Makers

As they enter a new cycle, Bear Witness and Tim “2oolman” Hill of A Tribe Called Red are reintroducing themselves as The Halluci Nation, to reflect the evolution of their music and mission. “We wanted to pay homage to the Electric Pow Wow and wrap that whole decade of experience up and close the cycle, and in doing so give direct coordinates of where the future was headed. In a nutshell, that’s what this album is about,” says Bear. “We just wanted to make a party record, as well, one that people could dance to while still having the strong message we are known for.”

Tommy Taylor (He/Him) is a community worker, activist and storyteller. For the past several years he has been serving on the frontlines of Toronto’s homelessness crisis in shelters, drop-ins and street & encampment outreach. He’s currently on the steering committees of Health Providers Against Poverty (HPAP) and the Shelter & Housing Justice Network (SHJN). Tommy has worked in the offices of progressive officials at Toronto City Hall and Queen’s Park, and ran as a candidate in the 2015 Federal Election. In 2013 he toured Canada with his award-winning show, “You Should Have Stayed Home: A G20 Romp”, about his arrest at the infamous 2010 Toronto G20 Summit. In addition to being part of numerous COVID emergency response teams, Tommy was part of the team that led the planning and design of SafeTO, Toronto’s Community Safety Well-Being Plan – radically changing the way crisis intervention, violence, policing and trauma are approached.

Michael Wheeler has served as the director of You Should Have Stayed Home in carbon and digital space. His most recent pre-pandemic directing credit was Behaviour at The Great Canadian Theatre Company. He is an Assistant Professor in The DAN School of Drama and Music at Queen’s University and Director of Artistic Research at SpiderWebShow Performance, Canada’s first live digital performance company. Michael was previously Executive Director and Transformation Designer of Generator, a mentoring, teaching, and innovation incubator in Toronto that empowers independent artists, producers and leaders. He has been a curator of live performance experiments with digital technology with FOLDA, The Theatre Centre, Harbourfront Centre, and Praxis Theatre.

Laura Levin (she/her) is dramaturg for the VR experience of You Should Have Stayed Home. She is Associate Dean, Research in York University’s School of the Arts, Media, Performance and Design and Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre and Performance. Laura is author of Performing Ground: Space, Camouflage, and the Art of Blending In (Ann Saddlemyer Prize), Co-Editor of Performance Studies in Canada, with Marlis Schweitzer (Patrick O’Neill Award), and former Editor-in-Chief of Canadian Theatre Review and Director of Sensorium: Centre for Digital Arts and Technology. Laura has led and collaborated on several artistic projects at the intersection of political performance, site-specificity, archives, and digital media. She is currently Director of the SSHRC partnership project, Hemispheric Encounters: Developing Transnational Research-Creation Practices (hemisphericencounters.ca), and most recently served as dramaturg on Jess Dobkin’s Wetrospective at the Art Gallery of York University (Fall 2021).

Jayna Mees (she/her) is an artist-scholar who specializes in performance studies, dramaturgy, and devised theatre. She is a PhD student in Theatre and Performance Studies at York University and holds an MA from the Centre for Drama Theatre & Performance Studies at the University of Toronto. Her research examines intersections between immersive, site-specific, VR, and disability theatre and performance studies. In particular, Jayna is interested in developing place-based dramaturgies of care and access-based modes of research-creation. Some recent credits include: director/performer in Möbius Dreams, (a site-specific piece that was presented as a part of her MA thesis in 2020), co-curator for Moving Publics: An In-Transit Conversation (SummerWorks Exchange Program, 2019) and producer/marketing officer for rochdale at the 2019 SummerWorks Performance Festival).

Justine Katerenchuk specializes in Stage and Production Management of XR performances & events. She is currently based in Toronto where she recently got her degree in Performance Production & Design. Working remotely and managing shows through a variety of social VR platforms. Justine also works designing and worldbuilding for social VR exhibitions and events. She loves to explore and uplift digital art. Some VR works include Stage Manager & Production Coordinator of Finding Pandora X (Double Eye Studios) and Stage Manager of Collider (Single Thread Theatre Company).

Beth is an award-winning lighting, set, projection, and mixed-reality designer whose work has been seen on stages around the world for over 30 years. A leader in new forms of performance, she co-created and directed ‘Bury The Wren’, a Virtual Reality / Live performance, and recently led a VR Performance residency at Canadian Stage, and is currently co-directing Blyth Festival’s Young Company in VR, and cocurating the ‘Multiple Realities’ section of World Stage Design 2022 to be held in Calgary. Founder of Playground Studios, she has presented at the Prague Quadrennial, Laval VR, and many others. Her return to the live carbon-real stage was marked by the March 2022 opening of “Steel Magnolias” at Theatre Calgary. Beth is a proud charter member of ADC IATSE 659, on the board of Tara Beagan & Andy Moro’s Article 11, and on the steering committee of the PXR symposium (Performance and XR).

www.playgroundstudios.ca

David Mesiha (Composer | Media-Designer) is an award-winning music composer and sound/video designer. David’s practice centres around examining questions of form in interactive and performance arts. He is intrigued by the relationships between form and medium. His work utilizes multichannel immersive audio, interactive design and Digital Performance. He has worked on shows such as Project (X) by Leaky Heaven, Terminus by Pi Theatre, and Foreign Radical by Theatre Conspiracy. He has been nominated and won Jessie Richardson Awards in multiple categories and most recently received a Dora award nomination for his sound design work on Oraltorio by IFT theatre. David’s music has spanned multiple mediums and formats such as video games, film, theatre and interactive media. Currently David is working with Theatre Conspiracy on Victim Impact as well as the development of his project Same Difference that applies immersive media, chamber music and video mapping to examining issues of identity, belonging and immigration.

