Iron Peggy

Adele is a settler theatre artist practicing on unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. She has worked in various capacities on and off the stage with companies such as Gateway, Carousel, Touchstone, Delinquent, Upintheair, frank, Electric Theatre Company and Pi Theatre. Adele is a Jessie Award-winning actor, an educator and an emerging creator. Recent performance credits include: The Orchard (Arts Club); Lysistrata and Timon of Athens (her 3rd season at Bard on the Beach); The Only Good Indian (Pandemic Theatre); Walt Whitman’s Secret (the frank); Happy Place and Brothel #9 (Touchstone). A Studio 58 graduate, Adele last appeared on the Waterfront stage as Susan in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (Carousel).

Deneh’Cho Thompson is a director, actor and playwright who recently moved to Edmonton in pursuit of an MFA in Indigenous Theatre from the University of Alberta. His artistic practice focuses on new play development and centres the values of reciprocity, respect and reflexivity. Deneh’Cho’s recent acting credits include the world premiere of REDPATCH by Sean Oliver Harris and Reas Calvert, and Thanks for Giving by Kevin Loring. Deneh’Cho’s directing credits include: The Girl Who was Raised by Wolverine (written by Deneh’Cho, and winner of the 2016 Playwright Theatre Centre’s Fringe New Play prize), The Dudes of My Life by Christina Andreola, and The Governor of the Dew by Floyd Favel. The Girl Who was Raised by Wolverine was also presented at the Weesageechak Begins to Dance 29 Festival in 2016. Deneh’Cho also teaches youth and community theatre workshops.

>Raes Calvert is a Métis theatre artist who lives and works in Vancouver. He is a graduate of Studio 58. This is his first appearance at the Vancouver International Children’s Festival. As a performer, Raes has toured nationally and internationally with companies such as Axis Theatre, GreenThumb Theatre, Manitoba Theatre for Young People, Neworld Theatre and The Presentation House Theatre. Raes is a three-time nominee and one-time recipient of a Jessie Richardson Theatre Award. In 2017, he was a recipient of a Hnatyshyn Foundation’s REVEAL Indigenous art award. Raes was recently nominated for an Ovation award and a Broadway World award.

Taran Kootenhayoo is an emerging Denesułįné & Stoney Nakoda playwright, born in Cold Lake, AB (1993). He worked with the SOAR Aboriginal Arts youth program from 2012-2015 as a co-writer, acting coach and performer, where he was able to help create The Blackness of White and Crux. While working with SOAR, Taran was also attending Capilano University’s Acting for Stage and Screen program, which included a playwriting course lead by Hiro Kanagawa. It was there Taran wrote his first 10-minute one-act play Poets Have No Strength, as part of Sacred Space: The Tom Cone Festival. After graduation, Taran joined Savage Society as a collaborator for their projects, while simultaneously receiving their support on his newest play, White Noise. Some of Taran’s acting credits include: Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth, The Cure for Death by Lightning, Salmon Girl, TH’OWXIYA, God’s Lake, REDPATCH, Songs of the Land (The Boy Who Was Abandoned & The Council of the Spider, Ant and Fly) and The Good Person of Szechwan.

Balinder Johal is a Film, TV and Theatre Actress with five nominations and one win in the Leo and Canadian Screen Awards, and with numerous awards from the Punjabi community in Canada, India and America. She served on the jury for films for the 2017 Canadian Screen Awards. Balinder is known for: Deepa Mehta’s Heaven on Earth and Beeba Boys; Jatt and Juliet and its sequel; Sanctuary TV series; Here and Now by David Diamond, Bollywood Wedding and My Granny the Gold Fish plays. She has also worked as a dialect coach, narrator, and translator of Punjabi, Hindi and Urdu, and has served as a cultural consultant for many movies.

In a world where almost everything — people, music, culture — gets labelled and slotted into simple categories, Cris Derksen presents 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. This Juno nominated and 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. Her 2019 compositions include: Maada’ookii Songlines- a Mass Choral event for 200 singers Commissioned by Luminato, Rebellion – a short symphonic piece commissioned by the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, and The Triumph of the Euro Christ- a polyphonic choral piece commissioned by Owen Pallet and the Art Gallery of Ontario.

