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New Creation Unit

Members

Andrea Scott is a professional actor, playwright & producer who, after completing a year in the Obsidian Theatre Playwright Unit, saw her play Eating Pomegranates Naked accepted into the SummerWorks Performance Festival where it won the RBC Arts Professional award, named Outstanding Ensemble, and Outstanding Production. Better Angels: A Parable won the SummerWorks award for Production in August 2015 and was recognized as Outstanding New Play, Outstanding Ensemble, Outstanding Direction (Nigel Shawn Williams) and Outstanding Production by NOW Magazine. Better Angels: A Parable had its US debut at the Athena Festival in Chicago in December 2015 and was then produced by Rumble Theatre in their Tremors Festival in August 2016. Her TYA play, Princesses Don’t Grow on Trees, debuted in April at Solar Stage Children’s Theatre under the direction of Jajube Mandiela. Her play about Mata Hari, Don’t Talk to Me Like I’m Your Wife, won the Cayle Chernin Award for theatre on May 5, 2016 followed by a successful run in SummerWorks (Outstanding Performance – NOW Magazine). Andrea is a CAEA, ACTRA, PGC, DGA member who recently graduated from the inaugural Artist Producer Training Program run by Generator/Theatre Ontario. She is currently working on a new play, Every Day She Rose, with Dora Award winner, Nick Green, which explores the personal implications of Black Lives Matter stopping the Pride Parade on a close relationship between a gay white man and his straight black girlfriend.

Chelsea Woolley is a playwright, theatre maker, and educator. She is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s Playwright Program, and holds degrees in history and education from the University of Lethbridge. Chelsea’s work includes: The Mountain (Geordie Productions 2Play Tour), These Peaceable Kingdoms (New Words Festival), The Exhibition of Extraordinary Oddities and Living Freaks (Major Matt Mason Collective/The Ignite! Festival), The Only Good Boy (Theatre BSMT, The Exploration Series), and 1000 Names (TheatreXtra). Chelsea’s plays have earned recognition through the Alberta Playwriting Competition, The Toronto Fringe New Play Contest, The Playwrights Guild of Canada Post-Secondary Playwriting Competition (Shortlisted), The Wildfire National Playwriting Competition, The BSMT Dwellers Playwriting Competition, and The University of Lethbridge Striking Prose and Play Right Prize. As a teacher, Chelsea directed high school students in the musical, Oliver!. She is also the writer of podcast, Walking the Space, and creator of the viral video, That’s just Mean, which was featured on The Huffington Post. In 2016, Chelsea attended the Banff Playwright’s Colony, and in July 2017 she will take part in the National New Play Network’s MFA Playwright’s Workshop at the Kennedy Centre, in Washington, DC.

Curtis te Brinke is a writer, director, producer and begrudging performer. Recent work includes It’s Not About Kenny by Smoothieland Performance Projects (Performer, Co-writer 2017), Tire Swing (Writer, Epigraph Collective 2016), This Is The August by Hillary Rexe (Producer, Summerworks 2017) Binge by Joel Edmiston (Director, Producer, Toronto Fringe 2016) and Love Me Forever Billy H Tender by Jesse Lavercombe (Producer, Videofag 2016). His play Imp, a dark fantasy for a post-Ghomeshi Canada, will be mounted by Filament Incubator in November 2017.

Janis Chang is a playwright and a medical student at the University of Toronto. Her plays have previously been produced for the Sears Ontario Drama Festival and UWO Purple Shorts festival. She is thrilled to be working with Theatre Direct.

Jivesh Parasram is a multidisciplinary artist, researcher, and facilitator of Indo-Caribbean descent. He has worked extensively with a wide array of companies and collectives throughout Toronto and Canada. He is a founder and Artistic Producer of Pandemic Theatre, and the Associate Artistic Producer at Theatre Passe Muraille. Jiv is a Co-Founder of the Collective Studio and Events Space, a core member of The Wrecking Ball, and a member of the Ad Hoc Assembly. He has been a contributing author for publications including The Canadian Theatre Review, The Leveller, CBC.ca, and The SpiderWeb Show and is published with Playwrights Canada Press.  He was part of the 2016 Cohort of the Cultural Leaders Lab with the Toronto Arts Council and Banff Centre, and is a recipient of two Harold Awards, including the Ken McDougall Award. His work has played to audiences across Canada, Europe, and the Caribbean. Past committee and public service includes: the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, the Theatre Committee for the Toronto Arts Council, The Royal Commonwealth Society, and the Province of Nova Scotia. Past speaking and facilitation engagements include: TEDx, The Mosaic Institute, Powershift, the IMPACT Festival, the University of Toronto, and Pueblito Canada.  Select recent credits include: Sound of the Beast (TPM), Situational Anarchy (Pandemic/Pressgang), They Say He Fell (Pandemic/Cahoots), Birth (Pandemic), Who’s Revolution? (Neworld/Theatre Centre) The Double (Bad New Days), The Keith Richards One Woman Show (Suitcase in Point) Upcoming: The Only Good Indian (Pandemic/SummerWorks), Daughter (Quiptake/Theatre Centre/Pandemic), Take d Milk, Nah? (Pandemic/bcurrent/TPM).

Radha S. Menon
Interdisciplinary artist, Menon began performing in British theatre and television in her youth. Her plays have been produced for many theatre festivals in Canada and the U.K. Winner of Toronto Fringe New Play Contest 2015, Rukmini’s Gold also scooped the Hamilton Fringe Critics Choice Award. Radha is an arts educator at Theatre Aquarius’ Theatre School in Hamilton. In addition, Menon is developing plays with companies in Toronto and London (U.K.) is an MFA candidate at University of Guelph and is excited at the prospect of making and designing more independent films in the future.

xLq is a body of POP ART performance and a lifestyle practiced by Jordan Campbell and Maddie Bautista. Using physical training and ritual as a basis for creation, xLq develops new forms of creative exchange blending dance, performance art, fashion and music. xLq uses a surreal, bizarre and futuristic aesthetic. xLq is the recipient of Nightswimming’s 5×25 2017 Commission for 4inXchange – a POP ART business meeting for four participants at a time centred around $1000.00 cash. Other Projects include: VHS1 (The Collective Space, July 2017), the birth of xLq (The Collective Space), Trash Glamour 7 (Body Brake 7.0 – Anandam Dance Theatre), SHDWCLNXLQ (in collaboration with open improv duo SHDW CLN)

Jordan Campbell has always loved working with young people.  He has worked for over 10 years as a camp counsellor, creative collaborator, director and facilitator. Currently, he is working as a part-time Pirate with Pirate Life’s immersive adventure cruise, as a teacher with Purple Carrots Drama Camps (specializing in different learning abilities) and as a one-on-one caregiver.

Maddie Bautista worked as an Assistant Facilitator with Story Planet – a program for youth exploring writing and creative arts. She also briefly trained with Theatre Direct’s Firefly Project – a storytelling and drama residency for students in Kindergarten – Grade One.