It is with sadness and fondness we bid adieu to our dear friend and WGT Board member Gerald (Jerry) Lecovin who passed away in early August.
Jerry was a lawyer, fisherman, tireless volunteer, and great lover of music and theatre (who was known to grace the stage himself). He was a true community guy, and we at WGT have much to thank him for. His friendliness, wit, and enormous heart are missed by everyone. Read the full obituary.
Board Member
She has served on many Boards throughout the years, local, provincial, national and international. Some were professional, some community based, some fraternal, and some purely educational. Western Gold falls into the latter category.
Western Gold deals with something that Jean has always wanted to know more about: What is the necessary infrastructure that supports a theatre company?
She attends as many performances as she can, in venues all over the Lower Mainland and would like to better understand what keeps the arts in business. Jean wishes to contribute to that process.
Scenic Painter
Emily is so excited to be a part of this wonderful team! Emily is an assistant set and costume designer with the Shaw Festival, set designer for Cry Heart, but Never Break with Axis Theatre, Resident Set Designer with the Metro Theatre, and Adjunct Professor of Theatre and Film at UBC. Recent credits include Kill the Ripper (set designer) with Affair of Honor, Wittenberg (set designer) with United Players, and Shawground (set and costume designer) with the Shaw Festival. Portfolio: EmilyDotson.design
Stage Manager
Fraser is a Vancouver-based, queer artist living and working on the traditional territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh nations. Super Seniors is their sixth production with Western Gold. Their experience in the performing arts started in kindergarten and they have been involved with programs such as Bard on the Beach, Theatre Under the Stars, and The Cultch. Fraser has additional experience with competitive improv, musical theatre, film, and playwriting. Fraser hopes to continue studying the arts and is so grateful for the opportunity to expand their knowledge working in live theatre as a stage manager.
Lighting Technician
Andrej is an emerging artist and designer currently residing in Vancouver, originally from Belgrade, Serbia. Since moving to Canada at the age of 13, Andrej found love and passion for theatre and acting. His ongoing journey as an artist started when he discovered a theater production program in high school. He studied acting for three semesters at Studio 58 where he learned crucial production skills. In the future, he aspires to become a lighting and sound designer. Andrej has previously worked with Western Gold Theatre on their staged readings of Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer and Norm Foster’s Hilda’s Yard as Lighting Technician and set up crew, and as the Assistant Production Manager and Lighting Technician for A Doll’s House Part 2. He is grateful for these opportunities and is always looking for new ways to challenge himself.
Director
Anita is a director and theatre maker. Since 2006, she’s been the Artistic Director of The Chop with Emelia Symington Fedy, a company they co-founded. The Chop is an award-winning, Vancouver-based company whose work is known for its sophisticated experimentation with authenticity and involves non-traditional collaborators and some of the finest artists working in Canada. The Chop has developed more than 15 original works that tour nationally and internationally. Anita was very recently appointed as the new Artistic Director of Green Thumb Theatre.
As a freelance director, Anita has worked at The Shaw Festival, Bard on the Beach, Theatre Replacement, Caravan Farm Theatre, Belfry Theatre, Théâtre la Seizième, Electric Company Theatre, Globe Theatre, and Vancouver Opera. She is a graduate of Studio 58 (Acting) and the National Theatre School of Canada (Directing). She is the recipient of the Ray Michal Prize for an Outstanding Body of Work by a New Director, a Mayor’s Arts Award, and the Siminovitch Protégé Prize. Anita is an active member in Canada’s theatre community and has sat on numerous advisory boards and juries.
Playwright, Director, Elizabeth
Kathryn is the Artistic Director Emerita of Studio 58, the Professional Theatre Training Program at Langara College, where she served as AD from 1985 to December 2020. Known primarily as a director and educator, in her retirement, she has taken up writing and has also rekindled her acting career, appearing on stage in The Thursday Night Bridge Circle at United Players and in the Indie films Mess You Made, Hanna on the High Sea and Crack. She has received numerous awards over her long career including the Canadian Actors Equity Life Membership Award and the Career Achievement Award from the Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance. She has also been elected into the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame and is a recipient of the SAM PAYNE AWARD given by UBCP/ACTRA in recognition of “humanity, integrity and the encouragement of new talent.” Kathryn thanks the wonderful director, cast, designers, stage management, and the team at Western Gold for their talent and support in bringing Super Seniors to the stage. She wishes to dedicate this play to the memory of her friend and fellow swimmer Richard Cook.
Lighting Designer
An award-winning lighting designer, writer, and performer, Itai is the founder of The Elbow Theatre for whom he co-wrote and performed in Soldiers of Tomorrow, Hyperlink, This Is Not A Conversation, and A Very Narrow Bridge. Itai’s first solo show How to Disappear Completely (The Chop) has had 26 remounts and won the best director award at the 2013 Summerworks Festival (James Long). Itai has designed over 350 shows all over North America and Europe. Recent highlights include Carmen for Vancouver Opera, The Marriage of Figaro for Pacific Opera, and Parade for Raincity Theatre. He won six Jessie Richardson Awards, Toronto’s Dora Mavor Moore Award, a Winnipeg Theatre Award, the Jack King Award, Victoria’s Spotlight Choice Award, a Guthrie Award, and the Design Award at the Dublin Fringe Festival. He was shortlisted to the Siminovitch Prize in 2018. www.itaierdal.com, www.theelbow.ca
Mildred
Patti is thrilled to be making her Western Gold debut with this terrific new script and this wonderful team. Patti is a four-time Jessie Richardson Theatre Award recipient with multiple nominations. Patti was honoured to be the recipient of the Brian Linehan Online Award (Best Actress for short film, Mimi and Me). Patti has been involved with theatre, film, TV, Radio and voice-over work for over 30 years. She is also committed to theatre in education and is passionate about teaching both young people and seniors alike. An avid champion of new works, Patti is proud to be involved in the premier production of Super Seniors. Dedicated to all our relations who have paved the way.
Set Designer
Since graduating from Studio 58 as an actor in 1980, Pam has designed over 350 shows. She has worked across Canada, from Montreal to Chemainus. Internationally, her shows have been seen in Melbourne, Glasgow, Bangkok, Chicago, and New York. She has won several Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards for outstanding set design, as well as a PACT Career Achievement Award. Pam was the resident designer at the Vancouver Playhouse for 24 seasons. She continues to freelance for Bard on the Beach, Arts Club, and the Shaw Festival. She was the Head of Production and the set design instructor at Langara College until her retirement. She continues to mentor young talent while her freelance design career caries on.
Hildy
Annabel is delighted to be back in the Western Gold family having appeared in over 14 shows including She Stoops to Conquer, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Learned Ladies. Western Gold gives her the challenge of playing many different ages, some far younger than one would expect, and now the unprecedented opportunity of jumping into the shoes of a life-loving Centenarian. Apart from performing with Western Gold, Annabel has had a long and varied career performing in many theatres across Canada. Locally, she has been seen with the Arts Club, Vancouver Playhouse, Richmond Gateway, Firehall Theatre, and Carousel Theatre for Young People. She is the recipient of two Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards for Aunt Dan and Lemon and The Elephant Man. Film and TV appearance are many including IZombie, Get Shorty, Arrow, the original Jumanji and a number of Hallmark films. As a graduate of Studio 58, Annabel is honoured and completely awe struck to not only be performing in Kathryn Shaw’s play but also cavorting (via wheelchair and walker) onstage with the renowned long-time head of Studio 58. When not performing, Annabel spends a fair bit of time turning upside down as a Yoga instructor and practising her downward facing dog with her Sheepadoodle Padma.
Cameron/Server
Matheus is a Brazilian actor, singer, and educator. Since graduating from Studio 58 in 2021, he has had the pleasure of exploring his artistry on stage with theatre companies and collectives such as Carousel Theatre, rice & beans theatre, vAct, Ruby Slippers Theatre, Direct Theatre, Alley Theatre, Firehall Arts Centre, Rumble Theatre, and Vancouver Opera. On screen, you may have seen him in film festivals around BC, on Netflix’s The Midnight Club, or in commercials for Pepsi, Werther’s Original, 1-800-Got Junk, PetSmart, and others. Matheus has been honoured with nominations for Outstanding Performance from both OVATION! Awards and the Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards. He would like to dedicate this show to his grandparents for teaching him faith, love, and laughter, as well as his mãezinha for the best bean stew recipe in the whole wide world.
Twyla/Reporter
Alisha is a queer artist of Jamaican heritage living on the stolen unceded ancestral lands of the Coast Salish Peoples. Alisha is a writer, physical theatre performer, singer, and Black History Matters facilitator with Presentation House Theatre. Alisha has performed with The Frank Theatre, Caravan Stage Company, at The Cultch Historic Theatre, and the Vancouver Fringe Festival. Their passion for dance and physical theatre led them to study Pochinko-based clown fundamentals with David McMurray Smith and perform two contemporary dance works with Kinesis Dance. Their literary aspirations brought them to the poetry cohort at The Writer’s Studio, a playwriting and directing mentorship with Rumble Theatre, and a TYA playwright’s mentorship with Green Thumb Theatre. Their most recent credits include Claudette in How Black Mothers Say I Love You (The Frank Theatre) and Assistant Director for Da Kink in My Hair (Arts Club).
Hilda Fluck
Cheryl is so happy to play in Western Gold’s back yard. She thanks Anna Hagan and her wonderful team. Recent credits include, Film/TV: Hanna On the High Seas and So Help Me Todd; Theatre: The Fantasticks (Huckabee), Cabaret (Fraulein Schneider) and Steel Magnolias (Ousier). She hopes our show “razzes your berries!”
Bobbi Jakes
Gabrielle is a Filippino/French-Canadian actor based in Vancouver, BC. who recently graduated from UBC’s Acting Program. Over the last twelve years, she has performed for both theatre and film. Some of her favorite theatre credits include: Henry V (Understudy/E.R.A, Bard on the Beach), Ceci est une histoire d’amour (Anna, Théâtre la seizième), June Bug (June Bug, Ragamuffin Productions), Quelqu’un t’aime M.Hatch (Betsy, Axis Theatre) and Coriolanus (Sicinius, UBC). For film: iZombie (Angela, CW), Retrograde (Young Woman, Journeys into Crazy), Riverdale (Margaret, CW), and She Kills Monsters (Tilly, Shinning Light Studios). This summer, Gabby will be remounting June Bug in Salmon Arm B.C for Theatre on the Edge Festival and will also be in rehearsals for Ragamuffin Productions’ upcoming new work at the 2024 Vancouver Fringe Festival.
Assistant Stage Manager
Chaeli grew up surrounded by art and had a love of live performance instilled in her from a young age. Attending music festivals with their father, plays with their grandparents, and many summers spent in theatre workshops have given them a rich foundation to build their life on. They learned that there is a kind of magic that happens when people come together to create and experience stories, and they have been following that feeling ever since. After years of performing and also a brief pause, she has been excited to re-discover her love of storytelling in new ways from behind the scenes.
Gary Fluck
Jacob is a Vancouver-based actor from Ontario, Canada. He has been a part of many productions across the country such as Forgiveness (Arts Club Theatre Company/Theatre Calgary), Mary’s Wedding (Firehall Arts Centre), and Concord Floral (Theatre Kingston). Jacob is very excited to be performing with Western Gold Theatre again and hopes you will enjoy the show! Check out his website at: https://www.jacob-leonard.com
Janey Fluck
Emma is an actor and artist. Born and raised in Calgary, AB, she is now based in Vancouver on the unceded, ancestral homelands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Recent theatre credits include Mary’s Wedding (Firehall Arts Centre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Minimal Stage Productions) and improvising with Tightrope Impro Theatre. She is a graduate of Studio 58.
