PUS$Y CHURCH
Monday, March 11, 2024, 7-9pm
City of Waterloo Visitor Centre
10 Father David Bauer Dr.
FREE Event – REGISTRATION REQUIRED
Pussy Church Service is an evening workshop that offers a sacred space to connect to our power, our pussies and one another. Using “Pussy Prompts” Kelsey guides participants through free writing, song and movement, to reconnect to their own unique Pussy Spirits. All congregant members are invited to wear whatever makes them feel powerful and free, be it lingerie or pyjamas. Participants will leave this workshop feeling alive, relaxed and ready to water new seeds of rebellion. Join the community at @pvssy.church for more!
Pussy Church was founded by Kelsey Rideout in 2023, and offers arts-based workshops to cultivate a sacred connection to our power, our pussies and one another. Now, performer-creators Kelsey Rideout and Jessie Bergeron have combined forces to create Pussy Church: The Theatrical Experiment, a devised theatre piece incorporating key elements of Kelsey’s workshops with aspects of Jessie’s previous work, “The Madonna Whore Project”. Through ceremony, song, movement and storytelling, Kelsey and Jessie create a ritualistic space to unapologetically share their pussy stories and celebrate their sexualities. The piece also serves as an act of resistance and rebellion, satirizing the practices of patriarchal religious institutions and dismantling the historical repression of their female members.
Kelsey Rideout is an actor, poet, musician and writer. She studied International Development at the University of Guelph before training at The Intensive Actors Lab. Recent theatre credits include The Lover in “The Supine Cobbler” at the Great Canadian Theatre Company and #11 in the production of “The Wolves”, winner of the Prix Rideau Best Direction and Jury Award. Her original spoken word poetry was included in the 2023 NUMUS Emerging Curators Award and her non-fiction writing has been featured in Above & Beyond Magazine, GUTS Magazine, rabble, and Northern News Services Online. She is the creator of Pussy Church and Eternity Arts, where she offers soulful creative writing workshops for women and non-binary folks.
Jessie is a multidisciplinary theatre artist from Timmins, Ontario. After graduating from the University of Ottawa with a BA in Theatre Studies, she trained in acting at George Brown College. She is a proud mama of two and a teacher-mom to many more. As a mother-artist, a feminist, a queer woman, and a person who lives with mental illness, she works to create space for these communities and explore these lived experiences through her art.