Sam Chaulk is an actor, singer, playwright, improviser, dramaturg, creator and clown originally from Mount Pearl, Newfoundland. She’s been working in theatre and comedy across eastern Canada since 2009, and got her Masters in Performance Creation for Theatre from York University in 2021. During her time at York, she took to bouffon clowning to satisfy her desire to play inside the dark, uncomfortable and undesirable parts of humanity. Thanks to Canada Council for the Arts, she studied the form with Philippe Gaulier. She’s using what she learned there to build and perform her new show, Influenced, which will play at The One Night Only Festival on June 9th and at the Montreal and Winnipeg Fringes.
For Studio 180: Parade. For Mirvish: Piaf/Dietrich. For Musical Stage Company: Life After (Dora Award), Parade (Lucille), The Light in the Piazza (Franca, at both Theatre Calgary, and Musical Stage Company). During Covid times: Into the Woods (Witch, Talk is Free Theatre, Dora nomination), Divine Interventions (Corpus Theatre). Just before the world shifted, Tracy played Aurora in Eclipse Theatre’s inaugural production of Kiss of the Spider Woman at the Don Jail, for which she received a Dora nomination, and she spent the Spring touring Europe with Theaturtle’s production of Charlotte: A Tri-Colored Play. She has spent seasons at the Shaw (Mystery of Edwin Drood), Stratford (Fiddler on the Roof, Three Musketeers, The Fellini Radio Plays), and Charlottetown Festival (Anne in Anne of Green Gables, Emily in Emily: A New Musical), and the Atlantic Theatre Festival (Cinderella, Into the Woods, Natasha in Chekhov’s Three Sisters). Favorite roles include Sarah Brown at the Segal Centre in Guys and Dolls, Harper in WJT’s Angels in America, Jenny in Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play (Outside the March), and Bella in Lost in Yonkers (Theatre Northwest). A proud graduate of Queen’s University, Tracy is also a teaching artist who runs her own private studio and is on the faculty for both The Performing Arts Project and MTCA in New York City.
Recently: directed The Other Place for Talk is Free Theatre. Played Mrs. Lovett in Talk is Free’s Sweeney Todd in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Was part of Musical Stage Company/Yonge Street Theatrical’s RETOLD at the Toronto Reference Library.
Carolyn Fe is a late-blooming Filipino-Canadian, award winning tri-lingual Actress (English/French/Tagalog), an award winning Singer-Songwriter-Lyricist and a former contemporary Dancer-Choreographer. Carolyn’s continuous pursuit of artistic evolution adds new instruments to her creative portfolio as a published Writer and emerging Playwright. Her short stories have been published in magazines and a poem is part of the Toronto Catholic School Commission’s curriculum teaching grade 10 and 11 students on the importance of intergenerational relationships. A budding playwright, she wrote her first plays while simultaneously participating in two different 2022 residencies: Montreal’s Teesri Duniya Theatre’s 2022 Fireworks Playwrights’ Programme where she developed “Go Fish!”, a play that was conceived in Tarragon Theatre’s Playwright Course with Paula Wing and, Factory Theatre’s 2022 The Foundry New Work Creation Group where she adapted her published short story into a play entitled “Still Life in Death”.
Carolyn has also translated “Cross Sea” by Kyungseo Min from English/Korean to French/Korean. The play telling the story of two women’s experiences as comfort women during the Japanese occupation of Korea.
As an actor, some TV/streaming credits include Lola (Grandma) in the Nickelodeon reboot of the children’s show “Blue’s Clues & You!”, Madame Z in the award winning French series “Meilleur Avant”, “ABROAD” a bilingual Tagalog-English sketch comedy series and, voices on various animated series such as DreamWorks’ “Pinecone & Pony” and PBS Kids’ “Work It Out Wombats”. Some Theatre credits include: Uncle Vanya (Crow’s Theatre), Three Women of Swatow (Tarragon Theatre), Calpurnia (Nightwood/Sulong), Through the Bamboo (Uwi Collective) and Miss Orient(ed) (Teesri Duniya Theatre). When Carolyn is not on the theatre’s stage or front of the camera, she is most likely performing her original songs from her four albums or doing song writing collaborations with musicians around the globe.
Carolyn is the assistant director for Tarragon Theatre’s Paint Me This House of Love.
Kylie Thompson (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary performer, creator and educator residing in Toronto, Ontario. She considers herself an ally to the BIPOC and LGBTQ2S+ communities and is committed to ongoing education, conversation and action towards equality and de-colonization of Western Dance practices. She holds an honours degree in Kinesiology from McMaster University, and has trained in classical, contemporary and street dance styles and has also developed a practice in photography. After having served on the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists-East board of Directors for 5 years, she is passionate about arts advocacy and independent production. She has produced numerous works both in the theatre and on the screen; some of which include “Versus”, “33/33”, “Oh, Yes” and “Femmillennial”; and she is honoured to have been part of such festivals as New Blue, Dance: Made in Canada, Toronto Fringe, Choreographer’s Ball, and more. Her commercial credits include Barenaked Ladies, Kiesza, TIFF, Finger Eleven, Lionsgate Films and more. A passionate educator; her teaching practice has spanned various disciplines but is currently focused on release-based floor work; having trained with and drawn inspiration from Alias Dance Project, Vim Vigor Dance, Elke Schroeder and many other influential dance theatre companies. This year she will take her self-produced production “Femmillennial” on the road to Orlando and Vancouver Fringe Festivals.
