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09/15/2024

StART Fest 2024 was a huge success! 🎉
Congratulations to all StART Fest participants and mentors for an amazing showcase. Thank you everyone who came out to support local art at the Bus Stop Theatre Company our hearts are full❤️

More photos to come!
Taken by the wonderful 📸

08/16/2024

Join us this weekend for The Bus Stop Theatre’s annual StART Festival!

Fest Social 5:30 - 6:30 tonight!

Sign up for workshops is still open, grab your spot now!

08/16/2024

Free Headshots for Artists: Kiana Josette

7:45pm - 9:15pm

Kiana Josette will be providing free headshots (for workshop attendees!) You will receive 2 photos, 1 three-quarter headshot, 1 full body headshot. Actors please come with a solid coloured shirt for photos. Make sure to register as spots are limited!

Kiana’s bio:
Growing up in the Annapolis Valley, African-Nova Scotian Artist Kiana Josette discovered a passion for performing at a very young age. Community, art, and compassion have always been the most important things to her, and it shows through the work she does with The Bus Stop Theatre Co-op, ANSMA (African-Nova Scotian Music Association), her community board engagement, and by advocating for BIPOC neurodivergent, disabled artists and youth. Kiana has recently been seen as “Sky” in Kate Macdonald’s STAGES Festival production UNICORN, “Mary” in Two Planks and a Passion Theatre’s production of Unity 1918, “Gertie” in Mulgraves Rd Theatre’s production of Shadows in the Cove written by Mary Collins.

08/15/2024

08/15/2024

Building Resilience With Care - Spoken Word Poetry Workshop: Andre Fenton

4:30 pm - 6:00 pm

In this versatile writing workshop with Andre Fenton we will look at poetry through a perspective of handling your audience with care. We will focus on building resilience in our stories, and digging deep into self-reflection. With warm up writing exercises and activities we will explore different aspects of spoken word. Participants will leave with tips and tricks to overcome writer’s block, learning how to outline a piece from beginning to end, and with a few new poems along the way. This will be a place for folks to share their progress and work in a supportive, welcoming environment. This workshop is for both experienced, and new poets!

Andre’s bio:
Andre Fenton is an award-winning African Nova Scotian writer, performer, and arts educator who has represented Halifax at seven national spoken word festivals across Canada. He is the 2023 recipient of the Portia White Protege Award and a 2022 recipient of an Emerging Artist Recognition Award from Creative NS Awards. Andre is the author of three young adult fiction novels, Worthy of Love. ANNAKA, which was the 2022 recipient of The Community & Place Award from Digitally Lit, and The Summer Between Us, which won Gold in The Coast’s 2022 Best Of Awards. Andre has facilitated writing and performance workshops at over 50 schools across Nova Scotia. He is currently screenwriting the film adaptation of his novel, ANNAKA that is being produced by Fine Devils Films. Andre is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

08/14/2024

Injury Prevention For Dancers: Tony Ingram

3:30 pm - 4:15 pm

Dr. Tony’s bio:
Dr. Tony Ingram is a former physical therapist and dancer with over 20 years of experience in movement skill development and injury prevention. Holding a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, an M.Sc. in Kinesiology, and an M.Sc. in Physical Therapy, Tony authored the chapter on injury prevention for dancers in The Oxford Handbook of Hip Hop Dance Studies (2022). His career bridges practical and academic fields, including founding a startup building neurorehabilitation devices. While Tony primarily works in the medical technology industry, he still finds fulfillment in leveraging his background to help dancers prevent and manage injuries.

08/12/2024

Grant Writing 101: Meg Hubley
1:45 pm - 3:15 pm

Want to keep developing your StART work-in-progress, or launch into your next creative process? This crash course is geared to help folks learn more about the Arts Nova Scotia Grants to Individuals program! Great for first time applicants, or those who feel overwhelmed about cracking into the grant-writing process.
In Grant Writing 101 we will analyze the Arts Ns Grants to Individuals Application, with deep dives into Schedules of Work, Budgets, and Support Material Annotations, focusing on hitting all the marks the assessment committee is looking for!
Led by Writers Circle producer Meg Hubley, who has written over 20 successful grants at municipal, provincial and federal levels, securing funding for the development of new scripts and on-going creative spaces in Nova Scotia.

