"I'm also thankful that you didn’t become a Rabbi and instead you became a fabulous writer, performer, teacher-shaman, and above all… a miner for a heart of gold! Your exercises kick ass, your method is flawless and nurturing and you deserve an award for, passion, dedication, and the intuitive direction that induced this veteran comic to leave her comic comfort zone and find magic beyond the laughing mask."
- Martha E. Chaves , award-winning comedian / Just for Laughs
ABOUT TRACEY:
Tracey Erin Smith is an award winning and world renowned teacher and performer, a spiritual comedienne who believes in crazy-wisdom and practices reverent irreverence.
Tracey is the founder of the award-winning SOULO Theatre Company (Best Small Theatre, NOW Magazine 2014) the Artistic Director of SOULO NYC, Toronto’s SOULO Theatre Festival and the Co-Founder of the Totnes SOULO Theatre Festival in England.
Smith recently won a Broadway World Award for her solo show, “Memento Mori”. She has performed her hit one-woman shows; The Burning Bush! andTwo in The Bush! in New York City (Off Broadway), Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton and Halifax. The plays were Critic’s Pick in BackStage Magazine NYC, ‘Best of the Toronto Fringe Festival’ and won the ‘Audience Choice Award’ in New York City’s Frigid Festival. She was a guest instructor for Israel’s Dream Doctors in Tel Aviv and an invited delegate to Canadian Stage’s Artist Educators Program in Toronto. Tracey also presents SOULO Theatre Weekend Intensive internationally.
Tracey is the founder and creator of SOULO Theatre®, a program designed to help actors and non-actors create their own one-person show by transforming raw material from their life-journey into creative solo performances. Actors and Writers in Tracey’s classes have gone on to perform their shows professionally across Canada and around the world.
SOULO Theatre® has been adapted and taught by Tracey in a variety of healing settings such as, for people living with cancer (www.wellspring.ca) and it is the first program of its kind to be taught to Seniors in Community Living Facilities (www.rekaicentre.com). Tracey is so passionate about the positive effect of SOULO Theatre® that she is willing to bring it to your community regardless of where it is located in the world!
Tracey is a popular instructor at Ryerson University’s ACT II STUDIO; and has taught improvisation at Toronto’s famous Second City. Tracey has been a guest expert on Breakfast Television (CITY TV) and Matchmaker (The Life Network). She is also a frequent Artist-in-Residence at creative and spiritual retreats in Canada and the U.S.Tracey was the co-host of Jobs 1,2,3! (Rogers TV) as well as the creator of a pilot for a series about creativity called CRE8-TV (produced by Coptor Productions, the co-producers of Ryan, the Academy Award winning animated short). As a singer, Tracey performs on a music CD for children called NAME YOUR TUNE! and was nominated for a Jessie Richardson Award (Vancouver’s Tony’s) for her performance in the world premiere of; The One That Got Away at Vancouver’s Chutzpah! Festival.
About
ABOUT THE PROGRAM:
Developed by Tracey Erin Smith at Toronto’s Ryerson University’s ACT II Studio, SoulOTheatre is an innovative, interactive program designed to help people create, write, direct and star – in their own One-Person Show by transforming raw material from their lives into creative personal story telling performances. Smith’s process turns personal experience into compelling and entertaining theatre, with no prior acting experience necessary.
Participants take part in writing and theatre exercises to explore their lives, gaining insight into their trials and triumphs, as well as the wisdom they have earned; and share a ten-minute performance with an audience of friends and family at the end of the course. Some graduates take the class again and again because they discover there is no end to the stories they have within them. Some graduates have gone on to perform full-length solo shows across North America, in New York City and at the Edinburgh Festival.
“SoulOTheatre courses are very creative, empowering and super fun,” says Smith. “Participants share their stories, and hear the stories of others. In so doing, they bond in a deep way. Sharing these sometimes-hilarious, sometimes-heart-breaking – but always powerful – presentations at the end of the course to a larger community, highlights the inherent worth and dignity of an individual life story and the ‘Hero’s Journey’ each one of us has lived so far,” she concludes.
SoulOTheatre has been adapted and taught by Smith in a variety of settings to students from 18yrs to 80yrs – to people living with cancer, to seniors in community living facilities, to the general public, to professional actors at Toronto’s famed The Second City, and more.
Tracey’s solo show, ‘snug harbor’ had its U.S. debut at the Santa Fe Solo Show Festival in New Mexico, September2011 and was a sold-out hit in its Canadian debut in the Toronto Fringe Festival, July 2012.
“Tracey helped me unearth a wealth of ideas, feelings and truths in my life. She showed me the way to use all my gifts and exerpeinces in life thus far to help others while entertaining them.”
- Maria Sant’Angela, Actress/Singer
“I was apprehensive to join the class because of my age; I am always the youngest person in the room, but I always feel like I’m older than I am. Tracey, a true soul, artist and person allowed me to be my youngest self and my oldest self in the class.... This class was another step in the direction to understanding my soul, my being, who I am as a person and as an artist....So, coming from a 19 year old, please take the class, think of me as you’re 19 year old self who is curious and is hoping for all the best for his/her future self.”
– Lisa Alves, student/actor