Seyed M. Tabatabaei is an Iranian multidisciplinary designer/storyteller based in Montréal. Completed his Master of Design at Concordia University, his recent focus of study and practice has been the medium-specificities of Virtual Reality and its narrative affordances. Holding a BSc. in Architecture and MA in Animation, he enjoys interweaving the conventions of filmmaking with the interactivity of game design within the realm of Mixed-Reality which centers on spatial experiences. With more than a decade of professional practice in the field of architectural design, 3D visualization, film editing and animation in Montréal, Tehran and Dubai, he is currently making VR and 3D animation experiments which touch on social/cultural concerns.

Website: https://eyeseyed.com

Andy Aloisio (aka Joker) has built VR worlds since 2018. In 2020 he supported Rec Room’s Orange Bucket Acting Troupe in its production of Back to the Rec Center, a VR theater homage to Universal’s Back to the Future. In 2021 he did programming and technical development for Welcome to Respite, a live VR adaptation of a live immersive theater production by CoAct Productions. Andy is a former law student, and is currently studying Unity development and programming. github.com/jokerispunk
twitter.com/jokerispunk

Flora is an undergraduate student in her final year at Queen’s University. Under the supervision of Nicholas Graham of the School of Computing and Michael Wheeler of the Dan School of Drama & Music, Flora collaborated on a research project titled “Toward Live Theatre Hosted in Virtual Reality”, where a simulation of a prisoner transport bus is programmed to deliver the events associated with Tommy Taylor’s stage play, “You Should Have Stayed Home.” After receiving her Bachelor of Computing (Honours) in Biomedical Computing – Specialization (Computing), Flora aims to apply for a multi-disciplinary Master’s program that integrates the fields of study in Computer Science, Engineering, and Life Sciences.

Michaelah Wales (she/her) worked with a team of undergraduate students to create a VRChat world environment for use in the virtual reality performance of You Should Have Stayed Home. This work was conducted as part of the Queen’s University Computer Science Advanced Undergraduate Project course. Michaelah completed her bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at Queen’s University in the spring of 2022, with a minor in Drama. Her interests are virtual reality, theatre design and live performance. She hopes to combine these areas of study by pursuing research on virtual reality theatre performance production.

Zarrin Tasnim (she/her) is a fourth year Computer Science Major at Queen’s University, Kingston who specializes in Artificial Intelligence (AI) stream. This year, she worked alongside two other teammates to design and develop a VRChat world with the intended purpose of replicating a scene from the play “You Should Have Stayed Home”. During this project, she was fascinated to see how computer science and theatre could combine in an interdisciplinary manner. The project was also a culmination of her knowledge and skills that she was able to apply in a practical setting outside of theoretical principles that she learned in her previous compsci courses. She also developed an interest in research involving both AI and game design, and would like to learn how to implement AI non-playable characters (NPCs) for VRChat worlds in the future.

Anthony Lee (he/him) is an emerging writer, director, interdisciplinary artist working in theatre and film on the unceded territories colonially known as Vancouver. His work focuses on challenging existing boundary between cinema and live-performance. As a Hong Konger, his works investigate the impacts of colonialism and totalitarianism and has been presented in film festivals across Canada. Anthony received his BFA in Film Production from Simon Fraser University and is currently an artistic associate at Radix Theatre.

Andie Lloyd (she/he/they) is a queer interdisciplinary artist and community advocate, currently based on unceded Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Territories. She works as a lighting and video designer, a platform consultant and writer, primarily working with Isadora. Her recent projects include her Surtitle & Projection Design work with Neworld Theatre’s Clean/Espejos, an interactive and real-time operated lighting design for FakeKnot’s whip, and is thrilled to be joined by some of her favourite people for her FOLDA debut!
www.andielloyd.ca

Alyssa Kostello (she/her) is a queer creative working primarily in film. Her first short film Zero (writer, Sustainability Producer) won a Green Seal from the Environmental Media Association and played at festivals globally. It’s now streaming on Sofy.tv and The Green Channel. She has produced a handful of short films, plays and live events, and is a co-producer for the indie feature How to Ruin The Holidays starring Colin Mochrie and Amber Nash. In 2021 she was a Sustainability Coordinator on the Netflix film Mixtape starring Julie Bowen. She is excited to be dipping her toes back into theatre with this team!
Alyssa is grateful to be living, learning, working, and creating on unceded sc̓əwaθenaɁɬ təməxw (Tsawwassen), S’ólh Téméxw (Stó:lō), Kwantlen, Stz’uminus, šxwməθkwəy̓əmaɁɬ təməxw (Musqueam), səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) territory.

