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

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

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

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.