Nick is a Dora and Sterling award winning playwright. Recent credits include In Real Life (book and co-lyrics, CMTP); Dinner with the Duchess (Next Stage 2019);Body Politic (Buddies in Bad Times/lemonTree; Dora award – Outstanding New Play); and Poof! The Musical(book and lyrics, Capitol Theatre; Sterling award nomination – Outstanding New Work).

Kevin (Y) Wong is a composer, lyricist, singer, musician, and dramaturg. Past works: Recurring John: A Song Cycle, STAR!(ving): A Collection of Songs; Reframed (Musical Stage Company / AGO, Dora Nomination – Best New Musical), Polly Peel (with bookwriter Julie Tepperman) and Drama 101 (co-written by Steven Gallagher). Current projects: Believers (with Ali Joy Richardson), and In Real Life (with Nick Green). Kevin is an Artistic Associate at the Musical Stage Company, teaches musical theatre writing at Sheridan College with Robert Gontier, and is a member of the vocal group Asian Riffing Trio.

Winnipeg-based Ann Hodges directs plays, musicals and operas across Canada. A graduate of the directing program at the National Theatre School, favourite credits include Blackout, Grey Gardens (Musical Stage Company); August: Osage County, Top Girls (RMTC); Mary Poppins, Mamma Mia (Rainbow Stage); Once (Citadel), In Real Life (Sheridan/MSC), and Naomi’s Road (Vancouver Opera), for which she also wrote the libretto. Ann is on faculty at Sheridan College, teaching Artistic Teams (Directing) remotely; the University of Winnipeg (Directing); and the Manitoba Opera’s Digital Emerging Artists Program. She was in the first cohort of Musical Stage Company’s Launchpad, dramaturging and directing the musical Cygnus which was later developed into the acclaimed musical Blackout.

Janie Pinard is a francophone artist from Sudbury, Ontario. She has choreographed 14 large musicals with YES Theatre and made her directorial debut directing Marc Crawford’s Canadian play Bed and Breakfast. Her comedy duo Les Bunheads has performed in 6 countries with performances at Montreal’s Just For Laughs, the NY Clown Theatre Festival and America’s Got Talent. Studies include L’École de Clown et Comédie Francine Côté in Montreal and the Advanced Ensemble Program at Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in California. She has recently made three solo movement pieces entitled VAUTOUR, BULLSEYE and S’FEAR, that can be found on Youtube or @janiepinardartiste. In June, she choreographed a new Canadian Francophone Musical entitled Vaches, The Musical with Créations in Vivo.

Ellen Denny (she/her) is a Toronto-based playwright and actor who has worked across Canada. Her latest play, TAKE CARE, debuted at Here for Now Theatre Company in 2022 and was featured in The New York Times. Her contemporary comedy PLEASUREVILLE - which critics hailed as ‘warm, funny and woke’ (The Coast Halifax) - premiered at Neptune Theatre in 2019, and was subsequently produced at The Guild Charlottetown. Ellen is co-creator of pandemic rom com FEBRUARY: A LOVE STORY with Emilio Vieira, which was featured on CBC q, played digitally with Magnus Theatre and the Stratford Festival, and premiered live at Globus Theatre. Ellen has trained as a musical theatre book writer through Musical Stage’s Noteworthy program, and as a member of their Launch Pad 2019 cohort, where she wrote the book for WHAT GOES UP (premiered in RePrint) alongside acclaimed songwriting team Colleen Dauncey and Akiva Romer-Segal. As a performer, Ellen has worked with companies including Crow’s Theatre, NAC English Theatre, Mirvish Productions, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Citadel, Neptune, Drayton and the Segal Centre. She received a Dora nomination for her portrayal of Alice in Life After (Canadian Stage) and was named one of Now Magazine's Breakthrough Toronto Stage Artists (2017). Ellen is currently developing several new works, including PROJECT QYZRA, for which she was a finalist for the Cayle Chernin Award.

