Since his graduation from the National Theatre School of Canada in 2008, Mani Soleymanlou is a prolific and recognized actor on the Montreal scene. He is the founder of Orange Noyée (2011), his creative company with which he writes, directs, and performs. His triptic on identity: UN, DEUX, TROIS tours Canada and is praised in a New York Times profile. Mani shines in multiple feature films such as Monia Chokri’s La femme de mon frère, Matthew Rankin’s Une language universelle. He takes on memorable roles on the small screen in C’est comme ça que je t’aime, La faille, Lâcher prise. He defends the role of Patrick, one of the lead characters in Radio-Canada new series, Avant le crash. In 2021, he became the artistic director of the French Theatre of Ottawa’s National Centre of Arts.

Maryse Warda was born and raised in Egypt. She landed in Montreal at age nine where she learned English watching Happy Days. In 1991, Pierre Bernard, artistic director of the Théâtre de Quat’Sous, hired her as his assistant, and gave her a first shot at translation – Cindy Lou Johnson’s Brilliant Traces – thus changing the course of her life. 

She has since translated more than 70 plays. She was instrumental in bringing the works of Canadian writers such as Daniel Brooks, John Mighton, Morris Panych, Erin Shields and George F. Walker to francophone audiences. She has also translated works from American, British, Irish and Scottish playwrights such as Christopher Durang, Margaret Edson, David Greig, David Hare, David Mamet, Douglas Maxwell, Harold Pinter, Philip Ridley and Simon Stephens. Her translations are celebrated for being faithful to the original, while making effective yet unostentatious use of the Quebec idiom.

Her translation of George F. Walker’s Suburban Motel series earned her an award in 2000 from the Académie québécoise du théâtre, and was shortlisted for the 2001 Governor General’s Literary Award. But it’s her translation of Greg MacArthur’s The Toxic Bus Incident which received the GG in 2011.

Linda Gaboriau has been active in Canadian and Quebec theatre as a consultant, dramaturg and translator. She has translated some 60 plays, including the works of some of Quebec’s most prominent playwrights: Rene-Daniel Dubois, Michel Marc Bouchard, Normand Chaurette, Daniel Danis, and Michel Tremblay. Her other acclaimed translations include works by Marie-Claire Blais and Pierre Morency. She worked at Montreal’s Centre des auteurs dramatiques (CEAD), taught at the National Theatre School, was theatre critic for the Montreal Gazette, and hosted and produced radio shows for the CBC. She has won three Chalmers Awards, three Dora Mavor Moore Awards, and a Governor General’s Award for Literary Translation. 

Mary Vingoe is a Canadian playwright, actor, and theatre director. Vingoe was one of the co-founders of Canadian feminist theatre company Nightwood Theatre and later co-founded Ship’s Company Theatre in Parrsboro and Eastern Front Theatre in Halifax. From 2002 to 2007, Vingoe was artistic director of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival. Vingoe is an Officer of the Order of Canada and received the Portia White Prize. Her play Refuge was a shortlisted nominee for the Governor General’s Award for English-language drama at the 2016 Governor General’s Awards. 

Kathryn Shaw is a Canadian director, actor, and writer living in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. From 1985 to 2020 she was the Artistic Director of Studio 58. 

Shaw graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in dramatic art from Whitman College and a Master of Fine Arts in acting from the Columbia University School of the Arts in New York City. Following graduation, she lived in Victoria, British Columbia for a short while before eventually moving to Vancouver.

Over the past few decades, she has directed some of Canada’s most prestigious theatre companies. She has taught acting for professional and community groups across British Columbia, Winnipeg, Halifax, and has also been a guest instructor for the National Theatre School in Montreal, Quebec. Shaw has been on the Theatre BC committee, a parent organization to approximately 80 community theatre groups across British Columbia, as an adjudicator and dramaturge.

Christopher Newton was a Canadian director and actor, who served as artistic director of the Shaw Festival from 1980 to 2002.

Newton performed with the Canadian Players, at the Manitoba Theatre Centre, the Vancouver Playhouse and the Stratford Festival. At Stratford, he played such roles as ‘Oberon’ in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and ‘Aramis’ in The Three Musketeers. He also appeared on Broadway in Peter Shaffer’s The Private Ear.

In 1968, Newton founded Theatre Calgary where he served as artistic director until 1971. In 1973, he was appointed artistic director of the Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company. There, he founded the Playhouse Acting School with his friend and mentor Powys Thomas.

John Murrell, was an American-born Canadian playwright. Born in Lubbock, Texas, Murrell moved to Alberta after graduating from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas with a BFA in 1968. He moved to Canada to avoid the draft, studying at the University of Calgary. In 2002 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and awarded the Alberta Order of Excellence. In 2008, he received the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, Canada’s highest honour in the performing arts for which he was the subject of a National Film Board of Canada animated short by Cam Christiansen entitled The Real Place.

Nicola Lipman is a graduate of the University of British Columbia, Banff Centre for the Arts, and the National Theatre School of Canada. In 1969, shortly after her graduation from NTS, she played the role of Susan in the Vancouver PlayhouseGeorge Ryga’s controversial counter-culture play, Grass and Wild Strawberries.

Since then, Nicola Lipman has performed a wide range of plays in theatres across Canada, including: Rabbit Hole at Alberta Theatre Projects; Hecuba at Blackbird Theatre; December Man by Colleen Murphy, at Canadian Stage and Citadel Theatre; Scorched and Humble Boy for Tarragon Theatre; and Shirley Valentine for the Atlantic Theatre Festival. She is the recipient of four Jessie Richardson Awards for outstanding performance. In 2012, she was awarded the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.