Playwrights Theatre Centre

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Playwrights

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:

  • Photo of Wendy Judith Cutler
    Wendy Judith Cutler

    Wendy Judith Cutler is a radical teacher, writer and Jewish lesbian feminist activist. She co-authored the book Writing Alone Together: Journalling in a Circle of Women for Creativity, Compassion and Connection and edited and contributed to Finding Home: Collected Stories from Salt Spring Island Circles of Women. Her essay “Dear Mom and Dad” was included in the first lesbian coming-out anthology, The Coming Out Stories. She was a fellow in Lambda Literacy’s Writer’s Retreat for Emerging LGBTQ Voices. She gratefully lives (with her lovergirl Corrie, dog Rosey, cats Lotus and Luna and their constellation of intimates) on the unsurrendered and stolen traditional lands of the Coast Salish Peoples, specifically the Tsawout First Nation (Salt Spring Island), where she guides sacred circles of women and queers writing together. She is currently writing her first play, An UnDutiful Daughter. 

  • Photo of Madison Isolina
    Madison Isolina

    Madison is an emerging actress and writer from Vancouver, BC, graduating last year from Capilano’s acting for stage and screen program, and previously attending the University of British Columbia, studying creative writing and cinema. She is a published writer in both short fiction and nonfiction comedic opinion pieces, and has acting credits in film and theatre including Vancouver’s fringe festival. A main passion of hers is collaborating with other Vancouver artists on various projects such as web series, sketch comedy, and most recently, her short horror art film Strega about two Italian witch sisters road tripping in the 1970’s. She couldn’t be more excited to be a part of PTC’s block A program, to get the chance to flex her playwriting skills with other emerging artists, and learn aspects of bringing this work to the stage.

  • Photo of Leah Abramson
    Leah Abramson

    Leah Abramson is a songwriter, composer, and instructor from Vancouver, B.C. After touring internationally with indie rock and folk bands, Leah released her fourth album of original material, Songs For a Lost Pod.

    Songs For a Lost Pod—a collaboration with Pacific Northwest orcas that turns whale vocalizations into beats, and scientific research on marine mammals into lyrical and narrative fodder—is under development as an interdisciplinary stage show, to be produced in 2021.

    Along with her MFA in Creative Writing (focus on lyrics) at the University of British Columbia, Leah has studied classical music at Capilano University, and traditional Appalachian balladry.

  • Photo of Barbara Adler
    Barbara Adler

    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.

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    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

  • Photo of Carmen Aguirre
    Carmen Aguirre

    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.

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    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

  • Photo of Elaine Avila
    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).

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    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.”

  • Photo of Mairy Beam
    Mairy Beam

    Mairy is a non-binary playwright and director who recently moved to Vancouver giving her the opportunity to join the land and water protectors who are fighting the expansion of the Trans Mountain Pipeline.  Inspired by the drama in the BC Supreme Court, she has written a documentary theatre piece, Irreparable Harm?  A tale of the Trans Mountain Pipeline Arrests. After attending the Block P workshop, she is producing Irreparable Harm? along with the Sinister Sisters Ensemble.  Her recent plays include Body Parts produced in the New Ideas Festival in Toronto in March 2019,  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.

  • Photo of Santana Berryman
    Santana Berryman

    Santana Berryman was born in Whitehorse, Yukon, traditional territory of the Kwanlin Dün First Nations and the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council. Trained initially as an actor, Santana has gone on to work and train as an emerging director and creator. Her artistic practise focuses on equitable collaboration, game-ifying work and delving into the uncomfortable. Currently, she works as an Associate Instructor with Carousel Theatre for Young People. Santana has been working with youth for over 10 years, and holds a TEFL: Performance and Play certificate from Educo Italia. Acting credits include Peter and The Starcatcher (Cap U Theatre), The Shape of Things (The Guild), and a cross-Canada tour of Map of The Land, Map of The Stars. (Gwaandak Theatre). Santana’s directing credits include Society of Transformative Zoology (IGNITE! Youth-Driven Arts Festival) and co-direction of The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (Vancouver Fringe).

  • Photo of Leanna Brodie
    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

  • Photo of Jonathan D. Brower
    Jonathan D. Brower

    Jonathan (he/him) is a queer writer, performer and producer. He serves as the Education Coordinator for Victoria’s Belfry Theatre. He holds Drama and Communications degrees from the University of Calgary and is currently completing a master’s in Social Justice and Equity Studies through Brock University. His thesis project, That Power co-created with Ari Paranthahan, is a living archive of memories and heartbreaks that dives intimately into loss, trauma, and desire as catalysts for imagining better futures together. Other works include oblivion (Third Street Theatre), illuminating the consequences of Canadian conversion therapy, and Good Hands (Theatre of the Beat), exposing abuses of power and policy impacting sexual and gender minorities within conservative religious institutions; both tour to communities across Canada advocating for full LGBTIQ2+ inclusion in faith spaces and beyond. Jonathan co-founded and led Third Street Theatre – Calgary’s queer theatre company – from 2012 to 2018.

  • Photo of Tim Carlson
    Tim Carlson

    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.

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    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.