Jamie Sweeney (she/her) is a production manager, a technician, a designer, an artist, a performer, and all the other ways she can find herself deeply involved in the world of theatre. She is currently living, working, and creating on the unceded traditional Coast Salish Territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil- Waututh Nations. She holds a BFA in theatre production, design, and performance from Simon Fraser University. Previous credits include: Peace Country (rice & beans, 2022). Migration (Fight with a Stick, 2022), Made in Canada Concert Tour (rice & beans, 2021), Palimpsest (Pacific Theatre, 2021), Emilia (United Players, 2021).

Claudia Chan is a student majoring in Production and Design at Simon Fraser University. Coming from a background of being a professional ballerina, she has a strong passion for collaboration between different areas including theatre arts, music, and particularly dance.
While primarily focusing on technical directing, Claudia also has a passion for lighting design and understands and enjoys the importance of collaboration and teamwork. Growing up in Hong Kong, Claudia is currently residing in Vancouver, unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations where she also calls home with her cat, Ollie!

Megan Lane (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist based in the Vancouver area with experience in theatre as a technician, a designer, a performer, and as a puppet maker and puppeteer. Megan graduated from the Stagecraft and Event Technology program at Douglas College in 2019, and is now at SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts in pursuit of her degree in Theatre Production and Design. Currently, she is exploring subjects such as design led creation in performance, devised theatre, tactility within contemporary performance, the intersection between design and performance, interdisciplinarity, and non hierarchical collaboration. As she moves forward in her artistic journey, Megan is excited to explore all that is to be learned and discovered within the lifelong practice of creativity.
Megan is grateful to be living, learning, working, and creating on unceded sc̓əwaθenaɁɬ təməxw (Tsawwassen), S’ólh Téméxw (Stó:lō), Kwantlen, Stz’uminus, šxwməθkwəy̓əmaɁɬ təməxw (Musqueam), səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) territory.

June (she/her) is an artist, musician, and theatre production designer passionate in all aspects of sound, set, and video. In 2019, she graduated from the Douglas College Stagecraft and Event Technology program and is currently studying in Simon Fraser University working towards her BFA in Theatre Production and Design. Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, June has been surrounded by the colourful sounds and sights from the cities to the mountains; sparking an interest in exploring the interrelations between sounds and their unique personalities. With over 15 years of practice in classical music and composition, her sound design works include “7 Stories” (Douglas College), “Selfie” (SFU SCA), and “The Tempest” (Carousel Theatre for Young People). Her other works also include: “Peter and the Wolf” (Collaborator), “Our Eyes Will Adjust” (Set Designer & Technical Director Phase 1), and “Big Queer Filipino Karaoke Night!” (Projection Designer, Sound Programmer, and Editor for the online workshop by Davey Calderon).

Colin Williscroft (he/him) is a filmmaker, and graduate of Simon Fraser University where he got his BFA in Film Production. His work in film primarily focuses on experimental shorts that engage different formats with an emphasis on sound featured in works such as Dumpster Baby (2019) and O’hara Lane (2020). With this skill base he also has been involved in recording, designing and mixing films within the community such as Moth Music (2021) and A Family Act (2021). He hopes to continue creating and helping the community push the boundaries of film, not only as a way to tell stories but share experiences and develop the medium as language.

Emily Fraser (she/her) is a Costume Designer based in Vancouver and is thrilled to be a part of the Selfie design team. Recent projects include: Costume Designer for Bad Eggs (Unladylike Co.); Costume Designer for New Canadian Kid (Green Thumb Theatre); Costume Designer for Amélie (West Moon Theatre-Vancouver Fringe Festival); and Costume Design for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (The Snapshots Collective). Emily is a graduate from Studio 58’s Production Program and was nominated for a Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Costume Design on Sweeney Todd.

Flick Harrison (he/him) is a writer, media artist, filmmaker, community-engager and educator in Vancouver. Starting out on the CBC youth series Road Movies as one of Canada’s first professional videographers, he’s since made video in Pakistan, the US, Mexico and China. His work includes research, creation, visual design, youth leadership, activism and media literacy.

