place which has long served as a site of meeting and exchange amongst many First Nations including the Kanien'kehá:ka of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Huron/Wendat, Abenaki, and Anishinaabeg, . It is our duty to establish right relations with the people on whose territories we live and work, and with the land itself. Credits PuSh Play is produced by Ben Charland and Tricia Knowles. Original music by Joseph Hirabayashi. Show Transcript

PuSh's Artistic Director, Gabrielle Martin, speaks with Wet Mess about TESTO, coming up at the 2026 PuSh Festival: February 7 and 8 at Performance Works. Show Notes Gabrielle and Wet Mess discuss:  The origins of TESTO, particularly in what it meant to take hormones like testosterone Drag as a tool to discover oneself onstage Drag as a devising tool to generate choreography, narrative, etc. The historical aspects of drag Making gender explorations joyful The different personas that Wet Mess explores The oscillation between comedy and vulnerability The origin of the name "Wet Mess" What did the process of making this work reveal to you? What is next for Wet Mess? About TESTO TESTO celebrates transitions, testosterone and the edges of drag–a chaotic, heartfelt, and hilariously unhinged deep dive into the mess of becoming. Here, performance and reality blur until what's made-up somehow feels truer than truth. Expect moustache meals, dykey desires, and a choreography of guttural sexuality that pinches at the dull flesh of everyday life until it sparkles. At once absurd and sincere, TESTO finds the magical in the mundane—the moment when laughter curdles into revelation, and fantasy becomes flesh. It's awkward, erotic, disarming, and deeply human: a love letter to transition, embodiment, and all our leaking edges. About Wet Mess Wet Mess is a wet mess, horny for your confusion. Let it all out and guess again at the insecure balding white man/pussy prince/alien baby. Have a lollygag, think about your fantasy flesh suits, call me sweet prince, and remember Roger in a robe. Choose to make some silly campy decisions, with all the hairy thems and dykey men. All I really wanna do is strip for the stripper and drive her homen with the dogs. Land Acknowledgement This conversation was recorded on the unceded, stolen and ancestral territories of the Coast Salish Peoples: the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), colonially known as Vancouver. Wet Mess joined the conversation from London, UK. It is our duty to establish right relations with the people on whose territories we live and work, and with the land itself. Credits PuSh Play is produced by Ben Charland and Tricia Knowles. Original music by Joseph Hirabayashi. Show Transcript  

PuSh's Artistic Director, Gabrielle Martin, speaks with Mother Bee Gvasalia, Savannah Sutherland, Ihomehe ("Legs"), and Menace Gvasalia about The Motha' Kiki Ball, coming up at the 2026 PuSh Festival: February 7 at the Birdhouse. Show Notes Gabrielle and her guests discuss:  How did Blackout Collective begin and what was that specific moment that compelled it? The significance and meaning of ballroom as gathering and performance Balancing competitive fire with fierce tenderness with honouring roots How chosen families show up, especially in ballroom How ballroom judges work and what they are looking for  The stories that ballroom tells Waves of new talent entering the scene The challenge of learning technique vs. competing The Ballroom 101 Rapid Fire Round! About The Motha' Kiki Ball From vogue to runway, The Motha' Kiki Ball crowns motherhood as the origin story, legacy, and creative force behind Ballroom. Black Out, a collective centering Blackness in the local Kiki scene, leads this year's winter ball co-presented by PuSh and Van Vogue Jam. This Black History Month spectacular celebrates the power that gives life to cultures and movements. Expect looks that radiate iconic energy and a runway filled with matriarch moments. About BlackOUT Collective BlackOUT is a Vancouver-based Collective that centers Blackness within the Vancouver Kiki Ballroom scene. Our mission is to make Ballroom accessible to Black folks in Vancouver by creating entry points, fostering belonging  and celebrating  community. Since our inception in 2024, we've hosted several open sessions and produced "The Cookout Mini Kiki Ball", Vancouver's first Ball featuring an all Black production team and judging panel. Land Acknowledgement This conversation was recorded on the unceded, stolen and ancestral territories of the Coast Salish Peoples: the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), colonially known as Vancouver. Savannah Sutherland joined the conversation from Accra, also called Ga, Ghana. It is our duty to establish right relations with the people on whose territories we live and work, and with the land itself. Credits PuSh Play is produced by Ben Charland and Tricia Knowles. Original music by Joseph Hirabayashi. Show Transcript  

