2023/ 2024 Season
Hurricane Mona
A Touchstone Theatre and Ruby Slippers Theatre Production
Written by Pippa Mackie | Directed by Roy Surette
Historic Theatre, The Cultch
November 18-December 3, 2023 Previews: Nov 18; OPENING: Nov 22
Hurricane Mona is a fast-paced and absurdist dark comedy about an upper-middle class family at the literal center of a climate emergency.
Rebel environmental activist and elder millennial Mona is placed under house arrest after smashing a police car topless during a peaceful climate march. Forced to serve her term in her parent’s suburban home, tensions flare as Mona rails against the shopping habits of her Boomer parents and her Gen Z sibling’s apparent apathy in the face of looming catastrophe. But as Mona’s burning drive for her family to “do better” begins to turn the home on its head, an unimaginable disaster happens right in the middle of their living room, forcing them to reckon with themselves and a future in crisis.
A crazy mushroom trip, a giant talking frog, and catastrophic family dysfunction: Hurricane Mona is a hilarious and arresting cautionary tale for our times.
Running Time: 90 minutes
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Ruby Slippers Theatre, opening the 23/24 with Pippa Mackie’s urgent ‘crisis comedy’ Hurricane Mona. It shines a burning light on our fears and sense of helplessness about climate change in hilarious, loving, and surprising ways,”
"Like many of us, we at Ruby Slippers Theatre feel the urgency to address and respond to the climate crisis in a way that helps inspire resiliency, action, and therefore hope. Partnering with Touchstone Theatre on this important project is part of our response and we are honoured to be working with them and this company of artists.”
A BIG CONGRATS to local playwright / actor / producer Pippa Mackie for winning the Sydney J Risk Award for writing Hurricane Mona!!! HM received it’s premiere production with Ruby Slippers Theatre and Touchstone Theatre last year to great critical and popular acclaim. Go Pippa!!
SHOWTIMES Nov 18 - Dec 3
Sat, Nov 18 @7:30PM – Preview
Sun, Nov 19 @2PM – Preview
Tues, Nov 21 @7:30PM – Preview – Talkback with Tamiko Suzuki + Peter McCartney
Wed, Nov 22 @2PM – PWYC
Wed, Nov 22 @7:30PM – OPENING
Thurs, Nov 23 @7:30PM
Fri, Nov 24 @7:30PM
Sat, Nov 25 @2PM
Sat, Nov 25 @7:30PM
Sun, Nov 26 @2PM
Tues, Nov 28 @7:30PM – Talkback with Karl Perrin and guests (TBD)
Wed, Nov 29 @2PM –PWYC
Wed, Nov 29 @7:30PM
Thurs, Nov 30 @7:30PM
Fri, Dec 1 @7:30PM
Sat, Dec 2 @2PM – VocalEye audio description
Sat, Dec 2 @7:30PM
Sun, Dec 3 @2PM – CLOSING
CAST & CREATIVE TEAM
Director: Roy Surette
Assistant Director: Cameron Peal
Starring: Diane Brown, Craig Erickson, Alex Gullason, Sherine Menes, Raugi Yu
Set Designer: John Webber
Lighting Designer: Hina Nishioka
Sound Designer: Mary Jane Coomber
Costume Designer: Sheila White
Dramaturgy by Stephen Drover
Stage Manager: Stephen Courtenay
Apprentice Stage Manager: Finnley O’Brien
Technical Director | Production Manager: Alistair Wallace
Diane Brown
Susan
Diane is an acclaimed actor and director, and is the Artistic Director of Ruby Slippers Theatre. She has been honoured to receive awards for her work including the prestigious Bra D’Or from Playwrights Guild of Canada, a national award in recognition of her years of commitment to furthering under-represented voices. Select acting for RST: The Duchess a.k.a. Wallis Simpson, Communion, A Beautiful View. For Touchstone: Sled, Happy Place. Select directing for RST: Benevolence, You Will Remember Me, Les Belles-soeurs, Trout Stanley, Aprés Moi, The Leisure Society. Diane heads up Theatre Cares and sits on the Advisory Board for Vancouver Civic Theatres. She earned a BFA from SFU and an MFA in Directing from UBC.
Craig Erickson
Rick
For Touchstone: Prodigal Son (with Pacific Theatre). Other:
Henry V (Bard on the Beach), The Cull (Arts Club), Yellow Fever
(Firehall), Wakey Wakey (PT) East Van Panto: The Wizard of Oz
(Theatre Replacement), Forget About Tomorrow (Belfry/Arts
Club), Angels in America, Parts 1 and 2 (Arts Club), As You Like it
(Bard on the Beach), Titus Buffonius (Rumble Theatre), Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Arts Club/Blackbird Theatre), Tear the
Curtain (Arts Club/Electric Company), The Great Gatsby
(Theatre Calgary). Also in production: Craig and castmate Raugi
Yu have created a TV comedy pilot about security guards called
Calvin and Jerzy.
Alex Gullason
Mona
Alex is a Jessie and Ovation award-winning actor, singer and comedian hailing from North Vancouver, BC. She is a graduate of the Musical Theatre Program at Capilano University.
Select theatre credits include Cabaret/Company/Sweeney Todd (Raincity), Mamma Mia! (Chemainus Theatre), We Now Know/Jesus Christ:The Lost Years/The Canada Show (Monster), Hair (Renegade), Broken Sex Doll (Virtual Stage) Titanic/Bye Bye Birdie/Joseph (TUTS). Film/TV credits include Schmigadoon! Season 1 & 2 (AppleTV), Christmas in Tahoe (Hallmark), Riverdale/The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (The CW).
Alex performs weekly with the main stage ensemble at The Improv Centre and is one half of the two-women comedy duo The Dangerous Janes.
@alexgullason
@thedangerousjanes
Sherine Menes
Jay
Sherine Menes is a first-generation immigrant from the Philippines and is honoured to practice their artistic work on the unceded ancestral lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. They trained under the Intensive Acting Program at Vancouver Institute of Media Arts in 2021. After graduating, Sherine joined the cast of buto/buto : Bones are Seeds, a community devised theatre project that reflected the intergenerational stories of
Vancouver’s Filipinx. Sherine was a part of a residency at the James Black Gallery and exhibited their multimedia work alongside other queer Filipinx artists at ‘bahay na babalik-balikan (a home to always return to)’.
Raugi Yu
Frog
Raugi Yu is a graduate of The Dome Theatre program at Dawson College and The BFA Acting program at UBC, he makes his home in BC with his lovely wife and their two kids who love and support him unconditionally. This will be Raugi’s third show with Ruby Slippers Theatre having previously performed in, “The Duchess” and “I Lost My Husband”. For Touchstone Theatre this will be his debut performance! Raugi is extremely honoured and excited that it will be in this particular show with such stellar people. As always, Raugi sends you love and light and wishes you a great experience.
ABOUT PIPPA MACKIE, PLAYWRIGHT
Pippa Mackie is an award-winning actor, playwright, and producer of feisty and satirical theatre. Her work has been performed on stages and at festivals across North America. Most notable credits include The Progressive Polygamists, co-written/performed with Emmelia Gordon, which toured across Canada for many years, including the Just For Laughs Festival and the Firehall Arts Centre, and won Vancouver and Edmonton’s Pick of The Fringe. Juliet: A Revenge Comedy, which she co-wrote with Ryan Gladstone, was nominated for six Jessie Richardson awards, including Outstanding Original Script and Best Production Small Theatre, and has been touring Canada since 2019. Juliet: A Revenge Comedy will be presented as part of The Cultch’s 2023/24 Season in February 2024.
Her one-act play Starman, which was originally commissioned and produced as part of Upintheair Theatre’s The Array, was adapted into an audio drama as part of Sound the Alarm Theatre’s podcast series in 2021 and received 3 Berlin Film Haus nominations, including Best Scriptwriting and Best Podcast. She is also co-writing a mockumentary comedy podcast titled Philippa Po: Changing Minds with Ryan Gladstone produced by Sound the Alarm Theatre.
Hurricane Mona was created as part of the Arts Club Theatre’s Emerging Playwrights Unit and was awarded Touchstone Theatre’s David King Prize for Comedy in 2022. Pippa was also a participant in the 2023 Banff Playwrights Unit with Hurricane Mona.
Pippa is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada and a member of the Playwrights Guild of Canada. www.pippamackie.com
ABOUT TOUCHSTONE THEATRE
Touchstone has been a mainstay of theatrical innovation and excellence on the West Coast for 47 years. The company’s all-Canadian mandate has helped launch and develop some of the country’s most respected theatre artists, while its substantial body of work has garnered over 75 local and national awards. The company explores the contemporary Canadian play through content and form and stimulates public interest in Canadian cultural perspectives. www.touchstonetheatre.com
ABOUT RUBY SLIPPERS THEATRE
For three decades, critically heralded Ruby Slippers Theatre has given voice to under-represented artists garnering over sixty awards, three national tours, and the creation of five original full length works. We are the premiere purveyors of Québec works in English translation within our region, translations that we at RST often commission, and have a reputation for smart social satire that is infectiously entertaining. RST’s annual Advance Theatre Festival provides development and showcase opportunities to female identifying and gender non-conforming playwrights and directors who also identify as Indigenous, Black, or Persons of Colour. Our two annual main stage offerings and Artist in Residency program also reflect our values and commitment to advance the radically inclusive stage.
RST’s Artistic Director Diane Brown is a recipient of the prestigious Bra D’Or from Playwrights Guild of Canada, a national award in recognition of her many years championing and furthering under represented voices.
Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, All readings at 7:30 PM.
Gavan Cheema, Artist In Residence 2023/24 and Advance Theatre Curator 2025
The Readings
Grandma. Gangsta. Guerilla
by Abi Padilla
MONDAY, Feb. 5 at 7:30 PM
Playwright: Abi Padilla
This ain’t a sob story about war crimes, dementia, nor getting old. It’s a sprint down the memory lane of a butt-kickin’, bar-spittin’, tough grandma who escapes the care home to be with her family. When our favorite Filipino grandma Lola Basyang goes missing, it’s up to her grandchildren Nika and Jun-jun to bring her back to safety. Using their lola’s unfinished memoir, they find clues to her whereabouts, her full-of-beans origin story and the historical turmoils of their motherland. Reminiscent of their immigration stories, they reflect on what it means to maintain family ties in a Western society.
Content Warning:
• Coarse Language
• Brief Mentions and References to Sexual Assault
• Mentions of War
(she/her)
About the Playwright
Abi Padilla
(She/her)
Abi Padilla is a first generation Filipino-Canadian actor, playwright and filmmaker. A graduate of the Studio 58 acting program, her co-written plays “The Banyan Tree” and “How to F*ck Up a Funeral” were staged at the Six of One: New Play Festival. Her short film directorial debut “Thank You Mila” was showcased at the 2020 MAMM Film Festival. She has performed in numerous festivals such as Talking Stick, Ignite Youth, and Vines Art. Select Acting Credits:
Connie Wong (A Chorus Line, Studio 58), Adella/Ensemble(East Van Panto: The Little Mermaid, Theatre Replacement), Thu/Flower Girl (Vietgone, United Players of Vancouver) and Joy (buto/buto: Bones are Seeds, SEACHS). Inspired by the immigrant experience, myths, folk music and martial arts, Abi’s multi-disciplinary work is rooted in community reconciliation and cultural collaborations.
Abi Padilla is a first generation Filipino-Canadian actor, playwright and filmmaker. A graduate of the Studio 58 acting program, her co-written plays “The Banyan Tree” and “How to F*ck Up a Funeral” were staged at the Six of One: New Play Festival. Her short film directorial debut “Thank You Mila” was showcased at the 2020 MAMM Film Festival. She has performed in numerous festivals such as Talking Stick, Ignite Youth, and Vines Art. Select Acting Credits:
Connie Wong (A Chorus Line, Studio 58), Adella/Ensemble (East Van Panto: The Little Mermaid, Theatre Replacement), Thu/Flower Girl (Vietgone, United Players of Vancouver) and Joy (buto/buto: Bones are Seeds, SEACHS). Inspired by the immigrant experience, myths, folk music and martial arts, Abi’s multi-disciplinary work is rooted in community reconciliation and cultural collaborations.