Cass Van Wyck (she/her) is double Dora-nominated actor/producer who splits her time between her positions as Co-Artistic of the Assembly Theatre and Artistic Director of One Four One Collective. Throughout her 10+ year acting career, she has performed in the UK and all throughout Canada working with many notable directors including Daniel MacIvor, Soheil Parsa, and Marie Farsi. Select credits include Tracy in Two Minutes to Midnight (The Assembly Theatre, 2022 Dora Nomination – Outstanding Performance by an Individual), Shelley in The Huns (One Four One Collective, 2022 Dora Nomination – Outstanding Performance by an Individual) and Moira in Therac 25 (Unit 102 Actors Co., 2019 My Entertainment World Critics’ Pick Award Nomination – Outstanding Leading Performance). Cass is excited to be making her directorial debut this coming May 2023 with Bone Cage by Catherine Banks at The Assembly Theatre. Originally from the small town of Fenwick, Ontario, Cass currently lives in Toronto and can normally be found baking chocolate chip cookies and cheering on the Blue Jays.
Vishesh Abeyratne is a Sri Lankan-Canadian playwright and dramaturg who divides his time between Ottawa and Montreal. He is currently the Artistic Facilitator at Teesri Duniya Theatre where he also coordinates the Fireworks Playwrights Mentorship Program. Before this he served as playwright-in-residence at the Great Canadian Theatre Company (GCTC). His plays typically use dark political satire to interrogate and critique the destructive effects of white supremacy and capitalism upon the humanity of individuals.
Christine is an Edmonton / amiskwacîwâskahikan-based theatre artist, teacher, director, and artistic director of Small Matters Productions. She holds a BSc in Physics, and a Masters of Fine Arts in Drama. She is co-creator of and performer in Small Matters’ eight full-length shows, including the interactive comedy hit, “For Science!” (2018-23), she has just premiered her new show “The Space Between Stars”, a radical adaption of “The Little Prince”. Watch for the forthcoming western inter-provincial collaboration, “The Spinsters” (premièring 2023/24). She is a frequent collaborator with the Edmonton-based companies Catch the Keys Productions, artistic associate with Toy Guns Dance Theatre, and director of the Play the Fool Festival of clown-theatre and physical comedy. She specializes in integrated & collaborative creation, audience experience design, interactive comedy, and physical storytelling.
Margo MacDonald(she/they)From Ottawa but currently based in Toronto, Margo is a multi-award winning playwright and performer who primarily creates work highlighting lost bits of queer women’s history. Her solo show, The Elephant Girls, (which she wrote and performs) has been touring nationally and internationally since it premiered in 2015, including runs in London, England, the Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival in Ireland, and the renowned Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. To date, the show has won eleven awards.Her other plays include: Shadows (about out lesbian theatre maverick, Eva Le Gallienne, and her partner Josephine Hutchinson), Rap Once for Yes (about Radclyffe Hall and Noel Coward holding a seance), Maupin (about a cross-dressing, bisexual, swordfighter, opera singer, and duellist in 17th century France), and, together with Geoff McBride, The Persistent Stain (about an aging Canadian punk band).Other recent performance credits include: Dressed as People – a Triptych of Uncanny Abduction (undercurrents festival), Heartlines, and Albumen (TACTICS Mainstage); Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet), and Fly Me to the Moon, (Great Canadian Theatre Company); Henry V, and Much Ado About Nothing (A Company of Fools); and The Penelopiad (Citadel Theatre).
Rachel Matumbo and Natasha Mumba are the playwright and director of Vierge at Factory Theatre, April 8-30.
Rachel Mutombo is an award-winning actor and writer. She is an acting graduate of John Abbott College’s Professional Theatre program as well as the National Theatre School of Canada. As a freelance writer, Rachel has had essays and articles published by CBC, Intermission Magazine and ByBlacks.com. Her first full length play, Vierge, was awarded the first place prize in Infinitheatre’s annual playwriting competition. Vierge is premiering at Factory Theatre in Toronto in April 2023.
Natasha Mumba is a Zambian born, Toronto based multi-disciplined artist. She is a graduate of the Acting program at The National Theatre School of Canada as well as the previous Apprentice Artistic Director at Factory Theatre through the generous support of the Metcalf Foundation. She recently had the pleasure of being a Directing Fellow at Why Not Theatre’s ThisGen program, as well having the pleasure of developing her skills in dramaturgy at The Pan-African Dramaturgical Lab hosted by South African company Vrystraat. Her directing credits include; Driftwood Trafalgar: Balance; Factory Theatre: Lady Sunrise (Assistant Director); YPT: The Water Gun Song and Cassius; Studio 180: Gone to see a Man about a dog.
Matthew MacKenzie is a citizen of the Métis Nation of Alberta and proud father of Ivan (Eevan, Vanya, Vanichka). Artistic Director of Punctuate! Theatre, Matthew is also the founder and an Artistic Associate with Pyretic Productions, a founding member of the Pemmican Collective, as well as Canadian Liaison of the Liberian Dance Troupe. Matt’s plays include First Métis Man of Odesa, Bears, After the Fire and The Particulars.