As a performer Cris performs Nationally and Internationally both solo and with some of Canada’s finest including; Tanya Tagaq, Buffy Sainte Marie, Naomi Klein, and Leanne Simpson. Some recent destinations include Hong Kong, Australia, Mongolia and Sweden.

Cris’ 2018 works include: DORA Award for Best Sound Design for Theatre 2018; Kiinalik: these sharp tools, TIFF Premier Biidaaban (the dawn comes) Short Animation Film by Amanda Strong, Ka:hawai Dance Company production of BloodTides, Kamloopa Theatre production, 2018 Banff Centre for the Arts String Quartet Residency White mans cattle and Wood Quintet International 5 bucks per head.

Debbie Courchene is Anishinaabe kwe from Sagkeeng Nation and Rolling River, Manitoba. She is an active member in a number of Indigenous Artist communities across Canada. She recently moved to Vancouver after a decade of travelling across Canada. She expresses a passion for creating inclusive and informative spaces for Indigenous, Black, POC and LGBTQ2 in the Arts.

Completing her BA in Communications at Simon Fraser University this spring, she also has training from the Banff Centre and Mount Royal University Theatre Program, in addition to many other theatre projects. Last summer Debbie worked as a Technical Director for Rumble Theatre (Tremors Festival, Vancouver. BC.), Vancouver Moving Theatre (Weaving Reconciliation; Our Way, Vancouver, BC., Penticton, BC., Toronto, ON., Winnipeg, MB.), Native Earth Performing Arts (Weesageechak Festival. Toronto, ON).

Gavan Cheema is a Vancouver-based director, creator and writer. She is currently the Artist in Residence at Theatre Conspiracy, where she is working on developping her new piece, Jazzy. Her work centers on building community and sparking positive change. Gavan is also an avid researcher and freelance cultural consultant.

Some of her recent directing credits include You Used to Call Me Marie and da’ kink in my hair (Envision Festival), The [Organization] (Unladylike co), Danceboy: Shots Edition (Fuse), Burqa Boutique (upcoming at Revolver Festival), See Bob Run (upcoming at Shift Festival), and a staged reading of Mrs. Singh and Me (Arts Club). She has also been an assistant director for Victim Impact (Theatre Conspiracy), Foreign Radical (UK tour with Theatre Conspiracy), and The Orchard [after Chekhov] (Arts Club).

Jay Dodge is the Artistic Producer of Boca del Lupo, and has won several Jesse Richardson Theatre Awards, including seven nominations for the Critic’s Choice Award for Innovation. His artistry is innovative and daring, as demonstrated in Photog., his one-man show about conflict photography featuring interactive video, stunt rigging and verbatim text. Other examples include Red Phone, an iterative project that dramatically shifts the relationship of the audience to the playwright; large scale, site specific works such a Vasily the Luckless, co-written with James Fagan Tait; and My Dad, My Dog, which takes the audience on a journey to, North Korea.

Currently serving on the national board of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT), Jay is also a co-founder of PL1422 and has special interest in creative space making. He has consulted with several local BC companies, including the Playwrights Theatre Centre and Gateway Theatre, to support their strategic and facility planning.

Jeff is the Technical Director of Kidd Pivot. He is an alumnus of SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts and the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts, and is currently a member of the Associated Designers of Canada.

Jeff is a four-time Jessie Award-winning lighting designer. Notable credits include Carousel theatre’s Pharaoh Serket & the Lost Stone of Fire, Patrick Street Theatre’s Floyd Collins, Pi Theatre’s Blasted and Arts Club’s Hand to God. His past lighting design credits with Boca Del Lupo also includeThe Beginners and My Dad, My Dog.

Jonathan has worked across Canada as an actor and fight director for both the stage and the screen. He is a member of Fight Directors Canada and the Nordic Stage Fight Society in Europe. Some of the fights he has directed include, Macbeth, As You Like It, (Bard on the Beach); Antony & Cleopatra, Three Musketeers, Julius Caesar, Romeo & Juliet, (St. Lawrence Shakespeare); Silver Arrow, Shakespeare In Love, West Side Story, Romeo & Juliet, Spamlot, The Penelopiad, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, (Citadel Theatre); I Am For You (Concrete Theatre); Singin’ in the Rain (Chemianus).

