Finding Community and Shared Experiences at the CITF Incubator
As a Francophone theatre artist in Vancouver, Siona Gareau-Brennan often feels distanced from the French-language Canadian theatre scene. And so, when she got the opportunity to participate in a two-week workshop for Francophone theatre artists from around the world, she seized the chance. The gathering was an opportunity to feel part of a familiar community, she says.
“The commonalities of the French-speaking world and the theatre as a springboard for discovering, exchanging and listening to each other were invaluable as rallying points.”
Every two years, the Commission internationale du théâtre francophone (CITF) brings together theatre creators from across the French-speaking world at its International Project Incubator, a workshop for creators to network and collaborate on projects. The forum helps artists build relationships, discover what others are doing and workshop their projects with peers from other cultures and with various lived experiences. In spring 2025, the Canada Council for the Arts funded Siona’s participation in the incubator, hosted in Marseille, France, where she joined creators from Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and Canada.
Beyond connecting Siona to her language roots, the gathering also provided her with the opportunity to explore new paths in the theatre space and discover how others are using art to grapple with challenging personal and external experiences in an increasingly complicated world.
“The energy of the city and my exchanges with the other artists pushed me to question my role as an artist and as a citizen, and to confront the realities of others and the complexities of contemporary art,” she says. “I left feeling encouraged to dive into the next chapter of my career and my practice with enthusiasm.”
— Siona Gareau-Brennan
Telling unique stories about universal experiences
Siona brought two pieces to work through in Marseille: Le sublime est ici, a play she’s writing about birth, loss and how the brain changes with motherhood; and Age is a feeling, a monologue she’s translating from the original work written by fellow Canadian artist Haley McGee, which challenges the performer and their audience to accept life’s inevitabilities of heartache, grey hair and death, among other punctuating moments.
Over the course of the two-week experience, Siona worked through the themes of each piece with her peers.
“By working, listening and exchanging with others, new ways of working appeared to me, as well as new creative paradigms based on our cultural and geopolitical differences,” Siona says. “My practice was enriched by new perspectives, voices and ways of seeing the world.”
Both works tackle stories of common human experiences (parenthood and aging)—but in Siona’s conversations with fellow attendees, she discovered how differently people can experience even the most ubiquitous of life’s moments.
Photo courtesy of the Commission Internationale du Théâtre Francophone (CITF)
“I was touched by the candour and generosity of the women who talked to me about their experiences with motherhood and artistry, grief and love, and the cultural, social and political differences in relation to some of these,” she says. Conversations with international peers also helped Siona zero in on the truly universal elements at the core of her projects. “They helped me see possible threads running through my research and writing.”
Connecting with community
Ultimately, in Marseille, Siona rediscovered an invigorating sense of kinship and belonging.
“I felt part of a group—a community larger than me, where I had a place,” she says. “The experience increased my sense of belonging and pride in being able to work in French.” The incubator also inspired her to continue to seek cross-cultural connections and discover more ways in which seemingly common experiences might be experienced differently.
In practical terms, Siona says she returned home with lists that will feed her inspiration—of artists to collaborate with, plays to read, theatre festivals and residencies to look into, artistic practices—not to mention concrete new tools to round out her storytelling. For example, one new approach involves asking herself: Who is speaking, and who is absent?
“Overall, this experience encouraged me to continue exploring creation and collaboration with artists from everywhere,” says Siona. “I deeply believe that with all the horrors in the world, we must continue to find each other and create together.”