Sam Fluck
Michael has been working as an actor, director, producer, and arts administrator for over 40 years. He has been nominated for Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards for Significant Artistic Achievement and Outstanding Production and is a recipient of the 40 Under 40 Business in Vancouver Award. Michael was the longtime Program and Events Coordinator at Place des Arts in Coquitlam but recently retired and is looking forward to the next chapter as a freelance theatre artist. Michael’s acting credits include performing at the Vancouver Fringe in September 2023 as Falstaff. Other favourite roles have been in Rusted Cage Theatre Lab’s production of The Zoo Story, Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet under the direction of Kevin Bennett. Michael has also appeared in Hamlet and Measure for Measure, both directed by Mr. Bennett and Doc in West Side Story for Theatre Under the Stars.
Beverly Woytowich
Audience Member/Volunteer – Reading in Dutch
It’s not about where and what I have been, but where I am now and where I can be going. This is likely the last third part of my life, if I can be so lucky. Reflections on growing up in the Netherlands, moving to Canada with more growing up for my family and me, and these days adjusting to a retired lifestyle while saying goodbyes to older family members and friends and welcoming new lives in the family.
Learning to go with the flow, to let go, to set goals, priorities, and boundaries, to observe and not always evaluate, to move and relax. And to find balance in it all. My day can include a cold-water ocean dip, a walk and talk in the Park, a thrift outing and grocery shop, a new recipe and a nap. For Western Gold, I am audience, volunteer, usher, the best 50/50 ticket seller, and a wanna be actor (but they don’t know that…).
Videographer
Colleen is theatrical lighting and projection designer, filmmaker, and performer. She enjoys creating work as a lead artist as well as alongside a team of other local artists spanning from indie and community productions to larger commercial productions. Colleen works with traditional and musical theatre processes, found footage, animation, gestural choreography, and devised scripted narrative. Her work revolves around hope, apathy, existentialism, individualism vs community, and rediscovering childlike wonder. Colleen’s goal in her work is to create fantastical worlds as a vehicle of escapism, hope, and wonder, complemented with an underlying commentary about a difficult question that she is currently facing.
Volunteer – Reading in Finnish
Actor - Reading in Italian
Nominated for the UBCP/ACTRA Award for Best Supporting Performance in 2023 for her portrayal of Mrs. Hudgens in Epix’s Billy the Kid, Stefania is a BC-born actor and producer who holds an Honours BA from the University of Toronto. After six years in Toronto studying and working with some of the industry’s most esteemed artistic professionals, she moved back to Vancouver and quickly made a name for herself in the city’s independent theatre scene. A brief stint overseas working at The English Theatre of Rome left Indelicato reinvigorated and inspired to establish her own Jessie-Award-Winning theatre company, dream of passion productions. Even as she has found continued success in BC’s booming film & TV industry, her love for theatre never wanes, and after an incredible experience last summer participating in a workshop with John Patrick Shanley, she is eager to find her next opportunity to tread the boards.
Selected theatre credits: Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (dir. Jay Brazeau); Corleone: The Shakespearean Godfather (Classic Chic, dir. Mindy Parfitt); White Hot (Kindred Entertainment, dir. Ben Immanuel); Ithaka and After (dream of passion productions/Excavation Theatre, dir. Jessica Anne Nelson). Selected film credits: Alaska Daily (ABC); Upload (Amazon); Motherland (Freeform); Billy the Kid (Epix); Turner & Hooch (Disney+); Haunting of Bly Manor (Netflix); Loudermilk (Audience); Lucifer (FOX).
Volunteer - Reading in Farsi
Toni is a retired sociology professor who is a huge consumer of arts of any form. She believes the arts are individual expressions that transfer into various forms and shapes (objects, thoughts, and emotions) that penetrate a group of people. It is personal passed to the group or community. Artistic expressions thus can become either informative, educational, or entertaining. She is glad that our community in Vancouver is small but vibrant.
PAL Volunteer - Reading in Portuguese
Mauro was born and raised in Brazil, where he graduated and worked as Psychologist. Since arriving in Vancouver 33 years ago, he has been working as Case Manager/Counselor with non-profit societies such as CNIB, ISS, and Family Services of Great Vancouver. He is now retired and has been volunteering with WESN, PAL theater, etc. He loves music, movies, plays, opera and musicals.
Mauro is honored to be part of the Word Theater Day, and is grateful to Western Golden Theatre for inviting him to do the translation to Portuguese and reading sections/phrases of the speech in his first language. It was a wonderful experience.
Managing Editor entertainmentvancouver.com - Reading in German
Monika has been happily playing with words for many years, as an advertising copywriter, journalist, and editor for radio, newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and online publications. She has been the managing editor for www.entertainmentvancouver.com since 2002, supporting the arts community in the Lower Mainland with information on current live entertainment events.
Monika is currently at work on a selection of short stories about her family’s immigration to Canada years ago, and the many incredible people she has met on her journey through life.
Theatre Patron/Theatre Lover/Volunteer - Reading in French
Nina Ferretti has worked in the television industry since 1978. She began her career with Rogers Cable doing hundreds of interviews and hosting her own tv show. She interviewed such luminaries as Angie Dickinson, Arnold Schwarzenegger (twice), Barry Morse, Pete Rose, Guy Lafleur, and Hy Aisenstat. Nina moved to radio for one year doing The Arts in Review for C-ISL 940. At that point, her French language became an asset and she became a producer and director with French CBC TV-Radio-Canada for 10 years. Through her company Nina Ferretti Productions, Nina worked in the private sector throughout the late 90’s. As the Senior Producer of the Arts Department of Knowledge Network, Nina interviewed, produced and directed The Best of VIFF and Arts Edge, and produced a documentary film for the BBC. Nina is an avid theatre patron.
Dancer/Performer - Reading in English
There’s magic in moving together, especially when you move in a way that feels good to you. As an artist with Spina Bifida, Harmanie dances in and out of her wheelchair, facilitating spaces for all bodies to work collaboratively to create connections that uplift disabled, MAD, and marginalized artists. Her dance practice explores the vulnerability of the disabled lived experience, exploring movement authentic to bodies not often represented in dance. As a dancer, she has danced in nature, onstage, and in several short dance films. As a dance teacher, she has taught people with and without disabilities online, all across Canada, with the National Access Art Centre (AB), Propeller Dance (ON), and Embrace Arts (BC). Harmanie also facilitates the Ready Dance Youth Project (BC) with the All Bodies Dance Project and the Movement Classes for RealWheels Academy (BC).
Actor/Writer/Director - Reading in Norwegian
Mariam Barry is an actor, writer, and director working in multi-mediums from stage to screen. She is a Netflix’s Diversity of Voices alumni and a director in the DGC x BSO´s accelerator program.
Administrator - Reading in Arabic
Kareem grew up in Syria and moved to Malaysia in 2006, Hungary in 2019, and arrived in Canada as a landed immigrant in 2020. One thing he noticed was that no matter the place, art is a form of connection that connects us all and Canada values theatre at a tremendous level.
Even though he has never set foot on a theatre stage, he enjoyed playing a supporting part in the community from behind the scenes. Growing up in a small town, Kareem’s exposure to theatre was limited, but he enjoyed the few productions he was able to attend.
His experience with Western Gold Theatre as a box office manager allowed him to appreciate art even more due to the loving and tight-knit community that actively supports and appreciates each others’ artistry. This allowed Kareem to realize that theatre is much more than just a show, it is a life changing artwork.
Despite his busy schedule, Kareem still finds time to attend theatre productions whenever he can. On World Theatre Day, Kareem is proud to celebrate the art form that has enriched his life and the lives of so many others.
Actor/Producer - Reading in Korean
Maki is a performer and playwright with a BFA in Theatre Performance from University of Regina and an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies from Simon Fraser University. Her work focuses on autobiographic solo plays, such as Home of My Soul, Gramma, and Suitcase Stories. Recent credits include the role of Umma in Kim’s Convenience at the Arts Club Theatre, Seventeen for Western Gold Theatre and Childish for Pacific Theatre. She is an associate artist of Pacific Theatre as well as a member of Asian Theatre Working Group under International Federation of Theatre Research.
Diggory
Stephen Heatley has worked in professional theatre for over 50 years. He holds a BA from Brock University, a Diploma in Mime for the Actor from the Canadian Mime School, and an MFA from the University of Alberta. He was Artistic Director of Theatre Network for 12 years and Associate Artistic Director of the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton for 5 years. In 2022, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Canadian Actors’ Equity Association and has been a faculty member in the Department of Theatre and Film at UBC since 1999 teaching acting, directing, and playwrighting.
Mrs. Hardcastle
Colleen’s career of 45+ years as an actor/director/singer/choreographer has taken her from Chemainus to Charlottetown (and most cities in between), at the Arts Club, Playhouse, Citadel, Theatre Calgary, Persephone, Tarragon, Shaw, and Stratford Festivals, to name a few. For Western Gold: Opening Night, Learned Ladies, Harvey, Rumours, Jack of Diamonds, Mystery at Greenfinger, and directed Queen Lear and a host of readings. On other stages, Colleen has played everything from Daisy in Driving Miss Daisy and Dolly Levy in Hello, Dolly! to Shelly Levene in Glengarry Glen Ross. She appeared at the Arts Club as Dotty in Noises Off and in their smash Kinky Boots. Colleen received Jessie and Ovation awards for her performance as Mrs. Lovett in Rain City’s acclaimed site-specific Sweeney Todd. Most recently she made her non-singing opera debut playing the The Maid in Vancouver Opera’s Don Pasquale.
On the small screen, she’s appeared in Lost in Space, Family Law, Man in the High Castle, and a collection of Hallmark movies. She is grateful to Western Gold for the opportunity to once again be bringing great words off the page with these fantastic players.
Young Marlow
Alexander lives and works on the stolen traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations. His acting credits include Macbeth (Shakespeare’s Globe), Pass Over (Ensemble Theatre), Lia & Dor (Cătun), Genetic Drift (Pi Theatre), and Juice (The Cultch). His plays include 7 Ways to Die, a love story (with Keltie Forsyth), Bedlam (Junior Jester Cap Award, Calgary Fringe Festival), and Whiskey, Gin, and Pints of Beer. Alex holds an MFA in Acting from East 15 Acting School (London, UK) and a BA in Drama and Creative Writing from the University of Alberta.
Tony Lumpkin
Dave has become a mainstay with Western Gold, previously playing; Jack the baseball enthusiast in Opening Night, Dimas the Gardener in Triumph of Love, Bill the Minicab Driver in Funny Money, Mortimer the Lawyer in Jack of Diamonds, Arnold the Chef in Mystery at Greenfingers, Wilson the Nurse in Harvey, Sir Toby the Uncle in Twelfth Night, Officer Welch the Party Pooper in Rumors, and Roger the Dancer in Comfort Cottages. Dave has also performed with Patrick Street Productions, Itsazoo Productions, Ensemble Theatre Co, URP, Fighting Chance, United Players, Theatre Under the Stars, UBC Players Club, Vagabond Players, and Metro. Dave hosts the radio show Eclectic Lunch, a weekly stroll through life’s garden of musical delights, on CiTR.ca. He continues to enjoy marital bliss with the amazing Ronaye Haynes.
Stage Manager
Ingrid is a daughter of settlers, fortunate to live here in the ancestral lands of the Coast Salish people, and grateful for their stewardship of the lands and waters here. Ingrid has been a stage manager of theatre, dance, and opera for 40 years. She’s a House Manager at Bard on the Beach and a Stage Manager for the VSO. She’s delighted, as always, to work with Western Gold, and thrilled to be mentoring two promising young stage managers.
