Featured artists
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Taiwo AfolabiTaiwo Afolabi
Taiwo Afolabi, PhD., holds the Canada Research Chair in Socially Engaged Theatre; and is the founder and the Director of the Centre for Socially Engaged Theatre (C-SET), and an Assistant Professor at the University of Regina. He is an artist, qualitative researcher, theatre manager, applied theatre practitioner and educator with a decade of experience in a variety of creative and community contexts in over a dozen countries across four continents. He conducts research, creates works, performs, and teaches at the intersection of performance and human ecology. His research interests lie in the areas of applied theatre and policing, social justice, decolonization, art leadership and management, migration, and the ethics of conducting arts-based research. He is a Senior Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg (South Africa) and the founding artistic director of Theatre Emissary International.
NAC media featuring Taiwo Afolabi
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Cole AlvisCole Alvis
Cole Alvis (she/her) is a 2 Spirit Michif (Métis) artist based in Tkarón:to with Chippewa, Irish and English ancestors from Turtle Mountain. She is one of the leaders of lemonTree creations, manidoons collective, and AdHoc Assembly, and is on the board of the Dancers Of Damelahamid.
Recently, Cole performed in Louis Riel (Canadian Opera Company / National Arts Centre) and directed the Dora-nominated bug by Yolanda Bonnell (manidoons collective / Luminato), Lilies by Michel Marc Bouchard (lemonTree creations / Why Not Theatre / Buddies in Bad Times Theatre) and, alongside fellow Dora-nominated Michael Greyeyes, co-directed an Indigenous opera double bill called Two Odysseys: Pimooteewin / Gállábártnit (Signal Theatre / National Sami Theatre Beaivváš / Soundstreams).
This spring, Cole co-directs, alongside Samantha Brown, White Girls in Moccasins by Yolanda Bonnell, co-produced by manidoons collective and Buddies In Bad Times Theatre, and a digital presentation of the play Toka by Indrit Kasapi, co-produced by lemonTree creations and Theatre Passe Muraille.
NAC media featuring Cole Alvis
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Audrey DwyerAudrey Dwyer
Theatre credits at Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre include, as Director: The Mountaintop, Women of the Fur Trade; as Intimacy Director: Orlando, Fun Home; as Consulting Director: Bang Bang (with Belfry Theatre); as Actor: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (with Mirvish Productions), Good People, Medea (with Mirvish Productions). Theatre credits elsewhere include, as Actor: thirsty (NAC); The Crucible, Theory (Tarragon Theatre), Clybourne Park and The Overwhelming (Studio 180 with Mirvish Productions), The Tempest (Canadian Stage, Dream in High Park), Black Medea (Obsidian Theatre); as Director: Blink (University of Winnipeg); Prairie Nurse (Lighthouse Theatre); Calpurnia (Nightwood Theatre/Sulong Theatre); The Apology (Rabiayshna Productions).
Audrey is Royal MTC’s Associate Artistic Director. She has won three Dora Mavor Moore Awards and the Cayle Chernin Award for Theatre. She was nominated for the Pauline McGibbon Award for Direction twice. Audrey co-wrote The D-Cut, a six-episode series produced by Shaftesbury Films. The multiple award-winning series is on Crave (Canada) and Shaftesbury’s KindaTV channel. She wrote the libretto for Backstage at Carnegie Hall (Bradyworks), which will open in Montreal in 2022. She was commissioned to write The Legend of Daddy Hall for the Tarragon Theatre, which was part of their Acoustic Season (2020/2021). She has been commissioned by Nightswimming Theatre to write The Generations, an epic five-hour drama about the legacy of a Black family over eons of time. She was a recipient of CBC’s Creative Relief Fund for her television pilot called The Gordons. She has been a writer-in-residence at Obsidian Theatre and the Tarragon Theatre, where she was also the Urjo Kareda Artist-in-Residence and the Assistant Artistic Director. Audrey graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada in 2001.
NAC media featuring Audrey Dwyer
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Kim Senklip HarveyKim Senklip Harvey
Kim Senklip Harvey is a proud Syilx and Tsilhqot’in award-winning director, writer and actor who is known for her ability to craft stories that inspire, nourish and delight.
Kim was the first Indigenous woman to win the Governor General’s Award for Drama in 2020 with her play Kamloopa. She is the host and lead creative producer of the podcast The Indigenous Cultural Evolutionist which is streamed in over 20 countries.