PuSh's Artistic Director, Gabrielle Martin, speaks with Vanessa Goodman about WAIL, coming up at the 2026 PuSh Festival: January 26 and 27 at the Scotiabank Dance Centre. Show Notes Gabrielle and Vanessa discuss:  Vanessa's current work and process on tour across the continent with BLOT The original impulses and images that inspired WAIL How the complexity becoming a parent today requires one to find joy in work What does it mean to navigate joy within community? How can joy be a regenerative force? The power of physiological change from performance How compression can be used in choreography The auditory and visual world of the piece The body as site between the individual and collective The meaning of collaboration and how to hold space for many voices About WAIL WAIL is a choreographic poem for our fractured moment.  Six performers move through a shifting landscape of sound, light, and breath, their bodies echoing the patterns and distortions of the natural world. Drawing from botanical forms and auditory illusion, the work becomes a living ecosystem where motion and vibration feed each other—fragile, unruly, and alive. WAIL immerses audiences in a multi-sensory meditation on coexistence. Amid contrast and chaos, the work finds its rhythm in the act of collective joy: a wail that is both grief and celebration, a sound that gathers us back into the body of the world. About Action at a Distance and Vanessa Goodman Action at a Distance is based on the West Coast on the ancestral and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō, Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. The company is led by Artistic Director Vanessa Goodman and Artistic Producer Hilary Maxwell. Their work carries meaning beyond aesthetics, using choreography as a means to explore liminality within humanity. This exploration questions the boundaries of the human experience, emphasizing the interconnectedness of bodies, technology, and the natural world. Their choreographic practice weaves together generative movement and sonic embodiment, creating immersive performative environments that aim to expand notions of identity, post-humanism and agency. Through their work, they seek to cultivate intimacy between the body and its surroundings, examining how these relationships redefine what it means to be an individual in a rapidly changing world. The company challenges conventional forms of performative hierarchy through collaborative approaches, inviting varied voices to reshape narratives around corporeality and Existence. Goodman has received several awards and honours for the Company's works, including The Iris Garland Emerging Choreographer Award (2013), The Yulanda M. Faris Scholarship (2017/18), The Chrystal Dance Prize (2019 & 2024), the Schultz Endowment from the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (2019), The Isadora Award (2025) and participation in the "Space to Fail" program (2019/20) through Hyde Productions (NZ), Critical Path (AU), and The Dance Centre (CA). Longstanding collaborations include Graveyards and Gardens with Caroline Shaw, BLOT with Simona Deaconsecu, and multiple works with Loscil (Scott Morgan), Brady Marks, and James Proudfoot. Their works have toured Canada, the United States, Europe, and South America.  Land Acknowledgement This conversation was recorded on the unceded, stolen and ancestral territories of the Coast Salish Peoples: the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), colonially known as Vancouver. Vanessa joined the conversation from Calgary, in the traditional territories of the peoples of Treaty 7, which include the Blackfoot Confederacy (comprised of the Siksika, the Piikani, and the Kainai First Nations), the Tsuut'ina First Nation, and the Stoney Nakoda (including Chiniki, Bearspaw, and Goodstoney First Nations). It is our duty to establish right relations with the people on whose territories we live and work, and with the land itself. Credits PuSh Play is produced by Ben Charland and Tricia Knowles. Original music by Joseph Hirabayashi. Show Transcript  

PuSh's Artistic Director, Gabrielle Martin, speaks with Rainbow Chan about Rainbow Chan Live at the Dream Factory, coming up at the 2026 PuSh Festival: February 4 at 7:30pm at the Chinese Canadian Museum. Show Notes Gabrielle and Rainbow discuss:  The unique collaboration and context of Rainbow Chan Live at the Dream Factory The influence of Cantonese pop on Rainbow's work Voice as both instrument and archive Processing grief through song as an individual and collective The original sparks of interest to perform these particular songs The category of ritual song and music The fusion of folk with pop and electronica, and how tradition and futurity animate the process How theatre, as opposed to other artforms, affects the way in which an audience reads what is onstage What's next for Rainbow Chan? About Rainbow Chan Live at the Dream Factory Rainbow Chan is a Hong Kong-Australian vocalist, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and interdisciplinary artist celebrated for her inventive blend of heartfelt melodies, textured electronic production, and culturally rich storytelling. Her sound—both tender and experimental—reflects on migration, identity, and the intimate politics of love and loss. Presented for one night only inside the Chinese Canadian Museum's Dream Factory: Cantopop Mandopop 1980s-2000 exhibition, this special live performance unfolds on Ming Wong's Vast Ocean, Boundless Skies stage—an installation that reimagines the legacy of Cantopop through diasporic lenses. Fusing Cantopop, electronic music, Chinese folk laments, and experimental sound, Chan uses live looping, electronics, saxophone, and voice to explore resilience, identity, and connection across generations. Through this convergence of sound, space, and story, Chan creates a distinctive and contemporary musical experience—an evening where cultural memory, sonic experimentation, and performance meet. The performance will be followed by an open mic karaoke party hosted by Rainbow Chan. About Rainbow Chan Rainbow Chan is an award-winning vocalist, producer and multi-disciplinary artist. Her practice bridges popular music and contemporary visual arts, exploring themes of cultural representation, (mis)translation, matrilineal histories and diasporic heritage. Central to her work is the research and reimagining of women's oral traditions, particularly the fading bridal laments of Weitou women, Hong Kong's first settlers, to whom she has deep ancestral ties. Through pop music, performance and immersive installations, she translates these endangered songs into contemporary art forms, preserving their subversive feminist voices while reflecting on loss, resilience and solidarity. She is particularly interested in the power of ritual, song and performance as both a means of reclaiming agency and a living archive. Land Acknowledgement This conversation was recorded on the unceded, stolen and ancestral territories of the Coast Salish Peoples: the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), colonially known as Vancouver. Rainbow joined the conversation from the unceded territories of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation, in what is today called Australia. It is our duty to establish right relations with the people on whose territories we live and work, and with the land itself. Credits PuSh Play is produced by Ben Charland and Tricia Knowles. Original music by Joseph Hirabayashi. Show Transcript