Landlord/Sir Charles Marlow
Keith is feeling very grateful for Western Gold Theatre right now, and the opportunities it has given him to keep practicing his craft and to enjoy the transient pleasures of being on the boards. As well as numerous stage performances, Keith has had the good fortune to have appeared in over 70 film and television productions to date including more than a handful of Hallmark movies. He is a Past President of Western Gold Theatre, a Director on the board of CAN (Canadian Artists Network), a Past President of PAL Vancouver, a Director on the board of The Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Foundation of British Columbia (the Leo Awards), President of UBCP/ACTRA, and Vice President of ACTRA. Love to Tory and Sasha.
Miss Kate Hardcastle
Denyse is very happy to be returning to WGT after having a delightful time reading Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest last year. A 1985 graduate of Studio 58, Denyse played many an ingénue, along with other roles of note, working for such theatres as The Vancouver Playhouse, The Arts Club, Bard on the Beach, Theatre Calgary, and The Atlantic Theatre Festival. After playing Cleopatra for Bard on the Beach in 2001, Denyse was busy as a homemaker raising three beautiful sons and a stellar stepson with her loving partner, Michael Zeitlin. Fortuitously, Sarah Rodgers and United Players tempted Denyse back onstage in 2019 to play Juliet in A Tender Thing. Denyse is grateful to Anna Hagan and WGT for doing the same!
Mr. Hardcastle
2024 marks the 62nd year of Mr. Kelly’s life as a professional actor. Although based in Vancouver, Terence has played in most of the major theatres across Canada, from Montreal to Victoria. His television and film credits number in the hundreds and span locations from the Yukon to Tahiti. There were also thousands of radio serials and dramas that he contributed to in the early years.
In his own words: “It is a joy to be once again playing with Western Gold Theatre and with a wonderful ensemble of veteran players.”
Director
Marcus Youssef is a playwright, actor, educator, and artistic director. His 15 or so plays have been produced in more than 20 countries across North America, Europe, and Asia. He is a recipient of the Siminovitch Prize for Theatre (Playwrighting), the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award, Berlin Germany’s Ikarus Prize, the Alcan Performing Arts Award, the Canada Council Staunch-Lynton Award, and the Vancouver Critic’s Innovation award (three times), among others.
Marcus is Senior Artist at Neworld Theatre, International Associate Artist at Farnham Maltings (UK), and a Playwright in Residence at Tarragon Theatre. Marcus also co-founded the East Vancouver artist-run production studio PL1422, was the inaugural chair of Vancouver’s Arts and Culture Policy Council, and has served on faculty at both Concordia and Capilano Universities. He also teaches regularly at Studio 58 and the National Theatre School, which he graduated from about 350 years ago.
Perry Schneiderman is a theatre educator, director, and translator, who has taught many of Canada’s notable performers and playwrights. He studied psychology at McGill University and theatre at the University of Washington and L’Ecole Jacques Lecoq. He taught mask and directed at the National Theatre School of Canada (NTS) from 1976 to 2000 and was Artistic Director of the English Section of NTS from 1990-2000. During his time at NTS he initiated the first playwriting and directing programs offered by the school.
His master classes in mask have been conducted in Shanghai, Cape Town, Moscow, Zagreb, and Oxford. Closer to home, he has taught and coached for HB Studio (NYC), Cirque du Soleil (Montreal and Las Vegas), the Stratford Festival, and Soulpepper Theatre Company.
In collaboration with Louis-Georges Girard, Perry has translated several English Canadian plays (East of Berlin, Hockey Mom Hockey Dad, Old Love, The Little Years and Sexy Laundry) for eventual production in Quebec. In December 2011, his translation of Norm Foster’s Old Love was produced by Compagnie Jean-Duceppe at Place des Arts in Montreal.
Perry’s directing credits include many professional and conservatory productions, including the first NTS production in the newly renovated Monument National theatre in 1992: Moliere’s The Miser adapted by Tom Cone and those at the Piggery Theatre (North Hatley) where he was Artistic Director from 1981-86 and 1990-95, as well as the Centaur Theatre and Saidye Bronfman Centre.
He was Chair of Toronto Metropolitan University Theatre School (formerly Ryerson) from 2000-2010. From 2019, he is Associate Professor Emeritus at TMU.
Kathryn Shaw is the recently retired Artistic Director of Studio 58, the Professional Theatre Training Program at Langara College, a position she held from 1985 to December 2020. In her retirement, she has taken up writing. Her new play SUPER SENIORS was read at Presentation House, North Vancouver in April 2022, and Theatre One in Nanaimo and Off the Page in Gibsons in February 2023.
For over 40 years, Ms. Shaw directed for theatre companies across Canada and taught acting for professional and community groups in British Columbia, Winnipeg, and Halifax. She has served as the Festival Adjudicator for Theatre BC’s Mainstage 1991, 2004, and 2014, as well as adjudicating regional festivals, most recently the 2022 Fraser Valley Zone Festival.
Kathryn received the Canadian Actors Equity Life Membership Award in 2016 and, in 2010, the Career Achievement Award from the Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance. In 2005, Kathryn was elected into the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame. She is a recipient of the 1996 Sam Payne Award given by UBCP/ACTRA in recognition of “humanity, integrity, and the encouragement of new talent.” Ms. Shaw has been nominated for four Jessie Richardson Awards for her directing work and has received two Jessie Richardson Awards for Direction and Best Production.
Director
Tim Byron Owen is an award-winning actor, writer, director of theatre, film, and television. He is a founding member of The Celtic Arts Center/An Claidheamh Soluis, having served as President of the Board, and The Sarah Fulton Group, serving as Artistic Director.
Theatre director credits include: 10 productions of, A NIGHT IN NOVEMBER, by Marie Jones – The Celtic Arts Center – 2002/2004, The Falcon Theatre – 2002, The Tricycle Theatre, London – 2002/2003, The Edinburgh Fringe Festival – 2002, The Gaiety Theatre, Dublin – 2003, Liberty Hall Theatre, Dublin – 2004, Irish Arts Center, NY, The Off-Broadway Theatre, Boston – 2006. || Three productions of, FIGHTING WORDS, by Sunil Kuruvilla – The Celtic Arts Center – 2004/2006, The Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff – 2006. || Two productions of, FALLING UPWARDS, by Ray Bradbury – Theatre West -2007, El Portal Theatre – 2009. || “LOVE ME DEADLY, by Matthew Sklar – The Celtic Arts Center – 2007. ||THE WALWORTH FARCE, by Enda Walsh – Theatre Banshee – 2011. || JIMMY & SAM, by Pat Harrington & Howard Storm – Theatre 40 – 2011. || REMEMBRANCE, by Graham Reid – Theatre 40 – 2013. || CAGED, by Dermot Davis – Theatre Banshee – 2015. || BEING PIAF, by Eleanora Owen – The Group Rep Theatre, LA / The Triad Theatre, NY – 2023 || FEAR OF HEIGHTS, by Kevin Flynn -The Odyssey Theatre – 2023.
Edith Piaf
Eleanora Owen (née Avakian) has been acting and singing on stage from the age of four. Annie, her French grandmother, exposed Eleanora to the life and music of the one and only Edith Piaf, at a very young age. Since French was Eleanora’s first language, it was only a matter of time before she stepped into the role of Piaf – one of her idols!
After attending the prestigious Hollywood High Performing Arts School, and receiving her BFA from UCLA (Theatre, Film & Television), Eleanora chose to put her career on hold, assuming the role of full-time caregiver for her ailing grandmother for many years. After her grandmother’s passing in 2011, Eleanora became a member of the internationally acclaimed acting company, The Sarah Fulton Group, where she quickly rose in the ranks to production manager and restarted her acting career, as well as leading the writing program within the company. Shortly thereafter, she made her feature film debut in Old Man’s Gold. In 2014, The Sarah Fulton Group produced the first twenty-five short one-acts written by Eleanora, followed by a production of her second compilation of short one-acts in 2016.
Inspired by her 2019 concert at The Mayflower Club and her husband, award-winning director Tim Byron Owen, she created BEING PIAF.
Eleanora is honored to present BEING PIAF to each and every one of you.
Sound Designer
Improvising cellist/composer Peggy Lee leads or co-leads numerous ensembles, including the Peggy Lee Band, Film In Music, Echo Painting, Waxwing, and Handmade Blade. Each of these groups consists of a different configuration of players from an ever-growing pool. In addition to these projects, Peggy maintains long-time associations with local artists such as Tony Wilson, Ron Samworth, Lisa Miller, Meredith Bates, and Joshua Zubot. She also collaborates regularly with Wayne Horvitz, Robin Holcomb (Seattle), and Mary Margaret O’Hara (Toronto). Peggy has also collaborated extensively in theatre and dance with companies and artists such as Electric Company, Ruby Slippers, Rumble theatre, Western Gold Theatre, Dumb Instrument Dance, Machinenoisy, EDAM, and Kokoro Dance.
Director Mentor
Kathleen is a theatre artist and educator. As a director, recent projects include The Moors by Jen Silverman, Mad Forest by Carole Churchill, Jerusalem by Jez Butterworth, The Beauty Queen of Leenane by Martin McDonagh, The Ovid by Ted Hughes and Concord Floral by Jordan Tannahill. She is presently an adjunct professor of acting at the University of British Columbia, instructor and director at Douglas College, and coaches independently. Artistic collaborations and extensive experience in merging performance and rehearsal practices from live theatre, screen, mocap, voice-over and dramaturgy have enhanced her investigations into physical behaviour and embodiment between actors, dancers, text, design elements, and audiences.
Lighting Designer
Rebekah is pleased to be invited back to work on this project for Western Gold! She has been a lighting designer for nearly 40 years and has worked across the country for companies such as Magnus Theatre, Prairie Theatre Exchange, and Persephone Theatre, and, closer to home, Theatre North West, Western Canada Theatre, and Kaleidoscope Theatre. She is currently the General Manager and resident designer for Blue Bridge Theatre in Victoria where favorites include Of Mice and Men and Macbeth directed by Brian Richmond, and Waiting for Godot and A Christmas Carol directed by Jacob Richmond.
Other favourites include Stones in His Pockets for Persephone Theatre and The Fiancée for Chemainus Theatre Festival. She is a sessional instructor and lighting mentor at the University of Victoria and lives in the beautiful Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, on the traditional territory of the Coast Salish, home of the Cowichan Tribes.
Costume Designer
Barbara has been designing costumes and sometimes sets in Vancouver for over 45 years. Starting her design career with Tamahnous theatre in the 1970’s, Barbara has been largely self-taught in the art of theatre design. She has designed for both small and large theatre companies and worked in numerous Costume Departments in film with IATSE 891.
Selected works in the last few years include Beauty and the Beast 2017 (Arts Club Theatre) Lysistrata 2018 (Bard on the Beach) Coriolanus 2019 (Bard on the Beach) East Van Panto 2018-20 (Theatre Replacement) Kinky Boots 2021 (Arts Club Theatre). She has been nominated for over 15 Jessie Richardson Awards and won eight for Outstanding Costume Design. Barbara holds a BA in Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia.
Director
Seamus Is an emerging director who is thrilled to be making his professional directing debut with Western Gold Theatre. Directing credits include Bare (Eternal Theatre Collective), MilkMilkLemonade (Awkward Stage Productions). Assistant Director credits include: Seventeen, Escaped Alone (Western Gold Theatre), Charles III (The Arts Club), The Imaginary Invalid, Taken at Midnight (United Players).
Seamus also works as an arts educator and has directed numerous productions for the Arts Umbrella Pre-Professional Training Program (The Boxcar Children, Chaos, Kindness), Coquitlam Youth Theatre (King Arthur’s Calamity, Unity (1918), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oh What A Lovely War 2.0, The Jungle Book, Our Town) and the Vancouver School Board (DNA, (Anon)ymous, The Secret in the Wings). Seamus is also an emerging playwright having received productions with The Or Festival, Arts Umbrella, and Vancouver School Board. He hopes you all enjoy discovering the world of A Doll’s House Part 2, and much gratitude to the WGT team.
