Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools

Evalyn Parry is a queer interdisciplinary performance creator whose work is inspired by intersections of social justice, history and auto/biography. She is the Artistic Director of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto. As creator/performer recent shows include SPIN (which has toured around the continent) and Governor General’s Award-nominated Gertrude and Alice (Independent Aunties/ Buddies); recent directing credits include The Youth/Elders Project (Buddies), and Obaaberima by Tawiah M’Carthy (Buddies, winner of a Dora for Outstanding Production). She is the recipient of the KM Hunter Award for Theatre, the Ken McDougall Award for directing, and the Colleen Peterson Songwriting Award. Her travels have taken her as far North as Inuvik, NWT and Qikiqtarjuat, Nunavut.

Read full NAC bio ›

Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory is an Inuk artist based in Iqaluit. Winner of the inaugural Kenojuaq Ashevak Memorial Award from the Inuit Art Foundation. Co-curator of Tunirrusianngit, a retrospective art exhibition of Tim Pitseolak and Kenojuak Ashevak at the Art Gallery of Ontario. First Artistic Director of Theatre at Qaggiavuut. Winner of a 2017 Indigenous Reveal Award. Contributing artist to exhibitions such as #callresponse, Entering the Landscape, Among These Tundras and Tunirrusiangit. Laakkuluk's foundational artistic practice is uaajeerneq – a part of her Greenlandic heritage. It is a performance that looks to unhinge inhibitions in an exploration of humour, humility, fear and sexuality. Laakkuluk is a collaborator, a thinker, a mother, sister, daughter, an activist and a lover of nuna, the Arctic lands. Laakkuluk lives in Iqaluit, Nunavut. Her family home town is Maniitsoq, Greenland.

Erin Brubacher is a director and multidisciplinary artist. She works with other artists to collaboratively create new performed works. Recent projects include: Noor, written by Erum Khan with live music by sitarist Anwar Khurshid and the electronic music duo LAL (presented by The Aga Khan Museum); the award winning Brubacher/Spooner/Tannahill production of Concord Floral (presented by The National Arts Centre, Canadian Stage, The PuSh International Performance Festival + others); and 7th Cousins, co-written and performed by Erin & Christine Brubaker (first presented by Nightwood Theatre). Her first collection of poetry, In the small hours: Thirty-nine months & seven days, was published by Gaspereau Press and a new bookwork for 7th Cousins will be published by Book *hug in fall 2019. Erin holds an MA International Performance Research, with distinction, from the University of Warwick and University of Amsterdam. She lived in Iqaluit in 2003–2004 and keeps returning to beautiful Nunavut.

Elysha Poirier is a video artist and animator working in various forms of responsive media. Her methods in painting and design have been adapted to video for live performance. She utilizes low-fi technologies and analogue techniques and combines them with media rich practices. Elysha has produced several installations and engaged in live performances for dance, experimental music, and theatre such as Andrea Nann (The Whole Shebang), Evalyn Parry (To Live in the Age of Melting), Erin Brandenburg (Boblo), Annabel Soutar and Crow’s Theatre (Seeds). The furthest North Elysha’s been is Iqaluit, Nunavut.

In a world where almost everything – people, music, cultures – get labelled and slotted into simple categories, Cris Derksen represents a challenge. Originally from Northern Alberta, she comes from a line of chiefs from Northtall Cree Reserve on her father’s side and a line of strong Mennonite homesteaders on her mother’s. Juno-nominated, classically-trained cellist and composer braids the traditional and contemporary, weaving her classical background and her Indigenous ancestry together with new school electronics to create genre-defying music. Derksen has performed nationally and Internationally with some of Canada’s finest including; Tanya Tagaq, Buffy Sainte Marie, Naomi Klein and A Tribe Called Red, to name a few. Cris Comes from Northern Alberta, NorthTall Cree Reserve and Buffalo Head hills, 975 KM North of Edmonton.

Aleda DeRoche is a recording engineer and live sound technician from Toronto. Passionate about sound design and audio storytelling, she is the co-founder and executive producer of Brainchild Podcasts. She is the house tech at Burdock Music Hall and the technical director of Venus Fest, Toronto’s first feminist music festival. She has worked with hundreds of local and international artists including Lido Pimienta, Tasseomancy, and The Queer Songbook Orchestra. She’s never been north of Banff.

Kaitlin Hickey works with people to tell stories. Recent credits include: Co-Production Design, Book of Life (Volcano Theatre & Women’s Cultural Centre, Rwanda); Lighting Design, Empire Trilogy: The Philosopher's Wife and Four Sisters, (Paradigm Productions); Co-Video Design, Now You See Her (Quote Unquote Collective & Why Not Theatre); Set Design, Noor, (Generous Friend, Aga Khan Museum); Lighting Design, The Children’s Republic (Belfry Theatre); Production Management, Charlotte: A Tri Coloured Play with Music (Theaturtle, World Stage Design Festival). She is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, and holds a B.Sc. from St. Francis Xavier University. The furthest north Kaitlin has been is Kugluktuk, Nunavut.

Rebecca Picherack has been a part of the Toronto theatre community for 20 years. As a lighting designer at Buddies, Rebecca designed The 20th of November, Tom at the Farm, Pig, and Diplomatic Immunities (lighting designer and co-director). Recent lighting designs include Fish Eyes Trilogy (Factory Theatre/nightswimming), Kiss (Smash/Arc/Canadian Stage), A City (Necessary Angel), Infinity (Volcano, Tarragon), Century Song (Volcano), Disgraced (Hope and Hell/Mirvish/Centaur), James and the Giant Peach (Young People’s Theatre), Tartuffe, Tulugak (National Arts Centre), Within the Glass, The Circle (Tarragon), Uncle Vanya (Shaw Festival), Hosanna (Soulpepper), Sea Sick, Boblo (Theatre Centre) and Sleeping Beauty (Ballet Jorgen). Rebecca has received three Dora awards for outstanding lighting design. Her family is from northern Ontario which Rebecca now understands as being quite far south.

Georgia Priestley-Brown comes from Fredericton, NB. She has worked throughout Canada as a Stage Manager, most notably a two year run as the Mainstage Stage Manager at Second City Toronto. Her credits with Second City include Walking on Bombshells, The Best Is Yet To Come Undone, Party Today Panic Tomorrow and Second City's Guide to the Symphony. Her previous theatre credits include Hiraeth (Summerworks Festival), Le Nozze di Figaro, The Vinedressers (Highlands Opera), Tom at the Farm (Buddies In Bad Times), Twisted (Factory Theatre), A Christmas Carol, Red (Theatre New Brunswick), Alcina (Opera Atelier), Billy Bishop Goes To War (Blyth Theatre Festival). She would like to thank her family and friends for their constant support, and David, for everything, always.