Katharine Carol, MA, is the Artistic and Executive Director of the Vancouver International Children’s Festival and the Executive Producer for Iron Peggy. In her role as an Artistic Director she is committed to engaging, delighting and instilling a passion for the arts in our young audiences. Katharine has over 25 years’ experience as an artistic director and creative producer of festivals, theatre productions and events. Prior to joining the Children’s Festival, she was the Cultural Olympiad Program Manager for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, and the Artistic Director for Public Dreams Societies signature events Illuminares, Parade of Lost Souls and Circus of Dreams. She also performs her signature clown character Keyhole Kate, at various festivals and events.

Kathleen is a Capilano University Graduate in the Technical Theatre Program. She was born and raised in Yellowknife, NWT and moved to Vancouver in 2015 for Theatre. Her field of interests include Theatre, Audio and Visual and Carpentry. Some of her works include Raven Spirits Salmon Girl, Exit 22 Christmas Carol, Exit 22 Thoroughly Modern Millie, Famous Artists The Last Five Years and Savage Society’s The Council of Spider, Ant and Fly.

Mara is a proud instructor at Studio 58, Langara College, with previous credits with Boca de Lupo include Photog, Fall Away Home and Big Bad. She is the resident costume designer at Bard on the Beach, is currently entering her 30th season with The Taming of the Shrew. She has also recently designed costumes for Coriolanus (Stratford Festival), Coriolan (Theatre de Nouveau Monde), The Nightingale (COC/ Ex Machina) and The Tempest (La Nation Huron-Wendat/ Ex Machina) all of which were directed by Robert Lepage.

Marie Clements (Metis/Dene) is an award-winning writer, director, producer and independent story-maker in a variety of mediums including film, T.V., radio, and live performance. Her fifteen plays including Copper Thunderbird, Burning Vision, and The Edward Curtis Project have been presented on some of the most prestigious stages for Canadian and international work including the Festival de Theatre des Ameriques/Montreal, The National Arts Centre, The Magnetic North Festival/Ottawa and The Push International Performance Festival/Vancouver.

Her work has garnered numerous awards and publications including the 2004 Canada- Japan Literary Award, and two prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award nominations for Burning Vision and Copper Thunderbird. Of late, her libretto Missing produced by City Opera and Pacific Opera premiered in Vancouver and Victoria winter 2017, and her play The Unnatural and Accidental Women, will open this September. Marie Clements is the artistic director of red diva projects, which features artists of all disciplines who are willing to create social change through artistic expression.

Michelle is the Artistic Associate at Boca del Lupo and holds a Master of Arts Degree from the University of British Columbia in Theatre Studies. She spent 10 years in Calgary working as an independent producer, dramaturg, and theatre administrator. She worked with companies including Handsome Alice Theatre, Alberta Playwrights’ Network, Pumphouse Theatre, and Theatre BSMT. She currently sits on the boards of the Playwrights Canada Press and the Playwrights Guild of Canada.

Monica Emme is a fabricator, designer, and stage manager currently based in the lower mainland. She is a graduate of Douglas College’s Stagecraft program and holds a BFA in photography from Ryerson University. She is proud to be an Artistic Associate with Awkward Stage Productions and to get to work with various other companies around the city. Monica is thrilled to be joining Boca del Lupo for the first time.

Recent credits include: production design for Jasper in Deadland (Awkward), props for Elephant & Piggie ‘We’re in a Play’, A Charlie Brown Holiday Double Bill (Carousel), So, How Should I Be? (Presentation House Theatre), as well as costume design and fabrication for Cry-Baby (Awkward).