  • Photo of Ryan Caron
    Ryan Caron

    Ryan is the Co-Artistic Director of Geekenders Theatricals. He is a theatre producer and director focusing on immersive theatre, movement-based experiments, and pop culture content. Vancouver-based, he is drawn to work that amplifies marginalized voices, with particular passion for LGBTQ+ representation and stories. Ryan studies and performs Japanese Classical Dance, training with the Fujima school of Nihon Buyoh and Komparu school Noh. Following a six month training intensive in Tokyo in 2016, he performed in the Canadian revival of Fujima Yûko’s dance piece Ama last spring with TomoeArts.

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    Past producing work includes Associate Producing Dancing on the Edge 29 at The Firehall Theatre, developing UBC Players Club’s now annual Festival Dionysia as the founding festival Artistic Director, and project management for a range of independent theatre and film projects. He has directed with Geekenders, Spectral Theatre, Nik Nok Media, and the Metro Theatre, performed improv with Synaptic Chaos Theatre, and dabbles in experimental immersive design including scent design and ambient audioscapes. He was Geekenders’ General Manager for their previous season before taking on his current role in the summer of 2018, and currently serves as Vice-President of Japanese-Canadian dance-theatre company Tomoe Arts.

  • Photo of Ana Carrizales
    Ana Carrizales

    Ana Carrizales is a Peruvian-Canadian performer, filmmaker and producer based in Vancouver, BC. Since her relocation to Canada in 2005, she was awarded an NBC-Universal Screenwriting Scholarship, and has directed a number of short films, documentaries and plays. Her film work has recently toured international film festivals including Tribeca, Palm Springs and Hot Docs. Her latest film project A Pregnant Woman (writer/director) is the recipient of the 2019 Harold Greenberg Fund and is currently in post-production. She is a former board member of The Documentary Organization of Canada – BC Chapter and currently sits on the board of The Vancouver Latin-American Film Festival and has volunteered on various Film selection committees. She a proud mama of a 15-month old baby, and is currently a producing instructor at Vancouver Film School.

  • Photo of Pedro Chamale
    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 was featured at the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival in November 2018 and will premiere in 2020.

    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.

  • Photo of Derek Chan
    Derek Chan

    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 and premiered his play Chicken Girl (PTC Collaboration) in May & June 2019.

    Derek is currently working with PTC on Lingua.

     

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    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).

  • Photo of Wendy Chan
    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.

  • Photo of Arthi Chandra
    Arthi Chandra

    Arthi Chandra (she/they) is a Vancouver based director, writer, and performer. She studied contemporary theatre performance and directing at Simon Fraser University. Her practice is based on text-based devising, and adapting canonical work. Select performance credits include Maria von Trapp in Bombogenesis (SFU), Clytemnestra in Agamemnon (Stone’s Throw Productions), and herself in Where the Quiet Queers Are (Amplify Choral Theatre). Most recently, Arthi directed and adapted John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger. Select devising credits include Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, directed by Cole Lewis, and Bombogenesis directed by Steven Hill. Arthi is interested in work that confronts politics, engages with queerness, and explores the concept of radical empathy. She’s currently alternating between an adaptation of King Lear, which centres on the trauma between mothers and daughters, and a YA novel about magic sort of things and detectives.

  • Photo of Jasmine Chehil
    Jasmine Chehil

    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.

  • Photo of Monique Flynn Coe
    Monique Flynn Coe

    Monique Flynn Coe is an interdisciplinary artist of Cayuga and European descent. Monique is a storyteller whose work focuses on topics of culture, identity, class, gender, and art as a vehicle for education and creative change. Her work incorporates spoken word, song, dance, video, photography, and installations created from everyday materials. Monique asks her audience to bear witness to the intimate stories she shares as she creates space for community, collective healing, and sociopolitical dialogue. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the State University of New York, Albany.

  • Photo of Marco Cornejo
    Marco Cornejo

    Marco is a Brazilian-Canadian, queer actor, student, and playwright. Marco’s formal experience extends only as far as his involvement in high school and community theatre, and his participation in programs such as the Canadian Improv Games and the Ontario Drama Festival. Today, Marco is a student of acting at The University of British Columbia. A self-identified geek, he hopes to explore the storytelling potential of the never more popular practice of tabletop roleplaying games through the lens of devised theatre.

  • Photo of Cooper Dael
    Cooper Dael

    Originally from Vancouver Island, Cooper has spent the past six years living in New Westminster. She has worked backstage designing and applying stage and special effects makeup for several theatre companies including Langham Court Theatre and Victoria Operatic Society in Victoria, BC and Christy Webb Productions at PAL Studio Theatre in Vancouver. She also has on set experience, both as lead makeup artist and makeup assistant, on several short films and one feature. Through her experience with backstage work, Cooper has developed the curiosity and desire to learn more about the craft of creating a play. She is grateful and excited for the opportunity to be a part of Block A.

  • Photo of Howard Dai
    Howard Dai

    Howard Dai is a Taiwanese-Canadian theatre-maker; who works and lives on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories belonging to the Qayqayt, Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm), Squamish (Skxwú7mesh), Tsleil-Waututh(səl̓ilwətaɁɬ) Nation. He is a recent graduate of the BFA in Theatre Performance program at Simon Fraser University School for the Contemporary Arts. As a theatre artist, Howard is interested in works that break through the barrier of architecture to become more accessible and immersive for a wider audience. He also writes music sometimes, and is dipping his toes in design and coding. He kind of does a bit of everything, but wishes he is actually good at something.