Director: Katie Voravong
Performers:
Evina’s Barrier
by Aki Yaghoubi
TUESDAY, Feb 6 at 7:30 PM
Playwright: Aki Yaghoubi
Even as a little girl, Evina dreamed of being an actor. But when performing Alma’s role in a production where Evina is the only actor with a speaking role, she freezes to complete silence. The show is canceled, and Evina quits acting forever. Evina recalls she saw her father in the audience, who wasn’t even in the country. Who did she see? What sent her to complete silence? Will Evina come out of her barrier?
Content Warning: This play talks about childhood traumas, such as rejection and abandonment, which might trigger some people.
(she/her)
About the Playwright
Aki Yaghoubi
(She/her)
Aki Yaghoubi is an award-winning Iranian-Canadian theatre and film artist. She studied Acting & Directing and Scriptwriting at the Samandarian Artistic Educational Institute, Tehran, Iran. She trained under iconic Iranian artists Hamid Samandarian, Bahram Beyzai, and Mohammad Rezaeirad. In Canada, she has worked alongside Rahul Varma, artistic director of Teesri Duniya Theatre; Diane Roberts, creator and director; Emma Tibaldo, artistic director of Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal; and Jivesh Parasram, artistic director of Rumble Theatre. She received two grants from the Canada Council for the Arts for her plays Parifam, and Tara’s Barrier. She won DémART-Mtl grant from the Conseil des arts des Montréal (2017); and the Outstanding Actress Award for the film Sin la Habana from the Reelworld Film Festival (2021). Her play Parifam was selected for the Ruby Slippers Theatre’s Advanced Theatre Festival (2023). Parifam’s world premiere is scheduled for April 2024 at The Cultch at the Femme Festival.
Aki Yaghoubi is an award-winning Iranian-Canadian theatre and film artist. She studied Acting & Directing and Scriptwriting at the Samandarian Artistic Educational Institute, Tehran, Iran. She trained under iconic Iranian artists Hamid Samandarian, Bahram Beyzai, and Mohammad Rezaeirad. In Canada, she has worked alongside Rahul Varma, artistic director of Teesri Duniya Theatre; Diane Roberts, creator and director; Emma Tibaldo, artistic director of Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal; and Jivesh Parasram, artistic director of Rumble Theatre. She received two grants from the Canada Council for the Arts for her plays Parifam, and Tara’s Barrier. She won DémART-Mtl grant from the Conseil des arts des Montréal (2017); and the Outstanding Actress Award for the film Sin la Habana from the Reelworld Film Festival (2021). Her play Parifam was selected for the Ruby Slippers Theatre’s Advanced Theatre Festival (2023). Parifam’s world premiere is scheduled for April 2024 at The Cultch at the Femme Festival.
Director: Daniela Atiencia
Performers:
Sarvin Esmaeili: Evina
Raugi Yu: Therapist
Kate Ely: Iris
Grant Vlahovic: Iris’ Father
A Captivating Woman
by Natasha Chew
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 7 at 7:30 PM
A Captivating Woman is a one-woman meta-theatrical show revolving around Annalyn, who we meet holding Steve (and the audience), a convenience store clerk at gunpoint for a box of cereal. The show begins with her robbing the corner store but eventually reveals she is severely underprepared and frankly averse to going through with the task at hand. As she finds herself in a sticky situation of her own making, she tries to rationalize her actions. Fighting between her need to perform a sympathetic character to the audience and her need for catharsis, she chronicles her “success” and the synchronous revelation that her life, like Theseus’ boat, may no longer be hers. What seems like a woman “snapped” becomes the portrait of a woman’s undoing: starting over slowly and deliberately amid the rubble, fumbling her way back to the start.
Content warnings for the play: Sexual content. Gun Violence.
