pounds per square inch performance | 30th Anniversary Season
Gerry Trentham, Artistic Director
LEARNING
Our educational and mentorship offerings often partner with other organization to build interdisciplinary practice. We are working closely with associate Diane Robert’s in the development of Legacy Voice practice based in her Arrivals Legacy Project . We work with Denise Fujiwara of Fujiwara Dance Inventions to offer the new hybrid of Butoh/Voice Training. We also produce workshops with faculty of the Moving Voice Institute that carries on the long tradition of voice work developed under the direction of David Smukler at Canada National Voice Intensive. You will also be invited into GerryTrentham’s Fields of Practice where you can engage in interdisciplinary training modules for artists and for those interested in living a more artful life.
Workshops 2025
April 22 - 26, 2025
Watch for July Dates - Coming Soon!
ABOUT TO...BEING WRITING WORKSHOP
Transform Your Writing Through Movement & Presence
Unlock the hidden dimensions of your creative voice in this somatic writing workshop where performance art meets the written word. It seems a vital time to gather in a supportive community and share our stories. Connect with writers, public speakers, storytellers, performers and interdisciplinary artists from around the world through discovering and developing your individual voice.
Through a body/voice writing practice honed from a life-long dedication to the art of performance, this full-body explorative method conceived and led by acclaimed teacher, performer and choreographer/writer Gerry Trentham (he/they) will help you unlock and revitalize the writer/creator hiding beneath your skin, the one you have been meaning to be.
Experience writing from somatic practice. Move beyond the desk and discover how your body's wisdom can unleash powerful new narratives. This isn't just another writing workshop – it's an embodied journey into your creative potential.
Perfect for:
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Performers seeking to deepen their writing practice
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Writers ready to break through creative blocks
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Coaches looking to expand their creative toolkit
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Anyone yearning to write from a more authentic place
What makes this different:
Through proven techniques from Gerry’s Artistic body of work, actor and voice/body educator, dance performance and voice coaching, you'll learn to:
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Translate physical awareness into vivid prose
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Access deeper layers of creativity through movement
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Write from a place of complete presence
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Harness somatic experience to fuel your storytelling
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Developed over two and half decades in elite performing arts institutions, this method has helped aspiring and seasoned artists find and expand their authentic voice.
Ready to find your voice and expand your writing practice? Limited spots available.
A total of 10 hours over 3 days:
Dates:
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Tuesday April 22, 6:00 - 9:00 pm EST Via Zoom
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Friday April 25, 6:00 - 9:00 pm EST Via Zoom
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Saturday April, 26 - 1:00 - 5:00 pm EST Via Zoom
Remote
Join from anywhere and connect with interdisciplinary writers and creatives around the world! Zoom details will be sent to all registrants leading to the workshop week.
Cost:
$200 for the weeklong intensive
$160 for Early Bird registration extended to April 15, 2025
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Bursary option possible with a letter of request (use Registration contact below)
Registration Information/General Inquiries:
International Producer, Marisa Caruso info@poundspersquareinch.net
More About the Workshop:
Over two decades that began with a ten-year period at SUNY Buffalo State honing a unique performance development method, Gerry has taught performers and literary artists to exchange, share expertise and be inspired by engaging in a cross-pollinating solo show creation process. Developed through university institutions, independent workshops for participants throughout Canada, the US and abroad, and through his own inter-arts performance creation Gerry’s teaching helps participants transform authentic and autobiographical material into provocative and distinctive performance and literary possibilities. His unique physical and vocal approach to writing and solo show performance builds a range of performance action that is integral to the writer/performer, the audience and the work itself. Participants in this workshop will engage with the basis of a four-series process building skill in creation, development, objective editing, refinement and rehearsal practices that ultimately develop work that illuminates and resonates with audiences.
This first series of experiences inspires a means to uncover an authentically sourced voice that opens the writer/creator to a full range of imagination. Through a series of autobiographical writing, the participants find out more about their writing voice and then learn to angle their attention to find moments that compel and move the listener. They then have the opportunity to test those moments with others as they learn to voice the tenor and texture of their writing.
