Shira Taylor

Shira Taylor is a performer, director, producer, and doctoral candidate at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at U of T. For her dissertation, she created SExT: Sex Education by Theatre to explore the use of theatre for sexual health education among youth in Toronto’s Thorncliffe/Flemingdon Park. Shira obtained her BSc. (Psychology) and MSc. (Epidemiology) from Queen’s University, where she performed with Queen’s Players, Queen’s Musical Theatre, and Existere, and co-founded and directed the social action theatre program, Excetera. Shira and her puppet doppelganger Lucy perform with the multiple award-winning theatre company, Shakey-Shake and Friends, which uses puppets and popular culture references to make Shakespeare accessible to young audiences. She also works with Indigenous girls in the Northwest Territories as Evaluation Consultant and Drama Facilitator with FOXY and is a Research Coordinator at SickKids on the cross-Canada, Art for Social Change (ASC!) project, working closely with artists and change-makers to further the use of the arts in social justice agendas.SExT: Sex Education by Theatre empowers youth from a community where sexuality is a cultural taboo to take centre stage. SExT is a collaboration between Toronto theatre artists and a diverse group of youth from Flemingdon and Thorncliffe Park - two immigration destinations in Toronto and the recent hub of protests opposing sex education reform in the wake of the first curriculum update since 1998. Check us out at the Toronto Fringe and SummerWorks 2016 to hear what these youth have to say about growing up in the age of cyberbullying, sexting and rape culture. It’s time to let TEENS give THE TALK!www.sexeducationbytheatre.com SExT Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWP6RQkx0yA SExT @ Toronto Fringe: http://fringetoronto.com/fringe-festival/shows/sext/ SExT @ SummerWorks: http://summerworks.ca/2016/artists/sext/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/sextedshow Twitter: @SExTEdShow #SExTEd Instagram: @SExTEdShow #SExTEdTwitter: @ShiraTaylor Instagram: @theshirataylorStageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod