Producer Lab Café @ RISER

Sue Goberdhan (she/her) is an Indo-Caribbean actor, singer, arts administrator, advocate, playwright, and collaborator.  She has dedicated her career to advocating for the revitalization of the foundation of Edmonton’s theatre community to include and celebrate the stories and voices of people from marginalized communities.

As an actor, some of her favorite acting credits include Sue in E DAY (Serial Collective),  Nadira in CHUMP (Could Be Cool Theatre), Leah in Marnie Day (Could Be Cool Theatre), and Pluto Krasinski in What’s the Deal? (Success 5000). She is also co-founder of the new musical theatre company Could Be Cool Theatre.

Sue graduated from MacEwan University with a diploma in Arts and Cultural Management, and attended the University of Alberta in pursuit of a degree in Drama. Thus far, she has spent her arts administration career working for several theatre companies in Edmonton including Grindstone Theatre and SkirtsAFire Festival. In October of 2020, Sue had the distinct privilege of beginning her tenure as Co-Artistic Producer at Azimuth Theatre. She has since also worked as Interim Executive Director at Rapid Fire Theatre and is presently the Administration Director at Theatre Alberta’s Artstrek.

Sue makes her proverbial bag here in Treaty 6 Territory (colonially known as Edmonton, Alberta.) As someone who lives in this body with roots stretching beyond Turtle Island to Guyana, India, China, and lands unbeknownst to her, she is grateful for the parts of her heritage that have rooted her here in this gorgeous land that has nourished, taught, humbled, and sheltered her. Sue continues to benefit from the tremendous losses suffered by the Indigenous peoples who cared for this land long before she was born. She works every day to learn, listen, and do as much as she can to be a better ally and advocate today than she was yesterday.

John is the founder and Artistic Director of Shadow Theatre. As a director he has over 110 productions to his credit including: The Wrong People Have Money, Bloomsday, Cottagers and Indians, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, The Comedy Company, Fly Me To The Moon, Outside Mullingar, Slumberland Motel, The Best Brothers, ‘ART’ & Annapurna (Shadow Theatre), Henry and Alice Into the Wild, The Odd Couple (The Mayfield Dinner Theatre), Gidion’s Knot (Pick of the Fringe, Edmonton Journal, Vue Weekly), A Picasso (Sterling Award: Outstanding Fringe Production and Outstanding Fringe Director, (Critics Award Outstanding Fringe Production 2013), The Unseen (Critics Award Outstanding Fringe Production 2011).

Other favourites include Grace (Sterling Nomination: Outstanding Director and Outstanding Production) and Three Days of Rain (Sterling Nomination: Outstanding Director and Outstanding Production). He also directed the Canadian premieres of: Mistakes Were Made, The Pavilion, Speaking in Tongues, Honour and The Beginning of August, and the world premieres of The Wrong People Have Money, The Comedy Company, Miss Teen, Little Elephants, The Science of Disconnection, and The Liars.

One of his passions is working as a dramaturge and he has helped nurture many new plays to production. In 2016 he was inducted into the City of Edmonton’s Salute to Excellence Hall of Fame, for Arts and Culture, and has twice been nominated for the Mayor’s Arts Awards for Outstanding Artistic Direction.

Writer, director, dramaturg and artistic leader, Mieko is the Associate Artistic Director at the Citadel Theatre. Previously she was in artistic leadership at Concrete Theatre for 31 years. Her award-winning films have screened at over thirty festivals including the Toronto and Vancouver International Film Festivals and Asian American Film Festivals in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and San Diego. Her plays have been translated into seven languages, and read at the HotInk Int’l Reading Festival at The Lark in NY, the Chekhov Int’l Theatre Festival in Moscow, the Pop Up International Play Festival at the Arcola in London and been finalists for the 4 Play Series at The Old Vic, the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award, the City of Edmonton Book Prize and recognized with the Carol Bolt Prize and the Enbridge Award for Established Canadian Playwright. In 2023 Mieko received the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award. Her latest play Burning Mom just closed at the Arts Club in Vancouver and will be seen across the Lower Mainland of BC, at the Citadel and the Belfry Theatre next season.

