regular, large
Regular High
Playwrights Theatre Centre
PTC Associates
Block A
Block D
WrightSpace (Colony)
Fringe New Play Prize
Block SAT
Block P
Dramaturgical Reading Program
ACK Lab
PTC is home to some of the finest creative voices in the country. We collaborate with emerging and established Canadian playwrights from first idea to first production. Because we believe in the definition of playwright as play + wright ("wright" deriving from the Old English word "wryhta", meaning a worker or maker), we work with playmakers of all kinds, from writers to actors to producers. Our playwrights bring us fresh ideas for performance. We dig into each play in conversation with the writer, designing a process that will help them reach the furthest extent of their imagination. Through mentorship, dramaturgical collaboration, readings, workshops and production support, we reimagine theatre in new and inspiring ways.
Playwrights:
Barbara Adler
WrightSpace (Colony): 2018
Barbara Adler is an interdisciplinary artist whose work brings together literary performance, composition, event making and design. Her work has been presented through multiple solo and band albums, publication in spoken word anthologies and performances at major music and literary festivals. Recent collaborators include choreographer Lesley Telford (Ballet BC/Inverso), composer Leah Abramson, documentary filmmaker Jan Foukal and theatre artist Kyla Gardiner. In 2016, she joined Cole Schmidt and James Meger to launch Sawdust Collector, a weekly performance series presenting new, experimental and improvised works by established and emerging artists in an interdisciplinary context.
Barbara's work frequently addresses artifice within the natural world, nostalgia, and commodity culture, with a particular focus on the intersections between outdoor recreation, fashion and marketing. Current research interests include North American duck decoys and Dutch eendenkooi, Floridian mermaids and orchid smuggling, feminist taxidermy and the colour, Millennial Pink. Though her heroes tend to be marginally successful side-hustlers with excellent fake eyelashes, Barbara is empathically anti-whimsy. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies and a BA in Art and Cultural Studies, both from Simon Fraser University.
Website: tenthousandwolves.com
FB: facebook.com/tenthousandwolves
Instagram: @tenthousandwolves
Pinterest: 10000wolves
Sawdust Collector: sawdustcollector.com
Carmen Aguirre
PTC Associates: 2013-16
Carmen is a best-selling author, actor, and playwright. She was born in Santiago, Chile to parents who were teachers and activists. After spending much of her teenage years and early adulthood in South America working for the underground resistance movement against the Pinochet dictatorship, Carmen returned to Vancouver in 1990 to attend Studio 58. It was while attending theatre school that she wrote her first play, In a Land Called I Don't Remember. Since then, much of her writing has been autobiographical and unabashedly left wing, exploring themes of exile, loss, alienation, and isolation. Carmen has written and co-written twenty-five plays, including Chile Con Carne, The Refugee Hotel, The Trigger, Blue Box, and adaptations for the stage of Eduardo Galeano's, Jorge Amado's, and Julio Cortazar's work.
She adapted and starred in Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands with the Electric Company. Currently, Carmen is touring her one-woman show Broken Tailbone, writing a new play entitled Anywhere But Here, adapting Euripides' Medea for Vancouver's Rumble Theatre and Moliere's The Learned Ladies for Toronto's Factory Theatre. She is the author of two bestselling memoirs: Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter (winner of Canada Reads 2012) and Mexican Hooker #1 and My Other Roles Since the Revolution. Carmen is the recipient of the Hispanic Business Alliance's 2014 Ten Most Influential Hispanics in Canada Award, Latincouver's 2014 Most Inspirational Latin Award, the 2014 Betty Mitchell Outstanding Actor Award for her work in Alberta Theatre Projects' The Motherfucker with The Hat, the 2012 Langara College Outstanding Alumna Award, the 2011 Union of B.C. Performers' Lorena Gale Woman of Distinction Award, and the 2002 New Play Centre Award for Best New Play, for The Refugee Hotel. She has over eighty film, tv, and stage acting credits. Carmen is currently a core artist with The Electric Company. Read more about Carmen's work at carmenaguirre.ca
Elaine Avila
Elaine Avila, a Canadian playwright of Azorean/Portuguese descent, has a passion for exploring untold stories. Frequently incorporating music, politics and humor, her work is described as "bold, intelligent, forthright, spirited, compassionate… inviting, wide-ranging" (Caridad Svich), "open, generous" (Erik Ehn) and "a wonderful writer, tremendously gifted, reliable, and innovative." (Suzan-Lori Parks).
Her plays have premiered in Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto, New York City, Seattle, New Mexico, Lisbon, Portugal and London, England. Recent/upcoming work: Jane Austen, Action Figure; Kitimat; Quality: the Shoe Play, Lieutenant Nun, Burn Gloom, La Frontera/The Border, Lost and Found in Fado. Awards: Victoria Critic's Circle for Best New Play, Audience Favorite Festival de Cocos, Panama City; Winner, Disquiet International Short Play Competition, Lisbon; Canada Council (numerous). She has taught in universities from British Columbia to Tasmania, China to Panama. Publications include: NoPassport Press (Jane Austen, Action Figure and other Plays, in 24 Gun Control Plays), Howlround, Canadian Theatre Review, American Theater, Café Onda, TCG Circles (Artistry and Innovation, Crossing Borders) Contemporary Theatre Review, Lusitania. She is the Playwright in Residence at Pomona College in Los Angeles and was recently distinguished as a descendentes notáveis (Notable Descendant) for her theatre work by the Government of the Azores, Portugal."
