Producer Lab Café @ RISER

Lana Hughes is an award nominated director, actor, playwright, sound designer, and producer based in Edmonton, and the Artistic Director of Shadow Theatre. Her work as an actor, director, and playwright has been seen throughout Western Canada. 

Selected directing credits include: Casey & Diana (ATP & Citadel Theatre), Autumn, Morningside Road, Robot Girls (Shadow Theatre), Nightshrine (Workshop West), Jack & The Beanstalk (Alberta Musical Theatre Company), The Remarkably True, Real Life Adventures of Callie Montgomery (Promise Productions/Skirts of Fire Festival), Encounters (Citadel Theatre), Bust ‘Em Up Burlesque (Send in the Girls Burlesque/Citadel Theatre), A Bronte Burlesque (Send In the Girls Burlesque/Theatre Network), and Tudor Queens: A Burlesque (Send In The Girls Burlesque).

She served as the Managing Director at Catalyst for 6 years, where she produced films, soundtracks, and large-scale musical productions that toured throughout Canada.

Jenna Rodgers (she/her) is a Director and Dramaturg of Chinese and Welsh descent from  amiskwaciy-wâskahikan (Edmonton). She is an Artistic Director who strives to blend community-based ethos with professional practice. Currently, she’s the Outgoing Artistic Director of Concrete Theatre and the Incoming Artistic Director of Theatre Network. She is the founding Artistic Director of Chromatic Theatre – a company dedicated to developing and supporting work by racialized artists.

Jenna values the intersection of art and education, especially as she learns to raise small responsible humans while maintaining a career in the arts. She is a passionate advocate for anti-racism in the arts, and is a fierce supporter of new play development. She volunteers with a number of arts organizations locally and internationally, and is the proud recipient of the “Artist, Scholar, Activist” award from Performance Studies International.

Geoffrey Simon Brown is an Alberta-based theatre artist and founding member of the Major Matt Mason Collective, a performance company dedicated to creating visceral, intimate, experimental, small-scale theatre about and for Alberta’s younger generations. He has served as the director of the collective’s Wildfire National Playwriting Competition since 2015. Through the competition, and the company’s development unit, he has helped to support dozens of new Canadian plays.

His own plays include Static, Michael Mysterious, The Circle, Night, Progress, Still Still Still, Control, Air, If I Could Tell You Everything (written alongside the Theatre Junction high school mentorship ensemble), and the most recent adaptation(s) of A Christmas Carol for Theatre Calgary. As an actor he has performed on many of the major stages in Alberta as well as some living rooms and basements. He is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s playwriting program. More at geoffreysimonbrown.com.

Farren Timoteo is an Edmonton-based director, actor, playwright, Artistic Director of Teatro Live!, and former Artistic Director of Alberta Musical Theatre Company. Selected directing credits include The 39 Steps and Everybody Goes to Mitzi’s (Teatro Live!); The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (Mayfield Dinner Theatre); and numerous productions with Alberta Musical Theatre Company, including Rapunzel and Pinocchio. Assistant directing credits include Crazy for You (Citadel Theatre/Theatre Calgary), Don Giovanni and HMS Pinafore (Edmonton Opera), and Roméo et Juliette (Calgary Opera). Acting credits include Jersey Boys and Peter and the Starcatcher (Citadel Theatre); As You Like It and Shakespeare in Love (Citadel Theatre/Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre); The Three Musketeers (Citadel Theatre/Arts Club); and Die Fledermaus (Edmonton Opera). He has toured his award-winning solo show Made in Italy across Canada since 2016. His work has been recognized with multiple Sterling Awards, a Jessie Richardson Award, a Betty Mitchell Award, the Calgary Theatre Critics’ Award, and inclusion in Avenue Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40.  

Tessa Stamp is an Edmonton-based multidisciplinary artist whose work lives at the intersections of theatre, sustainability, business and community. With a background in dance and a long career in technical theatre, she brings a deep understanding of space, structure, and transformation to everything she creates. Her practice spans scenic, lighting and costume design; scenic, mural and furniture painting, interactive commercial displays, and community-based collaborations and events. 

Tessa is particularly interested in the power of making as a way to process experience—how the act of creating can hold what words cannot. Her work embraces imperfection, texture, and bold use of colour as tools for both expression and connection.

In addition to her artistic practice, she fosters creative communities that encourage others to make bravely, believing that creativity is not a luxury, but a vital human need and a necessity for regulated mental health.

Hayley Moorhouse (she/they) is a queer actor, producer, dramaturg, and award-winning playwright. She is grateful to be living and working on Treaty 6 territory in Amiskwaciwâskahikan, colonially known as Edmonton. As an actor, they’ve appeared in productions with various companies in Edmonton, including the Citadel Theatre, Workshop West, Shadow Theatre, Tiny Bear Jaws, and more. Hayley’s plays have been produced at the Edmonton Fringe Festival, the Alberta Queer Calendar Project, The Sprouts Festival, and in Edmonton Fringe’s Mainstage Season. Their latest play, Tough Guy, was the winner of the 2025 Alberta Playwriting Competition. Since 2023, they’ve worked as a dramaturg for Nextfest Arts Company. As a producer and arts administrator, Hayley helps manage projects ranging in scale from new play workshops to the legendary behemoth that is the Edmonton International Fringe Festival.

Andrew Ritchie (he/him) is an award winning director and theatre maker born and raised on Treaty 6 territory in amiskwaciwâskahikan (Edmonton). He is a fourth generation Canadian prairie settler of Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and Polish heritage and has performed and directed across Turtle Island (North America). He is co-founding artistic director of Thou Art Here Theatre, and program coordinator at Theatre Alberta. Previously he was an ensemble member with Rapid Fire Theatre, co-founder and festival director of Common Ground’s Found Festival, and Sandbox Series & Education coordinator at the Globe Theatre (Regina). He has a MFA in Directing/Creation from York University, BA in Drama from University of Alberta, and is a graduate of Citadel/Banff Centre for the Arts Professional Theatre program and University of Calgary/Rozsa Arts Management program. His biggest passion is for immersive, site-specific theatre, anything that interacts with the audience! Learn more at andrewritchie.net

Salem Zurch (they/he) is a multidisciplinary artist and curator working primarily in photography, printmaking and film. Their artistic practice is informed by years of community building as a black trans dyke living on the prairies.

Grounded in this relational approach, Salem orchestrates immersive experiences that transcend conventional storytelling. They have served as Creative Director at APIRG, are a STRATUS Journal board member, are SNAP’s current emerging artist in residence, and are the person behind the Hoedown—a queer honky-tonk dance party produced as part of Found Fest for three years.

Salem lives in amiskwacîwâskahikan with his beloved and his two cats, Truck and Alfie. He dreams of one day being an absolutely shredded grandpa with 3-12 grandbabies.

Actor, director, producer, fundraiser, administrator, advocate–Kendra Connor has worn many different hats throughout her artistic career. She has proudly called the Varscona home for nearly twenty years, first as a performer and now as Executive Director. A four-time Sterling Award nominee, Kendra has appeared with many of the province’s excellent theatre companies, including the Citadel Theatre, Theatre Calgary, Theatre Network, Shadow Theatre, Teatro Live, Mayfield Dinner Theatre, Workshop West, Alberta Musical Theatre Company, Theatre Prospero, and the Edmonton Opera. Kendra is a graduate of the Theatre Arts and Arts & Cultural Management programs at MacEwan University.