David James Brock

Theatre, Opera, Poetry, Film

Toronto Canada

David James Brock is a Canadian writer of opera, theatre, poetry, and film.
Author of poetry collections Everyone is CO2 and Ten-Headed Alien.
Co-creator of Breath Cycle, an opera for cystic fibrosis.

Inkwell Workshops

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From 2014 2022. David James Brock was a facilitator for Inkwell Workshops, which offers free, drop-in creative writing instruction to people living with mental-health or addiction issues. All workshops are led by award-winning professional writers with lived experience of mental illness.

University of Victoria

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In 2016, David taught Playwriting at the University of Victoria.

Young People's Theatre

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In 2014, 2015, & 2019 David James Brock facilitated a new playwriting unit for young playwrights with Young People's Theatre (YPT).

Writers' Bloc runs weekly from November through April. Students learn numerous script-building skills while working with text from a variety of playwrights. In the second half of the program, each student chooses one idea to develop to completion — be it a scene, a one-act play, a film script or a form of their choice. Writers' Bloc ends in April with a staged reading of the young playwrights' final pieces by young actors in YPT's Senior Ensemble program.

Humber College

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The University of Guelph

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From 2013-2019, David James Brock taught Introduction to Creative Writing at the University of Guelph & Talking the Talk: the Art of Writing Dialogue.

These eight-week courses introduce students to fundamental vocabulary and basic skills that can be applied to any genre. Students are exposed to choices of point-of-view in fiction, basic requirements of narrative scene, dialogue, narrative structure in fiction and nonfiction, writing techniques, metaphoric language and poetic forms. The course also covers techniques for getting started as a writer, generating material, finding a voice and some practical information about publishing and the writing life.

Inside Opera

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In 2011, David James Brock facilitated Inside Opera, a community program designed to bring opera to young artists in at-risk communities. This project involved the concept, writing, and performance of a new opera for young artists and audiences.