Megan Gilron (she | hers | they | them) is a comprehensive sexual health and sexuality educator, an actors’ advocate and an Intimacy Coordinator for film and television. She has an extensive background in theatre costume design, acting, and directing; film and TV costuming (IATSE 891 member); and youth facilitation (with Safeteen International). They have been a sex and relationship educator for 10+ years, with training under the infamous Betty Dodson and from several programs through Options for Sexual Health. Her work is diversely informed by training and experience in mental health first aid, conflict resolution, consent and boundaries negotiations, alternative sexual practices (including kink and BDSM) and facilitation of somatic bodywork. Their intimacy coordination training is informed by the 5 pillars and Intimacy Choreography modalities popularized by Intimacy Director’s International and Theatrical Intimacy Education. Megan lives, loves, creates and resists within the ancestral, traditional and unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-waututh) Nations (Vancouver, Canada).
www.megangilron.com

Emily Schoen (she/her) is a Vancouver based actor, playwright and improviser. Originally from Alberta, Emily holds a BFA in Drama Performance from the University of Lethbridge where she graduated with Great Distinction. Theatre credits include Helen (Sage Theatre), Under My Skin (Body Image Education Theatre) and All That’s Left (Sage Theatre). Film and TV credits include The Flash (The CW), Yellowjackets (Showtime) and The Good Doctor (ABC). Emily has improvised with Drama Nutz (Lethbridge), The Kinkonauts (Calgary), Tightrope Theatre (Vancouver) and Blind Tiger Comedy (Vancouver). Emily is very excited to be a part of the Selfie team and the FOLDA Festival.

Tamlin Vetter (she/her) is a queer multidisciplinary artist with a strong background in dance. She is classically trained in R.A.D. ballet as well as jazz, tap, lyrical, and modern dance. Currently, she is studying theatre performance at Simon Fraser University School for the Contemporary Arts. She is interested in exploring how art can serve as a catalyst for healing. Recently, she has co-created and performed in the film Artificial Eden directed by Erika Latta, the performance Order of the New Hyphae by Sam Walters, as well as The Welcoming directed by Ryan Tacata. She is grateful to work and play on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tseleil-watuth peoples.

Brett Hubich (he/him), is an actor/performing artist with a combined total of 6 years of experience in post secondary Contemporary Arts programs. He has trained in classical theatre performance and film/Television acting. His training consists of numerous different forms, including Uta Hagen, Meisner, Suzuki, and Chekov, to name a few. Some of his more recent works took place mid pandemic, and due to their multimedia platforms, they showcase the interdisciplinary elements of his talent.

Clayton Lee (he/him) is a Toronto-based performance artist. Previous performances include (◕‿◕✿) at The Performance Arcade in Wellington, New Zealand and Chapter’s EXPERIMENTICA in Cardiff, Wales; \ ( ` 0 ́ ) / at Fringe Arts in Philadelphia; Duets for Beginners (SummerWorks Performance Festival); Chew, Chew, Swallow, Spit (Rhubarb Festival); and Informal Beginnings (Katzman Contemporary’s Duration & Dialogue II). His publication Brandy, the Virgin Slayer – Missed Connections appears as part of the BOOK MACHINE Project at Centre Pompidou in Paris, now part of its permanent Kandinsky Collection. Clayton is currently the Rhubarb Festival Director at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and the Managing Producer of CanadaHub at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Michael Rubenfeld (he/him) is a performance maker based in both Poland and Canada. He has made several works with Sarah Garton Stanley including The Book of Judith and We Keep Coming Back which has toured through Poland, Canada and to Berlin and London. His newest play, Alte Hajm / Old Home, co-written with director Marcin Wierzchowski, is running in repertory at the Nowy Teatr in Poznań, Poland. Michael is the former Artistic Producer of the SummerWorks and Progress Festivals in Toronto and the founder and Artistic Producer of CanadaHub at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. He is also the co-founder and co-director of FestivALT, an alternative Jewish arts collective based in Krakow, Poland. He is a graduate of the National School of Canada.
mrubenfeld.com

Frank Donato (he/him) is a multimedia artist specializing in light and projection design. Having first experimented with engineering digital performance with SpiderWebShow in 2017, Frank is thrilled to continue to experiment with using the internet as not just a collaboration tool, but as a collaborator. Recent credits as an assistant or associate designer include: No Change in the Weather, Blindness (Mirvish Productions), The Barber of Seville (Canadian Opera Company), The Neverending Story, Little Shop of Horrors (Stratford Festival), Out the Window (Luminato/The Theatre Centre), Le Wild West Show De Gabriel Dumont (National Arts Centre). As a designer: Orestes (Tarragon Theatre), Daisy (Great Canadian Theatre Company), The Revolutions (SpiderWebShow Performance). Recently, Frank was the Video Production Coordinator at Tarragon Theatre, facilitating the digital presentations of works originally designed for stage.

Thomas Loguisto – Audio System Design
Making his FOLDA debut,Thomas Loguisto has various audio theatre experience ranging from mixing front of house, system design, sound designing and mixing for broadcast/streaming. Local works of sound design with the Thousand Islands Playhouse production of “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story”(2018). St Laurent College production of “The Little Mermaid”(2019). Moonlit Theatre production of Starkids “Twisted”(2021). A graduate of Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Arts Technology from London, Ontario. Thomas Is excited about the opportunity to venture into a new world of engaging audiences through different mediums of technology and looking forward to being a part of this new live performance world.