Stephanie is a Dora award winning choreographer, director, and arts leader. Directing and/or Choreography credits include: Chicago, Beauty and the Beast, Mamma Mia, Shrek, The Little Mermaid, All Shook Up, Mary Poppins, The Drowsy Chaperone (Globe Theatre), Anne of Green Gables (Thousand Islands Playhouse), The Last Five Years (YRG Productions), Fun Home, Grey Gardens, The Wild Party (Musical Stage Company), Chariots of Fire (Grand Theatre), Peter Pan, Cinderella, The Addams Family (Neptune Theatre), Crazy for You (Capitol Theatre Port Hope), and Next to Normal (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre). She is a three-time Merritt Award nominee for choreography. She was the Intern Artistic Director at the Musical Stage Company and the Associate Artistic Director of the Globe Theatre. She is an Honours Bachelor of Musical Theatre graduate from Sheridan College.

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www.stephaniegraham.ca

Patricia Allison (she/her) is an award-winning choreographer, movement director, multidisciplinary artist, and educator. She is a graduate of École de danse contemporaine de Montréal and holds an MFA in Dance from York University. Patricia was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in April of 2017 and is an advocate for inclusive practices in the arts. She has been featured in publications such as Dance International, the Dance Current, and Intermission. In 2018 she co-won a Dora for Best Director in Independent Theatre with Jill Harper for a production of Mark Ravenhill’s Pool (No Water) which also took home Best Ensemble. She has been a member of the Shakespeare in the Ruff Leadership Collective since 2021 and is currently writing and directing a Disability focused multiverse exploration of Richard III for the summer of 2023 with Ruff titled Richard Three.

David Connolly is a director, choreographer, educator and proud disability inclusion advocate who is the first and only male amputee to perform on Broadway. In his thirty-year career, he has collaborated with artists including Katy Perry, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Elton John, Sarah Jessica Parker, kd lang, Sarah Brightman and many others.

As the Associate Artistic Director and Director of Education for Drayton Entertainment, David has helmed the professional Canadian professional theatre premieres of shows including Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert, Mamma Mia!, Kinky Boots, Newsies and, in 2023, The Prom.

As an Educator, David has been an Adjunct Professor and Advisor to Western University, Wilfred Laurier University, Sheridan College, VanderCook College and the Hopkins Centre for the Arts at Dartmouth College. He is a proud member of the DEI Committee of the Musical Theatre Educators’ Alliance who is a recipient of The Ontario Premier's Award of Excellence.

For the last three years, David has curated and moderated the disability inclusion panel at BroadwayCon in New York City to help develop actionable steps to improve disabled representation in arts. Insta: @davidwconnolly

Traci Foster is a somatic artist and theatre maker who explores and develops her work with a focus on where awareness, intuition, and action intersects within the (anomalous) body. She was Canada’s first certified Fitzmaurice Voicework™ instructor (2006) and is one of Canada’s lead practitioners of the work. She works with creation as care, and unapologetically seeks pleasure in all aspects of life, including art making. Traci is the founder and executive| artistic| director of Listen to Dis’ Community Arts Organization, Saskatchewan’s first and only disability-led arts organization and is an unrelenting advocate of disability culture. She has worked for 16 years developing a portfolio of multi-disciplinary projects aimed at increasing professional opportunities for crip artists to create innovative, original work tackling issues of sensuality and disability, the desire to belong, ableism, and the political right to live in one’s body. When possible, Traci maintains a private practice as a craniosacral practitioner, trauma therapist, somatic specialist, director, dramaturge, actor, and disability consultant.

Traci is the recipient of the 2015 YWCA’s Woman of Distinction Jacqui Shumiatcher Arts Award and the 2022 SK Arts Awards Organization Leadership for the work of Listen to Dis’ Community Arts Organization. She loves art, especially the stuff that makes her laugh, cry, or squirm.

A Toronto based Olivier Award winning and Tony Award nominated theatre producer who conceived the story depicted in Come From Away as a musical. In 2011 he established the Canadian Music Theatre Project (CMTP), an international incubator for the development of new musicals, where he produced and developed the first workshops of Come From Away, The Theory of Relativity and 28 other new works. He serves as a producer and the creative consultant for productions of Come From Away on Broadway, in London’s West End, in Toronto and on tour in Australia and across North America. In 2018 he was awarded the Meritorious Service Cross by the Governor General of Canada for his role in creating the show. A proud graduate of Western Law School.