Playwright
Born and raised in East Vancouver, Michael has been involved in the local arts scene as an actor for over forty years. Since graduating from Studio 58, he has been fortunate enough to work with and learn from artists on both sides of the border.
Having written two short one-act plays, this is Michael’s first time tackling a full-length piece. He loves writing about the old neighborhood and the characters he remembers growing up on the east side. It is an honour to be part of the first Have A Senior Moment Festival with Western Gold Theatre, and he is looking forward to hearing and seeing the other writers’ works.
Actually, this is not Mike’s first senior moment. That happened last year at the bank when they told him he was eligible for my seniors’ discount!! Soon he will be eligible for discounted prices at Provincial campsites!!!!!!!! Golden Years . . . Golden Years Bop Bop Bop!! Michael hopes you all enjoy the festival and continue to support local artists and our work.
Playwright
Susinn is a Vancouver-based actress who has worked in theatres across the country from Dawson City to Halifax. Nominated for 7 Jessie Richardson awards, she’s won for her leading roles in Menopositive the Musical! and Hello Dolly! at the Vancouver Playhouse. Susinn is one of the founders of Wet Ink Collective, whose mandate is to promote gender equity on the stage and screen by mentoring and supporting women writers. Her first play Since You Left Us was voted one of the best shows in Vancouver in 2014. They’re Naked, They’re Ugly and They Owe Us Money is her second play.
Playwright
Actor, Director, Folk Singer, Composer, and Professional Panda Fluffer, Jay Brazeau left Winnipeg in the early eighties. He left the snow, the ice, the mosquitos, and the return of the Winnipeg Jets to find his good fortune, here in Vancouver. And in all those years, he has been lucky enough to act in over 300 films, sing in over 40 musicals and act, compose, and direct over 100 plays. He was also fortunate enough to co-write and compose music for another 10.
But in all that time, he never or was too lazy or scared to write a play by himself. Well he turned 70 in December and started writing Fortunate Sons six years ago and is so happy to finally share it with you all.
Jay feels it’s important to remember an artist never stops being an artist, even after he or she or they have passed on. Jay has started writing two more plays, is having a wonderful time, and can’t wait to share them with you.
Director / Facilitator
Johnna has worked, studied, and collaborated in various parts of Canada as a director, actor, producer, dramaturg, and playwright and has supported the development of dozens of new Canadian plays.
She was a co-founder of Bard on the Beach, where her most recent project was an acclaimed adaptation of All’s Well that Ends Well set in India on the eve of Partition, co-created and co-directed with Rohit Chokhani.
With writing partner Patty Jamieson, Johnna co-wrote an adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s Gaslight, which premiered at the Shaw Festival and will tour Australia next year. Patty and Johnna’s next play The Three Musketeers is in development. Johnna also wrote The Suspect, an adaptation of her mother’s award-winning novel.
After the challenges of the last few years, Johnna believes more than ever in the power of theatre to change the way we see the world and in the need for audiences to have that experience together.
Anne Marie
Tanja was last seen with Western Gold Theatre in Funny Money, Escaped Alone, and Jack of Diamonds. Recent theatre includes Act of Faith (Real Wheels), A Prayer for Owen Meany (ETC /Pacific Theatre), The Wolves (With a Spoon /Pacific Theatre), and The Beauty Queen of Leenane (ETC). Film/TV credits include a bunch of blink and you’ll miss ‘em plus the occasional role with an actual name!
Nominated for a number of Jessie’s, she is most proud to have received the Mary Phillips Award. Tanja is the Artistic Director of Western Gold Theatre.
Torvald
Tom has been a Vancouver-based actor since 1975 working across most of Canada with over 130 stage credits. His three Best Actor Jessies Richardson Theatre Awards include the very first Best Actor Jessie ever presented in 1983. He works in the TV and film industry appearing in productions ranging from The Beachcombers over 40 years ago to 21 Jump Street, Stargate SG1, Riverdale and many more. His 50-year career may suggest high mileage, but he’s a well maintained and serviced entity, eligible for collector status and considered, arguably, to be a classic. Tom is more than pleased to be included with this group on A Doll’s House Part 2.
Emmy
Tebo has been a part of the local art scene for the past five years. Born and raised in South Africa, she moved to Vancouver to study and pursue her dreams of being an actor. After graduating from UBC with a BFA in Acting, her dreams became a reality. She has performed on stage in plays such as Goldrausch, Much Ado About Nothing and The Crucible. You may have also seen her on screen with her television and film credits including Netflix’s Firefly Lane, The Stand, A Million Little Things and Picture of Her. A firm believer in the magic of theater, she is proud to be a part of this production of A Doll’s House Part 2..
Nora
Melissa is a Vancouver based theatre artist. Most recent stage credits include Unexpecting (ZeeZee Theatre), The Café (Itsazoo/Aphotic), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bard on the Beach), Lampedusa, Beautiful Man (Pi Theatre), The Twelve Dates of Christmas (Arts Club), and Like it or Not (Green Thumb) for which she received a Jessie Richardson award for Outstanding Performance. Melissa made her professional directing debut last year with Western Gold Theatre’s 90 Days. Other recent directing credits include Thy Neighbour’s Wife (United Players), Six of One (Studio 58) and Eviction Conniption (Vancouver Fringe Festival). Melissa is a graduate of Studio 58. She lives and works on the traditional and unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Lane/Merriman
Patrick graduated with a B.A. in theatre from Simon Fraser University. He has worked as an actor in Vancouver for the past 30 years in film and TV, and in theatre with The Firehall Theatre, Rumble Theatre, Touchstone Theatre, Headlines Theatre, Pi Theatre, and Main Street Theatre amongst others. Patrick has been nominated for two Jessie Richardson Awards for Acting.
Patrick recently digitized an adaptation of his play Inside/Out: A Prison Memoir that he screens in prisons and penitentiaries across the country to encourage inmates to tell their own stories. Last summer he was a keynote speaker at The International Association of Forensic Mental Health Services conference in Berlin. He is also a peer co-leader with the Transformative Health and Justice Research Cluster that supports initiatives at the intersection of Health and Justice.
This is Patrick’s first time working with Western Gold Theatre, and he is grateful to be included with these incredibly talented artists.
Lady Bracknell
Ellie King was born and raised in England where she made her stage debut aged 2 ½. She immigrated to Canada in1982. On stage, she just finished a tour of Serendipity Theatre’s Driving Me Crazy playing Liz, but is perhaps best known for her signature role of Shirley in Shirley Valentine. She also works in TV & film, both live action and animation, most recently voicing Lujanne in the hit Netflix series The Dragon Prince.
Ellie was the Founding/Managing Artistic Director of the Raymond Burr Performing Arts Centre and of the Royal Canadian Theatre Company, from which role she retired in 2022. She now looks forward to spending more time on stage rather than behind the scenes, and dedicates all of her work to her amazing family and to her dear late husband Geoff King.
John Worthing
Terence has been a professional actor for over sixty years, working in stage, television, film, and radio. He is delighted to use the experience to play with Western Gold Theatre. He says, “Western Gold Theatre keeps the traditional theatre alive to those who enjoy its magic: you, our audience. Thank you for sharing with us!”
Ashley is from Dublin, Ireland. He has lived in Canada for almost 20 years and is delighted to be involved in World Theatre Day. Some info about Ashley: BFA in Acting at UBC, 2006. Some credits: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, The Winter’s Tale, Richard II and All’s Well That Ends Well (Bard on The Beach), Flare Path, A Doll’s House (Slamming Door Collective), Spamalot, Blood Brothers and The Graduate (Arts Club), Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me (Dancing Monkey), A Few Good Men (Citadel), Of Mice and Men (Blue Bridge), The Full Monty (Persephone), The Pillowman (Wild Geese). Selected Film/TV: Turner & Hooch, Riverdale, A Million Little Things, Dirk Gently, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Zoo, Supernatural, Watchmen, Stargate: Atlantis. Four Jessie Richardson nominations and one award (Best Supporting Actor 2017).
Miss Prism
Nancy is delighted to be appearing with Western Gold Theatre again and thrilled by the opportunity to work with such a talented cast and director. In 2022, she played Leontine in the OOF! production of The Triumph of Love. Other recent performances include Miss Fozzard in Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet and Erma Bombeck in At Wit’s End.
Working as a teacher for 35 years, Nancy was also active in the community theatre scene. Favourite roles include Vera in 4000 Miles, Annie in Calendar Girls, Nana in For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again, and Polly Wyeth in Other Desert Cities. Her film and TV credits include many roles too small to mention, although she did appear in one movie as “Vomit Woman 3.”
Raugi Yu originally from Montreal is a graduate of The Dome Theatre program at Dawson College and The BFA Acting program at UBC. Raugi now makes his home in BC with his lovely wife and their two kids. He’s been acting professionally on stage and in TV/Film since the 90’s.
Raugi has acted in various theatres across Canada and the U.S. You may recognize him from roles in Carried Away on The Crest Of A Wave, The Shoplifters, The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time (Arts Club) Coriolanus (Bard On The Beach) Act Of Faith (Real Wheels Theatre), Bad Parent (VACT, The Cultch, Soulpepper). Raugi is very honoured and excited to be part of this project.
Donna Wong-Juliani has had a life-long involvement in, and commitment to, the performing arts and to activities that focus on the betterment of society. Throughout her career, she has participated in and/or produced artistic works and projects that have enhanced the communities in which they have occurred. Her firsthand knowledge of the theatre, dance, television, and film disciplines, and her ongoing commitment to the encouragement and development of artists working in all these fields, has led her to play key roles in endeavors ranging from feature film producing to senior management of a film industry crown corporation, to representation of writers, directors and composers, and to administering non-profit arts organizations.
She was Managing Director of Savage God and JWJ Entertainment, two companies which she and her husband and collaborator John Juliani formed to develop and produce theatre and film/television projects. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Foundation of British Columbia, Urban Ink Theatre, and the Ryga Arts Festival, on the Advisory Board of Vancouver Civic Theatres, and has been Artistic Associate at Christ Church Cathedral, Vancouver since 2003.
Mana has been part of Vancouver Performing Stars (VPS) since she was three years old, and she is currently attending the VPS academy program. She has played the lead in many musicals for VPS. Mana loves to sing and takes vocal lessons with Eve-Lyn de la Haye. She won a gold medal for the Royal Conservatory music exam level 1 voice in province of B.C. and Yukon in 2021. She also won 1st place for classical 20th and 21st Century and Musical Theatre ballad song under nine years old for Vancouver Kiwanis Music Festival in 2022.
Most recently, Mana performed in the fairies’ chorus of A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Vancouver Opera. Next, she will play Veruca in Vancouver Performing Stars production of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Amanda in Theater Under the Stars production of Matilda the Musical this summer.
Helen Mintz weaves words, both English and Yiddish, spoken and written, into written texts and dramatic presentations and natural yarns into decorative wall hangings. She has performed her one-woman storytelling shows in Canada, the United States, Germany, and Lithuania.
Helen’s translation of Vilna My Vilna: Stories by Abraham Karpinowitz (Syracuse University Press, 2016), garnered three literary awards. Her translation of Janusz Korczak: Teacher and Child Advocate by Zalmen Wassertzug is under consideration by the University of Poznan Press (Poland). Helen’s translations have appeared in In Geveb, Jewishfiction.net, and Pakn Treger and her recent writing in The Jewish Independent, Words without Borders, and BC Studies.
Sanne is 13 years old and graduating elementary school this year. Born in the Netherlands, she moved to Vancouver as a toddler.