About the Playwright
Natasha Chew
Natasha Chew is an emerging Asian-Canadian storyteller who is currently based on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Natasha has recently had her work showcased at the Cultch and Presentation House Theater, and is especially passionate about celebrating moments of levity and joy in the navigation of an ever-evolving identity.
Natasha Chew is an emerging Asian-Canadian storyteller who is currently based on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Natasha has recently had her work showcased at the Cultch and Presentation House Theater, and is especially passionate about celebrating moments of levity and joy in the navigation of an ever-evolving identity.
Director: Anjela Magpantay
Performer:
Sarah Roa: Annalyn
Dramaturg: Jesse Del Fierro
Attachments
by Tricia Trinh
THURSDAY, Feb 8 at 7:30 PM
Playwright: Tricia Trinh
“Attachments” follows six queer characters, from immigrant/refugee families, navigating an intersectional polyamorous relationship. Opening on the morning of Frankie’s thirtieth birthday in which she learns her best friend is throwing her a surprise party; on the guest list are all of her partners and her partners’ partners. In exploration of Attachment Theory, the lovers are double cast as their partner’s parents to investigate how our first relationship with our parental figures bleeds into all of our future relationships. The play toys with dramaturgical form through two atypical dinner scenes that utilizes simultaneous dialogue in English, Cantonese, Japanese, Spanish and Italian; to explore the struggles and privileges between class, culture and gender.
Content warning: Mention of smoking, drinking, psychedelics, sexual intimacy, bdsm, homophobia, anti-non-binary sentiment, racism.
(They/ She/ He )
About the Playwright
Tricia Trinh
(They/ She/ He )
Trinh is a queer, genderfluid, interdisciplinary, Chinese-Vietnamese-Canadian, theatre artist; with a background in playwriting, directing, curating and producing. Graduate of UVic. Founder of Dusty Foot Productions. Selected Playwright/Director Credits: Probability [rEvolver 2018], Red Glimmer [Fringe 2019], Attachments [Tremors 2020]. Selected Assistant Director Credits: we the same [Ruby Slippers 2021], Henry V [Bard on the Beach 2023]. Her artistic practice aims to examine the duality in intersectional lived experiences, specifically investigating intercultural socio-political influence on queer identity and gender identity. They approach theatre as the most direct vessel in which we can share with one another our humanity. He is immensely grateful for the opportunity to play alongside this electric lineup of storytellers. @dustyfoot_trinh
Next creative ventures: Directing the premiere production of Dil Ka by Lee Nisar [Ruby Slippers 2024].
Trinh is a queer, genderfluid, interdisciplinary, Chinese-Vietnamese-Canadian, theatre artist; with a background in playwriting, directing, curating and producing. Graduate of UVic. Founder of Dusty Foot Productions. Selected Playwright/Director Credits: Probability [rEvolver 2018], Red Glimmer [Fringe 2019], Attachments [Tremors 2020]. Selected Assistant Director Credits: we the same [Ruby Slippers 2021], Henry V [Bard on the Beach 2023]. Her artistic practice aims to examine the duality in intersectional lived experiences, specifically investigating intercultural socio-political influence on queer identity and gender identity. They approach theatre as the most direct vessel in which we can share with one another our humanity. He is immensely grateful for the opportunity to play alongside this electric lineup of storytellers. @dustyfoot_trinh
Next creative ventures: Directing the premiere production of Dil Ka by Lee Nisar [Ruby Slippers 2024]
Director: Tricia Trinh
Performers:
Kate Boutilier: Stage Directions
Jennifer Tong: Frankie/Gianna
Rosie Choo Pidcock : Skylar/Jaxtyn
Tanaz Roudgar : Astrid/Ahmya
Alexandra Lainfiesta: Juliette/Rosa
Victor Ayala: Damian/Robert
Kenneth Tynan: Nix/Chinh
Leila Roils the Seas
by Lily Chang
FRIDAY, Feb. 9 at 7:30 PM
Playwright: Lily Chang
Upon receiving news that her grandmother has fallen into a coma in Taiwan, Leila leaves her home in Canada to return to her birthplace, only to find that she alone can see and interact with Pŏpó’s consciousness outside her comatose body. When Pŏpó pressures Leila to help her spirit move on to the celestial realm of Pure Land Buddhism, Leila must suppress not only her nonbelief in the afterlife and her grief over losing her beloved grandmother but also her anger at Pŏpó’s contradictions and history of violence.
