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
Savage is a Word in the English Dictionary / world premiere
April 23 + 26, 2025 at Awaken Festival in Whitehorse, Yukon produced by Gwaandak Theatre
World premiere of Savage is a Word in the English Dictionary created and performed by Brefny Caribou, directed by Keshia Palm.
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Tarragon Theatre Urjo Kareda Residency / creation + development
January 2025 - January 2026 at Tarragon Theatre
Year-long residency at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto researching and creating new work, directing development workshops, testing new working methodologies, and hosting community events.
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The Weatherman / workshop
January 25 + 26, 2025 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island
Two day workshop and public sharing of The Weatherman by Brynn Cutcliffe supported by Watermark Theatre, directed and dramaturged by Keshia Palm.
An absurdist comedy about land erosion, climate catastrophe, ignorance and storm chips.
2024 Groundswell Festival / workshops + readings
November 18-20, 2024 at Buddies in Bad Times in Toronto, produced by Nightwood Theatre
Three day festival of workshops and public readings of new plays by artists Kijo Gatama, Meara Khanna, Mily Mumford, and Hilary Smith. Dramaturged by Write from the Hip Interim Program Director Keshia Palm.
During the festival, Keshia facilitated a free 3-hour community workshop of impulsive, reactive, responsive and collaborative writing for 16 artists and moderated a Playwrights Talkback with the Write from the Hip cohort.
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NewfoundLanded / world premiere
November 7-10 in St. John’s, Newfoundland
TODOS Productions in association with White Rooster Theatre
NewfoundLanded by Santiago Guzmán & Nabila Qureshi with contributions by Vanessa Cardoso-Whelan. Dramaturgy by Keshia Palm. A documentary theatre piece about the journeys of immigrants and refugees to Newfoundland and Labrador.
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Zürcher Theater Spektakel Watch&Talk
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.
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Graphic design by Marcia Diaz
#Paprika23 Festival
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 →
Kostyn Mitruk in Radium Girls / photography by Jeremy Mimnagh
Radium Girls / production
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.
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Jaime Lujan in White Muscle Daddy / Photo by Jeremy Mimnagh
WHITE MUSCLE DADDY / world premiere
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
Cinematic theatre production written by Raf Antonio using projection art, live camera feed and shadow play to spin a chilling yarn about the politics of queer desire. Dramaturgy by Keshia Palm.
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Photo of Karen Ancheta + Keshia Palm by Eden Graham
The Amazing Chase Canada / workshop
December 15-21, 2023 at Theatre Passe Muraille + b current performing arts
Text + technical workshop for new work-in-development The Amazing Chase Canada created by Keshia Palm. Using the structure and form of reality tv game shows to dig into pressure points between intergenerational + multiracial families, rural + urban communities, and conservative + liberal politics.
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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 / production
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.
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life, so far / workshop presentation
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 / 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 for the Groundswell Festival.
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.
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Collage image by Emily Jung
The Year of the Cello / world premiere
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.
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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.
Read the article →
'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.