Neeraja is a gifted Hindustani Classical Indian vocalist. Her sweet and masterful voice has delighted and inspired listeners throughout India and Canada. Her musical training includes semi-classical music such as dadra, thumri, hori, kajri and chaiti. She has received several awards for classical, semi-classical and light music. She has collaborated with Canadian musicians and published more than 10 albums. Her song Khub teri pagadi for Movie Sindoor received a Leo Awards nomination in 2010. Neeraja teaches Classical Indian music in the Sanskrit language. She is also a very successful life skills councelor, a writer for Sakal newspaper in Maharashtra, and holds a Masters degree in Microbiology. She is fluent in Marathi, Hindi, Sanskrit, Rajastani, Bengali, Punjabi, Urdu and Kannad.

Paula Danckert is a dramaturg, Foley artist, story editor and teacher. For more than thirty-five years she has worked across Canada in theatre, opera, dance, television and film. Paula graduated from the National Theatre School where she taught for many years. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto’s Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance.

She has been the Company Dramaturg and Artistic Associate at Canada’s National Arts Centre, Artistic Director of Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal, President of Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre in Halifax, drama producer at CBC radio, Associate Producer for Live Art Productions, Foley artist for Salter Street Films, and host of Artspeak on CKDU- FM. She has been Associate Dramaturg at The Banff Playwrights’ Colony and at The Stratford Festival.

Sherry J. Yoon, Artistic Director of Boca del Lupo, is a theatre creator and director with a passion for creating new performances through collaborations. She has co-created more than 35 productions, including: Fall Away Home, an intergenerational site-specific production in Stanley Park; Photog., a large-scale show created with interviews from prominent conflict photographers; and You Are It, which investigates the complex dynamics between female friendships.

During Sherry’s tenure, Boca del Lupo has received numerous awards, including the Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award and Jessie Awards for Outstanding Production, Design, Actor and Ensemble, as well as the Critic’s Choice Innovation Award. Her productions have toured festivals and venues across Canada, Europe and Mexico. She is currently co-creating an online exhibition of Expedition, an iterative collaboration between Boca del Lupo and the Performance Corporation. She is also working on Net Zero, an interactive theatre installation about climate change that involves the audience using a stationary bicycle to charge a battery. Sherry is also a freelance director who has worked at the Richmond Gateway Theatre, Bard on the Beach, the Vancouver International Children’s Festival and at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.

Shizuka is a Vancouver-based artist known for her set design and puppetry. She’s also a mask and props maker, director, painter, illustrator, costume designer, and stage/film actor. She has worked with many established theatre companies including Arts Club, Neworld, Théâtre la Seizième, Carousel Theatre for Young People, Electric Company, Rumble, Axis, Boca del Lupo, Citadel and Theatre Newfoundland Labrador. Shiz is a two-time Jessie Richardson Award winner and four-time nominee. She is also an Ovation award nominee, recipient of the Earl Klein Memorial Scholarship and Bill Millerd Artist Grant, and a graduate of Studio 58.

Select Design credits include Sweat and Topdog Underdog (Arts Club), King Arthur’s Night (Neworld), Jabber (GreenThumb/ Neworld), Flee (Electric Company/Studio 58), Elephant and Piggie’s “We Are in a Play!” and Go, Dog. Go! (Carousel), Hamelin: A New Fable and Somebody Loves You Mr. Hatch (Axis). Some puppetry credits include Slime (The Only Animal), Crème-Glacée (Théâtre la Seizième), Sleeping Beauty Dreams (Marionetas de laEsquina/ Presentation House) and The Japanese Problem (Universal Limited).

Shiz was hailed by theatre critic Colin Thomas as “an emerging star of theatrical design.” Currently in development is her own puppet show Otosan, inspired by Shiz’s real life experience of living with a father who is a wildlife videographer.

Yvonne is a Vancouver based stage manager. Her recent credits include touring with Neworld’s King Arthur’s Night to the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Rumble Theatre’s BLANK, Gateway Theatre & Patrick Street Productions’ It’s A Wonderful Life, and Arts Club Theatre’s Mustard .

Her favourite credits include ItsaZoo’s Competition Is Fierce, Boca del Lupo’s Fall Away Home, and touring with Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia’s Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Eric Carle Favourites to USA, Kingdom of Bahrain, and South Korea.