ARMANDO CENTRE Argentina & LBS/SQ” PERFORMANCE Canada
PRESENT
THE ARMANDO CENTRE
VOICE INTENSIVE
SAVE THE DATES: January 12th to 24th 2026
Buenos Aires, Argentina
WHAT
This truly intensive two week performance training program offers you, the participant, a journey into the foundations of performance- your voice - your body - as a site for revelation and authenticity. In the company of each other and hosts of participants, a renowned faculty have refined their joint training methodology through over 30 years of collaboration at Canada's National Voice Intensive. You are invited into a rigorous program that has served and inspired countless professional theatre and dance professionals, art practitioners and performance educators around the world.
WHERE
@ the Armando Centre in San Telmo Buenos Aires
WHEN
January 2026 in the warmth of the Argentinian summer you will have space and time to investigate the power of a renewed practice.
WHO
You with Canadian, US and Argentinian faculty
HOW
Early Application Deadline: September 1, 2025
Early Registration and Payment: October 15th | $1460 CAD / $1360 USD
Final Application Deadline: November 30, 2025
Registration and Payment: December 15th | $1600 CAD / $1500 USD
SAVE THE DATES and apply for travel support now!
Application accommodations are made for those applying for funding and in need of a support letter and early acceptance.
For Canadian artist look to:
Professional Development for Arts Professionals
Ontario Arts Council - Chalmers Professional Development Projects
Ontario Arts Council - Skills and Career Development: Indigenous Arts Professionals and Arts Professionals of Colour
Also look to your local US/International area councils.
Some bursaries are available, for those who need assistance in attending please inquire: info@poundspersquareinch.net
Workshops 2024
Arrivals Legacy Project’s Founding Artistic Director Diane Roberts
Arrivals Legacy Voice in Halifax
At the Prismatic Festival in partnership with Fountain School of Performing Arts, Dalhousie University
October 21, 2024
"It was such a pleasure to teach with Diane Roberts and Lopa Sircar and meet the extraordinary students at Dalhousie. A big shout out to Raeesa at Prismatic and Matt at Dalhousie University.
Thank You, Thank you!" - Gerry
Resonating with Age
Voice Workshop with Gerry Trentham
(stay tuned for the next series!)
The Reality
As we age many of us choose to move and sound less. As we move and sound less, the effort it takes when we are then required or choose to sound or move seems to increase. We are shocked when we realize our facility for moving and sounding has declined, possibly more substantially than we had anticipated.
The Opportunity
Resonating with Age is a workshop dedicated to summoning those feelings of facility and reclaiming your moving voice. With enjoyable and healthy voice/body practices you can begin to move and resonate more freely, once again creating sustained vocal/physical presence through your elder years and even as you choose to be still or silent more often.
About Gerry
Gerry Trentham (he/they) has sustained an international performing career into a fifth decade and taught and coached body and voice work to countless participants of all ages both inside and outside institutions spread across four continents. He will gently invite you to uncover a greater vocal/ physical potential to resonate what is important to you as you age.
Class Details
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Dates/Time: Stay Tuned for More Offerings
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In Person Location: 509 Dance
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509 Parliament St. Toronto
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Online Learning
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Online access from wherever you are is available for those who cannot attend in-person. A 30-minute private coaching session scheduled outside these times will help focus and optimize your on-line learning. Contact us via the email below for questions about digital access and to request a Zoom link upon registration:
info@poundspersquareinch.net
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Cost
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4 session series $185 CAD
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1 session drop-in $50 CAD
lbs/sq” bursaries are available for those in need.
Contact for questions:
ARRIVALS LEGACY VOICE
In Collaboration with Arrivals Legacy Project & Open Heart Arts Theatre
Thursday, May 23 - Monday, May 27, 2024 at McMaster University
What are the legacies we carry and what must we choose to leave behind?
Join us for a five-day Arrivals Legacy Voice workshop, co-facilitated by Diane Roberts and Gerry Trentham.
This workshop invites you into an exploration of your root cultural voice, rhythm, and performance. You will have the opportunity to experience a deeper connection with your unique breath and voice, drawing inspiration from ancestral sources. This five-day journey will foster a tangible awareness of your vocal, physical, and rhythmic potential.