Kim is currently developing three TV series, writing her first book of prose and is in pre-production for her next play Break Horizons: A Rocking Indigenous Justice Story. Kim has her Masters in Creative Writing and is currently getting her PhD in Law. Harvey believes that storytelling is the most compelling medium to move us to a place where everyone is provided the opportunity to live peacefully.
NAC media featuring Kim Senklip Harvey
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Mpoe MogaleMpoe Mogale
Mpoe Mogale (they/them) reigns from Lebowakgomo, South Africa and splits their time between amiskwaciywâskahikan and moh’kínst’sis, in the colonial state of Canada. They hold a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Political Science, and a wealth of expertise in community-based research, facilitation, and arts administration.
Mpoe’s primary artmaking form is dance, with a curiosity in the place of Blackness in spaces that deny it, as explored through several projects including What (Black) Life Requires (produced by Mile Zero Dance and Azimuth Theatre). Mpoe’s current artistic imaginations have centered the brilliant, mundane, and joyous aspects that foreground the lives of Black folks.
NAC media featuring Mpoe Mogale
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Omari NewtonOmari Newton
Omari Newton is an award-winning professional actor, writer, director and producer. As a writer, his original Hip Hop theater piece Sal Capone has received critical acclaim and multiple productions, including a recent presentation at Canada’s National Arts Center. He has been commissioned by Black Theater Workshop (BTW) in Montreal to write a companion piece to Sal Capone entitled Black & Blue Matters. Omari and his wife, fellow professional playwright Amy Lee Lavoie, have received commissions from The Arts Club Theatre to co-write a new play: Redbone Coonhound. A bold and innovative satirical comedy that confronts instances of systemic racism in the past, present and future. Omari is co-directing the first in a series of rolling world premiere at The Arts Club Theatre in October of 2022. The play will then open in Montreal (Imago Theatre) & then Tarragon Theatre in Toronto. The husband and wife duo also just completed "Black Fly," a satirical adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus that centers on Aaron and Lavinia. Newton’s work in Speakeasy Theatre's production of Young Jean Lee's The Shipment earned him a 2017-2018 Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor, as well as a nomination for Best Direction. He has recently completed directing critically acclaimed productions of "The Mountaintop" by Katori Hall, and "Pass Over" by Antoinette Nwandu. Notable film & TV credits include: Lucas Ingram on Showcase’s Continuum, Larry Summers on Blue Mountain State and lending his voice to the Black Panther in multiple animated projects (Marvel). Most recently, Omari has a recurring role as Nate on Corner Gas (the animated series) and a recurring role as Corvus of Netflix’s hit new animated series The Dragon Prince.
NAC media featuring Omari Newton
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Nikki ShaffeeullahNikki Shaffeeullah
Nikki Shaffeeullah (she/her) is a director, writer, actor, and facilitator who creates theatre, film, and poetry. Past roles include artistic director of The AMY Project, and editor-in-chief of alt.theatre magazine.
As a facilitator, Nikki supports grassroots groups to navigate collective processes and to uphold equity and accountability in all aspects of their work. An award-winning theatre and film artist, Nikki collaborates with companies and artists from across Canada. She has held residencies with organizations including Canadian Stage, Why Not Theatre, The Theatre Centre, SummerWorks, and others. She has an MFA from the University of Alberta and is a fellow in the Salzburg Global Forum for Cultural Innovators.
Nikki believes art should disrupt the status quo, centre the margins, engage with the ancient, dream of the future, and be for everyone.
NAC media featuring Nikki Shaffeeullah
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Makambe K. SimambaMakambe K. Simamba
Makambe K Simamba is a Dora Award-winning playwright and actor for her solo work, Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers and Little Brothers. Select stage acting credits include Serving Elizabeth (Thousand Islands Playhouse); Winners and Losers (Chromatic Theatre); A Chitenge Story (Handsome Alice); GIANT (Ghost River Theatre); Bea (Sage Theatre); SIA (Pyretic Productions); and inVISIBLE (Handsome Alice).
Makambe is a national award-winning playwright whose work includes Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers and Little Brothers, A Chitenge Story, Makambe Speaks, MUD and The Drum Major Instinct. She was the 2020/21 Urjo Kareda Artist in Residence at Tarragon Theatre, as well as co-host of the Blackstage Pass podcast at Cahoots theatre.
Makambe is a proud Zambian whose intention is to be of service through her ability to tell stories.
NAC media featuring Makambe K. Simamba