Mariam Barry
Block A: 2018
Mariam Barry is an actor and theatre artist from Norway and The Gambia. She immigrated to Canada five years ago and holds a BFA in Acting from the University of British Columbia. As a theatre artist, Mariam has worked with Rumble Theatre, Ensemble Theatre Company, Bard on the Beach, Urban Ink, Zee Zee Theatre, Peninsula Productions, Belfry Theatre, Passion in Practice, and LAMDA in various artistic roles. Her recent credits include: Theory (Rumble Theatre), Ruined (Dark Glass Theatre), The Christians (Pacific Theatre), UnSettled: A Journey of Our Homes on Native Land (The Cultch: Indigenous Youth Initiative), and In The Next Room or The Vibrator Play (Ensemble Theatre Company). Mariam has produced a sold-out staged reading series of 'da Kink in My Hair by Trey Anthony and a three time remounted production of Love, Lust & Lace in collaboration with Axis Theatre. She was a company apprentice at Pacific Theatre during their 2017-2018 season, and is currently a co-producer of The Virago Play Series. Her passion for theatre is rooted in African storytelling.
Mairy Beam
Block P: 2019
Mairy is a non-binary playwright and director who recently moved to Vancouver from southern Ontario. Her latest play, Body Parts, will be produced in the New Ideas Festival in Toronto in March 2019. Her recent plays include Out and About produced in 2017 in Vancouver at the 4 x 3 Fest and in Toronto at Gelato Fest, The Next Mary which was included in PinkFest 2018 in Toronto, and Let Me In which was read as part of the 2018 Bodacious Series in North Vancouver. She has also directed several plays for Theatre Out of the Box in Toronto. Mairy was arrested as part of the KM protests and is currently working on a documentary theatre piece that will shine a light on that whole process.
Leanna Brodie
Leanna Brodie is a playwright, actor, and translator. The Vic, For Home and Country, The Book of Esther, and Schoolhouse, published by Talon Books, are regularly performed across Canada. Ulla's Odyssey, her award-winning opera with Anthony Young, has toured the UK. She has translated numerous Québec playwrights, including Hélène Ducharme of Théâtre Motus and Christian Bégin. She has been playwright-in-residence at the Blyth Festival, 4th Line Theatre, Lighthouse Festival Theatre, and currently, the Gateway Theatre. Other residencies have included PTC's Colony, Banff Playwrights Colony, Hedgebrook Women Playwrights Festival, and Glassco Translation Residency. Ruby Slippers premiered her translation of Catherine Léger's I Lost My Husband! at the Gateway in March 2018. leannabrodie.com
Tim Carlson
Collaborations: 2015-17
Tim Carlson is a playwright, dramaturg, curator and the artistic producer of Theatre Conspiracy. He led the creation of Foreign Radical which won the 2015 Jessie Award Critics Choice Innovation prize and a 2017 Edinburgh Fringe First Award. He was researcher/ interviewer for Berlin-based Rimini Protokoll's latest show, Top Secret International, seen at the 2017 Under the Radar Festival in New York. His new documentary play, Victim Impact, premiered at The Cultch in Vancouver in June 2018. The show Extraction, won the 2013 Rio Tinto Alcan Award, Canada's largest prize for new play development.
Other credits include: co-creator/performer in Stray with Tanya Marquardt and Mallory Catlett (Club PuSh Vancouver and Brooklyn Arts Exchange, 2014), and dramaturgy for Best Before (Rimini Protokoll, @ PuSh Festival 2010) and 100% Vancouver (Rimini Protokoll / Theatre Replacement, @ PuSh 2011). His play Omniscience (Talonbooks, 2007) was produced in Vancouver, Berlin, Lisbon and Chicago. He founded Club PuSh with the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in Vancouver and served as co-curator along with Veda Hille and Norman Armour from 2009 to 2016. As a journalist, he worked on staff at the Halifax Daily News, Vancouver Sun and Georgia Straight. He holds an English degree from University of Regina, a journalism degree from University of King's College, Halifax, and a MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia.
Pedro Chamale
Pedro Chamale is a first-generation Latinx-Canadian theatre artist who was born and raised in northern British Columbia. He received his BFA in Theatre Performance from SFU's School for the Contemporary Arts. He then went on to form rice & beans theatre with Derek Chan. Pedro is a performer, director, playwright and theatre jack-of-all-trades. Selected Credits: Selfie, Bull (Rumble Theatre), Broken Tailbone (Nightswimming), Mis Papás (rice & beans), Are We There Yet? (Neworld Theatre), and The Show Must Go On (Push Festival).
Pedro was the artist-in-residence at Neworld Theatre in 2014, the guest curator of the 2018 rEvolver Festival, and is one of the founding members of the Canadian Latinx Theatre Artist Coalition (CALTAC).Currently, through a company collaboration with rice & beans theatre and PTC, Pedro is working on his new play Made In Canada, an excerpt of which is featured at the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival (see below) on November 3, 2018 and will premiere in July 2020 at the Annex Theatre.
Pedro has also worked behind the scenes with local Vancouver theatre companies including: Full Circle First Nations Performance, Leaky Heaven, Boca del Lupo, Neworld Theatre and The Only Animal.