  • Photo of Jan Derbyshire
    Jan Derbyshire

    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.

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    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.

     

  • Photo of Dave Deveau
    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).

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    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.

  • Photo of Ryan Diller
    Ryan Diller

    From Texas and now residing in BC, Ryan Diller recently completed their MFA in Playwriting at the University of Calgary. Their thesis play – Urning – is about Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, a key but mostly forgotten pioneer of the modern queer rights movement. Their plays have received staged readings at Trinity University in San Antonio, TX, the University of Calgary in Calgary, AB, and Theatre Outré in Lethbridge, AB. An audio recording of their play Gone is available on Bandcamp.

  • Photo of Francis Dowlatabadi
    Francis Dowlatabadi

    Francis Dowlatabadi is a Persian-Canadian artist dedicated to work that gives voice to unheard stories and attempts to uplift humanity. Francis’ previous credits as an actor include the roles of The Man in Hello (Theatre Terrific), David Garrick in Mr. Foote’s Other Leg, Oswald in Ghosts (United Players), Ray in Beauty Queen of Leenane, and Leo Irving in In the Next Room (Ensemble Theatre Company). He was also assistant director on She Kills Monsters (UBC), providing D&D insight from his experience as a DM. He holds a BFA in Acting from UBC where he was awarded the John Emerson Memorial Scholarship for promise in musical theatre. Hello holds a special place in Francis’ heart for bringing new light to hidden parts of history.

  • Photo of Olivia Etey
    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.

  • Photo of Kendra Fanconi
    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.

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    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.

  • Photo of Allyson Fournier
    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.

  • Photo of Rosemary Georgeson
    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.

  • Photo of Kagan Goh
    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.

  • Photo of Taryn Goodwin
    Taryn Goodwin

    Taryn Goodwin (she/her) is a queer, inter-disciplinary, social practice artist and community organizer invested in supporting connections that celebrate and center well-being, leadership, and re-imagining mental health and community-care in learning ecologies and educational politics.  Across all her works, Goodwin highlights and addresses The Body of Knowledge as a value-based practice. Using collaborative structures, critical pedagogy, interviews, and empathy as tools for gathering, learning, slowing down, and meaning-making she examines the pivotal possibilities of the post-pandemic world as a vital form of recovery and examination. Experimenting with the realms of attendance, participation, and disability justice Goodwin uses the reach of online mediums and community training as models for dialogue, participation and systems change to shape her work, as they translate to the stage.

  • Photo of Tai Amy Grauman
    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.

  • Photo of Jenn Griffin
    Jenn Griffin

    Originally from Alberta, Jenn is grateful to live, work and play on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples. As a playwright, Jenn was awarded the Sydney Risk award in 1999 for best emerging playwright with her first play Drinking with Persephone. She is a former Associate at Playwrights Theatre Centre where she created a multi-disciplinary play, The Long Call. In 2017, Jenn received an Arts Club Silver Commission for a new comedy entitled House and Home, which premiered at the Firehall Arts Centre in January 2020. As an actor, Jenn recently performed the role of Elizabeth Stockman in The Enemy at the Firehall Arts Centre, the role of “Vi,” in Western Gold’s production of Caryl Churchill’s Escaped Alone, and was part of the ensemble cast in Theatre Conspiracy’s Victim Impact at The Cultch. Jenn will be playing  Jenn has been honored with several Jessie Richardson Theatre awards and nominations for writing and performing. She has also worked regularly in film and television and was nominated for a Leo award as “Maeve,” in Marshall Axani’s feature, The Cannon. Jenn also provides comic commentary for modern dance at “BLOOM,” Mascall Dance.

  • Photo of Robert Hamilton
    Robert Hamilton

    Originally from New Brunswick, and a former Correctional Officer of eighteen years, Robert is a past Writer Resident at the Canadian Film Centre, and twice Fellow at Praxis. His ten-minute play, Boyfish was recently part of the Newmarket National 10-minute play festival. Robert is currently developing his play OUR STORY, based on his soon-to-be-published memoir about the Vancouver Aids Crisis during the 80s and 90s, which he workshopped in PTC’s 10-day residency program Wrightspace. He is also excited about possibly producing his one-act play Next, based on his experiences in the gay dating scene.

     

  • Photo of Marguerite Hanna
    Marguerite Hanna

    Originally hailing from Ottawa, Marguerite is a gender queer, emerging artist with a passion for creating work that focuses on social empowerment. Their recent acting credits include: Supersuperstar (Chicken Girl – rice & beans theatre); Rosalind (As You Like It – Studio 58); Mom (Wilderness – Studio 58); and Deedee (Ain’t: The Musical – Studio 58). With a background in jazz singing, they are the 2018 recipient of the Lloyd Nicholson Memorial Scholarship for outstanding achievement in musical theatre. Marguerite is very excited to be putting their love for dark comedy and absurdism onto the page and couldn’t be feeling more lucky to study with Block A.

  • Photo of Laura Anne Harris
    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.

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    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.

  • Photo of Fairlith Harvey
    Fairlith Harvey

    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!.

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    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). 

