Keshia Palm is a Toronto-based Filipinx-German artist from Treaty 6 Territory seeking to spark connection and conversation through live, shared experiences in thoughtful and inclusive art/spaces. More on that here.
upcoming / current / recently / past
Watch&Talk at Zürcher Theater Spektakel
August 22-August 31, 2024 in Zurich, Switzerland
A 10-day meeting and exchange program for young artists from all over the world at Zürcher Theater Spektakel. Through joint performance visits, discussion formats and sharing, the participants get to know each other, reflect on their own artistic work, and establish new professional relationships, promoting intercultural cooperation and expanding the networks of professional artists across borders.
Learn more →
#Paprika23
May 14-19, 2024 at Native Earth Performing Arts Aki Studio
23rd annual Paprika Theatre Festival in Toronto’s Regent Park, featuring over 20 performances, workshops, community and industry events. A week-long celebration of emerging storytellers and their stories completely free and by-donation to attend. The culmination of my 3rd and final season as artistic producer.
Programme Archive →
SheDoesTheCity Interview →
Graphic design by Marcia Diaz
Kostyn Mitruk in Radium Girls / photography by Jeremy Mimnagh
Radium Girls
March 24-30, 2024 at Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan Theatre (York University)
Theatre@York Production dedicated to CUPE 3903, directed by Keshia Palm
Radium Girls by D.W. Gregory recounts the true story of Grace Fryer and several other young factory workers who were exposed to toxic radium over several years while working for the US Radium Corporation in Orange, New Jersey in the 1920s.
Learn more →
23/24 Write From The Hip
Interim Program Director for Nightwood Theatre (Toronto, Canada)
Facilitating a year-long script development program designed to support self-identifying emerging playwrights through mentorship and 1-on-1 dramaturgy.
Write From The Hip is a script development program for intersectional, feminist content by women (*including, but not limited to trans, cis), Two-Spirit, non-binary, and gender expansive playwrights who are emerging in craft. Participants work towards the completion of a full-length play and a public reading at the Groundswell Festival in Fall 2024.
Learn more →
illustration by mitch duncan. graphic design by Awake Studio
Jaime Lujan in White Muscle Daddy / Photo by Jeremy Mimnagh
WHITE MUSCLE DADDY
March 20-31, 2024 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (Toronto, Canada)
A Pencil Kit Productions + Buddies in Bad Times Theatre Production with the support of Charles Street Video
Very excited to share that WHITE MUSCLE DADDY will be produced this spring by Pencil Kit Productions and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre! This cinematic theatre piece written by Raf Antonio uses projection art, live camera feed and shadow play to spin a chilling yarn about the politics of queer desire. I’ve been supporting Raf on this project as dramaturge since 2019 and can’t wait to see the production team bring this horror-fantasy to life.
Learn More →
European Theatre Academy 2023
July 4-8, 2023 at Festival d’Avignon, France
Hosted by the European Theatre Convention
I joined 16 theatre professionals from across Europe and North Africa in Avignon to discuss and develop international theatre collaborations with mentorship and expert lectures from leading professionals of the international theatre scene.
European Theatre Academy is a four-day seminar of masterclasses and workshops on the development and management of international theatre collaborations. It is designed for theatre professionals at the beginning of their careers, with the ambition to grow internationally.
Meet the Participants →
Haley Garnett + Avery Rose in Seph / Photography by Jeremy Mimnagh
Seph
April 12-22, 2023 at The Theatre Centre (1115 Queen St. W, Toronto, ON)
A RISERx Production presented by Why Not Theatre and Toronto Metropolitan University, directed by Keshia Palm.
Forget what you think you know about gods. A teenage coming of age story with epic themes; love, choice, consequence. Love again.
Learn more →
life, so far
January 2023 at Roundhouse Theatre, Vancouver (date TBD)
“You are here. This is life, so far. It is what you make of it.”
life, so far is an interdisciplinary, multi-sensory interactive performance that invites audiences to slow down and reflect on what / how / why they are living. In development at Vancouver Asian-Canadian Theatre MSG Lab. Public workshop presentation January 2023.
About vAct MSG Lab →
AS A FORMER FAT KID / Groundswell Festival Staged Reading
November 22, 2022 at 8:30 PM at the Aki Studio
Selections from As a former fat kid by Stephanie Fung featuring Stephanie Fung, Phoebe Hu and Emily Jung. Directed by Keshia Palm.
No one wants anything to do with Egghead. Not even Egghead. Food may be an unspoken form of love, but Egghead bears witness to what happens when that dynamic is twisted. And fucked up for all parties.
As a former fat kid reflects the dissonance and dysmorphia of being caught between two cultures, and how we start to get unstuck. A performance art-style play in prose, this piece explores what it’s like to be unconventionally ugly and beautiful at the same.
Learn more →
The Year of the Cello
October 15-29, 2022 at Theatre Passe Muraille (Toronto)
“The Cello, relentless, eternal, infinite in its beauty. I want to drown in its sound”
Co-created by Marjorie Chan and Njo Kong Kie, The Year of the Cello is told poetically, alongside live cello music culminating in a lament for loves lost, and a Hong Kong that once was.
Learn more →
Collage image by Emily Jung
Thoughts on art
‘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.”
Read the Interview →
‘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.
Listen to the Podcast →
‘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.
Read the blog →
'ART IS HARD’ for Modern Times Stage Company
November 18, 2020
An essay on art, basketball, and choosing when to play.
Read the essay →
‘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.