Wendy Chan
Wendy Chan is a Vancouver-based writer and editor. Originally from Mississauga, Ontario, Wendy has written for print, digital, and stage. Her short stories have appeared in Shoreline and Discorder Magazine. Her one-act play, As Thick as Thieves, was performed at the Brave New Play Rites Festival. Wendy holds a BFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia. Her writing focuses on the destructive, beautiful, and complex ways in which people learn to endure their reality.
Derek Chan
Fringe New Play Prize: 2015
Derek Chan grew up in colonial Hong Kong, lived in Norway, and is now based in Vancouver. He received his BFA in theatre performance from Simon Fraser University. A playwright, director, performer, translator, and producer, Derek has been co-artistic director of rice & beans theatre since 2010.
In 2015, Derek was awarded the Vancouver Fringe New Play Prize. He was a cohort at the 2016 Glassco Translation Residency in Tadoussac, Quebec hosted by Playwrights' Workshop Montréal. Derek has previously worked with Playwrights Theatre Centre (artistic director apprentice), Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre (associate artistic producer), and the rEvolver Festival (guest curator). Derek's Cantonese solo show in 2018, Sik Zeon Tin Haa/A Taste of Empire, was the first non-English production to be nominated for a Dora Award for best touring production. He performed in Yoga Play at Gateway Theatre in early 2019.
Derek is currently working with PTC on his next play, Chicken Girl, for rice & beans' residency at the Annex Theatre in May & June 2019.
Select creative credits: No Foreigners (Hong Kong Exile/fu-GEN), Pick a Number (Boca del Lupo/FUSE), Loomings; or The Whale, Mis Papás, Last Train In (rice & beans), The Revolutions (SpiderWebShow), and Sik Zeon Tin Haa/A Taste of Empire (rice & beans/Gateway Theatre's Pacific Festival/Cahoots Theatre).
Jasmine Chehil
Block SAT: 2018
Jasmine writes from a first generation Canadian/ancient Punjabi/contemporary Sikh/ female perspective in her hometown of Vancouver. Her work seeks to explore the construction of identities as praxis and how these may be influenced by cross-cultural, cross-spiritual theatre production from lenses of indigeneity.
Jan Derbyshire
ACK Lab: 2015-16
Jan Derbyshire (JD) is an established multi-disciplinary artist, producer, inclusive designer and educator. She specializes in the design a facilitation and delivery of playful, inclusive, interactive, and participatory experiences that push forward ideas of diversity, belonging and interdependent communities.
A self-motivated, enthusiastic communicator she is able to express ideas both in public presentations and writing with over 20 years experience working in professional and community arts and in issue based collaborations with non-profits, educational institutes and corporations. She draws from a background of stand-up comedy, playwriting, devised theatre, storytelling, interactive installation, game design, essay writing, and stage directing. She has produced projects locally, nationally and internationally. Jan Holds a Masters in Inclusive Design form OCAD University in Toronto.
Dave Deveau
Dave Deveau is an award-winning writer and performer whose work has been produced across North America and in Europe. He is the Playwright in Residence for Vancouver's Zee Zee Theatre who produced his plays Nelly Boy, Tiny Replicas, the critically-acclaimed My Funny Valentine (Sydney Risk Prize, Jessie Nomination, Oscar Wilde Nomination – Dublin), Lowest Common Denominator and Elbow Room Café: The Musical (with Anton Lipovetsky). His first three theatre for young audiences plays were all commissioned and premiered with Green Thumb Theatre, and have subsequently continued into other productions: Out in the Open, tagged (Dora nomination) and Celestial Being (Jessie Nomination).
He is currently working on new commissions for Green Thumb Theatre, Zee Zee Theatre, The Belfry, Arts Club and Nashville Children's Theatre. In total, his plays have been nominated for 21 Jessie Awards, 4 Ovation Awards and 4 Dora Awards. His newest play for young audiences entitled Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, about a transgender child just toured Ontario for two seasons with Roseneath Theatre. He is hugely devoted to developing intelligent, theatrical plays for young people that foster conversation, and is currently the Associate Artistic & Executive Director at the Vancouver International Children's Festival. He is represented by Marquis Literary.
Olivia Etey
Olivia Etey is a Vancouver-based Playwright and Stage Manager. Her produced plays include Foreplay (2015), The Midnight Serenade (2015), Living on the Grid (2016), which debuted at the Vancouver FRINGE Festival as part of The Only Animal's Generation Hot Series, and The Hoarder (2017). This year, Olivia is the Level 111 student in the Arts Club LEAP Program, where she is developing her play Woman Against Gravity with Shawn Macdonald and Veronique West. Her recent stage-managing credits include, James and the Giant Peach (Arts Umbrella 2019), The Lion, the Witch & The Wardrobe (The Drama Class 2019) Auguries of Innocence (FRINGE 2018), The Brave New Play Rites Festival (2018) and The Moaning Yoni (Joylyn Secunda Productions 2018). She also assistant stage-managed for Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play (Little Mountain Lion Productions 2018). Olivia is elated to be a part of Leanna Brodie's cohort in PTC's Block A Program.
Kendra Fanconi
Kendra Fanconi has worked since 1994 as an actor, writer, director, theatre creator and producer of original, often site-specific work. She has created plays in swimming pools, treetops, elevators, on False Creek, and in a theatre built of snow and ice. Kendra is the Artistic Director of The Only Animal. Kendra's short play Finale has been produced in New York City, Chicago, Norway, Lithuania, Brighton U.K. Her production Nothing But Sky won the 2014 Jessie for Significant Artistic Achievement. She created NiX, Canada's first theatre of snow and ice, which premiered at ATP's playRites Festival in Calgary and was a centrepiece production in the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad up in Whistler.
