thots on art

‘How to Theatre: When you don't know the language’ Akut Zine

May 8, 2026

“My friend once told me about going to the theatre in a language they didn’t understand. They said: ‘In those situations, when I am far from any kind of translation – or don’t have access to one – I actually appreciate it. It frees me from the semiotics and I can experience everything more phenomenologically. I’m just swimming in this little sea of information that might not fully connect or register. I feel like the audience always wants to understand – we all have that desire to understand. But when you’re watching something in another language, there’s a different expectation: that you won’t understand it, at least not verbally. So whatever you do understand or connect with, there’s no final point you’re trying to reach. You stop searching for that one message. There’s much more freedom to detach from language and receive the experience in other ways, like something unfolding in front of you.’ ”

Text by Sofija Digam. Interview excerpt from Keshia Palm.

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‘The Future of Theatre is Here: Keshia Palm on the 2024 Paprika Festival’ She Does The City Interview

May 14, 2024

“The future of theatre is fun. It’s you and all your friends going together and then talking about it for hours over a bottle of wine until 3am. It’s you breathing in sync with a bunch of strangers. It’s you laughing and that person in the front row laughing too. It’s you falling in love with the people on stage. It’s you feeling seen. It’s you feeling all the feelings all at once. It’s your heartbeat racing. It’s unexpected. It’s exciting. It’s magic. It’s never the same thing twice. That’s why you go.”

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‘Keshia Palm & Julia Dickson of The Paprika Theatre Festival’ Stageworthy Podcast

September 13, 2021

In this Stageworthy Podcast episode with Phil Rickaby, Julia Dickson and Keshia their recent transition into leadership at the Paprika Festival (Julia as General Manager, Keshia as Artistic Producer), digital fatigue, freedom to fail, and the importance of youth-led organizations in the performing arts ecology.

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‘Accessibility as a Practice’ blog post for Generator

May 6, 2021

This learning pathway for ArtistProducerResource.com invites you to use a values-based approach to the budgeting, planning, development, and execution of a production, where conscious decisions are being made, at all stages of the process, about who the play is for and how the needs of the audience and artists are being met.

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'ART IS HARD’ for Modern Times Stage Company

November 18, 2020

An essay on art, basketball, and choosing when to play.

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‘Miss your friends and favourite places? Go for a bike ride with this immersive storytelling project’ a CBC Arts interview

April 30, 2020

Keshia discusses how their pandemic birthday bike ride turned into the digital community arts project Make Me An Alleycat with CBC Arts reporter Leah Collins.

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'A Safe Space to Fail: A Look Inside The 38th Annual Rhubarb Festival’ dartcritics interview

February 21, 2017

An interview with festival curator Mel Hague about Toronto’s (queer) experimental theatre festival that’s been running since 1979, and co-creators Claren Grosz and Keshia Palm about performing their immersive and intimate production of shadow girls in this year’s festival.

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