  • Photo of Michelle Thorne
    Michelle Thorne

    Michelle is an award-winning multidisciplinary theatre artist originally from Fort McMurray, Alberta. Thorne is a recent graduate of the UBC MFA Directing program and is the current Director and Lead Instructor for the Keyano Theatre Drama Force production, a summer musical theatre intensive program for youth. Selected favourite directing credits include Disney’s Frozen Jr and Bugsy Malone Jr (Drama Force), Lion in the Streets, Tuesdays and Sundays, and Great Slave Lake (The University of British Columbia), Steel Magnolias and The Other Side of the Pole (Keyano Theatre Company), and The Awesome 80s Prom, Fanny and Manny Tie the Knot, and The Fantastic Mr. Fox (Theatre; Just Because). Up next Michelle will be Assistant Directing Noises Off with the Arts Club Theatre Company in Vancouver in January 2020 under Director Scott Bellis and will be directing The Great Gatsby for Keyano Theatre’s 40th Anniversary Season Spring 2020.

  • Photo of Jill Hope Johnson
    Jill Hope Johnson

    As an accomplished writer, the most recognizable elements of Jill Hope Johnson’s work focus on her love of dark humour and her interest in storytelling. Her writing demonstrates funny, edgy, and often unsettling portrayals of human relationships. Jill has written web series, screenplays, poetry, and stage plays. Her writing has been performed on a variety of stages including the Vancouver Fringe Festival, The Vancouver Comedy Festival, Winnipeg Comedy Festival, and Glasgow Comedy Festival. Jill is a past board member of WIFTV (Women in Film and Television) and has volunteered on various Film and Theatre selection committees. Currently, she manages North Vancouver’s Centennial Theatre. When not at her desk, she is always up for the next adventure; heli-hiking in grizzly country, paddle boarding with mosquitos, and cooking with fire. She looks forward to working with PTC on her next adventurous creation.

  • Photo of Arno Kamolika
    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.

  • Photo of Hiro Kanagawa
    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).

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    His play Indian Arm won the 2017 Governor General’s Literary for Drama. 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.

  • Photo of Ayush Kathuria
    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.

  • Photo of khattieQ
    khattieQ

    khattieQ is a musician and performer from Puerto Rico. She has played as a professional musician with over 20 bands, notably touring as lead drummer for queer femme core band The Tuna Helpers. She was the creator of punk band BLXPLTN, and served as lead vocalist from 2013 to 2015.

  • Photo of Taran Kootenhayo
    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.

  • Photo of Jenny Larson
    Jenny Larson

    Jenny Larson is an interdisciplinary theatre artist. She is a director, devising artists, and performer. She has an MFA from the University of British Columbia. Credits include: From the Pig Pile by Sibyl Kempson, with the Rude Mechs and Salvage Vanguard Theater, Guest by Courtesy, devised with Hannah Kenah, has played Fusebox Festival, SHE MAKES THEATER festival in Sofia, Bulgaria, and Brooklyn Yard.

  • Photo of Greg Leach
    Greg Leach

    Having begun his career in theatre decades ago, this old geezer is returning after a lengthy hiatus in business. Greg’s dream is to establish a production company that focuses on mounting ‘second productions’ of successful new plays written by emerging Canadian playwrights.

  • Photo of Robert Leveroos
    Robert Leveroos

    Robert Leveroos is a multidisciplinary artist and insatiable tinkerer. Using elements of live art, animation, and handmade objects, he aims to strike imaginations and skew perceptions by exploring worlds where weight is given to the minute, the understated and overlooked to uncover something recognizably human.

    Under the moniker macromatter, Robert creates original performance pieces for all ages that have been presented in festivals and venues locally and otherwise. He also collaborates as a performer and scenographer with a number of Vancouver and Canadian companies. For ten years he trained with The Children’s Theater Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and graduated from The National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal (acting 2008). Robert served three seasons as Youth Program Manager at The Cultch in East Vancouver, and continues to work with young artists. He holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Simon Fraser University.

  • Photo of Andie Lloyd
    Andie Lloyd

    Andie Lloyd is a queer interdisciplinary artist and community advocate. A member of Chimerik似不像 Collective since 2018, Andie has worked with a multitude of disciplines including production management, lighting design, projection design, programming for interactive new media and a variety of visual art mediums. She has recently worked with companies such as Ouro Collective and Arts Club Theatre Company in Vancouver, and toured to Berlin, Taipei and Gwangju for a vast array of projects. More recently, Andie has been exploring writing and frontline activism to promote freedom of speech and perspectives of the decolonial left. Her two current projects, radically separate from each other, are KTV: an interactive exploration of international karaoke culture, a play which she will develop while in the Block A cohort, and Du Li Bubble Tea, a small business venture inspired by the pandemic and an obsessive passion for bubble tea.

  • Photo of Catherine Joell MacKinnon
    Catherine Joell MacKinnon

    A former Festival Director of the Toronto International Deaf Film and Arts Festival, Catherine Joell MacKinnon is an award-winning filmmaker known for her documentaries, film and television work. She was the ACTRA Woman of the Year Award 2016 recipient and the Deaf Community Consultant for the Deaf Artists and Theatres Toolkit (DATT), Cahoots Theatre. Catherine participated in Stratford Festival Second Track Lab in early October 2018 and worked with the cast of The Music Man. Selected Theatre Credits: Silence (Grand Theatre & National Arts Centre), After The Blackout (Rare Theatre/Soulpepper), ASLImprov (DeafWest Theatre), cas9 (Robertson Theatre); ASL DI: Monday Nights (Luminato Festival), Ultrasound (Cahoots Theatre), The Enchanted Loom (Cahoots Theatre).