Sanne has been singing, acting and dancing with Vancouver Performing Stars for 8 years. She played in several musical theatre productions including Shrek, Junie B Jones and The Little Mermaid. As a member of the VPS Dance Team, she enjoys intensive training in Jazz, Tap, Hip Hop, Contemporary and Ballet. With the Dance Team she performs at community events and takes part in competitions.
Since graduating from Studio 58 over 34 years ago, Jacques has won numerous awards (Best Actor twice/Best Production numerous times/Lifetime Achievement Award Vancouver International Fringe Festival), performed at dozens of Children’s, Writing, and Comedy Festivals, hosted at the 2010 Olympics, done a TED TALK titled The Healing Power of Creativity, and appeared on Sesame Street. He is incredibly proud to be part of this awe-inspiring collection of Actor/Creators.
Libby Griffin was born and raised on a farm in northern Alberta. At 18, she set out on a journey that would change her life forever. She went to Kyiv to study choral conducting at the Conservatory of Music. After three years of study, her destiny was to come to Vancouver and lead a women’s Ukrainian choir. Along with leading a choir, she had the opportunity to sing in the Lyonok Trio. She has also written and presented the commentary for countless Ukrainian Concerts.
However, this was not enough to pay the bills, so she decided to get her teaching degree and taught in the Vancouver school system. Presently, she is retired, singing in the Barvinok Choir and sits on the executive of the AUUC. She has two kids.
Jane is a First-Generation Canadian settler—the daughter of Polish Jewish parents who escaped to Canada from Poland during WWII. She has worked in professional theatre in Canada and England as a director, teacher, dramaturge, and actor, developing new plays, mentoring young artists, and creating opportunities for women, including co-founding the Women in VIEW Festival, WestCoast Actors, and facilitating the Wet Ink Collective’s workshops for women writers.
For 20 years, she was Associate Director at Studio 58, the renowned professional theatre training program at Langara College where she taught acting. In 2001, she co-founded (with Joy Coghill) Vancouver’s Performing Arts Lodge (PAL), providing affordable housing for pioneer performing artists.
She’s directed 70+ productions including Stupid Boy in an Ugly Town (Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg Fringe); Road to Mecca; Homechild (Arts Club), Three Sisters (Only Child Collective); As You Like It; King Lear (Studio 58). Nominated for three Jessie Richardson awards, she was honoured with Best Director in 1991 and Career Achievement in 2004.
In addition to sitting on a number of non-profit boards, Jane was also an elected B.C./Yukon member of the Canadian Actors’ Equity National Council from 1991 – 2000 and 2012 – 2018, co-chairing the Respectful Workplace Task Force that created the Not in OUR Space! initiative. She’s also a member of the Senior Artist Task Force that is creating ways for senior members to remain active and creative.
Neha Devi Singh is an award-winning actor originally from Mumbai, India and currently based in Vancouver. She is the first female actor to ever play an action hero on Indian television. She is known for playing an array of roles in television. Her portrayal of the unwavering mother of a child with disabilities for the Ganapati special Mann Mein Hai Vishwass was the highest rated episode aired of the religious anthology series for Sony Entertainment Television.
Neha spent her school and university years deeply involved with the theatre community, both on stage as well as in theatre production. She strongly believes that art, especially that of storytelling, connects us all – across race, borders, and beliefs. She is, therefore, especially proud to mark her Canadian theatre debut with Touchstone Theatre’s hugely successful world premiere of The Wrong Bashir by Zaheda Rahemtulla. For Neha, playing Najma Ladha alongside an all-South-Asian cast has been a highlight, not just as an actor, but also as an immigrant and a person of color.
Perla Alexandra De Leon lives in New Westminster with her family and attends the Hume Park School and VPS Academy. She is in second grade and her favourite subjects are Science and reading. Perla enjoys all forms of performing arts and loves to tell jokes and be silly. She appeared on a Snuggle commercial at the age of six and played young Silvia in the short film When We Were Younger by Anna Robinson. She enjoys fashion as much as her mom, so she walked the runway during Vancouver Kids Fashion Week and represented several clothing pieces by local designers.
Perla would like to thank her mom, dad, and brother Filip for their love and support. She also thanks her amazing teachers from VPS academy and agents Pamela Wise and Brenda Campbell for signing her with their talent agency and allowing her to enjoy this valuable experience with acting.
In addition to a busy acting career, John is also a TV and film producer and one of Canada’s most sought-after acting coaches. He is a lifetime member of the renowned Actors Studio in New York and the Founding Artistic Director of Railtown Actors Studio in Vancouver, now in its 11th year.
John’s film credits include Disney’s Alive and David Fincher’s Seven and The Game. Television credits: Robson Arms (Leo Award Best Actor) Intelligence and Davinci Inquest (Gemini Award nominations) Theatre Los Angeles: David Mamet’s Edmond, Sam Shepard’s Geography of a Horse Dreamer, and Harold Pinter’s One for the Road. Canadian theatre credits: Rabbit Hole (Arts Club), God of Carnage (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre) and Stephen Adley Guirgis’ The Motherf**ker with the Hat, (Jessie nomination Lead Actor). Recent projects: the Fox series NeXT, sci-fi thriller Volition, (Leo nomination) horror film True Fiction (Leo Nomination), APTN’s critically acclaimed Tribal (2022 Leo Nomination and UBCP/ACTRA Nomination), Double Life for Paramount Plus slated for a 2023 release.
John produced and starred in the feature film Daughter (UBCP/Actra Award Lead Actor) which was developed through the Railtown Actors Studio Lab. In 2018, John was awarded the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Achievement. In 2023, John appeared in the World Premiere of The Cull at the Arts Club Theatre.
Known for his work on groundbreaking, award winning show Sort Of and Gemini nominated Jinnah on Crime, Dhirendra’s career spans 30+ years. His Theatre Credits include Raj in Raj from Edmonton (s one person show), Dr. Aziz in A Passage To India, Dean Rebel in Totterdown Tanzi, Bakha in Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable, Edgar in King Lear, Nitin in Bravely Fought The Queen, Pariag in Dragon Can’t Dance and Octavius/Lucius in Julius Caesar directed by Roger Rees.
Lead Film Roles include When Christmas Was Young, Binodini, Underfunded and Possession. Television roles are too many to mention here. He co-founded British Asian Theatre Co., and Star Productions Film/Video Collective in UK. He is the voice of Simon in LEGO Jurassic World for which he received multiple nominations including The Leo, UBCP/ACTRA and SOVAS award for the Best Voice in an animated series.
Dhirendra is a Co-Chair on the UBCP/ACTRA BIPOC Committee. A firm believer in giving back, he also serves on the Governance, Scholarship Committee, and Mentorship Committee and as Board President for Medusa Theatre Society which champions works from the immigrant and refugee community, with a focus on the Middle East.
An avid cook & sommelier, he lives with actress/writer wife Peri Allan, teen daughter Saloni Miyanger and Schnoodle Hiro.
Choreographer/Movement Coach
Jessie is a Vancouver-based Chinese-Canadian dancer and actor. Her movement journey began at the age of three studying ballet at the Jean M. Wong School of Ballet in Hong Kong. Upon moving to BC, her dance training expanded to include tap, contemporary, jazz, musical theatre, and hip hop. Jessie wears many hats, as an arts administrator, dance teacher, choreographer, Special Olympics rhythmic gymnastics coach, group fitness instructor, actor, and model—needless to say, she likes to keep busy!
Her performance and choreography experiences have allowed her to collaborate with many local artists and musicians, and work with organizations such as Vancouver Fashion Week, Vancouver International Puppet Festival, The Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra, Moving Mirror Productions, United Players of Vancouver, and The H.R. MacMillan Space Centre.
She truly believes that movement is for everyBODY and strives to create an environment that is inclusive, fun and light.
Actor
Gustavo began his career in his native Venezuela where grew up raised and pampered by his grandfather who had been a ventriloquist, theatre producer, and actor, so there’s no mystery from whom he inherited his love for the stage. He started first as a journalist, but soon found his place on stage and on screen.
Immigrating to Canada almost three decades ago to be with his (still there!) partner, he restarted his career from scratch learning English in part from small roles on the stage. He worked up to bigger roles and has appeared in: Tony and Tina’s Wedding (for seven years), Corpus Christi, Love Valour Compassion, Alley Cats, Antigone, The Frogs, School for Wives, The Impostures of Scapin, A Christmas Carol, Streetcar Named Desire and The Hypochondriac.
Though his first love has always been live theatre, he has appeared in numerous film and TV roles. A gay, mixed-race man, Gustavo loves taking on unexpected roles; he has played characters much older but his most recent role in the play Seventeen had him playing a character much younger.
Having performed in nine Western Gold shows so far, Keith looks forward to being in a tenth, Opening Night.
He is a Past President of Western Gold Theatre, a Director on the board of the Canadian Artists Network (CAN, formerly CSARN), Past President and Past Treasurer of PAL Vancouver, and currently serves on the board of The Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Foundation of British Columbia (which hosts the Leo Awards), Treasurer and Past President of the Union of BC Performers (UBCP/ACTRA), and Vice President of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Televisión, and Radio Artists (ACTRA).
Keith Martin Gordey has appeared in over 70 film and television productions to date including such shows as The Order, Watchmen, Center Stage, Supernatural, Alcatraz, Men in Trees, Smallville, The Dead Zone, Flight 93, The 4400, Da Vinci’s Inquest, Cold Squad, Stargate SG-1, A Storm in Summer and many Hallmark movies. Love to Tory and Sasha.
Tom Delaney
Aidan Wright is incredibly excited to be in his first production with Western Gold Theatre. He has seen many of their productions and now is honoured to be up there on stage with such massive talent. You might have seen him in the recent production of The Woman in Black at Jericho Arts Centre. He has also just recently released his new album Kiss Your Friends with his band The Sweet Hours. He would like to thank his family for their constant support.
Ruth Tisdale
Libby Husniak
Angelese is an emerging artist currently residing in Vancouver, originally from Mexico City. She has been involved with all aspects of theatre throughout her time at Langley Fine Arts School and beyond, recently graduating from Capilano University’s Acting for Stage and Screen program. Angeles continues to happily pursue her passion for theatre in all shapes and avenues: from starring in The Penelopiad (CapU Theatre), to production management for a local amateur cabaret show with friends. She can often be found taking long walks around Vancouver, belting rock at the local karaoke joint, or at home cooking yummy Mexican food.
Richard Hyde-Finch
Jerry is delighted to be back at PAL with some of the theatre pals he’s known longest in this, his 50th year on Vancouver stages. Professional acting credits include Western Gold, the Arts Club, the late lamented Playhouse and City Stage, and over 200 film and TV appearances, most recently in HBO’s The Last of Us. Jerry reviews theatre for the Vancouver Sun and his website, www.vancouverplays.com. He taught English and Theatre for over 40 years at UBC, including five years as Head of the Department of Theatre and Film, and edited the anthology Modern Canadian Plays. He dedicates his performance in Opening Night to one of the funniest actors he was lucky to know, Andy Rhodes.
Sound Designer
Shona is a UBC Acting Graduate, former Pacific Theatre apprentice, Affair of Honor company member, an actor, Intermediate FDC Actor Combatant, Advanced BADC Actor Combatant, and sound designer. They have sound designed for Arts Umbrella, Affair of Honor, Stone’s Throw Productions, The Show Must Go Online.
Emelia
Suzanne is thrilled to have the opportunity to time travel through this wonderful play. Who wouldn’t want to relive all that teenage angst after working in the performing arts for almost 50 years? Yikes!
