#407 – Amanda Lin & Julia Dickson
This week on Stageworthy, host Phil Rickaby welcomes Amanda Lin and Julia Dickson, the co-leadership team behind the Paprika Theatre Festival, now celebrating its 24th season. Amanda and Julia share the story of Paprika’s evolution, recent strategic programming changes to prioritize artist and staff well-being, and the organization’s commitment to supporting emerging artists.
They dive into how the Paprika Festival fosters professional development, provides paid opportunities, and creates space for experimentation and growth — a vital contribution to the Canadian theatre community. Amanda and Julia also talk about their own journeys into arts administration, their long-standing collaboration, and what’s coming up at this year’s festival.
This episode explores:
- How the Paprika Theatre Festival empowers emerging artists and administrators
- Why Paprika shifted its programming to prevent burnout and better support artists
- The importance of paid training opportunities in building a more inclusive theatre industry
- Amanda and Julia’s creative and leadership journeys
- Highlights and exciting events for this year’s Paprika Festival (May 13–17, 2025, at Aki Studio in Toronto)
- How community programming, including a neighbourhood lemonade stand and a pre-prom dance, builds lasting local connections
Guests:
🎭 Amanda Lin
Amanda Lin 林美智 (she/her) is a queer Taiwanese-Canadian multi-disciplinary artist with the goal of using art and storytelling to cultivate compassionate and dynamic communities. She is a member of the Labour in the Arts Collective where she co-hosts free community events for artsworkers. She has worked with companies such as Cahoots Theatre, Single Thread Theatre, Theatre Direct, Why Not Theatre, and Young People’s Theatre. Her first full-length play, Between a Wok and a Hot Pot premiered with Cahoots Theatre in January 2023 and received 6 Dora nominations in the Independent category, including Outstanding Performance for Amanda and Outstanding Production. Amanda enjoys lying on the floor.
🎭 Julia Dickson
Julia Dickson (she/her) is an arts manager, producer, and educator currently based in Tkaronto, the place in the water where the trees are standing. Her practice centres around the idea of creating supportive spaces that prioritize the artists and their working experience, which includes examining the systemic challenges in place within the arts sector and working to remove barriers both for audiences and for artists to experience live performance. Across her practice, she has worked with companies such as 1s1 Theatre, SummerWorks Festival, Why Not Theatre, Studio 180 Theatre, Young People’s Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Crossroads Theatre (formerly Shakespeare in Action), and County Stage. On top of her work at Paprika, she is also currently the Managing Producer of ARC. She has a post-graduate certificate in Arts Administration and Cultural Management from Humber College, and a Bachelor of Education with a focus on Artist in the Community Education from Queen’s University. She can always be persuaded to get an ice cream cone.
Connect with Paprika Theatre Festival:
🌐 Website: paprikafestival.com
📸 Instagram: @paprikafestival
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Transcript
Transcript is auto-generated and as such may contain minor errors.