Written by Lily Chang with the support of a Canada Council for the Arts grant, Leila Roils the Seas is a polyglot, seriocomic, magical realism family drama about the special bond and generational, socio-cultural clash between a Taiwanese-Canadian woman and her Taiwanese grandmother. By incorporating different languages (English, Mandarin, Taiwanese, Japanese, Sanskrit), commercials, karaoke, nursery songs, Buddhist mantras, Traditional Chinese Medicine, taiji, Chinese opera, and a chicken dance, the play aims to create noise, movement, and imagery in an innovative way to convey the navigation of the impacts of loss (of one’s family, language, culture, homeland) and violence through generations in loud and quiet forms.
Content Warning: Signs, mentions, and/or suggestions of indentured servitude, abuse, substance abuse, domestic violence, body shaming, slut shaming, death/dying, ageism, child abuse, aggression against animals, and suicide.
(she/they)
About the Playwright
Lily Chang (she/they)
Lily Chang (she/they) is a queer Taiwanese-Canadian writer, editor, and director/producer based in Tiohtiá:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal. They are a graduate of Concordia University’s MA program in creative writing. Their work has been published by Room Magazine, Frog Hollow Press, HerStry, Dark Helix Press, Headlight Anthology, and Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop. She was the recipient of the FringeMTL 2023’s Frankie Award for Most Promising Emerging English Producer and a finalist for the 2018 CBC Nonfiction Prize. Their projects have been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Access Copyright Foundation, and Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. For her portfolio, visit lilychang.art and canasianarts.com/artist/lilychang.
Lily Chang (she/they) is a queer Taiwanese-Canadian writer, editor, and director/producer based in Tiohtiá:ke/Mooniyang/Montréal. They are a graduate of Concordia University’s MA program in creative writing. Their work has been published by Room Magazine, Frog Hollow Press, HerStry, Dark Helix Press, Headlight Anthology, and Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop. She was the recipient of the FringeMTL 2023’s Frankie Award for Most Promising Emerging English Producer and a finalist for the 2018 CBC Nonfiction Prize. Their projects have been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Access Copyright Foundation, and Barbara Deming Memorial Fund. For her portfolio, visit lilychang.art and canasianarts.com/artist/lilychang.
Photo of Lily Chang by Alexandre Perrault
Director: Leslie Dos Remedios
Performers:
Emily Ma : Leila
Manami Hara: Po Po
Jade Chang : Auntie Mama
Howard Dai: Silent Man/Johnny/Big Uncle/Physician
Raugi Yu: Uncle Baba/Commercial/Vendor
Agnes Tong: Yiling/Nezha/Young Leila
Dil Ka
Ruby Slippers Theatre, in association with Presentation House Theatre and the Blackout Arts Society, present the world premiere production of Dil Ka by Lee Nisar
World Premiere
March 22-31, 2024
Presentation House Theatre
Tickets through Presentation House Box Office: https://www.phtheatre.org
Dil Ka [‘of the heart’] follows Zahra, a 26 year old Pakistani woman, as she prepares to meet her latest arranged match for marriage. Zahra spends the majority of the play in her family’s kitchen preparing the traditional Pakistani dish, biryani, to present to the prospective groom’s family.
Dil Ka investigates the concept of the kitchen as both refuge and place of constriction for many South Asian women, and dissects the way in which we inherit familial habits and – most importantly – recipes. Toying with direct address as a confessional to explore the intersecting identity of a queer Muslim woman and the growing tension between her familial duties and her own desires for life. As the story unfolds the biryani becomes a metaphor for the ingredients that make a “perfect bride”.
Content Notice:
The play includes: offensive language and discussions of homophobia, racism, Islamophobia.