This workshop is for anyone interested in discovering their culturally storied bodies in a dynamic dance between self and other.
This is an opportunity for performers, writers, singers, educators, change leaders, and artists of all disciplines to come together in a collaborative space for cross-cultural exchange and performative story-making, exploring where their ancestral histories meet. For more information about Arrivals Legacy Project, visit ArrivalsLegacy.com
INFORMATION SESSIONS
Saturday, April 27 from 12pm-1pm EST on Zoom.
Learn more about facilitators Diane and Gerry and the Arrivals Legacy Voice Process, and have all your questions answered. RSVP by emailing Rose at rose@openheartartstheatre.com
WORKSHOP COST
Apply before April 15, 2024 to get the early bird price of $850! The regular cost of the workshop is $950, with subsidies available for participants who are Black, Indigenous, People of the Global Majority or anyone facing financial hardship.
View the registration form for more details or please contact Sienna at communications@poundspersquareinch.net, as we have set aside bursary funds for this specialized training.
REGISTRATION PROCESS
Prospective participants are asked to fill out the registration form providing some information about themselves and their creative practice. The first wave of applications will be accepted in early April.
2024 Session Closed
ABOUT TO...BEING (SOLO WRITING WORKSHOPS)
In this second offering of week-long writing intensives, participants are invited to embark on a transformative autobiographically inspired journey of self-expression and creativity. Through a full-body explorative method conceived and led by acclaimed teacher, performer and choreographer/writer Gerry Trentham, participants will transform authentic and autobiographical material into distinctive performance and literary possibilities.
Returning and new participants of all levels are warmly welcomed to come together, connect, and be immersed in this comprehensive series designed to cultivate skills in creation, development, objective editing, refinement, and rehearsal practices. Participants will receive dedicated support and coaching as they delve deeper into uncovering and honing their unique writing voices.
2024 Session Closed
Monday, March 18th through Saturday, March 23rd, 2024
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Monday, March 18th, 4 - 7pm EST (Group Zoom)
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Thursday, March 21st, 4 - 7pm EST (Group Zoom)
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Saturday, March 23rd, 1 - 5pm EST (Group Zoom)
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Plus, scheduled 40-minute coaching with Gerry during the week. Although not required, you are encouraged to keep the week as open as possible for your writing practice.
Location: All dates will be held over Zoom. Zoom details will be sent to all registrants leading up to the workshop week.
ABOUT GERRY TRENTHAM
Gerry Trentham's (he/they) life-long dedication to the art of performance has created their own cannon of over 40 original works for stage and screen, garnered international performance acclaim and more recently international film awards. As both a US and Canadian citizen he manages a binational reputation and focuses on bi-national US/Can collaborative projects. They have originated roles in works of some of North America’s most renowned choreographers including during a seven-year tenure with Serge Bennathan’s Dancemakers, numerous works with Claudia Moore and Butoh artist Denise Fujiwara and most recently with Zab Maboungou.
Their experience in both text and movement-based work has led to international directing, choreographic, teaching and mentoring opportunities. Their art and teaching focus on the transdisciplinary - a voice/body’s range and depth of presence within installed art environments. With a lifetime of inter-arts dance/voice practice, an MFA in Theatre, a graduate diploma in Voice and Speech Teaching from York University, 30 years as research faculty of the acclaimed National Voice Intensive (now the Moving Voice Institute) and six years with Denise Fujiwara in their new frontier of training, Butoh/Voice, and with Diane Roberts in the creation of Arrivals Legacy Voice Practice. They have been invited to teach, coach and mentor a synthesis of theatre and dance practice throughout North America, Argentina, Australia and England, including at Canada’s National Theatre School in Montreal, University of British Columbia in Vancouver, York University in Toronto and SUNY Buffalo State.
CONTACT FOR MORE INFORMATION
Registration Information: Marketing & Communications Director, Sienna Pandya-James communications@poundspersquareinch.net
Other Questions/Information: Event Producer, Marisa Caruso - mrsacrso@gmail.com 845-401-8681
Produced by lbs/sq" performance and presented in partnership with
