Workshops with Velvet Wells

Velvet is an agent of empowerment, creating curriculums and delivering improvisation workshops that give people space to develop their competence, consciousness, self-efficacy, and to create positive connections

Upcoming Sessions

WordPlay Jamnasium (In Person – Ottawa)

Thursday, April 4 First Thursday monthly

All Request Radio Studio Sessions

Studio I & II (May 24, Ottawa)

Gamebreaker

Stay tuned for future workshop dates

Community Accountability
We'll create Consent Informed Spaces for each other in these workshops

About Your Facilitator

In addition to being an award-winning queer, Black, lyrical comedian and creator-producer, Velvet Wells (they/them) facilitates performance and applied improvisational sessions across North America, including work for SC Johnson, Black and Funny Improv Festival, and Wagner-Green Center for Access & Inclusion. Most recently lauded for their disability accessibility measures by the Ottawa Arts Council, Ottawa and Halifax Fringe Festivals, and JRG Society for the Arts, they engage the theatre world offstage through the lens of social justice and community care. As of February 2024, they are the Strategic Partnership Lead for the Black Pledge Collective

Select Testimonials

“You will feel joy and feel empowered!” Jennifer P

“I came in feeling nervous and left feeling confident and ready to try musical improv outside of a class room setting.” Daa’iyah H

“Velvet Wells’ workshops are a masterful welcoming safe creative space, well structured and insightful from the start to the end.” Rob W

While workshops are open to any adult interested in the topic, the concepts and approaches may be outside the scope of their training and performing experience. Feel free to contact Velvet for further clarifications as needed

Explainer: 2024 Session Fees

To balance my self-care and community-mindedness, I’m keeping my session fees transparent for in-person Ottawa workshops: CAD$30 per person

  • Pay it Forward (CAD$30) donations will create free spots; how those with comfortable means can support the community
  • CAD$10 discount code (commUNITY2024); no justification required
  • Indigenous and Black performers contact me directly to sign up for free; I’m modelling the support I wrote about in 2021