Young, Gifted, and Black is Obsidian Theatre’s arts training program dedicated to supporting Black theatre practitioners in non-performance disciplines. This four-month intensive explores Black diaspora theatre and performance aesthetics. YGB practitioners will benefit from mentorship, masterclasses, and apprenticeships, with the program culminating in a collective-creation devised, directed, and designed by the YGB cohort.
We are dedicated to empowering and elevating artistic leaders. We envision a future where Black production professionals are abundant and integral, significantly enhancing our theatre community with their expertise.
2025/2026 Program Goals
- Develop Black Production Specialists: Focus on training directors, designers, and stage managers for theatre.
- Explore African and Black Diaspora Theatre Aesthetics: Investigate and incorporate performance aesthetics beyond Western theatrical paradigms, emphasizing the unique and powerful traditions of African and Black diaspora theatre.
- Connect Established and Emerging Black Arts Practitioners: Facilitate mentorship and networking opportunities to build a supportive artistic community.
- Enhance Black Theatre Excellence: Encourage the development of unique perspectives and methodologies in theatre-making.
About the 2025/2026 Cohort
The Young, Gifted, and Black program will support emerging leaders in Stage Management, Directing, Design, including Set, Costume, Lighting, and Sound. We are welcoming five YGB practitioners into the 2025/2026 cohort.
This is a PAID training opportunity. Each YGB practitioner will receive $400 per week during part-time phases and $800 per week during full-time phases.
Program Timeline
Over the span of four months, the Young, Gifted, and Black cohort will build holistic knowledge in their individual disciplines. YGB commences with a masterclass series featuring a faculty of renowned industry professionals, followed by a creation residency intensive led by d’bi.young anitafika. YGB practitioners will then enter individual shadow apprenticeships on the Obsidian Theatre production of How To Catch Creation (co-produced with Soulpepper and Nightwood). YGB culminates with practitioners applying their skills and learnings towards the workshop presentation of their collectively-created work featuring professional actors.
Masterclass Series – In Person
February 2026, 2 weeks (Full-time)
Creation Residency Intensive – In Person
February – March 2026, 3 (Full-time)
Shadow Apprenticeships – In Person
March – April 2026, 6.5 weeks (Part-time and full-time with longer days expected during tech periods)
YGB Showcase – In Person
May 2026, 4 weeks (Full-time with longer days expected during tech periods)
Application Details
To apply, you must:
- Self-identify as Black
- Have an existing practice and/or strong interest in developing skills within one of the following disciplines – Directing, Costume Design, Set Design, Lighting Design, Sound Design, and/or Stage Management
- Be available between February and May 2026 (exact dates TBC)
Application requirements:
- Artist statement (1 – 2 pages)
- Please tell us about yourself and your artistic practice – be sure to articulate the specific discipline you are interested in developing with YGB (Directing, Costume Design, Set Design, Lighting Design, Sound Design, or Stage Management)
- Please describe how you relate to being Young, Gifted, and Black within your artistic practice (ie: young-in-career, unique lens on theatre, growth without the need to mute cultural identities)
- Resume / CV
- Headshot
- Support material
- Directors and Designers: please include audio and/or video reel between 5 and 10 minutes, and/or 5 – 10 image files
Application deadline:
- Tuesday, December 23, 2025 @ 12:00 PM EST
Please compile all documents into one PDF or DOC file. We are unable to discuss or provide feedback, due to the volume of submissions, but all applicants will be notified of their status towards January 2026.
Creation Residency Faculty
d’bi.young anitafrika
2025 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize laureate d’bi.young anitafrika, is an internationally acclaimed dub poet, playwright-performer, director-dramaturge, and activist-scholar, who creates, embodies, and teaches critical dub pedagogy. Culminating a PhD in Black womyn’s theatre, their research centres on the epistemological, ontological, cosmological, ethical, aesthetic, and somatic emancipation of the oppressed self through storytelling. d’bi.young developed the Anitafrika Dub Praxis (Anitafrika Method, the 3RProcess, Biomyth Making, & Dubography)—a nurturant Black-queer-feminist pedagogy & practice of knowing, doing, and being. A widely anthologised Siminovitch Playwright Prize finalist, three-time Dora award winner, and founding Artistic Director of Watah Theatre and Spolrusie Press, and Ubuntu Decolonial Arts Centre in Costa Rica, d’bi.young has authored twelve plays, seven albums, and four poetry collections. The 2025 Lehan Arts & Activism Lecturer served as lead faculty in the training program of Soulpepper Theatre, and recently completed a term in UVic’s theatre department They also staged the 20th-anniversary production and literary publication of their multi-award-winning classic, The Sankofa Trilogy, at the Theatre Centre. d’bi.young’s present initiatives include leading the national Black Womyn in Theatre Digital Archive Project and concluding the pilot year of the Black Theatre School.
Contact Details
If you have any general questions about Young, Gifted & Black, please contact our artistic producer danjelani ellis at op@obsidiantheatre.com.
Young Gifted and Black is generously sponsored by:
Obsidian Theatre’s Season Sponsor: TD Bank Group;
Program Sponsors: Catapult/Rideau Hall Foundation, Scotiabank, Toronto Arts Council Strategic Fund, Metcalf Foundation.
Venue Sponsor: Factory Theatre