Amy Amantea is a settler on the stolen lands of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-waututh Nations. Living with blindness and dyslexia, Amy aims to increase representation of disability within the Canadian theatre landscape. Although her background is in acting, having attended VFS and private acting academies before her sight loss, Amy has had to reinvent herself as a performer and integrate access, advocacy, and activism into her work. Amy joined the Arts Club Theatre as their Accessibility Coordinator in the fall of 2020 and continues to work with them, as well as other theatre companies and theatre makers across the country and beyond as an accessibility consultant. Her most recent credits include: Emilia (2021 – United Players of Vancouver); Wheel Voice: Tune In (2021 – Realwheels Theatre); and Sequence (2019, Realwheels Theatre). Amy is currently working on the development of three original works: Through My Lens, Ocean of Tears, and Disability Tour Bus.

James Long has been making new works of interdisciplinary performance and public art in with a wide variety of local, national and international collaborators since 1996. The resulting works have been presented in over 50 cities, festivals and independent venues across North America, Europe and Asia. In 2003, with fellow artist Maiko Yamamoto, he founded Vancouver based Theatre Replacement to further his work as a performance maker, teacher and facilitator of educational programs. James continues to write about performance and creation methodology, teach in both post-secondary and workshop scenarios across Canada and the US, holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser’s School of the Contemporary Arts and a Masters of Urban Studies, also through Simon Fraser University. In 2019 James, with Maiko Yamamoto, was awarded the Siminovitch Prize in direction for their work at Theatre Replacement and as freelance artists.

Arthi Chandra is a Vancouver based director, writer, and theatre maker. Her practice is rooted in devising text-based new works, and adaptations of contemporary and classical plays. Her work examines ways in which identities of race, gender, class, and queerness intersect with one another, and how people and ideas are shaped by systems and institutions. Recent works include Done/Undone at Bard on the Beach, and Passenger Seat with the Library Performance Collective. She is a graduate of the theatre performance stream at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts.

Dr. Patrick Parra Pennefather is an award-winning com-poser, designer of asynchronous, synchronous, blended and hybrid instruction, teacher, researcher and disruptor. He has mentored multi-disciplinary teams co-constructing scalable digital prototypes with over 50 companies and organizations in games, mobile dev, Mixed Reality, VR, AR, education and the arts. Patrick has facilitated human-centred work-shops in-person and as a virtual cat for EA, Riot, Microsoft Games, and many others in the xR space. He’s published multisyllabic words in the fields of 3D, Sound Design, xR, VR, MR, Bio-Medical Visualization and Agile application development. He’s an Assistant Prof at UBC Theatre and Film, and a founding member of the Master of Digital Media (MDM) Program.

Rebecca Cuddy – Concept, Direction, Performance, Visual Art, Sound Design (she/her)

Métis multi-disciplinary artist and mezzo-soprano Rebecca Cuddy is acknowledged as ‘the next generation who are going to do incredible things’ (Newman, The Whole Note 2019). This season she made her Canadian Opera Company debut in ‘Voices of Mountains’, appeared in Soundstreams’ ‘Garden of Vanished Pleasures’ and ‘Encounters: Indigenous Voices’, and ‘Shatter’ with Toronto Concert Orchestra.

As of 2017, Rebecca has sung in the premieres of several new Indigenous opera works across Turtle Island, including Two Odysseys; Pimootewin and Gállábártnit (Dora Award; Outstanding Ensemble), Shanawdithit (Dora Award; Outstanding New Opera), Flight of the Hummingbird and Li keur; Riel’s Heart of the North.

www.rebeccacuddy.com

Murdoch Schon – Digital Dramaturgy, Technical Direction (they/them)

Murdoch Schon is a nonbinary theatre creator and digital darling. Born and raised in Treaty One Territory (Winnipeg), they have been involved in the Tiohtià:ke (Montreal) English theatre scene for almost a decade. Murdoch is fascinated by provocation, vulnerability, and the role of risk and failure in art-making. In recent years they’ve grown to love experimenting with digital work and new modes of theatrical experiences that bring folks together in the spirit of community, joy and transformation.

Murdoch is a graduate of the National Theatre School Directing Program and has a BFA, Specialization in Theatre and Development, from Concordia University.

Alexander Theofanopoulos- Augmented Reality Developer (he/him)

Alexander is a self-taught software engineer living and working in Montreal, Canada. He specializes in identifying and repairing critical issues and inefficiencies within codebases. He’s been working in Montreal’s tech industry since 2014. He’s worked for companies like Warner Bro’s Games, and Intel.

Yvette Nolan – Dramaturgical Consultant (she/her)

Yvette Nolan (Algonquin) is a playwright, director and dramaturg. Her works include the play The Unplugging, the dance-opera Bearing, the libretto Shawnadithit, and the short play-for-film Katharsis. She co created, with Joel Bernbaum and Lancelot Knight, the verbatim play Reasonable Doubt, about relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in Saskatchewan. She is the company dramaturg for Sum Theatre. Other recent dramaturgy includes The Election by Natasha Greenblatt and Yolanda Bonnell, Wardo by Jimmy Blais, Chapter 21 by Starr Muranko, bug by Yolanda Bonnell, Many Fires by Charlie Peters. From 2003-2011, she served as Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts. Her book, Medicine Shows, about Indigenous performance in Canada was published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2015. She is currently pursuing her Masters in Public Policy at Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy.