    In addition to ASL Coaching, she also worked on the feature horror film The Silence, as well as in recent theatre productions of Good Morning Vietmom (Cahoots Theatre) and ART (Soulpepper Theatre). Catherine was the only Canadian producer for The Hammer, a feature film biopic of Matt Hamill.

  • Photo of Tanya Marquardt
    Tanya Marquardt

    TANYA MARQUARDT is a genderqueer writer and performer, whose book Stray: Memoir of a Runaway was published in 2018 and named a Best Queer History & Bio in LGBTQI2S+ Magazine The Advocate. The performance version, commissioned by Theatre Conspiracy and written with Tim Carlson, toured both Canada and the US. Their play Transmission was published in the Canadian Theatre Review, and Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep, about Tanya’s life as a sleeptalker, was the subject of an NPR Invisibila podcast. Their essays have appeared in Medium, Huffpost, Howl Round, Grain, DanceGeist, and Plentitude Magazine. Tanya has performed with Jerome Bel, Mabou Mines, Jess Barbagallo, Ballez, the only animal, radix theatre, and the Leaky Heaven Circus. Their theatre works have been presented at Dixon Place, BAX, PuSh, VIDF, Dancing on the Edge, The Tank, Summerworks, foldA, PIVOT Festival, the Collapsable Hole and the Brooklyn Museum. They graduated with a BFA in Theatre from Simon Fraser University, an MFA in Creative Writing from Hunter College and are grateful to live and dream on the lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Səl̓ílwətaʔ, and Skwxwú7mesh Nations of the Coast Salish peoples, and in Lenapehoking, the homeland of the Lenni-Lenape people. Currently, Tanya dances in their kitchen, writes memoir, and sends you all queer love during this strange, strange time.  IG: @tanya.marquardt

  • Photo of Lauren Martin
    Lauren Martin

    Lauren is a working mom and theatre artist based in Vancouver, which exists on the unceded traditional lands of the Coast Salish People. Lauren has performed sketch comedy across Canada with  Strapless and The Crawford Twins. She wrote her first short film Ambiguous by Strapless; which screened with JFL NW and VIWIFF in 2017. She was in the original ensemble (Direct Theatre Collective) that created and launched Hysteria at the 2018 Vancouver Fringe, winning the Joanna Marata Award. In 2019, she directed God of Carnage with Teatro Los Enamorados. A graduate of Vancouver Film School, Lauren currently teaches Sketch Comedy in the Writing Department and is the Director of the VFS Sketch Company. 

  • Photo of Jenna Masuhara
    Jenna Masuhara

    Jenna currently is the Operations Coordinator for Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre and also volunteers for the Vancouver Asian Film Festival as the Community Partner Liaison. They’ve written a CBC Radio Story and co-wrote the play Good To Go as part to the 2013 Edge Project with Green Thumb Theatre presented at the PuSh Festival. Jenna graduated from Simon Fraser University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications in 2018 with minors in Business, Dialogue and Publishing.

  • Photo of Rachelle Miguel
    Rachelle Miguel

    Rachelle is an emerging theatre artist who is a performer, producer, and playwright. She has a BFA in Theatre Performance from the SFU School for Contemporary Arts. Rachelle is the co-founder of the Vancouver-based theatre company unladylike co. which aims to make theatre that is female-driven. Her favorite credits include Olya the Child (Troika Collective), a site-specific work that explores the meaning of family through the eyes of a Russian orphan and Planta, an animation by Laurel Thomson, illustrating a mother’s apprehension about raising her unborn child. Rachelle wrote and produced her first full length site-specific play The [Organization] in fall 2018.

  • Photo of Renae Morriseau
    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.

  • Photo of Mariam Nasrri
    Mariam Nasrri

    Mariam has lived most of her life in exile. She was born in Kabul, Afghanistan where the civil war had left her country in chaos and turmoil. In 1992, the fires of the civil war devoured her home in Kabul. Mariam and her family fled to the north to escape the horrors of ethnic cleansing. In 1998, the Taliban slaughtered almost 3,000 innocent people. Mariam and her family fled from the country of her birth through the desert between Afghanistan and Pakistan. After a year of living the life of a refugee where their basic necessities were scarcely met, Mariam left her family behind and moved to India. One of the reasons that she escaped from Pakistan was to avoid a forced marriage. He was a Taliban sympathizer who already had a couple of wives. On September 11, 2001, not only did the world around her change, but her life was never to be the same again. After an interviews with the Canadian embassy in India, they agreed to sponsor her as a landed immigrant.