Performance Schedule
March 21 @ TBD (Dress Rehearsal – Invited or Public)
March 22 @ 7:30pm
March 23 @ 2pm
March 23 @ 7:30pm
March 24 @ 2pm
March 28 @ 7:30pm
March 29 @ 7:30pm
March 30 @ 2pm
March 30 @ 7:30pm
March 31 @ 2pm
CAST & CREATIVE TEAM
Written by Lee Nisar
Directed by Tricia Trinh
Cultural Consultant: Adolyn Hamed Dar
Technical Direction & Production Management by Jessica Han
Set design by Kimira Reddy
Lighting design by John Webber
Sound design by Mishelle Cutler
Projection Design by Jullianna Oke- Chimerik
Costume design by Rachel Macadam
Cast
Nimet Kanji
Parm Soor
Rami Kahlon
Janavi Chawla
Talia Vandenbrink
Tanaz Roudgar
ABOUT LEE NISAR, PLAYWRIGHT
Lee Nisar (they/them) is a 22-year old writer, director, and filmmaker, living and working in Toronto, Canada. Lee’s work explores issues of place-based trauma, identity, and the intersections of queerness and race (particularly within the context of colonialism). Lee graduated from the University of Guelph with a BA in Theatre Studies and Geography, where she had the opportunity to direct various plays under her school’s play festivals, including Wanderlust (2018), Respect for the Dead (2019), and Shakespeare in the Park(ing lot) (2020). Their other interests include singing karaoke with friends, annoying their cat, and bugging the people around her to participate in photoshoots. Lee is currently an MFA Candidate in Documentary Media at X University. Dil Ka is their first full-length play.
ABOUT RUBY SLIPPERS THEATRE
For three decades, critically heralded Ruby Slippers Theatre has given voice to under-represented artists garnering over sixty awards, three national tours, and the creation of five original full length works. We are the premiere purveyors of Québec works in English translation within our region, translations that we at RST often commission, and have a reputation for smart social satire that is infectiously entertaining. RST’s annual Advance Theatre Festival provides development and showcase opportunities to female identifying and gender non-conforming playwrights and directors who also identify as Indigenous, Black, or Persons of Colour. Our two annual main stage offerings and Artist in Residency program also reflect our values and commitment to advance the radically inclusive stage.
RST’s Artistic Director Diane Brown is a recipient of the prestigious Bra D’Or from Playwrights Guild of Canada, a national award in recognition of her many years championing and furthering under represented voices.
ABOUT PRESENTATION HOUSE THEATRE
Nestled in the heart of North Vancouver’s Lower Lonsdale, Presentation House Theatre has become a neighbourhood creative hub, providing the community with a dynamic mix of professional theatre, music, and dance productions — all just a Seabus away from downtown Vancouver. We are the North Shore’s professional theatre company. For more than 40 years, we’ve entertained audiences with innovative programming and quality professional productions in our wonderfully welcoming space. We are committed to presenting and producing shows of the highest standard, and appealing to the diversity of North Shore audiences. We proudly offer programming for children and youth, adults young and old.
Presentation House Theatre believes that professional theatre is for everyone. Every show we present or produce will be of the highest professional standard while also appealing to the diversity of the North Shore. We are proud to offer programming for children and youth, adults young and old, the music aficionado and the innovative and emerging dancers. We are the cultural hub in your own backyard.
ABOUT BLACKOUT ARTS SOCIETY
In 2012, Vancouver, BC, witnessed the inception of a unique theatrical force: Blackout Theatre. Initially emerging as an ad hoc theatre ensemble, we passionately set our sights on creating socially aware and pioneering theatre experiences that resonated deeply with the Persian community. With the invaluable contributions of local Persian artists, our first four years were marked by performances that echoed our cultural heritage and enlightened our audiences.
Taking a significant leap in 2017, Blackout Theatre transformed into a registered not-for-profit organization in British Columbia, Blackout Art Society.
As we evolved, our vision broadened. While the essence of our Persian roots remains undeniably central to our identity, our aspirations extend beyond. We envision a theatre that bridges linguistic and cultural divides, producing enthralling pieces in both Persian and English. We aim to connect with a diverse audience spectrum and secure our place amongst government-funded theatre establishments.they