Troy Slocum – Sound Design Mentor (he/him)

Troy Slocum is a sound designer, audio artist, and electronic music composer. His work has been heard in film, television, live performance and installation work in galleries and venues throughout North America and beyond.

Recent work includes sound design for the documentary feature Grey Roads directed by Jesse McCracken, which premiered at HOTDOCS 2021 & won best documentary feature at the CapCity Film Fest in Michigan. As well the sound design and original music for: The Lamentable Tragedy of Sal Capone at the National Arts Centre; the inaugural NAC Indigenous Theatre production of Marie Clement’s The Unnatural and Accidental Women; the National Film Board documentary, The Road Forward, and the documentary series, Looking at Edward Curtis, for the Knowledge Network, both of which were directed by Marie Clements. He is also scoring and designing the sound for the new CBC horror-comedy web series, The Bannocking, created and produced by Damien Eagle Bear. His work can also be heard in the documentary features, That Higher Level, and in True North – The Rise of Toronto Basketball, also produced by the NFB.

Mackenzie Wocjik – Performer (he/him)

Mackenzie Wojcik is a proud Metis actor and singer-songwriter born and raised on Treaty 1. Having started theatre at an early age, with an actor for a Father, he has performed on many stages in Winnipeg and has been honing his craft for what seems to be all his life. Continuing on with that craft in his second year of acting at the National Theatre School of Canada, he wishes to see joy brought to the stage. He wishes to see theatre, and art in general, used for the retribution of the world, bringing new thought and contemplation to whoever witnesses. He is very grateful to be a part of such an inspiring project.

Calla Adubofour-poku – Performer (she/her)

Calla Adubofour-Poku is an Afro-Indigenous improviser, actor, writer and creator from Salt Spring Island (Coast Salish territory) and is currently based in Montreal (Tiohti:áke). Growing up on Salt Spring provided Calla with a vibrant start to her theatrical education. She spent three years devising theatre through the Gulf Islands School of Performing Arts. During this time, she also cultivated an improv ensemble with whom she performed for various audiences, from local legions to national stages. This experience left Calla with a love of instantaneous art. She is currently attending the National Theatre School of canada in the acting program. Calla intends to use her training gained at NTS to breathe life into often untold stories with vitality. Her theatrical interests lie in collective creation as well as discovering the healing nature of storytelling and making art for your people.

Vijay Mathew is Co-Founder and Cultural Strategist of HowlRound Theatre Commons which is based at Emerson College in Boston, US. In the past decade, Vijay has helped to build the organizational capacity for several hundred nonprofit organizations worldwide to livestream their conferences, panel discussions, and performances — with a special emphasis on prioritizing accessibility, inclusion, and resource efficiency. When using internet technologies, he is passionate about the intersections of climate justice, social change, and a post-carbon future. All of his work in these areas has been informed by a “commons” philosophy and social-justice values. Vijay has a MFA from New School University, New York, a BA from University of Chicago, and an artistic background as an ensemble-based filmmaker and theatremaker. He is a board member of Double Edge Theatre located in rural Ashfield, Massachusetts, USA.

Anthony Lee (he/him) is an emerging writer, director, interdisciplinary artist working in theatre and film on the unceded territories colonially known as Vancouver. His work focuses on challenging existing boundary between cinema and live-performance. As a Hong Konger, his works investigate the impacts of colonialism and totalitarianism and has been presented in film festivals across Canada. Anthony received his BFA in Film Production from Simon Fraser University and is currently an artistic associate at Radix Theatre.

Andie Lloyd (she/he/they) is a queer interdisciplinary artist and community advocate, currently based on unceded Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Territories. She works as a lighting and video designer, a platform consultant and writer, primarily working with Isadora. Her recent projects include her Surtitle & Projection Design work with Neworld Theatre’s Clean/Espejos, an interactive and real-time operated lighting design for FakeKnot’s whip, and is thrilled to be joined by some of her favourite people for her FOLDA debut!
www.andielloyd.ca

Alyssa Kostello (she/her) is a queer creative working primarily in film. Her first short film Zero (writer, Sustainability Producer) won a Green Seal from the Environmental Media Association and played at festivals globally. It’s now streaming on Sofy.tv and The Green Channel. She has produced a handful of short films, plays and live events, and is a co-producer for the indie feature How to Ruin The Holidays starring Colin Mochrie and Amber Nash. In 2021 she was a Sustainability Coordinator on the Netflix film Mixtape starring Julie Bowen. She is excited to be dipping her toes back into theatre with this team!
Alyssa is grateful to be living, learning, working, and creating on unceded sc̓əwaθenaɁɬ təməxw (Tsawwassen), S’ólh Téméxw (Stó:lō), Kwantlen, Stz’uminus, šxwməθkwəy̓əmaɁɬ təməxw (Musqueam), səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) territory.