She also wrote and directed the outdoor extravaganza Other Freds in 2005, also won a Jessie award for Expanding the Scope of Site-Specific Theatre. That production featured 125 community members and 35 professional artists, including 7 roving musicians, a bicycle ballet, kayak stampede, and a cruise ship conga line. Other credits include: The One that Got Away (playwright/performer, Winner: Outstanding Production 2002), The Last Stand (co-writer/performer), Box2 (co-writer/performer, Winner: Best Actress), Bonehouse, (playwright, adapted for CBC radio, Nomination: Outstanding Script), The Last Five Years (director, Nomination: Outstanding Director), and Medea (director). She is also the recipient of the Sam Payne Award for Best Emerging Director. Over the last few years she has mentored 30 companies in creating original site specific premieres for the Fringe Festival. She trained at Ecole du Phillipe du Gaulier, Central School of Speech and Drama, and University of Oregon.
Allyson Fournier
Allyson is an award-winning director and writer from Kelowna. Directing credits include East of Berlin, Boy (Dalliance Theatre Collective), The Diary of Anne Frank, Posh (Fighting Chance), Seven Minutes in Heaven (Eternal Theatre Collective), and Gridlock (UBC Brave New Play Rites). Playwriting credits include An Assertive Girl (Quand Même Festival, Pull Festival) and Carrots, Baby (Tomo Suru Players). Allyson holds a bachelor's degree in Motion Picture Arts from Capilano University and by day works at a talent agency in the animation and voice-over department.
Rosemary Georgeson
Rosemary Georgeson is a Coast Salish/Sahtu Dene artist, storyteller and writer from Galiano Island. Born and raised in the commercial fishing industry, and with a background in the Culinary Arts, she was the Aboriginal Storyteller at the Vancouver Public Library and has worked as an artist and community liaison for Vancouver Moving Theatre and urban ink productions. She co-wrote We're All In this Together and Storyweaving.
Kagan Goh
Kagan Goh is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, published author, spoken word artist, mental health advocate and activist who uses writing, film and spoken word storytelling to educate the public about mental health issues and break the silence about the taboo of mental illness and fight the stigma against people with mental health challenges. Surviving Samsara is a 60-minute multimedia, multidisciplinary live theatrical production bringing together theatre, spoken word, music, film, audiovisuals, etc. Created by artist Kagan Goh based on his struggles with manic depression, this work breaks the taboo of silence about mental illness. Surviving Samsara traces his journey towards recovery, acceptance and unconditional self-love. The show spans two decades as Kagan struggles to survive the highs of mania and the lows of depression. The work offers intimate insights into an 'insider's' experience of madness as a survivor. Kagan exposes the damaging effects of the stigma of mental illness and explores manic depression not only as a disorder but also as a spiritual emergence – a vehicle for personal growth, healing and transcendence.
Tai Amy Grauman
Tai Amy Grauman is Metis, Cree and Haudenosaunee from Ardrossan, Alberta. She has a BFA in Acting from UBC with a minor in First Nations Studies. Tai recently received this year's Jessie Richardson award for most promising newcomer. She was also Vancouver's Mayor's Emerging Theatre Artist of 2015, nominated by Margo Kane. Tai is currently Savage Society's Artist in Residence. She is also working with Nightswimming on a commission of a new play which will be developed over the next five years called Her name is Marie. Over this upcoming season, she will also be developing her play You used to call me Marie. Her name is Marie and You used to call me Marie are companion pieces which centre the history of the creation of Treaty 6 through the perspective of Marie Callihoo. Tai is also co-creating a play called And she fell from the Sky… for YPT's Leaps and Bound initiative. Recent acting credits include: Thanks For Giving (Arts Club), THOWXIYA (Axis Theatre), The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Carousel Theatre) and Weaving Reconciliation (Vancouver Moving Theatre). Tai also wrote and directed Her name was Mary at the 2017 Vancouver Fringe Festival. She was recently in Lytton as Kevin Loring's assistant director for Savage Society's play The council of Spider, Ant and Fly. Upcoming Tai will be participating in Native Earth's Weesageechak Festival as part of the acting company and with her play You used to call me Marie.
Jenn Griffin
Originally from Edmonton, Alberta, Jenn is a Vancouver based actor/playwright. She was awarded the Sydney Risk award in 1999 for best emerging playwright with her first play Drinking with Persephone. She received a Silver Commission for her new play House and Home. As an actor, Jenn recently performed the role of "Lawyer1" in Theatre Conspiracy's production of Victim Impact, "Jean" in The Arts Club production of Good People, and the role of "Jess" in Neil Labute's A Second of Pleasure, for Take 5 at The Cultch. Jenn has been honoured with several Jessie Richardson Theatre nominations/wins for writing and performing. She has also worked extensively in film and television and was nominated for a Leo award as "Maeve," in Marshall Axani's feature The Cannon.
