Join us on March 7th, 2024 in Toronto at Burdock Brewery for an evening of true, personal stories about times where science caught us off guard, singled us out or didn’t meet expectations.
Hosted by Sara Mazrouei and Misha Gajewski.
Doors at 7:30 pm, show starts at 8:00 pm.
This event is sponsored by the Royal Canadian Institute for Science and is part of the Replay Storytelling Story Fest.
Stories by:
Set L. Shuter is a writer, filmmaker and storyteller from Toronto. She got her start in comedy as an elementary school class clown and later discovered her love of performance at The Second City training centre in Toronto. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from The University of King's College and is currently querying her horror-comedy medical memoir, Ovaries Gone Wild. Her essays have appeared in The Toronto Star, Chatelaine Magazine, Understorey Magazine, CBC, and Creative Nonfiction Magazine. Set has told her stories for the RISK! podcast, True Stories Told Live Toronto, Replay Storytelling, But That's Another Story, and more. When she isn't on stage or working, she is in Nova Scotia, writing her days away by the ocean.
A speech therapist by profession, Justina Assaad is a self-proclaimed drama queen whose adventures and misfortunes occur solely to entertain others. She’s a newbie to the art of performative storytelling, but is excited to share her personal triumphs, laughs, and tragedies with complete strangers!
Sonia Rehal is currently an educator at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario and the director for Lipodystrophy Canada, and non-for-profit organization supporting lipodystrophy patients and caregivers. Being a lipodystrophy patient herself, her advocacy for awareness started young. Interested in understanding the pathophysiology of lipodystrophy, my postdoctoral training focused on lipid inflammation and insulin resistance in animal models of obesity. This journey has allowed her to travel the world and publish important research findings in highly cited research journals. More importantly, her academic career has given her a unique perspective to patient advocacy, highlighting how important disease awareness and research funding for prospective treatments and are for our lipodystrophy community. Lipodystrophy can vary in severity however these themes hold in common: Lipodystrophy is incurable, has inadequate medical treatment and affects multiple organ systems. Unfortunately, a severe form of lipodystrophy has affected her family and herself, losing both her mother and sister to its complications at a very young age. This loss has only further intensified her passion to support the rare disease community affected by lipodystrophy.
Julie Tomé is a science educator and communicator who has worked at various observatories, science centres, and museums where she shares her passion for all things science and history with folks of all ages through school programs, camps, exhibitions, and special programs. When not doing that, she can be found spending time with her family, at the karate dojo, playing board games, or doing all the crafting.
Paul Aflalo is Replay’s artistic director. He is a storyteller and documentary producer. He creates narrative-driven pieces for film, radio and podcasts. Paul has shared stories across Canada and parts of Europe and the UK. His focus has always been to help others share the stories that need to be told. He is also fascinated by the human unknown, take a listen to his radio documentary about aphantasia.
Replay Story Fest is a five-day celebration marking eight years of Replay Storytelling. Engage with seasoned performers, participate in interactive workshops, and experience diverse forms of storytelling – from live performances to music, live journalism to poetry. Revel in the magic of our shared lived experiences and honour the vibrant community that has shaped Replay Storytelling over the last eight years.