Suzanne most recently performed in the premiere of Driving Me Crazy at Presentation House Theatre, a play she co-wrote with her friend Linda A. Carson, and she last appeared at the PAL theatre in Western Gold’s production of Comfort Cottages. She graduated high school in 1970, Studio 58 in 1984, and has appeared in film and television. Thanks to the men in her life: Jay, Jean, and Max for making the last half of her life a heckuvalot more fun than the first half!
Set Designer
Alaia is a theatre designer located in Vancouver, BC. Recent projects she has worked on include costume design for HMS Pinafore, Carmen Up Close and Personal, associate for Amahl and the Night Visitors (VO); Beneath Springhill, The Birds and the Bees, assistant costume design for Sweat, The Humans (Artsclub), costume design for Beautiful Man (PI Theatre), costume for C’mon Angie (Touchstone), assistant costume Romeo and Juliet, Coriolanaus, Taming of the Shrew, Macbeth (Bard on the Beach), set design for She Kills Monsters (UBC), production design for The Drawer Boy (ETC).
She has worked on a variety of smaller shows through Vancouver and has a passion for costuming dance. Alaia is a graduate of the UBC Theatre Design program in 2017 and holds an English literature degree from 2012. A selected portfolio can be found at alaiahamer.com
Lizzie
Eileen has had the privilege to work in theatres large and small over the years, including touring internationally with Green Thumb Theatre many years ago when she actually still looked like a kid. She was last seen onstage in Western Gold’s Escaped Alone. Other projects include: Les Belles-Soeurs (Gateway/Ruby Slippers), Twelfth Night (Western Gold), It’s a Wonderful Life (Arts Club), The Duchess (Ruby Slippers), Scratch (Theatre Plexus), My Mother’s Story (Presentation House), Harvest (Gateway), Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Vancouver Fringe).
Recent Film/TV/Radio/Podcasts: Invisible Women, Love and Sunshine, Web of Dreams, The Good Doctor, The Magicians, Little Pink House, Every Christmas Has a Story, Hector and The Search for Happiness.
Eileen also loves working as a live audio describer (for blind and partially sighted theatre goers) with Vocal Eye Descriptive Arts. She is a graduate of Studio 58, and she recently completed a master’s degree in Liberal Studies from SFU.
Intimacy Director
Megan is a queer, neurodiverse, Chinese-Canadian Intimacy Professional working primarily in the Pacific Northwest residing on the stolen lands of the Lekwungen-speaking peoples, and the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations (Victoria, BC).
Scenic Painter
Senem Yaman is an experienced scenic artist and makeup artist. She has a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts, a diploma in makeup design from Vancouver Film School, and a diploma in stagecraft technology at Douglas College. She recently worked as a scenic artist at Bard on the Beach and makeup designer for Children’s Theatre of Richmond CATS Musical.
Audio Technician
Mert Erden Arslan is a Vancouver-based sound designer, editor, and recordist who collaborates working
in Theatre, Film, Audiobooks, and Music Production. He has a diploma in Sound Design for Visual Media from Vancouver Film School and a bachelor’s in Visual Communication Design. Currently, Mert works as a sound designer, audio technician, and recordist for theatre productions and audiobooks in Vancouver, BC.
Dramaturg
Natasha Nadir is a professional director, dramaturg, and playwright based in Vancouver, BC. She has
an MFA in Directing from University of British Columbia and a BA in Drama from Bishops’ University. While Artistic Associate at Gateway Theatre, she directed both new and classical plays (Mary’s Wedding, Burning In, The Grandkid, Brighton Beach Memoirs) and facilitated five seasons of SceneFirst: Staged Readings of New Work. Recent credits include dramaturgy for Burqa Boutique and directing/dramaturgy for View from a Window. She has worked as an acting instructor and creative facilitator throughout her career. She facilitates the Playwriting Circle for Realwheels Theatre and is a member of Playwrights Theatre Centre
and Wet Ink Collective.
Intimacy Director
Phay is an intimacy director/coordinator, theatre director, writer, internationally trained actor combatant, and professional actor who currently lives on the stolen traditional territory of the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlim) Nation.
After starting her training in 2016 with Intimacy Directors International, Phay has trained with organisations and mentors across Canada and North America and helped in the creation of the National Society of Intimacy Professionals.
Phay has supported productions all over the Lower Mainland as an intimacy professional in film, television, and theatre. Past credits include Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again., Machinal, Oil, and Coriolanus (UBC), Cuello (Crazy8s), Superman & Lois s2 (Warner Bros), 2022 Jessie Award Winner Bunny (Search Party Productions), 2021 Leo Award Winner FREYA, and Jason Karman’s Golden Delicious.
Tom, Ronnie, Mike
Gustavo began his career in his native Venezuela where he started as a journalist, but soon found his place on stage and on screen. Immigrating to Canada almost three decades ago to be with his (still there!) partner, he restarted his career from scratch learning English in part from small roles on the stage. He worked up to bigger roles and has appeared in: Tony and Tina’s Wedding (for seven years), Corpus Christi, Love Valour Compassion, Alley Cats, Antigone, The Frogs, School for Wives, The Impostures of Scapin, A Christmas Carol, Streetcar Named Desire and The Hypochondriac.
Though his first love has always been live theatre, he has appeared in numerous film and TV roles. A gay, mixed-race man, Gustavo loves taking on unexpected roles; he has played characters much older than he is but looks forward to an exciting change – playing a character much younger.
Lizzie
Award winning Nimet Kanji began her career in Nairobi, Kenya. After emigrating to Canada, she continued working in community theatre until she became a professional actor in 2001. Some of her theatre credits include Contractions (Northern Light Theatre), Victim Impact (Theatre Conspiracy), Sultans of the Street (Carousel Theatre), Mrs. Singh & Me (Vancouver Fringe), 9 Parts of Desire (The Maggie Tree), Bombay Black (Vancouver Fringe), amongst others. She also works in TV/Film and Voice. She most recently was in Regina to shoot the web series ‘ZARQA’.
Jess
Linda was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec. She earned a B.A. “With Distinction” in English Literature and Drama from McGill University. Linda’s first Equity role was as Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest with Northern Light Theatre in Edmonton. She continued to work in Edmonton with Phoenix Theatre, Catalyst Theatre, Workshop West Theatre, and performed in the first Edmonton Fringe Festival. She co-founded Nexus Theatre, Edmonton’s lunch time theatre.
Vancouver is her home now. Her latest stage role was in Nanaimo as Cecile in TheatreOne’s production of With Glowing Hearts. Linda also works in film and TV. She can be seen on screen as Betty the grief junkie in the Canadian feature film With Love and A Major Organ when it is released later this year. Linda is delighted to be working with Western Gold theatre for the first time. She’d also like to mention that she loves to sing and dance.
Lighting Designer
John is honoured to be a back with Western Gold Theatre once again, and to be a part of the production Seventeen. A long-time designer of both sets and lighting, he has had the privilege of working with some of Canada’s most talented and adventurous artists. Past favorites include The Great Leap and Onegin for the Arts Club, and The Marriage of Figaro for Vancouver Opera. Recent credits include Wizard of Oz and Chelsea Hotel at Western Canada Theatre and Kinky Boots for the Arts Club.
Retired Canadian Foreign Service Officer
As a career Canadian foreign service officer, Michael served in Tokyo, Beirut, Kampala, Minneapolis, Geneva, Amman, Damascus and Nairobi. In 1972, he ran the selection section of the team Canada sent to Uganda to rescue 6,000 Asians under expulsion order from Idi Amin.
From 1976 to 1978, he was the immigration department’s Director of Refugee Policy, and led the design of the refugee provisions of the 1976 Immigration Act, including the Convention Refugee and Designated Classes, and the private refugee sponsorship program. He was senior coordinator of the 1979–80 Indochinese refugee program that brought 60,000 refugees to Canada. He served as Counsellor for Humanitarian Affairs at the Canadian Mission in Geneva and managed immigration and refugee operations in Jordan, Syria and Eastern Africa. After director general level assignments in Ottawa and Toronto, he served as Canada’s ambassador to Jordan (1996–2000) and special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (2000–2003).
Post retirement publications include three books on Jerusalem along with Running on Empty: Canada and the Indochinese Refugees 1975-80 and its Vietnamese translation Cong Lung Van Ganh. He has also published numerous articles on refugees and Middle Eastern subjects and is an Adjunct Research Professor at Carleton University.
Photo credit: Len Gilday
Performing artist, Founder and Artistic Managing Director of Full Circle: First Nations Performance
Cree-Saulteaux Métis performing artist Margo Kane is the Founder and Artistic Managing Director of Full Circle: First Nations Performance. For over 45 years she has been active as an actor, performing artist, and community cultural worker. Her desire to share artistic performance that has meaning for her people is the catalyst for her extensive work, travels, and consultation within Indigenous communities across Canada and abroad.
Moonlodge, her acclaimed one-woman show, an Indigenous Canadian classic, toured for over 10 years nationally and internationally. The Sydney Press (AU) during The Festival of the Dreaming praised it as being in the top echelon of solo performance.
She developed and runs the annual Talking Stick Festival, celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year, and numerous programs including Moccasin Trek: Arts on the Move!, Indian Acts, and an Indigenous Ensemble Performing Arts Program in Vancouver.
She has received numerous awards and honors including an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of the Fraser Valley, the Order of Canada from the Governor-General, an International Citation of Merit from the International Society for the Performing Arts, and, most recently, an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Simon Fraser University.
Shafana Mitha is an engaging community builder and facilitator with significant public sector and senior executive experience. She is a strategic thinker and executive leader that supports Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI).
Shafana has her CPA and Master’s in Business Administration with a greater focus on Strategic Diversity and Inclusion in the workplace. She is one of the few individuals in Alberta with a professional designation as a CCIP (Canadian Certified Inclusion Professional). With her unique partnership of having a background in business and in EDI, Shafana’s niche focus is on bringing that business case and need to organizations with the humanistic and EDI approach providing tangible tools and strategies that are both important to the success of organizations and the engagement and belongingness of Board members, staff, and stakeholders.
Her consulting company aKollage Consulting Incorporated focuses on developing EDI strategies and policies, respectful workplace policies and training, stakeholder and community engagement, employment equity policy and program development, and customized learning and development such as cultural competencies, and anti-racism/anti-oppression.
Shafana currently resides in Treaty 6 territory – Amiskwacîwâskahikan or known to many as Edmonton, where she passionately volunteers in different capacities within and outside her community in leadership positions.
Interdisciplinary artist, writer and cultural critic
Chris Creighton-Kelly is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and cultural critic. He was born in the UK with South Asian/British roots. His performative, often ephemeral, artworks have been presented across Canada, in India, Europe, and the USA. He has received grants and awards in five countries. His work with issues of racialized art politics is internationally recognized.
Chris is the co-Director of Primary Colours/Couleurs primaires, which uses decolonizing methodologies to centre the art practices of IBPoC artists within the Canadian art system. Chris has been consistently concerned with racialized artists in their cultural contexts—both host and diasporic—as they converge with rapidly evolving media technologies—both popular and esoteric. Chris is persistently interested in questions of absence in the Western world arts discourses . . . whose worldview is unquestioned; who has power; who does not and why?
For over 30 years, Chris has also worked as an arts consultant for artists, arts organizations, cultural institutions, and government agencies. In 1989-91, he was a consultant to the Canada Council where his work launched two critical offices—the Aboriginal Arts Office and the Equity Office—that transformed the Council from a European arts agency to one in which multiple art traditions/practices are funded. In 1991-92, he worked at the Banff Centre for the Arts designing and directing an artists’ residency, Race and the Body Politic, which indirectly influenced the establishment of the Aboriginal Arts program. In 2011, he co-authored, along with France Trépanier, Understanding Aboriginal Arts in Canada Today. In 2012, they were co-recipients of the inaugural Audain Aboriginal Curatorial Fellowship awarded by the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. Chris appreciates his audiences a lot
Advocate, writer, cultural collaborator
Zool Suleman is an advocate, writer, and cultural collaborator. He is the Editor of Rungh and the Executive Director of the Rungh Cultural Society. He co-founded Rungh (1991) as a national South Asian focused arts initiative and relaunched Rungh in 2017 as a creative platform for Indigenous, Black, and racialized artist conversations.