Sign up link in bio! 🔗
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeBZvyFJFlcnuxPYAVuOYqM_mApvqtnkwrLtErFWRnbDJXk-Q/viewform

Meg’s bio:
Meg Hubley is a writer, director and producer of independent theatre and film. Recent directing credits include “Essay” by Hannah Moscovitch for Matchstick Theatre, and the 2024 Theatre Nova Scotia Outstanding Independent Production, “The Crevice,” produced by the Bus Stop Theatre. Plays and collaborations Meg has written include “bittersweetsymphony_theverve.mp3” (BST Writers Circle), “EcoSystemEchoChamber” co-written with Diem Saunders (Halifax Theatre for Young People), “I Laughed and Treated It All As a Joke” (Women In Theatre Fest), “Honey&Jupiter” (H&J Collective/EDNS) and “TreeGirl”(Forerunner/Eastern Front). Meg is a co-founder of Phyllis Rising Productions, whose short films have been Official Selections across the country. She is also the co-founder of The Bus Stop Writers’ Circle, facilitating the development of new stories by emerging artists across Mi’kma’ki. Meg is currently in pre-production for UNICORN by Kay MacDonald, developed and produced through the Writers Circle and premiering in June 2024.

08/10/2024

How I got my StART/Vocal techniques, rhythm, and control: Owen ‘O’Sound’ Lee 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm The Bus Stop Theatre Co-op

In this workshop O’Sound will talk about navigating the landscape of a professional full time musician, provide tips on vocal technique, rhythm and control, and give insight into what next steps you should take as an artist!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeBZvyFJFlcnuxPYAVuOYqM_mApvqtnkwrLtErFWRnbDJXk-Q/viewform

Artist bio:
Owen ‘O’Sound’ Lee is an artist, musician, songwriter, vocal arranger, and producer from Toronto, Ontario. After studying Vocal Performance Jazz in University he began pursuing music as a full-time career, and has been making strides ever since.

Owen has shared the stage and collaborated with numerous critically-acclaimed artists such as Drake, Mariah Carey, Kim Burrell, Jordin Sparks, Jully Black, and Kardinal Offishall to name a few. He is currently the Minister of Music at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Upper Hammonds Plains, the former Program Coordinator of the African Nova Scotian Music Association (2018-2023), the former Musical Director of the Nova Scotia Mass Choir (2014-2019), and was the Musical Director of CBC’s East Coast Music Hour ‘The Story and the Song’ Series (2019). O’Sound is also the touring keyboardist for the multi-platinum recording artist, Classified.

O’Sound is the recipient of numerous awards and nominations. Most recently, he was awarded with the 2023 Album of The Year Award by the African Nova Scotian Music Association. He was also nominated for the 2023 African Canadian Artist of the Year, Hip Hop Recording of the Year, and Solo Recording of The Year by the East Coast Music Association. He was also nominated for Musician of the Year, R&B/Soul Recording of the Year, and African Nova Scotian Artist of the Year by Music Nova Scotia.

08/02/2024

StART Festival Workshops all day Saturday, August 17th! Sign up through the link in our bio🔗

Building Resilience With Care - Spoken Word Poetry
Andre Fenton
4:30 pm - 6:00 pm

Event and Stage Lighting
Amelia George
6:15pm - 7:45pm

Free Headshots for Workshop Artists
Kiana Josette
7:45pm - 9:15pm

Registration to attend the workshops are free, however we will be accepting donations to help fund future BSTC programming.

07/30/2024

Announcing this year’s StART Festival Workshops, all day Saturday, August 17th! More to come! 👀

How I got my StART - Owen ‘O’Sound’ Lee
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Grant Writing 101: Meg Hubley ,

1:45 pm - 3:15 pm

Stay tuned for more workshops being announced! Sign up link in our bio🔗

Registration to attend the workshops are free, however we will be accepting donations to help fund future BSTC programming!

05/27/2024

The Bus Stop Theatre’s in-house program StART is partnering with and to present our June 9th Dance Showcase and Unity Qualifier Dance Battle!

The event will feature breakers from our 2024 mentorship training with and in addition to a 1v1 Breaking battle and 1v1 Open Styles battle. $200 prize money for each category!

Winners receive top 8 placement at the competition, hosted by Unity Charity July 13th and the opportunity to perform at StART Fest on August 16th!

Thank you to our sponsors .Council, and !

Sign up now! https://forms.gle/gpUbAvxYQ5oY7oGm8

09/24/2023

MURAL ARTIST CALL OUT! 📣
The Bus Stop Theatre Co-operative has a paid opportunity for an upcoming Nova Scotian artist to give our back wall and community room entrance off of Maitland Street a facelift.

We will be accepting pitches until October 2nd at 11:59 pm

Pitches can be drawn digitally, written words with a portfolio of past works, or drawn on the back of napkins!
We'd love to see your ideas on how we can better welcome people into our space. We'd love to encourage our young artists to submit!
This can be from individuals, teams, collectives, or more.

Pitches can be sent directly to:
[email protected]
Prize: $3000 (+$1000 for materials)
Deadline: October 2nd 2023 at 11:59 pm
Working Dates: October 9th to 15th 2023 -
Yes, this is during NOCTURNE! ©
Top 5 runner-ups will also receive $100 to show our appreciation. We are all excited to see your ideas! For sketching purposes, we've included templates at a link in our bio!
Good luck!!! 🎨