Robert Hamilton
Robert is a Vancouver-based writer, originally from New Brunswick. He is a poet, a writer for film and stage, and diarist – journalling his life since 1988. He was employed in the prison system for many years, and currently works with the disenfranchised in the downtown south. He is a past participant in the Block A and M programs at PTC; a past Writer Resident at the Canadian Film Centre, and past Fellow with Praxis. His ten-minute play Boyfish was part of the 2018 Newmarket National Ten-Minute Play Festival. Robert is excited to be part of WrightSpace and looking forward to developing his script, Our Story: Coming out in the time of HIV and AIDS.
Laura Anne Harris
Laura Anne Harris is a writer/performer/director, born and raised in Victoria, B.C. Laura trained at the University of Victoria's Acting program and graduated in 2007.
Laura wrote and starred in Pitch Blonde at the 2007 Victoria Fringe Festival where she won the 2007 Critic's Choice Award for 'Best Fringe Production.' Pitch Blonde chronicles actor Judy Holliday's testimony during Senator Joseph McCarthy's inquisitions. Since then she has performed this production to a sold-out run at the 2008 Uno Festival in Victoria, B.C., the Sunset Theatre (Wells, B.C.), the Chutzpah Festival (Vancouver, B.C.), the 2009 Femfest (Winnipeg, MB) and the 2011 Oh Solo Mio Festival (London, ON). In January 2013, Pitch Blonde was one of the top grossing shows featured at Toronto's Next Stage Theatre Festival. This past May, Laura was invited to speak at the Canadian Association for Theatre Research Conference at Brock University. She was part of a panel discussion entitled, Performing Public Lives: Exploring the Borders of History and Identity in New Canadian Work.
In 2013, Laura debuted her newest solo show The Homemaker at the 2013 Wakefield TaDa Festival of New Works, and premiered the show in Toronto at the 25th Annual Toronto Fringe Festival. Now Magazine listed her as one of the top 10 artists to watch at the Toronto Fringe. In addition, this past April Laura remounted this new play in Toronto at the Storefront Theatre, and preformed in Regina, SK as part of Hectik Theatre's Annual Season.
In October 2014, Laura's first full-length play Red/Rouge held a one hour workshop presentation at the IF Festival in Bangkok, Thailand, as well as a full workshop presentation at Toronto's Storefront Theatre.
Fairlith Harvey
Collaborations: 2019
A graduate of New York's American Musical and Dramatic Academy, Fairlith has been directing, writing, and performing professionally for over a decade.
Fairlith has appeared in, directed, written, publicized, produced (and toured with) Geekenders shows including A Nude Hope: A Sci-Fi Burlesque Adventure (and its sequels, The Empire Strips Back, Reveal of the Jedi, and The Force is Shakin), The Wizard of Bras, and Not the Bees: A Burlesque Tribute to Nicolas Cage, as well as all-ages offerings like Portal 2: The (Unauthorized) Musical, A Halloween Night at Wayne Manor, Jurassic Parody: The Musical! and Galaxy News Radio Live!.
Fairlith has created programming for Barkerville Historic Town, selling out the hotels of both Wells and Barkerville in the shoulder season with the now institutional Steampunk Weekend. Fairlith also created the new script for Barkerville's school program, as well as discourses on hurdy-gurdy dancers and the ghostly side of Barkerville. She has extensive experience and training as a historical interpreter. Fairlith also created programming and trained actors for Fright Nights at Playland's inaugural season of running the haunt instead of bringing in an outside company, and New York's Times Square dining experience, Mars 2112.
She has choreographed for Geekenders, Screaming Chicken Theatrical Society, and Kitty Nights West, and taught burlesque movement at Capilano University. She is the founder of New York City's 'Company 1B' theatrical troupe. She has created costumes for Fighting Chance Productions' CATS (for which she won an Ovation Award), Hycroft Manor's A Halloween Night at Wayne Manor, Metro Theatre's Cinderella, numerous Geekenders shows, and for herself as a cabaret performer.
Other notable performing credits include but are not limited to, The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, The Shape of Things, and Cinderella.
"People like Fairlith Harvey of Geekenders are taking the ropes and giving opportunities for females to be cast in non-traditional, male-dominated spaces. In doing so, they're changing the fandom for the better while remaining true to its roots." (Cecilia Lu in Living Myth Magazine).
Arno Kamolika
Arno is a Vancouver-based Bharatanatyam dance artist and instructor. She has studied Bharatanatyam and Manipuri under esteemed Gurus in Bangladesh, India and Canada including C.V. Chandrasekhar, Jai Govinda, Bragha Bessel, Sharmila Banerjee and Belayet Hossain. A graduate in Architecture, her experience and training in various art disciplines and dance styles like music, mime, theatre and other contemporary dance forms, has complemented her work as a dancer. Over the past few years, Arno has been an integral part of Mandala Arts as an instructor and as a solo performer. Arno's rich repertoires of performances have taken her across the globe at various festivals in USA, Germany, India and Bangladesh. She is currently working on projects that create a bridge between the traditional framework of Bharatanatyam and Bengali poetry and music of Rabindranath Tagore.
Hiro Kanagawa
Like many Canadian artists Hiro has forged a career wearing many hats: actor, playwright, screenwriter, teacher. His plays range from the war crimes drama Tiger of Malaya (Factory Theatre, National Arts Centre, Gateway Theatre) to the Christmas fable The Patron Saint of Stanley Park (Arts Club, Halifax Theatre for Young People, Theatre NorthWest) to the Puccini sequel Tom Pinkerton: The Ballad of Butterfly's Son with music by David MacIntyre (short-listed for the 2012 Playwrights Guild of Canada New Musical Award).