Jamie Sweeney (she/her) is a production manager, a technician, a designer, an artist, a performer, and all the other ways she can find herself deeply involved in the world of theatre. She is currently living, working, and creating on the unceded traditional Coast Salish Territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil- Waututh Nations. She holds a BFA in theatre production, design, and performance from Simon Fraser University. Previous credits include: Peace Country (rice & beans, 2022). Migration (Fight with a Stick, 2022), Made in Canada Concert Tour (rice & beans, 2021), Palimpsest (Pacific Theatre, 2021), Emilia (United Players, 2021).

I love opening the minds of those I connect with to the possibilities of Extended Reality (XR). Through seeing the industry grow over the past 6 years I understand how XR technology will soon impact every aspect of the world we interact with. From how we experience entertainment and news to how we learn and communicate.

At XpertVR my job is to bring this vision to our partners so that together we can build today what will be revolutionary tomorrow. With this, I and XpertVR are working to change the way people experience education today and into the future. So that one day soon, anyone, no matter their background or geographical location, will be able to pick up a headset and learn the skills needed to propel success in what they’re passionate about.

Marcel Stewart is a father, artist, educator, and serves as Outreach Director for Suitcase in Point. Artistically, Marcel’s curiosity about history and lineage – within the context of colonialism – is at the basis of his work. Marcel was a member of the Soulpepper Academy and completed the Theatre Enhancement Program (Directing Foreman) through Factory Theatre. Marcel is a multi-time Dora nominated actor and has performed in numerous Dora Award-Winning productions. As a director, Marcel is drawn to stories written by and about Black people. Directing Credits: Toronto Pigeons (Factory Theatre Podcast); Serving Elizabeth (Thousand Islands Playhouse); Meet Chloe (Carousel Players). Currently, Marcel is developing a live digital series inspired by his father’s life in Jamaica. Marcel often returns to the questions: Who am I? How am I? How did I get here? Who have I lost? What is my purpose?

Ian is desperately trying to follow in the footsteps of his great-uncle, Hollywood film producer Fred Waller, who invented one of the earliest forms of immersive media called Cinerama in 1952.
For the past twenty-eight years Ian has been driven by a passion to find new ways to mix creativity, technology and business. Currently he is co-founder of the award-winning augmented reality studio Impossible Things which, in 2017, created the ReBlink art experience at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
ReBlink transformed the experience of art appreciation by “remixing” a series of classic works giving visitors the opportunity to see them come alive through a modern-day lens. ReBlink had a significant effect on visitor engagement, while at the same time captured the public’s imagination. ReBlink generated over 300 media stories and 2 million video views, traveled as a pop-up exhibition to over two dozen locations around the world, and received a special visit from Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Nikki Shaffeeullah (she/her) is a director, writer, facilitator, perfrormer and producer who creates theatre, film, and poetry. Past roles include artistic director of The AMY Project, and editor-in-chief of alt.theatre magazine. As a facilitator, Nikki supports grassroots groups to navigate collective processes and to uphold equity and accountability in all aspects of their work. An award-winning theatre and film artist, Nikki collaborates with companies and artists from across Canada. She is currently a curator with the National Arts Centre – English Theatre and a resident artist at Why Not Theatre. She has an MFA from the University of Alberta and is a fellow in the Salzburg Global Forum for Cultural Innovators. Nikki believes art should disrupt the status quo, centre the margins, engage with the ancient, dream of the future, and be for everyone.

Rachel Penny (she/her) is a creative producer working in dance, theatre and community-engaged arts. Rachel supports new work creation and centres relationships in her work. Rachel has worked with a diverse range of organizations including Harbourfront Centre, The Luminato Festival, Young People’s Theatre, Volcano Theatre, Peggy Baker Dance Projects, The AMY Project and The Theatre Centre Rachel has been mentored in producing through Theatre Ontario’s Professional Theatre Training Program (with Aislinn Rose) and the Metcalf Foundation Performing Arts Internship Program (with Meredith Potter). Currently, Rachel works as the Artistic Producer for adelheid dance projects, as associate producer with Kim Senklip Harvey, and on a variety of very cool independent projects

Janice Jo Lee (she/they) aka Sing Hey, is a contemporary folk artist of Korean ancestry. She is a folk-soul singer-songwriter, spoken word poet, actor and playwright from Kitchener, on Haldimand Tract treaty territory. On stage she creates looping landscapes with her voice, guitar, trumpet and Korean jangu drum. Lee is a hard femme, queer, radical, comedian, truth-teller and satirist. She is interested in using art to build flourishing communities based in justice and joy. Lee’s work explores gender justice, antiracism, friendship, community, ancestry and the Earth.
Lee is trained in spoken word, clown and physical theatre, whose specialty is creating a warm energy and glow with audiences. Lee has facilitated anti-oppression workshops at University of Waterloo, Laurier Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto Faculty of Social Work, Vancouver Poetry House and Folk Alliance International. She has directed theatre creation programs for racialized youth with MT Space, Le Project N’we Jinan, and Randolph Kids. Janice has released two music albums Sing Hey (2016), Drown the Earth (2013) and is working on her upcoming album Ancestor Song.