Danelle Charette is thrilled to be creating and working along side wonderful artists in Theatre Making Movement! Born and raised in Regina, Saskatchewan, Danelle is an Indigenous multidisciplinary artist currently based out of Toronto, Ontario. Danelle recently completed her post-secondary education at Randolph College for The Performing Arts in the Summer of 2021. Select theatre credits include: Columbia in The Rocky Horror Show (Sterling Productions), Patience in Every Man (RCPA), Serena Katz in Fame: The Musical (RCPA), Grandfather/Multi-character in Salt Baby (Magnus Theatre); and Eddie in Mamma Mia (Tweed & Co.). TV/ Film credits: Corner Gas (CTV), Deena in Where’s My Sister (PM Veltri); and Katie in Louis Says (APTN). “Thank you to my Mama, for growing me in her garden of love and for always encouraging me to storytell and play.”

Sidney Klips (she/her) is a multidisciplinary actor, dancer, singer, director, choreographer and arts educator.

Recent performance highlights include the Toronto premiere of Small Mouth Sounds (Artists in Residence) the Western Canada tour of Side by Side by Sondheim (BC Living Arts/Sound the Alarm, Broadway World Best Actress nomination) Kayak (Between Shifts), and Girl in the Goldfish Bowl (AUC). She is an Ovation Award nominee. Directing credits include Graves in Plain Sight (Brave New Play Rites) The Fishbowl (Ignite at The Cultch) and Odet(te)s (SFU Crash Festival). Assistant directing credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Kevin Bennet/Place des Arts) Urinetown and Spoon River Anthology (Andy Toth/Arts Umbrella). On camera, she has recently appeared in numerous short films and danced in commercials and music videos.

She received her formal dance training from Vancouver's best, most prominently under the renowned creator Rachael Poirier, (Poirier Productions) and Melanie Dance and Astrid Sherman, (Pro Arte Performing Arts). She has previously choreographed award-winning competitive numbers and taught on faculty at Dance Pointe Toronto, Stagecoach Toronto East, Arts Express Toronto and Lights Up! Musical Theatre Vancouver. She is currently a mentor at Peak Your Performance and loves opening up young minds creatively through dance and theatre education.

Sidney is equally passionate about intersectional womxn's equity, overcoming systemic barriers to access, and human rights as she is about the performing arts, (her work often intersects). She has a parallel career in foreign affairs and research; having worked for the Embassy to the Baltic States, in refugee law, for the UBC Rural Surgical and Obstetrical Networks, and UBC Women's Health Research Cluster. She is currently a Policy Advisor on the United Nations General Assembly negotiations team at Global Affairs Canada.

Selected Theatre Credits: White Christmas, Shaw Festival; Anne of Green Gables, Munschables, Charlottetown Festival; Grow, Grand Theatre; Newsies, Drayton Entertainment; The Stars of Mars, Theatre Sheridan, CMTP; Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Sunday in the Park with George, Eclipse Theatre. Taran is currently working on Rock of Ages, opening soon in Toronto.

TRAINING: Hon. Bachelor of Music Theatre Performance, Sheridan College.

Jarret is thrilled to be Assistant Choreographing one of this year’s Watch Me Work sessions for Theatre Making Movement! Having recently decided to lean a little more into the world of choreography, the opportunity to be actively engaging in the dissection of the creative process was very exciting and has proven to be tremendously informative and inspiring. Jarret has danced and performed his entire life; has worked across the country with people of all movement abilities including introductory drop-ins, post-secondary programs, dance conventions, and professional training studios; and loves nothing more then to share his passion for movement and story telling with like minded individuals. He hopes that you thoroughly enjoy all of the works this evening and that you come away with some new glimmer to inspire your creative process. Thank you to Stephanie and Sarah for making this all happen and to Hollywood and Landon for being our creative forces. @jarretcody

Nicole is a performer, teacher and choreographer. Nicole is also a graduate of Randolph College and recipient of the Triple Threat award. As a performer some of her most recent musical theatre and stage credits include: Jesus Christ Superstar (Charlottetown Festival); Anne of Green Gables: The Musical (Charlottetown Festival); House of Martin Guerre in Concert (Charlottetown Festival); Pirates of Penzance (1000 Islands Playhouse) The Barber Of Seville (Canadian Opera Company) Annie (YPT) The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (1000 Islands Playhouse) Fiddler on the Roof (Stage West Mississauga) UnEarth (Helix Dance Project). She has also had several opportunities to dance on film/tv projects including; Frenemies (Disney) Life (Gen 1) Best Christmas Party Ever (Hallmark) and episodes of Bomb Girls, Nikita, Suits, and The Next Step.