His most recent play, Indian Arm premiered in spring 2015 with Vancouver's Rumble Theatre and received the Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Original Script. Hiro's screen credits include work as both an actor and story editor on the critically-acclaimed series Da Vinci's Inquest, Da Vinci's City Hall, Intelligence, and Blackstone, and recurring guest star roles on iZombie, Dark Matter, Heroes Reborn, and The Man in the High Castle. He teaches playwriting at Capilano University and is a youth football coach.
Ayush Kathuria
Ayush is currently a student at UBC Vancouver majoring in Psychology. His past experience is mostly related to writing a couple of street plays. His work seeks to provide modern adaptation to age-old folk tales, revisiting past historical figures through a different perspective and shedding new light on old tales.
Taran Kootenhayo
Taran is a Denésuliné and Nakoda Sioux actor, spoken word poet and playwright. Born in Cold Lake, AB (1993), he is now based out of Vancouver, BC. He received his Acting for Stage & Screen diploma from Capilano University in 2015, is signed with Premiere Talent Management, and is in Full Circle's First Nations Performance Ensemble. Past written projects have included work with the SOAR Aboriginal Arts Program, Cuywsti and Tom Cone's Sacred Space Festival.
Renae Morriseau
Renae Morriseau is Cree and Saulteaux from Manitoba. She works across Canada and the US in theatre, film, television and music. Recently, Renae toured internationally with her singing group M'Girl; served as Aboriginal Storyteller at the Vancouver Public Library and directed Down2Earth, an APTN TV Series on green-energy developments and sustainability projects in Maori (New Zealand) and First Nations (Canada) communities. Community building projects include the winter outdoor production Contest of the Winds with Caravan Farm Theatre, the community play Tuwitames with Splatsin Language Program (Secwepemc Nation)/Runaway Moon Theatre, and co-writing In the Heart of a City: The Downtown Eastside Community Play and Storyweaving with Vancouver Moving Theatre.
Linda Quibell
Linda has been, over the span of her long career, an actor, singer, writer, artistic director, producer, administrator, designer, publicist, and crew member, but her proudest accomplishments have been those ineffable moments when the stars align and it all just works. She is known for her long association with Felix Culpa and many of its works: The Compleat Works of Love, Salman Rushdie and Me…a love story, The Designated Mourner, UND, etc. She has performed for many theatres across the country (Arts Club, Touchstone, Bard on the Beach, The Globe), won some awards, created new works, performed the classics, and is excited to get back to writing after a long hiatus.
Lili Robinson
Lili Robinson is a multidisciplinary theatre artist and a graduate of the acting program at Studio 58. Her intersectionality as a queer, biracial Black woman is mirrored by her approach to devising work, which explores the creative space where poetry, music, and physical theatre collide. As an actor she has worked with companies including Boca del Lupo, Theatre Replacement, and The Troika Collective. Her first play, Chimera, co-written with close friend and collaborator Heather Barr, debuted as part of FourPlay at Studio 58 in 2018. In 2019 she will be developing a new play with the mentorship of Carmen Aguirre through the Emerging Playwright Mentorship at Rumble Theatre, as well as stepping into the position of Artistic Producing Intern at Theatre Replacement. She is the assistant director to Mike Stack at Theatre Temp, where they are developing two new collective creation pieces with students from Templeton Secondary in East Van.
Mannu Sandhu
Mannu Sandhu is a Canadian actress/ model now residing in Mumbai to pursue her career in Indian Cinema as an actress. She studied political science and criminology from Douglas Collage and the Justice Institute of British Columbia. She then pursued her career in acting and starting coaching at the Actors Foundary, Vancouver. Her first Canadian Feature Film was Footsteps into Gangland, a topic which is of high importance in Canadian households today. The film was about a teenager living in a foster home and getting sexually abused at home and influenced by the drug dealers of Vancouver on the streets. She gives high importance to topics that bring awareness to her community. She has done five feature films so far and is working on new projects in India. She also holds the title of Miss Universe Canada Miss Humanitarian for her ongoing community work in Canada. She has been spearheading the most prominent South Asian Film Festival in the City of Vancouver for the past five years and she has become a force between India and Canada to help join the two countries in the Entertainment Sector.
Tetsuro Shigematsu
For more than twenty years, Tetsuro Shigematsu has been telling stories across an array of media. He is a playwright, actor, scholar, broadcaster, author, filmmaker, and theatre artist. At the age of 19, he became the youngest playwright to compete in the history of the Quebec Drama Festival. Originally trained in the fine arts, he found a similar creative outlet writing for CBC Television's This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Then in 2004, he became the first person-of-colour to host a daily national radio program in Canada when he took over The Roundup on CBC Radio, where he co-wrote and co-produced nearly a thousand hours of network programming. His most recent theatre work, 1 Hour Photo garnered five Jessie nominations, including best original script.
His solo work, Empire of the Son was nominated for six Jessie awards – also for best original script – and was described by Colin Thomas as, "One of the best shows ever to come out of Vancouver. Ever…" Empire continues to tour throughout Canada and across the world. Tetsuro's award-winning body of work in film, television, radio, new media, and theatre continues to be taught in Canadian and American universities as examples of cultural possibility.
