How to love the world: In conversation with Fay Nass

Join us for this conversation with Fay Nass (she/he/they), a community-engaged director, writer, dramaturg, producer and educator. Fay is the artistic director of the frank Theatre Company, Western Canada’s oldest LGBTQ2 theatre company, and the founder/artistic director of Aphotic Theatre.

Andrea Routley, a lecturer in Creative Writing, and her CRWR 473 class, “Writing and Community Learning,” invites anyone to join us on Zoom as we talk with Fay about how she first became involved in community-engaged and social art practice, her motivations, the challenges along the way–as well the rewards–and the opportunities for learning and growth.

To register/receive the Zoom link for this event, email andrea.routley@ubc.ca.

Fay Nass has over 17 years of experience in text-based and devised work deeply rooted in inter-cultural and collaborative approaches. Fay’s work often examines questions of race, gender, sexuality, culture and language through an intersectional lens to shift meanings and de-construct paradigms rooted in our society. Being an Iranian-Canadian immigrant and a non-binary queer artist, Fay brings a nuanced lens to her work, one that celebrates liminality and trans-culturalism, and blurs the line between politics and intimate personal stories.

Fay’s work has been presented at PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, SummerWorks Festival, Queer Arts Festival, the CULTCH and Firehall Arts Centre. Fay is the director and producer of Art Connects, an award-winning documentary about Aphotic Theatre’s arts-based community engagement project, which was screened at festivals in Germany, Canada, and the US. Her readings and experimental work have been presented at various conferences and artist-run galleries in Spain, Berlin, and Paris. Their co-creation project, a theatre/film hybrid production called Be-Longing, was part of the 2021 New York International Film Festival, NICE International Film Festival and Madrid International Film Festival.

Some of their recent credits include co-creating Be-Longing (the frank theatre), co-directing Trans Script Part I: The Women (the frank theatre and Zee Theatre at Firehall Arts Centre), directing She Mami Wata & the Pussy WitchHunt (the frank theatre at PuSh Festival 2020), co-directing Straight White Men (ITSAZOO productions at Gateway Theatre), and dramaturgy for Camera Obscura (Hungry Ghosts) (the frank theatre & QAF). Fay holds an MFA from Simon Fraser University. They recently completed the Artistic Leadership Residency at the National Theatre School of Canada.

As an artistic leader and a practitioner, Fay has deep and involved relationships—both creative and organizational—with a wide spectrum of artists across generations and stylistic practices. As an educator and facilitator, their philosophy and pedagogy are rooted in anti-racism and anti-oppression.