Melanie Yeats

Creative Managing Director

Melanie (she/they) is a theatre maker who stubbornly insists on approaching arts administration work with the same joy and creative rigour she deploys in the studio. Her background in embodied, consent-based performance practice grounds her passion for innovation in sectoral change, governance, and management. Her passion for fat liberation and body neutrality is woven into all of the work she does.

Melanie helps keep PTC running smoothly, with a special focus on creativity in capacity management, mentorship, and values alignment. In addition to her administration work, she’s proudly served on the boards of several arts organizations, while being committed to dismantling the inequities inherent in this system.

As an artist, Melanie has worked with companies such as Music on Main, Tara Cheyenne Performance, Bard on the Beach, Carousel Theatre, re:Naissance Opera, and Boca del Lupo. She’s collaborated on many new works, including interdisciplinary projects with theatre, opera, dance, and music artists. She works as a performer, dramaturg, intimacy director, director, and playwright. She has dedicated more than 25 years to the performing arts community and holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from SFU.

Melanie currently lives on the unceded stolen territories of the the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Born on the territory of the Tsuut’ina, Siksika (Blackfoot), and Stoney (Nakoda) people (Treaty 7), her people are European settlers and refugees. She feels most connected to her lineage when she’s engaging in work that transforms intergenerational trauma with compassion and pleasure.