    When the Taliban’s regime toppled, Mariam’s family returned to Afghanistan. In 2012, Mariam visited Afghanistan, wanting to give Afghan women a voice. She researched and video documented the struggles of Afghan women from different walks of life. When she discovered that the victims of domestic abuse were being harmed by some of the workers in a recovery home she was attached to, she was also threatened and pursued by the Taliban, so she fled the country. However, her mission in life continued to unfold as she explored the personal stories of Afghan women upon her return to Afghanistan in 2013. Her family continued to support her as her profile began to rise in the community. Taliban made death threats through letters to her family because Mariam’s family continued to work with the international community to help further progress in the country. Due to grave concerns for their safety, Mariam and her family escaped once again and now more than half of her family live in exile, and the ones remaining in Kabul are in hiding. Mariam and her family stand for freedom and democracy.

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    Since 2015, Mariam is one of the directors for Caravan television. She has created and hosts a television show focusing on social issues within the Afghan community in Vancouver and abroad. Mariam returned to Afghanistan in June 2016 to finish her video documenting her efforts to offer Afghan women a prominent voice on the international stage. In Balkh, Afghanistan, she did extensive research to write a play, Robia and Baktazh, as a tribute to Afghan women who lost their lives through domestic violence. Furious with Mariam, many local fanatics wanted her dead. One attacked her; fortunately, she was not seriously injured. Upon her return to Canada, with support from a board of directors, she founded a Federal Canadian Non-Profit called Nahz Empowerment of Women and Girls. The organization will provide and facilitate opportunities for vulnerable Afghan women and girls in remote areas to improve their skills and lead them to sustainable employment.

    In 2017 she finished her university program, General Studies, focusing on creative writing. In 2018, she was trained to use the 12 Steps program for trauma therapy as well as addiction, compulsion, or obsession. She decided to go to Afghanistan and help those in need. In December of 2019 in Kabul, Mariam volunteered at a women and children’s hospital for homeless who suffer from drug addiction and mental illness. She trained the local social workers, counselors, and psychologists in the 12 Step program and was the first woman to organize the program for Afghan women in Kabul. On the 24th of November, 2019, she made history when she held the first ever meeting in Kabul for women who suffer from substance abuse.

    Currently, Mariam is devoted to make a difference in her community in Vancouver, British Columbia. She works toward her goals and dreams with the hope to make a difference someday in the lives of the people she left behind in her country of birth, Afghanistan.

  • Photo of Jessica Anne Nelson
    Jessica Anne Nelson

    Jessica is an award-winning theatre director, creator, and producer who sets the bar for creating safe and imaginative spaces for artists to play and explore in her provocative productions. With a B.A. Honours Theatre and a M.F.A. in Directing from UBC, her directing focuses on exploring the range of human experiences even within the most negatively viewed characters and how we enact gender in performance and in our daily lives. She has received the Best Site-Specific Show Award at the Vancouver Fringe Festival for her one audience member at a time show Meanwhile and been honoured with the Sydney J. Risk Award in Directing, the Yvonne Firkins Prize, and the John Brockington Scholarship in Theatre. She has worked with companies such as Bard on the Beach, the Arts Club Theatre Company, Vertigo Theatre, The Cultch, and trained with Siobhan Richardson for Intimacy Direction for the Stage.

  • Photo of Marn Norwich
    Marn Norwich

    Marn is a writer, energy therapist and writing workshop facilitator. She’s taught in schools, prisons, treatment centres and through Langara College and Emily Carr University of Art + Design (Continuing Studies). She’s the author of an award-winning poetry collection, Wildflowers at my doorstep (Karma press) and has read and performed her work on many Vancouver stages, sometimes with an ensemble. She’s studied at Vancouver’s Actorium and written a play for the Toronto Fringe. As an indie journalist and poet, Marn’s work has appeared in many publications, including the Georgia Straight and CBC Life. For many years, she operated a writing, editing and consulting service. She runs Vancouver Women’s Writing Courses, where she coaches writers and facilitates workshops and retreats on writing as healing.

  • Photo of Kayla Papania
    Kayla Papania

    Kayla Papania is an aspiring actor and writer based in Vancouver, BC. Recently graduated from an international school in Bali, Indonesia, she is taking a gap year to strengthen her writing skills and begin her path in the film and performing arts industry. Her passion for performing began at age six with her first dance class. Since then she has been building her skills and knowledge in areas such as: acting, dancing, singing and writing, in hopes of one day working in the industry. Within the past year Kayla has written a short novel, six songs and produced an independent short film while studying film, literature and theatre. She has been involved with programs including but not limited to: Arts Umbrella Junior and Senior Troup, Theatre Under The Stars, VADA, Vancouver Young Actors School, and Carousel Theatre for Young People. This year she will be working on editing and publishing her music and short novels while participating in Block A’s writing program.

  • Photo of Louisa Phung
    Louisa Phung

    Based in Vancouver, BC, Louisa Phung has a Bachelor of Performing Arts Degree and a Diploma in Theatre from Capilano University. She works professionally as an AD in the BC film and TV industry and is also an independent producer and director for both stage and screen. This year Louisa has launched her production company, Clever Bird Entertainment Inc. with her short film, Hope and Grace and the upcoming production of the Pulitzer Prize winning play Night, Mother at the 2020 Vancouver Fringe Festival as part of their Dramatic Works Series. Louisa is thrilled to be a part of Block P and PTC.

  • Photo of Linda Quibell
    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.

