Wildfire

David graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada’s playwriting program in 2006. He has received numerous awards (Governor General’s Award, Michel-Tremblay Award, Sony-Labou-Tansi Award, CTDA Playwright Award, Association Québécoise des Critiques de Théâtre Award, Jessie Award) and his work has been presented in more than a dozen countries in Europe and North America.

Leanna is an award-winning actor, playwright, and translator whose passions include lifting up the stories and voices of women as well as championing a new generation of French-Canadian playwrights by transmitting their extraordinary theatrical visions into the English language. She won Vancouver’s 2019 Jessie Award for Best New Play for her translation of David Paquet’s The Shoe. She also won the Safewords National New Play Prize in 2018 for her translation of Olivier Sylvestre’s The Paradise Arms.

Jon is a bilingual playwright, performer and director, and co-founder and artistic director of the Sterling award-winning company, Surreal SoReal Theatre, and has worked across Canada. Directing credits include Before Her Time: 3 Plays by Samuel Beckett, The Skriker, A Number, Shopping and Fucking, and The Woman Before (National Theatre School). Assistant directing credits include The Seagull and The Changeling (National Theatre School) What Where, The Zoo Story, Keeping Peace (Surreal SoReal Theatre), The Genius Code (Catalyst Theatre / Surreal SoReal), Guernica (Hidden Harlequin) A Midsummer Night’s Dream (asst director, Citadel Theatre), and the first Quebecois translation of Tracy Letts’ Killer Joe (La Licorne staged reading, upcoming).

Philippe Cyr is a graduate of the École supérieure de théâtre de l’UQAM and completed his master’s degree in theatre at UQAM. He co-founded, l’Homme allumette in 2006, a theatre company dedicated to contemporary creation, and presented an adaptation of Jean-Paul Daoust’s poetic text Les cendresbleues and Sarah Berthiaume’s Selfie during a creative residency at the Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui. Philippe is now the general and artistic director of l’Homme allumette. He also created Le brasier (Wildfire) by David Paquet at the Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui, a show that was remounted three times and toured the stages of the Maison de la culture de Montréal and elsewhere in Quebec. He is co-directediShow (AQCT Award 2013 – best Montreal production) which is touring in Canada and France. He directed J’aime Hydro by Christine Beaulieu (AQCT Award 2017 – best Montreal production) which was presented at the FTA, Théâtre La Licorne, Usine C, Théâtre La Bordée, Théâtre Maisonneuve, and is on tour throughout Quebec and France. He regularly contributes to academic life at UQAM and the National Theatre School of Canada and he is an associate artist at Usine C.

Julie is an award-winning Montreal actor and theatre creator. Her first play, Mixie and the Halfbreeds, a play about mixed identity in multiple universes, was co-written with Adrienne Wong and is on the list 49 Plays by Women of Colour. Her second play, The Tashme Project: The Living Archives, co-created with artist, Matt Miwa, is a verbatim one-act about the Japanese Canadian experience around the WWII internment camps, told through the childhood memories of community elders. Tashme received multiple META (Montreal English Theatre Awards) and Rideau Award (Ottawa) nominations including winning a META for Best Text. Julie is co-artistic director of Tashme Productions, is an associate artistic producer of Metachroma Theatre (whose mandate is to address the under-representation of visible minority actors in Canadian theatre) and is currently an acting mentor with Black Theatre Workshop’s Artist Mentorship Program.

Kathleen holds an M.A. in Classical Acting from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, London, UK as well as B.F.A. Specialization in Theatre Performance from Concordia University. In London she won the UK Monologue Slam L.A. edition for her performance in a self-penned monologue entitled The Fernsdale Wyoming Spelling Bee Competition. Other selected credits include Imago Theatre’s production of Other People’s Children (Hanna Moscovitch) at the Centaur Theatre; the Austrian tour of Molière’s L’Écoledes Femmes (Vienna’s English Theatre); and the role of Imogen in Cymbeline (Les Foules, UK). This is her second show with Talisman Theatre, she played the role of Julie in Me & You.

After graduating from the Professional Theatre Program at John Abbott College, where he was awarded both the Karla Napier Scholarship and the Pamela Montgomery Award, Davide became an Artistic Associate of TeesriDuniya Theatre. During his time there, he performed in main stage productions, staged readings and began his training as a director by completing a comprehensive directing mentorship in collaboration with The Other Theatre’s Stacey Christodoulou. Davide was also invited to Black Theatre Workshop’s Artist Mentorship Program in its inaugural year, as part of the directing program. Davide has also appeared in a number of commercials, television series and films such as The Lottery, Helix, Being Human and X-Men: Apocalypse.