Shanae Sodhi
Shanae is excited to be working with DiverseTheatreBC to help racialized voices find a greater presence in theatre. As one of the establishing members of Studio 58's Student Diversity Committee, Shanae spearheaded it's work to give voice and strength to marginalized groups within the theatre community, while empowering students with the tools and knowledge to engage the conversations of diversity around them. This experience helped him discover his love for producing work that helps the stories of marginalized voices find a more prominent place in our society. Shanae currently works as the Associate Producer Intern at Green Thumb Theatre Company, while also producing Mx by Lili Robinson (winner of PTC's Fringe New Play Prize) for the Fringe Festival in September, and assistant directing with Anita Rochon on 4000 Miles by Amy Herzog at The Belfry Theatre.
Quelemia Sparrow
Quelemia Sparrow is busy on a variety of new play projects. With PTC, she developed O'wet/Lost Lagoon, co-produced by Alley Theatre and Full Circle: First Nations Performance, originally commissioned by Full Circle: First Nations Performance.
O'wet/Lost Lagoon was in workshop in February, April and late May/June, 2016 with a production launching at the Firehall Arts Centre, June 21-25, 2016, opening on National Aboriginal Day. Quelemia is a First Nations actor and writer from the Musqueam Nation. Select acting credits: Our Town (Osimous Theatre), The Edward Curtis Project (GCTC/NAC), The Penelopiad (Arts Club Theatre), Where the Blood Mixes (Playhouse/WCT) and The Fall (Electric Company). Writing credits: Ashes on the Water (Neworld Theatre/Raven Spirit Dance). Short screenplays: Love, The Girl in the Green Beret and Mosquitoes; for which she won an award for her unique voice. Various Film and T.V: Fringe, Blackstone, Cable Beach, The Letter, Da Vinci's City Hall, V, Unnatural and Accidental, and Da Vinci's Inquest which she won a Leo Award for Best Female Guest Appearance. She is currently playwright-in-residence with Full Circle: First Nations Performance writing The Women of Papiyek, a project delving into the living history of Xway Xway (Stanley Park); co-creating a children's show called Salmon Girl with Raven Spirit Dance, premiering at Presentation House in 2017, and also working in collaboration with ITSAZOO and Savage Society on The Pipeline Project, which premieres at The Gateway (Richmond) in 2017. Quelemia is a graduate of Studio 58. Currently she is writer in residence with Full Circle and an associate artist with Urban Ink Productions.
Jovanni Sy
Jovanni Sy is a playwright, director, performer and the artistic director of Gateway Theatre. As an actor, Jovanni has performed with companies from Whitehorse to St. John's. His most recent Vancouver roles were in King of the Yees (Gateway), Dead Metaphor (Firehall), and A Taste of Empire (Boca del Lupo). Jovanni directed Closer Than Ever, Valley Song, and Harvest at Gateway. He also directed God of Carnage, Antigone, and Blackbird for Theatre du Pif in Hong Kong and Stitch for Native Earth in Toronto. Jovanni's most recent play Nine Dragons premiered at Vertigo Theatre in Calgary in 2017 and subsequently transferred to Winnipeg's Royal MTC and Gateway Theatre. Nine Dragons was nominated for a Betty Award and a Jessie Award for Outstanding New Play. Jovanni's earlier play A Taste of Empire has been performed in Toronto and Vancouver in both English and Cantonese. Both these plays have been published by Talonbooks.
Tessa Trach
Tessa Trach has been studying, training and performing for more than 20 years and has worked professionally as an actor, singer, choreographer and sound designer. She is interested writing about topics that are usually pushed under the rug. Recent credits include: Kathy in Singin' in the Rain (Royal City Musical Theatre); A Christmas Carol in Banff (Carter-Ryan Productions); Marty in Grease (Chemainus Theatre Festival) and performing in From Broadway with Love (Circle Bright). Tessa has a Diploma in Music from Capilano University, a Bachelor of Performing Arts and is a graduate of Studio 58. Follow on Instagram @tessatrach or #veganfortessa
Tricia Trinh
Tricia Trinh is a multidisciplinary theatre artist, based in Vancouver B.C. Since graduating from University of Victoria's Phoenix Theatre Department Tricia has had the pleasure of working with theatre companies such as Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre, Puente Theatre, Impulse Theatre and Tomo Suru Players. One of Tricia's acting highlights includes working with Daniel MacIvor on the world premiere of, Inside [UVic.] Tricia premiered her first One Act, What Defines Us on the Arts Club stage in 2007 [LEAP Playwriting Program]. November of 2010 Tricia wrote & directed her second play, The Ethical Six-some [UVic SATCo.]. November of 2012, The Ethical Six-some went on to have its international premiere at South Oregon University. June of 2017 Tricia won Best Director for her work in Tomo Suru's About Love Festival. Tricia's next venture involves directing her latest play Probability at the rEvolver Festival in May of 2018. Instagram: @dustyfootproductions
Sara Vickruck
Sara Vickruck is a queer theatre artist and musician. She has recently performed in This Here with Babelle Theatre, Fun Home at the Arts Club, NeOn at rEvolver Festival, Kill Your Lovers at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre's Rhubarb Festival, and Circle Game at the Firehall Arts Centre. Sara co-founded the all-female theatre company, Poiema Productions, with whom she created, produced, and toured three plays. Sara also self-produced her album Prologue, available on iTunes, Spotify and saravickruck.ca. She's the winner of an Ovation Award for Best Female Performer (Love Bomb, Shameless Hussy Productions), and the E.V. Young Award for her portrayal of Anybodys in West Side Story (Theatre Under the Stars). Sara's a Grant MacEwan Graduate.