  • Photo of Amal Rana
    Amal Rana

    Amal Rana is a Pushcart Prize nominated poet and queer Muslim futurist whose work been published and performed widely. Amongst other creative projects, they co-founded Breaking the Fast, an interdisciplinary arts showcase featuring queer, trans and gender marginalized Muslim artists. Amal also co-created Tomorrow Is Ours, one of the first creative writing series on BIPOC futurisms in the city. In 2019, she completed an arts residency with Carnegie Community Centre. As part of the residency, they co-wrote and directed a play about gentrification and decolonial futures with DTES community members. Amal’s art practice is grounded in a long cultural tradition of poets as both witnesses and catalysts for change.

  • Photo of Mari-Fer Rios
    Mari-Fer Rios

    Mari-Fer Rios is a Mexican-Canadian emerging artist. She graduated from Simon Fraser University in 2018. She has directed and produced her own work since 2016. She was part of Xongos Arts club at SFU, and recently, she acted as part of the Riotous Youth ensemble for Bard on the Beach. Her work has been shown in the IGNITE! Youth Festival, The Burnaby Village Museum, The Cultch, and Tom Cone Festival. Her main focus is to create experimental theatre work that challenges the perception we have about mental illnesses and the tags that people are given by society. She is also interested in creating a theatre where sensations are the primary element of the experience. She is excited to be part of the PTC program in where she will be workshopping her current creation Teatime with Anxiety.

  • Photo of Lili Robinson
    Lili Robinson

    Lili (she/they) is a playwright, poet, actor and community organizer based on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Lili is passionate about centring voices at the intersections of queerness, Black diaspora, socio-economic diversity and femme identity in her work. Having completed a year as the Artistic Producing Intern at Theatre Replacement in 2019, Lili is currently the Emerging Playwright in Residence at Rumble Theatre, and a part of the Emerging Playwrights’ Unit at the Arts Club. Beyond playwriting, their recent projects include: the role of Alejandra in Rumble’s online production of B by Guillermo Calderón; writing for Theatre Replacement’s sound installation project Speaker A; and co-organizing Rest and Resilience, a series of events creating space for the Black Queer community to connect this past summer. Mx, Lili’s debut play, was the recipient of the Fringe New Play Prize in 2019. Mx went on to win the Cultchivating the Fringe Award, earning the show a spot in the Cultch’s upcoming 2021 spring season.

  • Photo of Mannu Sandhu
    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.

     

     

  • Photo of Tetsuro Shigematsu
    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.

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    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.

  • Photo of Shanae Sodhi
    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.

  • Photo of Quelemia Sparrow
    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.

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    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.

  • Photo of Claire Stewart
    Claire Stewart

    Claire is a graduate of Capilano University’s Musical Theatre program. She is the recipient of the Maurice Samuelson Award for her work with the Rossland Gold Fever Follies and recently toured with Story Theatre bringing Theatre for Young Audiences into elementary schools across BC and Alberta. Recent Credits Include: Newsies (Theatre Under the Stars) Blue Bead’s and Blueberries, The Library Club, The Very First Circus (Story Theatre) Skis and Skates (Rossland Gold Fever Follies), Anne of Green Gables, Peter and the Starcatcher, Thoroughly Modern Millie (CapU Theatre), The Secret Garden (Arbutus Studio). Catch her next in Alice in Wonderland at Metro Theatre!

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    Gregory Strong

    An educator and writer, Gregory Strong has spent much of his working life empowering young people and exploring social, historic and educational trends. He began his career as a theatre and drama teacher in Vancouver, moved to Beijing as a teacher educator, and later to Tokyo where he spent many years as English and Communications Professor at Aoyama Gakuin University, (now celebrating its 145th anniversary). His extensive publications include educational research, reviews, fiction, a biography, Flying Colours: The Toni Onley Story, (Harbour Press, 2002) and Adult Language Learners: Context and Innovation, (TESOL, 2009) which he co-edited, and a series of graded readers, including Battle for Big Tree Country (Cengage, 2015), a 2016 Language and Literature award winner. He directed the readers’ theatre group of the Tokyo International Players and his children’s play The Magic Fan was produced by the Tokyo Theatre for Children with Drum Beat and other pieces staged by the New York City Playwrights. He also wrote and produced Stormy Weather, a bio piece on Group of Seven painter, Fred Varley, for the Vancouver Fringe Festival. The possibilities of theatre and storytelling continue to inspire him and he is excited about living in Vancouver again and very grateful for the opportunity to work with Block A at PTC in 2020.

  • Photo of Jovanni Sy
    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.

  • Photo of Helene Taylor
    Helene Taylor

    Helene is a writer and former actor and North Vancouver native. She lived in New York for seventeen years exploring and studying everything from theatre, film and television (in front and behind the camera) to the art and architectural/interior design worlds. She recently returned to Vancouver to continue the journey of learning in the arts. A mature student at CapU’s Creative Writing Associate Degree program her short stories have been published in the local LIAR magazine. Recent writing projects include D I S C O R D (co-writer Jax Smith), Bureau 121, #YOUTHREE and ALL THE RAVE.  helenetaylor.ca

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    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

  • Photo of Tegan Verheul
    Tegan Verheul

    Tegan is an award-winning actor and emerging writer dedicated to challenging structures of oppression and using her privilege to raise the voices of marginalized groups. She is currently developing her first full-length play, using characters from a beloved Victorian novel to expose the failures of white liberal feminism and faux allyship. While her background is mostly improv and sketch comedy, recent theatre credits include Catherine in A View From The Bridge (Peninsula Productions), Hannah in Belfast Girls (Peninsula Productions); and Gretchen in Boeing Boeing (White Rock Players Club), for which she received a CTC Award for Best Supporting Actress.  Instagram: @teganver

  • Photo of Sara Vickruck
    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.