Mac Brock (he/him) is your friendly neighbourhood queer prairie playwright and producer. He loves big events and wild ideas: Mac has been the Events & Production Coordinator for Nuit Blanche Edmonton, the Market Director for Edmonton Christmas Market, and an Event Producer for Regina’s Cathedral Village Arts Festival alongside his own personal theatre work. As an administrator and consultant he has supported organizations like Edmonton Fringe Theatre, the Good Women Dance Collective, the Alberta Dance Alliance, the Edmonton Heritage Council, Concrete Theatre, and more. He also currently serves as the Treasurer for CRIPSiE (Collaborative Radically Integrated Performers Society in Edmonton). In 2024, he was honoured to receive the Legacy Sterling Award for Outstanding Contribution to Theatre in Edmonton.

His play Boy Trouble was nominated for Outstanding Fringe Production and Outstanding Independent Production at the Sterling Awards, he is currently working on a love letter to prairie queers in a new commission from the Citadel Theatre, and he’s written a bunch of other gay nonsense too. He has written public art tours, produced podcasts, curated cabarets, and many weird jobs in between. Basically, he’s a big words and numbers (and lists) guy.

macbrock@commongroundarts.ca

Morgan Yamada’s (she/her) family roots extend from Germany, Japan, and many other places, all meeting in amiskwaciwâskahikan, also known as Edmonton. Here, she is proudly one of Azimuth Theatre’s Co-Artistic Producers, where she leads with a commitment to inclusive curation, collaboration, and arts education.
With a strong background in physical-based theatre and new work development, she brings her varied experiences as an actor, fight director, administrator, and arts educator to every project. She has performed as an actor in theatres nationwide as part of award-winning ensembles.As a fight director, Morgan has collaborated with high schools, universities, and professional theatres, choreographing stage violence and teaching workshops and courses. She prioritizes sustainable practices and artist agency, fostering communication and ensemble support in all her projects.

She’s a University of Alberta BFA Acting alum and a Fight Instructor with the Academy of  Fight Directors Canada.

Morgan’s role at Azimuth Theatre allows her to blend her artistic vision with her dedication to creating inclusive, collaborative environments. By integrating technology, care, and curating space for bold work to thrive. For more about her work, visit www.morganyamada.com (http://www.morganyamada.com/).

Sarah is a theatre director, dramaturg, and facilitator from Edmonton (Amiskwaciywaskahian, Treaty 6 territory) currently living in Montréal (Tio’tia:ke, unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory). She has supported the development of many new works, from workshop readings to premiere productions, and is particularly interested in performance that makes room for (or demands) unconventional staging and a renegotiated relationship with the audience. She loves (auto)biography/autofiction plays and art imitating life imitating art.

She is currently artistic and production assistant with Montreal creation company Joe Jack et John, and has worked with Common Ground, Youtheatre, Nextfest, Bread & Puppet Theater, OFFTA (LA SERRE – arts vivants), and the Quebec Drama Federation. Recent projects include Brick Shithouse, Re:Construct(ion) and In My Own Little Corner, as well as curating Nextfest’s Smut Nite from 2019 to 2022 (Garden of Earthly Delights, Hell Bent for Leather. Sarah knows a couple things about school tours, work in translation, team-building, cabaret production, theatre criticism, drama education and queer methodology.

Whittyn Jason (they/them/theirs) is a queer, non-binary, mixed-race scenographer and award-winning lighting designer of South African and Ukrainian heritage primarily living and create in amiskwacîwâskahikan (colonially known as Edmonton, Alberta), whose work has been featured across the country and as far as the Czech Republic. they have worked on over 60 productions for theatre, dance, and alternative performance in the role of designer with a focus on interactive, site-specific projects and new work development.

They have designed for black boxes, tiny stages, big stages, real weddings and fake funerals, indie films, live events, beer gardens, concrete cubes, empty hockey arenas, parties, debauchery and mischief, immersive website experiences, shows that have to pack up into the back of a pickup, haunted barns, self-described ‘impossible projects’, abandoned buildings, dive bars, apartments, river valleys, warehouses, and more.

In addition to practising scenography and lighting, they are also the current Found Festival Director (Common Ground Arts), and artistic producer with the Major Matt Mason Collective. Whittyn is a member of the ADC659, holds a BFA in Theatre Design from the University of Alberta, and is an avid lover of lemon loaf.