Stageworthy

Alia Ettienne is a theatre writer, actor, performer and facilitator who was born and raised in Toronto, ON. Ettienne is of Afro Caribbean descent which often influences her performances and writing. She graduated from the Sheridan College Performance Program and since then has gone on to study Creative Writing as well as Arts and Entertainment Marketing. Ettienne aims to create art for social change. Her first solo piece, YellowZoned premiered in The 2016 Toronto Fringe Festival and then remounted as a part of Hamilton's premiere Mental Health Theatre Festival MindPlay. Ettienne is now focused on her mental health workshop series Chill N Do Art, The Creative Coping Kits Initiative and writing her second full length piece Allow For Release: The Xiety Complex.

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Polly Esther is an award-winning writer, storyteller, and performance artist from Toronto. Since 2018, she has been touring her one-woman show _Dammit, Jim! I'm a Comedienne, Not a Doctor! _about how Star Trek has helped her in her journey as a recovering alcoholic. She has performed in several cities including Chicago's Funny Women Comedy Festival, SOLOCOM in New York City, the Yard Theatre in Los Angeles, (un)Told Storytelling in Ottawa, and at Fringes across North America. 

Polly’s Dammit, Jim! was an award-winner at three different fringe festivals over three years running, picking up the "Low Tech" award at the Orlando Fringe in 2018, the "Spirit of the Fringe” award at the Ottawa Fringe in 2019. and “Best of the Fringe” at the 2020 Hartford Fringe. Polly was also invited to present Dammit, Jim! as a featured event for Algonquin College’s National Addictions Awareness Week in 2019. The Orlando Fringe was also the site for the World Premiere of Polly’s newest show last year (about her “Weird Al” Yankovic fandom), POLLYWOOD. 

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Twitter: @pollyesthergems

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Laura was born to tell stories. Whether as a dancer with Tokyo Disney, a writer for Alumnae Theatre’s Gay Play Day, a teacher at the Toronto District School Board, or as a comédienne with Just for Laughs, Laura’s unstoppable passion in life lies in telling people all sorts of eccentric stories, whether they want to hear them or not.

www.laurapiccinin.com

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Danny Harvey has been a performing arts professional for the past 19 years. Currently functioning as the Artistic Programming Coordinator for the Rose Theatre Brampton, Danny curates the theatre’s presenting series. The Rose Theatre is a multidisciplinary venue providing Theatre, Music, Dance, and Comedy to the people of Brampton. Prior to this Danny was an artistic director of the Shakespeare in the Square festival as well as the producing wing of the Rose Theatre Brampton. Danny has been a performer and artistic director on amateur and professional stages for the past 19 years having directed some 30 plays and musicals. A Graduate of Humber College – Comedy Writing and Performance program, Central Peel Secondary School in Brampton. Recently Danny had the honour of adjudicating the National Theatre School festival.

Instagram: @dannydontdance

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Sadie Berlin is a published fiction author, a writer of post-dramatic texts, and a performance artist. In previous incarnations, she has been a legal anthropologist and ethnographer, an offshore finance journalist, and a literary buyer for a bookshop chain in London, U.K. Last year, Sadie was the dramaturge and performance curator-in-training at the Stratford Festival Lab. As a recent recipient of the Metcalf Foundation grant, Sadie will be working as the Dramaturgy Intern at the Stratford Festival under the mentorship of ted witzel. Sadie is also an educator, an activist and an anti-racism consultant.

Twitter: @artysadie

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“I am the son of two tribes. I am the daughter of one birth. I am the spirit of many nations. I am a child of mother earth.”

B’atz’ Recinos was born and raised on Turtle Island with mixed Maya roots from Iximulew (Guatemala). A creator, performer, advocate, and Harold Award recipient for the performing arts of Tkaronto. Their commitment to equitable and diverse practices within the arts has led them to speak at YouthREX and several other panels and publish articles with NOW, Intermission Magazine, and contribute to The Director’s Lab book published by Playwright Canada Press. A trained facilitator, B’atz’ has delivered various workshops on diversity, inclusion, art and self-care with youth, artists, and communities across Ontario. Their extensive experience in the performing arts led them to found Creative Mafia.

Instagram: @chwenkan

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Sukhpreet Sangha is a theatremaker, lawyer, poet, and barfly. After studying theatre and English at the University of Waterloo, she studied law at Osgoode Hall, and has since questioned that decision regularly. She spends her days working in legal education at a non-profit dedicated to youth and her nights, well, wouldn’t you like to know. Sukhpreet is co-Artistic Director of Informal Upright Theatre Collective. You can also read some things she writes here and see some things she tweets here. Sukhpreet invites you to find out more about “Yellow Bellies” (and perhaps even buy it!) here: http://theatreofthebeat.ca/yellow-bellies.

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Kitoko (Kit for Short) is a Black, Non-binary, disabled emerging multidisciplinary performance artist, media artist, and community artist. They’re a graduate of the Theatre/ Film studies and Multimedia studies at McMaster University (which they both love and regret) and the APT program at Generator (currently no regrets). Kit’s primarily interested in creating performance-based work that challenges the notion of binaries, and explores lateral violence and power dynamics within marginalized communities. Their work is rooted in social justice, anti-oppression, accessibility, #femmeaesthetics, and the pursuit of messiness. It’s best described as a chaotic poetic collage.

www.kitoko.ca

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HAUI is a multi-disciplinary entrepreneur of many artistic trades including performance, directing, design & visual arts. He was born in the United Kingdom to mixed Caribbean, Taino/Arawak and European heritage. Howard is a graduate of Ryerson Theatre School. To date has worked at the Stratford Festival as an assistant director as part of the inaugural bud’s program (part of the Michael Langham Director’s Workshop Presentation) He has worked at Canada’s Shaw Festival as an actor and designer, National Arts Centre as an assistant director, directing/design intern at the Grand Theatre; Montreal’s Black Theatre Workshop, Ottawa’s Great Canadian Theatre Company and Neptune Theatre as a designer, and performed with Native Earth Performing Arts, Cahoots Theatre, Paper Canoe Projects, and Factory Theatre. His work as a filmmaker emphasizes history and how it can inform our current sociopolitical climate. He hopes to continue building a practice in telling stories of his heritage, marginalized cultures not at the forefront of history and modern original works with an emphasis on bridging classical, theatrical and historical context to contemporary cinema and stage.

www.howardjdavis.com

Transcript at https://stageworthypodcast.com/260-haui-aka-howard-j-davis/

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Camille is a graduate of Sheridan’s College’s Musical Theatre program. Theatre highlights include RENT, High School Musical, Hairspray, and The Book of Mormon.

Twitter: @camilove90

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