Yvonne Wallace
Yvonne Wallace is Ucwalmicw from the Lil'wat Nation. She is a Liberal Arts graduate from Capilano University. Her enthusiasm for playwriting began while she worked at The Centre for Indigenous Theatre in Toronto. Later, she graduated with honours from the Theatre Acting program at Humber College. She has written three plays Smothered Sweetly, The Last Dance and utszan –her third and most personal body of work, in which she has translated one character's text into her first language ucwalmicwts. The play received an outstanding merit from Capilano University for the performance presentation. The university invited Yvonne to remount the show during Truth and Reconciliation week in September 2018 in the BlueShore Financial Centre for the Performing Arts. She is delighted to be working with both Playwrights Theatre Centre and Native Earth Performing Arts and appreciates their support to help bring the story to the next draft.
Savannah Walling
Savannah Walling, born in Oklahoma, USA, is a first generation immigrant to Canada and twelfth generation descendent of refugees from Europe; her tangled bloodlines travel further than she has concrete knowledge. A writer/theatre artist trained in dance, mime and music, Savannah is co-founder /artistic director of Vancouver Moving Theatre, with whom she has toured four continents; created a series of community-engaged productions for/with/and about Vancouver's Downtown Eastside; and served as associate artistic director of the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival. She collaborates with artists of many genres, traditions and cultures to create productions that interweave localized content with accessible storytelling, spectacle and live music. She co-wrote Storyweaving with Rosemary Georgeson and Renae Morriseau.
Rebecca Walters
Born in Vancouver BC, Rebecca has her BFA from UBC and her MFA from The Shakespeare Theatre Company's Academy for Classical Acting at The George Washington University. She has made theatre throughout the Lower Mainland and Washington DC. A core member of Ensemble Theatre Company, Rebecca has appeared in several of their shows, including The Farnsworth Invention, Dark Road and A Prayer for Owen Meany. Rebecca has recently added Associate Artistic Director to her list of credits, joining Peninsula Productions to help guide their 2019 season. She will be directing and co-producing Our Town, Peninsula's inaugural production in their new black box theatre space.
Veronique West
Veronique is a playwright, dramaturg and educator of Polish descent, based on unceded Coast Salish territories (also known as Vancouver). Her work is informed by her lived experience of mental health issues, as well as her interest in the intersections of mental health, politics and identity. She is an Associate at Playwrights Theatre Centre, the Resident Emerging Artist at Boca del Lupo, the Devised Writing Teacher at Green Room Theatre and the LEAP Assistant at the Arts Club. Previously, she has been the Literary Assistant at the Arts Club and a Playwriting Instructor at Gateway Theatre. Her plays include: Intrusion (winner of Tarragon Theatre's 20/20 Playwriting Competition), Marrow (Resounding Scream Theatre/Alley Theatre) and Where the Devil Can't Go (in development with PTC). As a dramaturg, she has worked for the Arts Club, Playwrights Theatre Centre, Neworld Theatre, South Asian Arts Society, Alley Theatre, Resounding Scream Theatre, rEvolver festival and festiVALT. She is a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada and the Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of the Americas. In addition to her artistic practice, she provides peer support to people recovering from eating disorders through the Looking Glass Foundation's Hand in Hand program.
Anais West
Anais West is a queer actor, playwright and theatre producer. She is the current Associate Artistic Producer at Pi Theatre and a co-producer for the Virago Play Series, an initiative that develops and produces new work by female, femme and trans playwrights. Her play, Kill Your Lovers, was presented at Buddies In Bad Times Theatre's Rhubarb Festival in Toronto and the Fresh Fruit Festival in New York City. As an actor, Anais has worked with Rumble Theatre's Tremors Festival, Carousel Theatre for Young People, PuSh Festival and the Arts Club. Most recently, she appeared in the Only Animal's production of SLIME. Anais is a graduate of Studio 58.
Adrienne Wong
Adrienne Wong asks audiences to "re-see" the familiar and reimagine the everyday. Works include a series of site-specific audio plays (PodPlays, developed with Martin Kinch), a participatory show for kids about city planning (Me On The Map, created with Jan Derbyshire), an SMS show performed simultaneously in two cities (Landline, created with Dustin Harvey), and an analogue version of Facebook (Placebook, created with Mirae Rosner and Marcus Youssef ). Adrienne is a Associate Artist at both Neworld Theatre and SpiderWebShow.ca. She has two kids and no plants.
Ilana Zackon
Ilana Zackon is a Canadian artist who enjoys wearing many hats. An actor, singer, voice-over artist, writer, producer and director, she has been involved in the performing arts since the age of three. Selected theatre credits include So, How Should I Be? (Presentation House Theatre), a Canada-wide tour of the TYA musicalThe Magical Journey (Tohu Bohu Productions), Nuclear Sky (Title 66 Productions, Montreal) and Under Milk Wood (Edinburgh Fringe). She recently directed two plays at Speakeasy Theatre's Pull Festivalas well as two productions for her social issue theatre company Project X Performance, Part I and in / cognitō.Ilana is passionate about using theatre as a platform to create awareness and empathy, worldwide. She is currently an Artist-in-Residence at Presentation House Theatre.
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