As an arts advocate, he protested against the Vancouver Art Gallery’s exclusionary art practices as an active member of the Artists’ Coalition for Local Colour. He was a founding member of the Minquon Panchayat, one of Canada’s first national IBPOC-led artist movements which challenged the lack of anti-racism initiatives in Canada’s artist-run-centres and arts institutions.
Appointed by the BC Minister of Culture, he co-chaired a province-wide Status of the Artist Committee, which was instrumental in the formation of the BC Arts Council. Over the last three decades, he has been involved in various capacities with the Canada Council for the Arts, Heritage Canada, the Province of BC, and the City of Vancouver. In addition to his engagements as a cultural connector, he advocates for immigrants and refugees and has been active in national and local civil society initiatives against racism, racial profiling, and Islamophobia. https://rungh.org/artists/zool-suleman/
PhD student at The Social Justice Institute at UBC
David Ng is a PhD student at The Social Justice Institute at UBC. He is a queer, feminist, media artist, and co-founder of Love Intersections, a media arts organization of queer artists of colour. His current research and artistic practices grapple with queer, racialized, and diasporic identity, and how intersectional identities can be expressed through media arts. His interests include imagining new possibilities of how queer racialized artists can use their practice to transform communities. His work has also recently included collaborations with Primary Colours / Couleurs primaires, which is a national initiative to put Indigenous arts practices at the centre of the Canadian art centre through the leadership of Indigenous artists, supported by artists of colour.
His work through Love Intersections has been exhibited at over 40 film festivals worldwide, including the KASHISH film festival (India), AKS Art and Dialogue Festival for minorities (Pakistan), Kansai Queer Film Festival (Japan), Vancouver Queer Film Festival, Image+Nation (Montreal), International Queer Migrant Film Festival (Netherlands), Scotland Queer Film Festival, Leeds Queer Film Festival, Divine Queer Film Festival (Italy), and the Queer Minorities Film Festival (Austria).
Visual Artist
France Trépanier is a visual artist, curator, and researcher. Her practice is often informed by strategies of collaboration and community engagement. Her artistic and curatorial work has been presented in many venues in Canada, the US, and Europe. France was selected by the Canada Council for the Arts to be part of the first International Indigenous Curators Exchange in Australia, New Zealand, and the Venice Biennale. She was the co-recipient of the 2012 Inaugural Audain Aboriginal Curatorial Fellowship by the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.
France co-authored with Chris Creighton-Kelly Understanding Aboriginal Art in Canada Today: A Knowledge and Literature Review for the Canada Council for the Arts and is co-director of the Primary Colours/Couleurs primaires initiative. She worked as an arts consultant with a wide range of institutions and organizations such as the National Arts Centre, National Film Board, Cultural Human Resources Council, Banff Centre for the Arts, First Peoples Cultural Council, Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance, OCAD University, Yukon Arts Centre, and BC Museum Association. She worked at the Canada Council for the Arts before becoming a Senior Arts Policy Advisor for the Department of Canadian Heritage. She held a diplomatic post as First Secretary, Cultural Affairs at the Canadian Embassy in Paris. She directed the Centre for New Media at the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris. France was also the co-founder and Director of the artist-run center Axe Néo-7 in Gatineau, Quebec. France is of Kanien’kehà:ka and French ancestry.
President, Naledo Belize Ltd
Umeeda was born in Uganda to a family of entrepreneurs. Her father managed an insurance company, her mother ran a Montessori school, and both raced cars!
Only fifteen, Umeeda fled Uganda for Canada as a refugee along with her family. Her mother cooked to help keep the stories of ‘home’ alive and instilled in her family a strong sense of social responsibility. Food and social responsibility formed the basis of Umeeda’s future endeavours.
Umeeda first went to Belize to volunteer with the Belizean government through CUSO International to share her business skills with youth. While there, she learned how other Indians’ ancestors had come to the country as indentured servants over 200 years ago. One showed her the turmeric that grew wild on his land, originally brought there by their ancestors. It was the most vivid orange and the best quality she had seen, so she developed a recipe for the world’s first wildcrafted, whole root turmeric paste, called “Truly Turmeric.”
She subsequently built a social enterprise that would support growers to earn additional income, employ youth, improve health around the world, and produce products sustainably. Her company’s name is derived from the district in Belize where the turmeric is sourced, Toledo, and her daughter Nareena’s name. Na + ledo = Naledo.
Artist & Retired Immigration Professional
In 1969, at the age of ten, Shahira Patni-Tejpar immigrated to Canada from Mbale, Uganda, 3 years before the mass expulsion of Asians from Uganda. Her family pioneered the establishment of Jamatkhanas (community centres) and a faith-based institutional framework, and also helped the settlement of new arrivals from Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya.
She returned to Kenya fifteen years later and worked as an Immigration Program Officer with the Canadian High Commission in Nairobi. Her work involved assessing, interviewing and issuing visas to qualified prospective immigrants, students and refugees from 18 African countries that fell under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Visa Office based in Nairobi. After her return to Canada in 1990, she worked as an Immigration Advisor to a major Vancouver law firm. In 1996, she started her own Immigration practice, representing qualified, professional persons from all over the world and assisting them to apply for and obtain work permits or immigrant status for Canada.
She is now retired and focuses her energies on community service, pottery, tennis, squash and cycling.
Artist, Poet, Writer
Taslim Samji is a multidisciplinary artist, spoken word poet and writer. She is a change-maker who uses arts and culture as a vehicle to educate and inspire and is known for curating thought-provoking exhibitions showcasing the work of Muslim artists and people of colour, as well as sharing stories of immigration in response to xenophobia. Through her work, she explores identity, diversity and shared perspectives.
Taslim studied at Emily Carr University of Art & Design and also has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of British Columbia, where she majored in Asian Studies.
Over the past several years, she has served on various boards, including the City of Burnaby’s Public Art Advisory Committee, Acquisitions Committee, and currently the Burnaby Arts Council. She is a powerful advocate for the inclusion of BIPOC artists within the local art scene.
In 2017, Taslim received the ‘Women of the Decade in Arts and Leadership’, an international award presented by the Women Economic Forum in Delhi, India.
She is currently writing a cultural criticism/coming of age memoir where she explores cultural conditioning, generational trauma and the impact of colonialism through the eyes of a young South Asian girl.
To learn more about her work, visit www.TSamji.com
Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Simon Fraser University
Dr. Dossa received her education in Africa, Europe, and North America. Her long-standing interest on displacement and critical feminist ethnography has led her to focus on the interface between social inequality, health, gender, and social palliation.
Based on her research on social suffering and narratives of harm and recovery, Dr. Dossa explores the differential effects of structural violence on the lived realities of largely Muslim women. She grounds her analysis in methodologies that capture reconstitution of lives on the margins of society. This orientation questions the conceptualization of the local and the everyday as discrete from the body politic, paving the way to present an alternative view of the margins as sites for the making of a just world.
Her publications include Social Palliation: Canadian Muslims’ Storied Lives on Living and Dying (2020), co-authored edited book, Transnational Aging and Reconfigurations of Kin-Work (2017) Afghanistan Remembers: Gendered Narrations of Violence and Culinary Practices (2014), Racialized Bodies, Disabling Worlds: Storied Lives of Immigrant Muslim Women (2009), and Poetics of Migration: Narratives of Iranian women in the Diaspora (2004). She has authored over 25 articles, published in national and international journals. Her book, Social Palliation: Canadian Muslims’ Storied Lives on Living and Dying was nominated for New Millennium Book Award, Society for Medical Anthropology, 2021.
Lawyer & Author
Jalal immigrated to Canada from Uganda in 1972. He obtained a B.Sc.(Econ) from the London School of Economics, an M.Sc.(Econ) from Queen Mary College and an LLB from UBC Law School. He has subsequently been practicing law in British Columbia since 1978 and, in 2015, was conferred a Queens Counsel by the Government of British Columbia.
Volunteerism being a strong foundational value as an Ismaili Muslim, in this capacity, Jalal has also held various senior leadership positions within his faith-based community in Canada. Most recently, he has published a book entitled Memories of a Ugandan Refugee: A Journey of Hope from Kampala to Vancouver.
Set Designer
Kimira is an accomplished artist gratefully creating and practicing her art on the un-ceded Coast Salish Territories. As an award-winning set designer, you can see her work on theatre stages around BC. She is also the Communications Director of Raven Spirit Dance. By combining her creative imagination and technical expertise, Kimira brings artists’ visions into the innovative world of virtual reality. Originally from sunny South Africa, she holds an MFA in Design from UBC. Credits: Featured artist for Indian Summer Festival, VR Technician for Uninterrupted (Canada Wild Arts Society), set design for Catalina La O (JKJK), Himmat (Theatre Conspiracy), Peace Country (Rice & Beans Theatre), Men Express Their Feelings (Zee Zee Theatre), Ominous Sound at the River Crossing (Touchstone Theatre); In Response to Alabama (Little Thief Theatre), we the same (Ruby Slippers), Like It Or Not (Greenthumb Theatre), Zoning Out (Blackout Theater), No Child (The Arts Club), as well as props for Foolish Operations.
Find out more about Kimira at www.kimirareddy.com
Director Mentor
Angela is a director, teacher, and dramaturg who has been working in theatre for more than 20 years. She has directed regularly at Pacific Theatre, where productions include The Cake, Outside Mullingar, Wit, Mourning Dove, Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train, Grace, Last Train to Nibroc, and Traveler in the Dark. Angela has been nominated for several Jessie Awards, winning once for Outstanding Direction and three times for Outstanding Production.
Dramaturgy credits include The Ristretto Proposal, Bride on Credit, Picture This, disPLACE, Upside-Down Christmas, and Black Skin Deep. She is Artistic Director of Dark Glass Theatre, with whom she directed disPLACE, Ruined, and The Amish Project and for whom she curates and hosts the ongoing storytelling series Trespass. Angela is a big fan of Melissa Oei, as an actor and a human, and is delighted to get to walk alongside as Melissa helms this fascinating play.
Find out more about Angela at www.darkglasstheatre.com
Costume Designer
Donnie Tejani is an award-winning costume designer and has been working consistently within the Vancouver theatre community since 2016 primarily in musical theatre. When not designing costumes, Donnie can often be found dressing backstage on shows for the Arts Club or styling wigs for performers and drag queens as, “OMG Wigs.” You may recognize some of his work from the reality competition series, Canada’s Drag Race. Notable credits: The Rocky Horror Show (Studio 58), Like it or Not (Green Thumb Theatre) and Company (Raincity Theatre) for which he won the Jessie Award alongside his mentor, Christina Sinosich. Upcoming: Cabaret (Raincity Theatre), Anne of Green Gables (Gateway Theatre).
Assistant Sound Designer
Matthias is a Multi-disciplinary Creative from Nanaimo, BC. Raised in a Hungarian refugee home, hard work and ambition were instilled at a young age, which he focuses into film-making, acting, and sound design. Past sound design credits include: Act of Faith (Realwheels Theatre), Freedom ’56 (Studio 58), The Winter’s Tale (Carousel Theatre), Jerusalem (United Players), Henry V (East End Boys Club), CLIO – A Giant Clitoris Puppet Learning to Love Herself (Puppets Not Patriarchy), We the Same (Ruby Slippers), and an Off-Broadway production of Reborning (Reality Curve Theatre). Hear his next credit at How to Believe in Anything (Dreamphase Productions). Matthias is a graduate of Vancouver Island University and Studio 58.
