COLEEN SHIRIN MACPHERSON

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR  (CANADA /  UK)

www.coleenmacpherson.com 

Coleen is a Canadian playwright, director and actor. As a half Parsi-Indian and half Irish theatre maker, her work with her company engages with ideas of cross-cultural collaboration.  She has toured work in China, UK, France, Egypt and across Canada.   She studied at Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris and was part of the school’s first writer’s program where she mentored with French playwright, Michal Azama.  She also studied at the University of Toronto (Hons BA) and Concordia University and has worked with companies such as:  Theatre Smith-Gilmour, Necessary Angel, Bad New Days, Why Not Theatre, Factory Theatre, Fu-Gen Theatre and Modern Times Theatre. She was a core member of UK based international touring theatre company, Wet Picnic, touring shows across the UK and France.  Her play, First Draft, was performed at Hart House Theatre (Toronto), the Camden People’s Theatre (Camden Fringe) and the Mimetic Festival (The Vaults) in London, UK.  It later toured to Cairo, Egypt (Falaki Theater) with StudioZAT and was the first Canadian-Egyptian collaboration in November 2016.    Coleen co- translated of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Pylade with Adam Paolozza, which was performed by the Great Jones Repertory Company at La MaMa Off-Broadway in 2015 and toured across Europe. 

Coleen directed and devised This is Why We Live, which premiered at Plateau 31 in Paris, in co-production with Théâtre de L’Enfumeraie in France and was further developed in Toronto at showcased at The Theatre Centre.  The play toured to Poland in 2018 as part of the Miłosz Festival and was recently part of the 58th season of La MaMa’s Off-Broadway season in New York City to rave reviews.   She was an artist in residence at Old Vic New Voices in London, UK and also at Théâtre de L'Enfumeraie in Le Mans, France to develop this work.   She was part of the Arcola Theatre's Writers' Group in London, UK and worked with international touring theatre company Wet Picnic, performing across the UK.

 Erased was recently in development as part of Theatre Passe Muraille’s BUZZ festival and was developed at La MaMa Experiments on July 13th as a film-play. Coleen is Creator-in-Residence at Cahoots Theatre and was part of Factory Theatre’s Bedrock Creators’ Initiative. Her podcast, Wild Women earned a Canada Council Digital Originals and Digital Now grant, where she is producing and creating more episodes with Martha Ross. Coleen teaches playwriting and movement-based theatre creation in Canada, France, Egypt and the UK. Coleen recently won the Ken McDougall Award in Directing, presented by Buddies and TPM.

Coleen was recently Assistant Director at The Stratford Festival for Antoni Cimolino’s Richard III in the 2022 Season and is currently Creator-in-Residence at Cahoots Theatre and part of the Post-Modernists Playwriting Group with Modern Times Theatre. Her play, Erased will premiere at Theatre Passe Muraille this November 2024.

ALAINE HUTTON

COMPANY MEMBER/ACTOR  (CANADA)

Alaine is a performer/writer/devisor. After graduating from the University of Toronto with a specialist in theatre and major in cinema, she has continued her education at École International de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. There she was also able to study design and mise en scene with Pascale Lecoq in the Laboratoire d’Etude de Mouvement (LEM).  

She has studied Mask and Clown with John Turner of Canadian Clown duo  Mump and Smoot at the Manitoulin Conservatory of Creation and Performance.  Alaine continuously studies under Denise Fujiwara in Butoh based embodiment and is a currently 2016/17 season collaborator and was the 2013-2014 Fujiwara Dance Inventions scholarship recipient. 

Alaine is the co-artistic director of Lester Trips (Theatre); an independent Toronto-based collective dedicated to the creation of original Canadian work in bold, visceral forms of physical theatre. Show credits for Lester Trips (Theatre) include— writer/performer in Intangible Trappings (2016), writer/performer in Mr.Truth (2016), writer/performer in LOVEWURST (2014), co-adapted by/performer in The Misunderstanding (2014). 

SARAH WARREN

COMPANY MEMBER/DIRECTOR  (USA / UK)

Sarah Warren is a director, writer and actor. Her debut feature film, MLE (My Little Eye), a comedy spy caper, premiered at LOCO London Comedy Film Festival at the BFI, where it won the Special Commendation Discovery Award. It went on to show at over a dozen film festivals winning 5 awards including Best Actress and Best Feature at AOF, Los Angeles. MLE featured an ensemble cast including Oscar winning directors Paul Haggis and Mike Figgis.  Sarah’s student feature, Moments Before, premiered at festivals in LA and Toronto. Her short films have shown at Cannes International Film Festival, Krakow and TIFF. Her short, Guilt Or, went on to show theatrically before Polanski’s Carnage. Sarah studied at the University of Toronto where she was selected to work with Atom Egoyan on a one-year interdisciplinary art course, where she began making films. Egoyan especially championed her comedic voice. As an actor, Sarah is premiering in the upcoming feature film, A Dozen’s Summers. And as a theatre director, she most recently remounted the award winning play, First Draft, at Camden People’s Theatre and Mimetic Festival at the Vaults. 

Sarah also works as a University Lecturer, with most recent international masterclasses in London UK, Egypt, Canada, Malaysia, and at the University of Southern California. Her lecturing and module leader work has led her to write her first academic book entitled, Listen, for On Camera Acting.

ELODIE MONTEAU

COMPANY MEMBER/ACTOR  (FRANCE)

Diplômée de Psychologie, et formée au théâtre avec Jean-Laurent Cochet dans sa Master Class Vendéenne pendant deux ans, elle intègre ensuite le Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique de Rennes en cycle 3, tout en poursuivant ses études en Art du spectacle. En Master 1 d'études théâtrales, elle écrit un mémoire sur la catharsis au Théâtre et entre la même année en Cycle d'Orientation Professionnel au Conservatoire de Rennes. Elle y étudie pendant deux ans différents types de textes classiques et contemporains, et met en scène un extrait de Catégorie 3.1 de Lars Noren, projet à l'issue duquel elle obtient son Diplôme d'Etudes Théâtrales. 

Elle poursuit son parcours à l'Ecole Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq à Paris ou elle y apprend le mouvement, le jeu masqué, le mime, le théâtre gestuel et le clown. Parallèlement elle a toujours été passionnée par l'improvisation théâtrale et a été formée à la Troupe d'Improvisation Rennaise ainsi qu'à la Ligue d'Improvisation Parisienne. Elle a également participé à de nombreux stages autour du masque, du clown, de l'interprétation, de l'écriture, du chant et de la danse.   Elle fait partie aujourd'hui de différentes compagnies internationales telles que Théâtre Senza ou elle joue dans Miraculi, un spectacle sur l'île de Lampedusa  ; ou encore Open Heart Surgery avec la pièce This is why we live, en cours de création. Elle intègre récemment deux compagnies françaises, Petithuit avec laquelle elle joue dans Sans Issues Dessous, inspiré des textes de Karl Valentin, ainsi que les Compagnons Butineurs pour la pièce Cassandre.