Karen Chiang

Stage Manager

Karen Chiang 蔣家寧 (she/ her) 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).

Jane Heyman, CM

Director, Educator, & Theatre Maker

Jane Heyman, CM(she/ her) is an award-winning director, acting teacher, and dramaturge who works in professional theatre across Canada and the UK. For twenty years she served as Associate Director and acting teacher at Studio 58 the renowned professional theatre training program at Langara College

Throughout her career, she developed new plays and created opportunities for youth and women in the performing arts, including co-founding the Women in VIEW Festival and WestCoast Actors. Together with Joy Coghill, she co-founded Vancouver’s Performing Arts Lodge (PAL) a unique social housing and theatre complex providing affordable housing for performing arts pioneers. For four terms she was elected to represent BC on Canadian Actors’ Equity Association (CAEA) National Council, where she was a member of the Senior Artist Task Force, working to create ways Equity could make it easier for senior members to remain active and creative, as well as co-chairing the Safe and Respectful Workplace Task Force that developed the Not in Our Space anti-harassment initiative.

A director of more than 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), she was nominated for three Jessie Richardson awards, receiving Best Director in 1991 and Career Achievement in 2004.

She was particularly honoured to receive the Order of Canada for long-lasting contributions to Vancouver’s cultural landscape as well as the Langara College Faculty Emerita; YWCA Woman of Distinction for Arts, Culture and Design; UBCP Sam Payne Award for humanity and encouragement of young talent; a BC Entertainment Hall of Fame “star in the pavement” and the CAEA Larry McCance award for services to the profession.

Andrea Rabinovitch

Dance & Theatre Maker

Andrea (she, her) has worked in the arts either creatively or on the business side for her entire working life. Her performing career was as a dancer, mostly a modern dancer with some commercial work, after graduation from Grant MacEwan University. An original dancer with the Brian Webb Dance Company, she is the co-founder of Mile Zero Dance, an Edmonton-based company that still exists. She has worked in different post secondary institutions in dance and theatre departments as a Movement/Dance Instructor: Grant MacEwan University; University of Alberta, BFA and BA; Canadian College of Performing Arts; Studio 58; and UBC Theatre and Film and performed in Modern and an African dance company in New York City back in the day. She has artistic directed and/or managed Dance Alberta and Mascall Dance, started a dance school on Salt Spring Island and worked at Arts Umbrella teaching children; and been Marketing and Communications at UBC Theatre and Film. Her artistic work has usually included dance/movement and text which segued into a writing practice, mostly personal narrative essays. Having choreographed many a musical, she has directed and been part of various devised presentations and has been thrilled to be part of the Creatus Project. She would like to see The Creatus Project continue.

Kathryn Shaw

Theatre Maker & Educator

Kathryn Shaw (she / her) was the Artistic Director of Studio 58 from 1985 until she retired in December 2020. She taught acting in the program for 46 years. She received her B.A. in Dramatic Art from Whitman College and an M.F.A in Acting from the Columbia University School of Arts. In France, she did physical theatre training with Monika Pagneux and Philippe Gaulier.

For over 50 years, Ms. Shaw directed for theatre companies across Canada and BC including Bard on the Beach, the Richmond Gateway Theatre, the Vancouver Playhouse and the Belfry Theatre. She has taught acting for professional and community groups in British Columbia, Winnipeg and Halifax and has been a guest instructor at the National Theatre School in Montreal.

Kathryn was honoured with Life Membership in Canadian Actors Equity Association in 2016. In 2010, Kathryn was listed by the Vancouver Sun as one of BC’s 100 Most Influential Women. The same year she received the Career Achievement Award from the Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance and the ACCC Bronze Medal for Excellence in Teaching. 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.” She has served as the Festival Adjudicator for Theatre BC’s Mainstage 1991, 2004, 2014 and 2023 as well as adjudicating regional festivals. 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.

In retirement Kathryn has rekindled her acting career and has taken up playwriting.

Hannah Siden

Film & Theatre Maker

Hannah (she/ her) is a writer, director, producer and actor. She assistant directed alongside Jack Paterson on The Ballad of Georges Boivin (Western Gold) and Haven (United Players), and has taken part in recent Active Access Design Workshops. Her screenplays have placed in competitions through the BBC Writer’s Room and HollyShorts Film Festival. As a director she created a music video in association with Ballet BC and her narrative short films have screened at numerous festivals. She has produced two short documentaries. She has an MA in Acting from East 15 Acting School and a postgraduate diploma from the London Film Academy.

www.hannahsiden.com

Anju Singh

Curator, Producer & Musician

Anju Singh (she/ her) is a film, theatre, music, and digital producer and curator based in Vancouver, BC and is currently producing an animated film called Black Fly written by playwrights Omari Newton and Amy Lee Lavoie, as well as an animated operetta film called “Did I Just Say That?” being co-produced by Visceral Visions and re: Naissance Opera. Anju’s producing work began in producing festivals, music, digital projects, and media arts events, but she has since branched into theatre and opera as new avenues and areas to stretch her producing skills. In addition to her producing roles, she is an active and practicing composer, musician, sound artist and media artist. Her main curatorial roles are with MAC Media Arts Committee’s Sound Artist in Residence program as well as lead curation for Vancouver Noise Festival.

Anju’s artistic work has been presented across Canada, in Europe, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States at festivals, galleries, and events in a variety of spaces including Send + Receive Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Polygon Gallery, and artist run/underground spaces.

www.anjusingh.com

Sabrina Vellani

Writer & Actor

Sabrina Vellani (she/ her) is an actress & writer from the lower mainland. She has acted in productions such as Western Gold Theatre’s 90 Days (Directed by Melissa Oei), Killjoy Theatre’s Burqa Boutique (directed by Gavan Cheema & Jamie King), Five Cedar Film’s Short Film, Speak (directed by Shaheed Devji), and the Jessie Award nominated production, All My Friends Are Animals (Babelle Theatre & Axis Theatre: Directed by Marie Farsi). Sabrina has also written for various literary magazines such as The Malahat Review, The New York Quarterly, Filling Station Magazine and PRISM International.

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