Composer / Sound Designer
Originally from Kenya, East Africa, Joelysa is an award-winning composer based in Vancouver, BC. A seasoned professional with over 20 years of experience in composition, musical direction, and sound design, her music has been featured in multiple theatre productions, short films, chamber orchestras, and choirs. In the realm of theatre, Joelysa has composed everything from large scale musicals to original sound designs. Her most recent score is currently featuring in Romeo and Juliet at Bard on the Beach. Thrilled and honoured to be a part of this beautiful production (that mirrors the reality of her own family history), Joelysa is especially grateful to Salim Rahemtulla for putting this moving story onto the page and stage.
Cultural Liaison
Following a successful career in the Canadian hospitality and tourism industry, where Layla A. Jaffer developed an influential reputation for new market development, travel destination, and international cooperative marketing, she is currently a multi-media artist, muralist, and designer in fashion, graphics, interiors, and event décor. She seeks opportunities for multi-functionality by re-imagining and integrating recycled materials into her work and her creative style is eclectic, influenced by diverse cultural exposure over the decades.
Layla was born and raised in East Africa and immigrated to Canada as a young adult with her parents and siblings. As a grateful Canadian and Ismaili Muslim with volunteerism a key value, Layla generously gives back to country and community by sharing her expertise, particularly with seniors. She is a natural leader, engaging workshop facilitator, eloquent MC and moderator, and accomplished event planner.
Stage Manager
Karen Chiang 蔣家寧, is a trilingual, Vancouver-based theatre artist and translator who is fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. She has various experiences in stage management and technical direction. She is especially interested in creating art that surrounds the themes of culture, identity, and justice. Selected credits include: I Swallowed a Moon made of Iron (Music Picnic, PuSh performing arts festival), Funny Money (Western Gold Theatre), Haven (United Players), buto/buto: bones are seeds (National Pilipino Canadian Cultural Centre and Southeast Asian Cultural Heritage Society).
Assistant Stage Manager
Rachel (She/Her) is a technician, stage manager, and creative currently working and living in Vancouver. Since arriving in Vancouver from the UK in 2021, Rachel has worked in many differing roles in both film and theatre with companies such as Rumble Theatre, Warner Brothers, Apple TV, Touchstone Theatre, Playwrights Theatre Company, Presentation House Theatre, Western Gold Theatre, Pi Theatre, and Pacific Theatre. Rachel also has experience working in the UK at Sheffield Theatres, Only Lucky Dogs, Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and others. Working and learning in Vancouver has been a fresh and exciting step in her career.
Nasser Rahim
Akshaya is an actor and professor based in Vancouver. The name Akshaya means “never ending.” He was born in Montreal, Canada but raised in different parts of India. He graduated in 2019 with an MFA in Acting from the University of Southern California and currently teaches acting courses at the Vancouver Film School. Notable theatre credits include Bad Hamlet, Milkcrate Monologues, and Macbeth. His film and TV credits include the comedy pilot Last Bite and the short film Digby and Glass. He is slated to be the lead in the short film Wellington and his role in an upcoming television show will be announced soon.
Munir Kassam
Parm was born in Punjab, India and raised in London, England. He went on to study theatre at The University of Winnipeg. Stage highlights include The Arts Club productions of A Thousand Splendid Suns, The Orchard, and The Humans at The Stanley Theatre, and The Men in White at The Granville Island Stage. Additional shows include A Vancouver Guldasta at the Cultch, Macbeth at The Firehall Arts Centre, Romeo and Juliet at Kaleidoscope Theatre, and Coronation Voyage at The National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
He has also appeared in over 40 television shows and numerous Hollywood blockbusters including Watchmen, 2012, Tomorrowland, and Maze Runner.
Shamira Rahim
Sabrina Vellani is an Indo-Canadian actor, poet, and daughter of Tanzanian Ismaili immigrants. She graduated from UBC’s BFA Theatre Acting program in 2018. She has been in productions such as Killjoy Theatre’s Burqa Boutique (directed by Gavan Cheema & Jamie King), Axis Theatre’s co-production with Babelle Theatre entitled All My Friends Are Animals (directed by Marie Farsi), Brave New Play Rites Festival’s production of Breather (Directed by Rose Paine) and the Pull Festival’s production of (The) Fort (directed by Tai Amy Grauman). She recently played the role of Nafisa in the Arts Club Theatre’s audio production of The Wrong Bashir (Directed by Sherry J. Yoon). You can also find Sabrina’s work in Five Cedar Films’ short film Speak (directed by Shaheed Devji), which premiered in IFFSA’s Virtual 2020 Festival.
Sabrina’s poetry has been published in various magazines and journals across North America and the UK. Her latest writing can be found in PRISM International, The Anti-Languorous Project, Pulp Magazine and New York Quarterly. She is thrilled to be playing the role of Shamira in Salim Rahemtulla’s play 90 Days and hopes you enjoy the show!
Parin Rahim
Nimet Kanji was born in Nairobi, Kenya and began acting on stage with the local theatre company. She emigrated to Vancouver in 1989 where she continued to work on stage. She began her career in film and TV in 2001 and has had the pleasure of working with Edward James Olmos (Battlestar Galactica), Kevin Sorbo (Paradox), John Cusack (Martian Child), and Sitara Hewitt (Little Mosque on the Prairie), amongst other notable names. Her theatre credits include Sultans of the Street (Carousel Theatre), 9 Parts of Desire (The Maggie Tree), Bombay Black (2017 Vancouver Fringe), and Victim Impact (Theatre Conspiracy). She is represented by Lucas Talent.
Victoria Perrie is a Metis and Swampy Cree Lawyer and Artist from Winnipeg, currently living in Nunavut. She has been working in the arts for over 16 years. Victoria approaches her work in both theatre and law from a trauma informed perspective.
Composer
Antony Knight is a Vancouver based composer, singer and actor. He holds a Bachelor of Music in both Opera Performance and Composition from the University of British Columbia. Antony has written in many different styles such as pop/contemporary, musical theatre, film music, orchestral and opera. Notably, he was awarded Best Score at the Persistence of Vision Film Festival for the film The Knockers (2019), premiered his opera “Oh Alfred!” at the Vernon Proms Classical Music Festival (2021), and had an orchestra piece read by both the Victoria and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestras (2021).
Léonide
Jennifer-Juniper has been acting professionally for over 30 years in BC, Alberta and Ontario. A graduate of Studio 58, she is excited to be back on stage with this wonderful company, after working primarily in film & TV since becoming a mother 17 years ago. Jennifer-Juniper also performs as elegant, comical, and fantastical characters on stilts, with her children and husband, at festivals & events near and far. Let the fun romp begin!
Harlequin
Agis
Ishan is an actor and writer from India, currently residing on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories belonging to the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. He is a graduate of UBC’s BFA Acting and BA Economics program. Selected theater credits: Men Express Their Feelings (Zee Zee); Commedia Dell’arte, The Wars, and The Changeling (UBC); and The Here and This and Now (United Players). Ishan will be making his debut on Bard this summer in Romeo and Juliet as Paris
Hermocrate
Gerry Mackay is pleased to be back at WGT.He has spent the past 35 years performing in theatres across the country, including at The Stratford festival, Bard on the Beach, The Citadel, The Belfry, Touchstone, and the Arts Club theatre. Gerry lives in North Vancouver with his wife and two daughters. Enjoy the show!
Corine
Originally from Northern Manitoba, Tracy is a transplant to Vancouver via Toronto and New York. Some previous theatre credits include Beautiful Man (Pi Theatre – Vancouver), The Red Priest (United Players – Vancouver), Call Raul (Alumnae Theatre-Toronto), Alice Au Pays Des Merveilles (Soho Playhouse-NYC), Macbeth (13th Street Rep-NYC), Hamlet (Red Room-NYC), Machinal (Wings Zephyr -NYC) and Brooklyn Bets Alexi (Hudson Guild Theatre – NYC). Tracy is proud to have contributed as a member of Realize Your Beauty, a New York based not-for-profit promoting positive body image through theatre arts: http://www.realizeyourbeauty.org . Tracy is a graduate of Ryerson University & Stella Adler Studio of Acting.
Riley is an actor, writer, and filmmaker based in Vancouver. Selected theatre credits include: Mary’s Wedding (Stones throw/Pacific Theatre), girls! girls! girls! (Excavation Theatre), Lonestar, Love and Information, and Edward II (Theatre@UBC). Selected Film/TV credits: Arrow, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, and the feature film Sniper: Assassin’s End, which is now streaming on Apple TV. Riley is a graduate of the UBC BFA Acting program. He hopes you enjoy the show!
Jack began working in the theatre as a student ASM at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London in 1967. He joined the National Theatre at the Old Vic for a brief period in 1969 and 1970, before returning to Canada to attend Studio 58. On graduating, he worked as an actor in Vancouver in the 1970s. He spent 22 years in the Middle East teaching but managed to return to the UK as Property Master for the RSC in the summer of 1978 and later to attend The Central School of Speech and Drama (Shakespeare and Verse).
He was last on stage (before the plague) playing the Professor in Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem at the Jericho Arts Centre. This is his first production with Western Gold, and he is extremely happy to be playing with old friends and new, in this production of Funny Money.
Dr. Julia Henderson is a Postdoctoral Fellow with Concordia University’s Department of Communication Studies and its Ageing+Communication+Technologies Lab. Her body of research considers narratives of aging and old age in contemporary North American theatre, and specifically analyses plays that challenge ageist beliefs and stereotypes. Her work offers insights to theatre practitioners on how dramatic structure, design, staging, performance style, and marketing might influence understandings of age.
Julia works with the Raising the Curtain Project of Gibsons BC, which re-imagines dementia tragedy narratives through collaborative creation with people with the lived experience of dementia. In addition to her training as a researcher, Julia has a background as both a professional actor and an occupational therapist who has worked largely with older populations. Her current roles include a position as Special Projects Manager in the Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy at University of British Columbia.
Julia’s writing about age and theatre has been published in The Journal of American Drama and Theatre, Theatre Research in Canada, Canadian Theatre Review, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, Age, Culture, Humanities: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Geriatrics and the Thornton Wilder Journal. In 2019, her paper at the Trent Aging 2019 conference won the joint European Network in Aging Studies & the North American Network in Aging Studies emerging scholar award.
Julia is also the Vice Chair of the North American Network in Aging Studies Governing Council, and is a member of the Canadian Association for Theatre Research’s Anti-racism and Anti-discrimination Task Force. She recently co-guested edited the first special issue of Theatre Research in Canada/Recherches théâtrales au Canada that addresses age as an intersectional identity category to be released in November 2021; the issue features Western Gold’s production of Caryl Churchill’s Escaped Alone on its cover. Julia acted as Senior Access Consultant on Western Gold’s workshop and production of Martin Bellemare’s The Ballad of Georges Boivin.
She has also been an award nominee for Best Supporting Role for Yente in Fiddler on the Roof, and an award winner for Neil Simon’s play Fools. It was a real pleasure for Helen to work on The Christmas Carol – A Radio Play with Place des Arts and Western Gold Theatre.
President
Donnie MacDonald is a designated Chartered Professional Accountant and a Fellow of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (FCA, FCMA). She was the Vice-President of Finance with Westminster Savings Credit Union until retiring in July 2015. Currently she is a member of the AGLG Audit Council. Active in the community, she is currently Chair of the North Shore Crisis Services Society and is as a board member and Chair of Western Gold Theatre. In addition to her community work Donnie also enjoys travelling and hiking which has taken her to many interesting parts of the world. When at home she can be found enjoying live theatre (has been a loyal fan for over 30 years) and having fun with her friends and fellow book club and hiking group enthusiasts.