Join our circle! The “Red Circle” (previously known as “Prelude”) is our series of community events inspired by the shows in our season. Our hope is to provide more context, another perspective, or a deeper look into the themes of our productions. This season our Red Circle events will include karaoke nights, art workshops, scintillating conversations, and more. All of our community events are open to the public and free to attend.
Recordings of our past digital events are below and stay tuned for some exciting announcements about our future programming.
Tea Time with Helen Kong
TPM invites you to a special tea gathering with Helen Kong!
In this special workshop, artist and tea practitioner Helen Kong of Secret Teatime will gently guide participants through an explorative, mindful tea practice. Guests will choose a chawan (tea bowl) they feel drawn to, along with a tea they’d like to steep. Inspired by the themes of our next production — violinist Leslie Ting’s What Brings You In — participants will then be invited to engage in a series of reflection and exploration exercises with their chosen tea and consider how they are becoming a part of the vessel’s evolving story—one that carries memory, presence, and a life beyond our own.
This workshop will take place on Sunday, October 19 at 11:30 am in the Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace (16 Ryerson Avenue). All of our community events have a Relaxed Environment and snacks will be provided. This workshop is FREE and open to the public. All participants who sign-up will also receive free tickets to that day’s performance of Leslie Ting’s What Brings You In.
Please sign-up at the link below. If Google Forms is inaccessible to you, please email us at outreach@passemuraille.on.ca or leave a message at 416-504-8988 ext. 2140.
Helen Kong
is a tea practitioner, artist, and founder of Secret Teatime, a maker space in Scarborough where members gather to sip tea and work with clay. A graduate of OCAD, she deepened her practice by studying Chado (the Way of Tea) in Japan. Her work focuses on creating tea ritual wares for both Japanese and Chinese tea traditions. Rooted in East Asian philosophy and animism, her practice explores tea as a sensory ritual—an invitation to connect with the present moment. Each tea gathering is a fleeting, unrepeatable experience, to be savored with awareness and appreciation.
The Digital Prelude Archives
During the 20/21 season, we hosted a series of digital Prelude conversations inspired by the themes of our productions. Check out the recordings of our digital Preludes below!
Prelude Conversation with Nicole Brooks
For our first digital Prelude event, we invited playwright, director, performer, and Sangoma, Nicole Brooks to discuss her unique multidisciplinary practice and how her art honours her ancestral journey. In this uplifting conversation with Associate Artistic Director Indrit Kasapi, they reminisce about the creation of the hit show OBEAH OPERA and what advice Nicole would give emerging artists with big dreams. This event was inspired by our 20/21 digital production of 11:11 by Samson Bonkeabantu Brown.
English captions are available for this video.
Prelude Conversation with Ryan Knighton
For our second Prelude event of the season, acclaimed author Ryan Knighton spoke with TPM Board Member and Accessibility Specialist Darren Cooper on his journey as a writer, what it’s like to write about your own life, and why you should never forcibly grab a Blind person by the elbow during a global pandemic. This event was inspired by our 20/21 digital production of Speculation by Leslie Ting.
The event was a primarily auditory event to improve accessibility for patrons at all levels of sight and/or living with Blindness. English captions are available for this video.