The Search Party Residency

The Search Party’s annual residency is an opportunity for any theatre artist, based in the lower mainland, to have a week in Whistler BC. This time can be spent doing whatever the artist desires – a writing intensive, board retreat, rejuvenating time in nature, creative collaboration – the possibilities are endless. There is no lengthy application and no required outcomes. Just follow The Search Party on Instagram – @thesearchpartyyvr for submission information.

Recipients

2026

Frank Paige

A Graduate of Toronto’s Humber College (Acting for Film & Television), Frank is a trans and queer multidisciplinary performing artist based in Vancouver, Canada. Their work spans major network television and national broadcast productions across film and television. Frank’s most recent short film, MASCOTT, which they wrote and lead, is set to debut in 2026. They are a member of Sonder Acting Studio and co-producer of the Minute Monologue Championship.

Because of the Search Party Productions Residency, I was able to purely focus on my creativity and writing for an entire week. I didn’t expect the noise from everyday life to quiet so quickly but as soon as we arrived and my phone went to DND it felt like a reset and step into my creativity.

The friends and colleagues that came along all went into this week with the shared intention of writing. Having our own space and rooms for individual work while being able to come together during our coffee & toast breaks was a perfect balance of focus and community. Ending the days together with a hike or film and sharing the progress of our latest pieces was always a highlight. Being a group of actors, we also had to spend the last night reading each others work out loud, doing our best to switch between too many characters, accents and time periods.

Having this time to disconnect from distractions resulted in a full week of intentional and productive writing & connection. Many projects were started, work-shopped, and shared. Excited to see where they’ll end up!

— Frank Paige

2025

Kelsi James

Kelsi James (she/they) is a white queer and asexual musician, theatre creator, producer and performer, currently working on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh. Kelsi has a degree in Musical Theatre (Sheridan) and a certificate in ASL & Deaf Studies (VCC). Kelsi is honoured to have had their work performed nationally and internationally, in over 30 ‘Canadian’ cities, and most recently in Manila, Philippines as part of the Asian Consultation on Gender. Kelsi is passionate about new work and its capacity for tender, human-to-human social change.

This residency was such a generous offering, and so nourishing, replenishing, and wonderful. I came tired, moving slow, verging on burnout. The first night I sat down to write, and nothing came. Instead I put on the kettle, and rested. Over my week there, the ideas bloomed slowly. I put on music, and made food, and drank tea, and mused. A dear friend came to visit, and we co-worked, and hot-tubbed, and chatted and chatted and chatted . My grandma came for a day, my parents came for an overnight; we walked and breathed the mountain air and jammed and delighted together. My spirit was tended to, and every day, my well was filled. By the end of the week, I was singing again, and dancing, and writing, and sketching out narrative structures in my notebook.

An art practice is not constant output. Time to be slow, time to notice what you notice, time to let your curiosity lead you, time to listen to your body, time to be in community with dear ones… This residency was a gift, and an oasis. Thank you dearly.

— Kelsi James

2024

Kimberly Sunder

Kimberly is a proud third generation Sikh writer, storyteller and creative. She aims to hold space for, and empower folx in her communities through her writing, performances and workshops. She is currently working on many projects, including a children’s book on loving a different looking body and a Young Adult novel about dealing with familial loss and grief at a young age. She finds a lot of inspiration from her Punjabi background and loves incorporating aspects of her culture in everything she does.

As a writer who works multiple jobs to sustain her writing, I can find it hard to carve out time for my practice and work. The Artists’ Residency offered by The Search Party served as a much need retreat and refresh that helped spark my creativity again. Being in the stillness and quiet of the nature that surrounds Whistler allowed me to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, and tap into my thoughts and inspiration. I am forever grateful to The Search Party and Mindy Parfitt for this incredible opportunity.

— Kimberly Sunder

2023

Nicola Wanless

Nicola Wanless is a non-binary Vancouver-based writer and will be beginning a Masters Degree in Creative Writing at UBC in the fall. Previous writing credits include, Dynamis Lost (2013) and Haunted FM (2016), which were both presented at the Calgary Fringe Festival, Submerged (2018), which was produced as a part of the Vancouver Brave New Play Rites Festival, and Signal (2021) which was presented at the Globe Theatre’s Art Out Loud Festival. Outside of writing they’ve participated in a variety of other roles, including directing, stage management, costume design, and graphic design for theatre. They write and co-produce the narrative fiction podcast The Rest is Electric, which is currently airing its second season online.

I was so incredibly grateful for the residency opportunity that The Search Party granted me. As an emerging writer who holds a day job, it can be hard to find time to dedicate to and focus on my art, and I have a number of friends who are in similar positions. As such I chose to use the residency as an artist’s retreat and invited a number of friends who are writers/artists so we could all spend a week away from the normal stresses of our day-to-day lives, and give our full attention to some of our more neglected projects. Throughout the week we each dedicated large portions of the day to work, interspersed with beautiful nature walks through Whistler, and communal cooking as we each took turns cooking a meal for the others. We also engaged in a couple of group creative exercises, including a collage/zine night, and a group game of “spindlewheel” which is a collaborative storytelling game. For the zine night, we each ended up producing our own mini zines, some more heavily text-based, and some more image-based. For many of the people there, it was their first time making a zine, or collage art, and as the facilitator it was really special having the space to lead that workshop. I personally was able to make a large amount of progress on a play that I’ve been stalled out on for over a year, and I left feeling like the end is in sight for a final draft of the piece. It was such a privilege to have a week where concerns about appointments, deadlines, or social engagements melted away, and the only thing on our minds was “What do I want to create next?”

— Nicola Wanless

Committed to cultivating true collaboration, the Search Party prioritizes productive, harmonious working communities at all levels of production, based on mutual respect, curiosity, rigour, self-examination and authenticity.

CONTACT

The Search Party is grateful to operate on the traditional, unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.