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    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.

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    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.

  • Photo of Rebecca Walters
    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.

  • Photo of Veronique West
    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.

  • Photo of Anais West
    Anais West

    Anais is a queer writer, actor and producer of Polish descent, as well as a settler on occupied Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories (colonially called Vancouver). Anais’ work merges theatre with other art forms to examine the multiplicitous natures of desire, identity, and culture. Her projects include the video-play hybrid Kill Your Lovers, (Buddies In Bad Times Theatre’s Rhubarb Festival, Toronto, and the Fresh Fruit Festival, NYC) and the slam poetry musical Poly Queer Love Ballad, co-written with Sara Vickruck. Poly Queer Love Ballad won PTC’s Fringe in Play Prize and the Georgia Straight Critics’ Choice Award, then went on to be nominated for two Jessie Richardson Awards including Outstanding Original Script and Outstanding Production in Musical Theatre. The show toured Turtle Island (Canada) in 2019, with presentations at the Queer Arts Festival in Vancouver, the SkirtsAfire Festival in Edmonton, and Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto. Anais is currently writing Underground Absolute Fiction (UAF), an interdisciplinary performance that combines monologues, music videos and queer ‘zines. UAF was presented as a reading at the Queer Arts Festival and as a short film at Rumble Theatre’s Tremors Festival in 2020. As an actor, Anais has worked with Theatre la Seizieme, the Only Animal, Rumble Theatre’s Tremors Festival, the Arts Club and more. She is the frank theatre company’s Operations Manager & Associate Producer, where she most recently produced She Mami Wata & The Pussy WitchHunt by d’bi young anitrafrika at the 2020 PuSh Festival. Photo by Kimberley Ho.

  • Photo of Logan Williams
    Logan Williams

    Logan’s practice culminates from his background in theatre and curatorial approaches to live performance. He is currently working on Severe Abbreviations, a performance project that focuses on turning the theatre into a lawn and the sexual abuse that takes place on it. Williams has a degree in Visual Culture and Performance Studies from The School for Contemporary Arts at SFU. He is the founder of Title 66, an experimental theatre company based out of Montreal.

  • Photo of Adrienne Wong
    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.

  • Photo of Shon Wong
    Shon Wong

    Shon Wong, a performer known as Son of James, was born and raised in Vancouver, BC. Music and art have always been a big part of Shon’s life, having grown up in a family of Chinese opera actors and performers. He would listen to classical Chinese music at home in their downtown apartment while down the hall, neighbours would blast rock music heard easily through the walls, including music by Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Guns N’ Roses, and Van Halen. He found himself moving back and forth between these musical environments, eager to catch the songs of the day from both home and hallways. As he grew older, posters of Jimi Hendrix and Bruce Lee hung on his walls, depicting the split influences and inspiration around him.

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    Son of James is an 8-piece band that consists of horns, guitars and Chinese instruments such as the Erhu (Chinese Violin) and Guzheng (Chinese Harp). As one of the most diverse and eclectic groups in Canada, Son of James has created a sound that they call “Chynatruckerfunk”: A big truck rolling down a dusty highway carrying a cargo of silk and southern soul.

    Shon is excited to join Block P to further evolve his original rock opera, Tale of the Eastside Lantern with music by Son of James: In the streets and shops of Vancouver’s Chinatown, a man named Jimmy wrestles with his personal demons. He sets to solve a mystery that is guarded by Chinese Opera spirits of the underworld. Jimmy is conducted by the sounds of rock, and motivated by the oldest feeling in the world…love.

  • Photo of Sangeeta Wylie
    Sangeeta Wylie

    Sangeeta Wylie is an emerging playwright, and actor in film, television and theatre. A ‘closet-writer’ since she could hold a pencil, Sangeeta worked with Heidi Taylor (Playwrights Theatre Centre, in collaboration with Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre) on her first full-length play, we the same, in development since 2017 and inspired by a true story of Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s. She is grateful for the opportunity to work with PTC on a new play. Sangeeta acts on the Board of Directors for the Cultch, plays classical piano, and holds degrees in Chemistry with a Music Minor and Dentistry.

  • Photo of Ilana Zackon
    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.

  • Photo of Frederick Zbryski
    Frederick Zbryski

    Frederick began his theatre career as a stage manager and tour coordinator before receiving a BFA in acting from the University of Alberta in 1994. Fred spent the bulk of his onstage and directing career in the marvellous theatre community of Edmonton. Frederick moved to Vancouver in 2015 to get a certificate in digital film production and pursue a second BA in International Studies at Simon Fraser. Fred will graduate in the spring of 2020 from SFU and is looking forward to having time to concentrate on playwriting and embrace even more of Vancouver’s vibrant and incredible arts community. Frederick will produce his first play in the summer of 2020.