Tanya Marquardt is a writer and performer in Lenapehoking/Brooklyn. Their book Stray: Memoir of a Runaway was named a Best Queer & History Bio by The Advocate; a punk-musical version toured nationally; Nocturne (an incomplete and inaccurate account of the love affair between George Sand and Frederic Chopin) was produced at Dixon Place; Transmission, based on Sophocles’ Orestia, was published in the Canadian Theatre Review, and Some Must Watch While Some Must Sleep, Tanya’s play about being a sleep talker, inspired an NPR Invisibila. Their essays appear in Medium, huffpost, Plentitude and OffAssignment; their performances at PuSh, VIDF, Dancing on the Edge, The Tank, Brooklyn Museum, BAX, and The Collapsable Hole. They have worked with JoAnne Akalaitis, Jerome Bel, Ballez, Jess Barbagallo, Mallory Catlett, Theatre Conspiracy, frank theatre, Emily Johnson, Mabou Mines, and the Leaky Heaven Circus. Currently they are learning Magyar legényes folk dance, working with nonbinary drag artist Rose Butch and writing Creature (a memoir of selves).

Christine is a theatre artist living and working on the unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh people. Christine received the 2017 Siminovitch Protege Prize for Playwriting from Marcus Youssef, and is a Governor General’s Award nominee and winner of a Dora Mavor Moore, Jessie Richardson, Tom Hendry and Sydney Risk Award. Creation/performing highlights include Clean/Espejos (with translation and adaptation by Paula Zelaya Cervantes, world premieres at Neworld Theatre in Vancouver and South Coast Repertory in California), co-creation of Good Things To Do (digital tour with Rumble Theatre); Never The Last (co-created with Molly MacKinnon), produced by Delinquent Theatre; Selfie (commissioned by Théâtre la Seizième in French, and Young People’s Theatre in English); Christine is a proud co-founding member of the Canadian Latinx Theatre Artist Coalition. She holds a BFA in Acting from the University of British Columbia.

Aaron Collier was born in Prince Edward Island in 1981 and is an award-winning musician/composer, sound and video designer, performer and theatre creator. His composition, sound, and video design work has toured throughout Canada, Ireland, the UK, and India and he has 14 years of touring and performance experience throughout the world with his previous bands The Jimmy Swift Band and Scientists of Sound. As a theatre creator his work is often multi-disciplinary and technology enabled and explores themes of queerness, depression, self love, natural law and technology. He is the co-founder and technical director of Halifax-based live art company HEIST and is the co-creator of their lauded productions The Princess Show, New Waterford Boy, Nature Vs Nation, FACE, Princess Rules, and Frequencies.

Thaddeus Phillips is a theatre director, stage designer and Film/TV actor from Denver, and now based in South America. He directs internationally and is known for the stage productions of ¨Antropoceno¨, ¨The Arrival¨, ¨A Billion Nights on Earth¨, ¨Inflatable Space¨, ‘Red-eye to Havre De Grace’, ’17 Border Crossings’, ‘¡El Conquistador!’, ‘Flamingo/Winnebago’ & ‘Lost Soles’. On Film and TV he has appeared in: ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’, ‘Alias El Mexicano’ and ‘El Capo 3’. His stage work has been seen at New York Theatre Workshop, Barrow Street Theatre, PS 122, HERE Arts Center and La MaMa ETC, as well as in Spain, England, Ireland, Holland, Serbia, Mexico, Slovenia, Colombia, Costa Rica & Italy.

Miwa Matreyek is a Los Angeles based animator, designer, and performer, currently living and working in the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, known as Vancouver BC. She has toured internationally as an independent artist for over a decade. Coming from a background in animation, Matreyek creates live, staged performances where she interacts with her kaleidoscopic moving images as a shadow silhouette, in a dreamlike visual space that makes invisible worlds visible, often weaving surreal and poetic narratives of conflict between humanity and nature. She performs her interdisciplinary shadow performances all around the world, including animation/film festivals, theater/performance festivals, art museums, science museums, universities, and tech conferences. A few past presentations include TED, MOMA, SFMOMA, New Sundance Film Festival, and more. She is also a co-founder and core-collaborator of the multi-media theater company, Cloud Eye Control. She received her MFA for Experimental Animation and Integrated Media from CalArts in 2007.

Anna Camilleri has been working with performance, image, and text for over 25 years. An interdisciplinary theatre artist and designer, her tactile and sculptural works are primarily expressed through 20+ public artworks. Her book works have been recognized with distinctions from the LAMBDA Literary Foundation, the Association of Independent Publishers, and the American Library of Congress. Anna is Artistic Co-Director of ReDefine Arts.

Anita Rochon is a Vancouver-based performance director primarily focused on the creation of new work. Rochon freelance directs in a range of styles from classical texts to documentary work to relational installations to contemporary dance. She and Emelia Symington Fedy run The Chop, a company that tours work nationally and internationally. Anita has directed for The Shaw Festival, Electric Company Theatre, Bard on the Beach, Theatre Replacement, Belfry Theatre, Théâtre la Seizième, Globe Theatre and Vancouver Opera.