Cast & Creative Team

Ryan Cunningham is status Nehiyaw (ᓀᐦᐃᔭᐤ)/Cree/Metis from Amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton, Alberta). For over 30 years, Ryan has worked as an actor, producer, writer, director, manager and event creator. Most recently Ryan has acted in: The Resistible Rise of Artuo Ui (Canadian Stage/UofT), Julius Caesar (Crows Theatre), The Garneau Block (Citadel Theatre), AN OCTOROON (Shaw Festival). Ryan has been nominated for the KLM Hunter Artist Award and the inaugural Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize. In 2009 Ryan co-founded Alberta Aboriginal Performing Arts in Amiskwacîwâskahikan and served as the founding Artistic Director for 5 years. AAPA and the RUBABOO Arts Festival will celebrate their 15th-year Anniversary in 2024. From 2014 – 2017 Ryan proudly served as Artistic Director at Native Earth Performing Arts in Tkoronto.
Ryan currently has Fellowship with the Whistler Film Festival and Ontario Creates to develop his Web Series: Northern Transplantation.

Sébastien Heins (actor, producer, writer, director) is Associate Artistic Director of multi-Dora winner Outside the March (No Save Points, Trojan Girls, Mr. Burns, Mr. Marmalade, Mundane Mysteries). Theatre credits include: Topdog/Underdog (Canadian Stage), The Tempest, School for Scandal, Breath of Kings (Stratford 2016-18), Bang Bang (Factory, RMTC, Belfry) and Wedding at Aulis (Soulpepper). His first solo show Brotherhood: The Hip Hopera (Best Emerging Artist, NYC United Solo Festival) toured North America and India. Screen credits: Ghosts of Xmas Past, The Listener, Cracked, and his short Her Chance to Dream (City Stories Award). Training: National Theatre School of Canada, School at Steppenwolf in Chicago. Recent highlight: He is the creator/performer of No Save Points, the interactive memoir where audiences use a hacked Gameboy to pilot his body through games depicting his family’s struggle with Huntington’s Disease. Developed by OtM, it premiered at Lighthouse Immersive in 2023.
 

Yanna McIntosh is one of Canada's pre-eminent stage actors. Theatre credits include The Master Plan (Crows) Ruined (Obsidian), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (San Francisco), The Baroness and the Pig (Shaw), Hedda Gabler (Volcano), Belle (Factory), and Skylight (Tarragon). Onscreen recurring roles include: Y: The Last Man (FX), Good Sam (CBS), Beyond Black Beauty (Amazon), Pretty Hard Cases (Global TV), This is Wonderland (CBC), and other roles in Coroner (CBC/CW), The Marsh King's Daughter (Black Bear Pictures), Doomstown (CTV), and Slumberland (Netflix). She was educated at Vaughan Road Collegiate, the University of Toronto, and Harvard University. She has starred in many shows at the Stratford Festival, including Antony and Cleopatra, Macbeth, The Winter's Tale, Elektra, Trojan Women, A Little Night Music, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Oedipus, and has won a Gemini, a Toronto Critics Circle award, and several Dora awards.
 

Rick is a writer/director/actor/musician/educator who has performed in five languages on five continents, and who Entertainment Weekly called "one of the 100 most creative people alive today". He has created solo works such as MacHomer, BOOM, BOOM X, and BOOM YZ; (with Daniel Brooks) Bigger Than Jesus and HARDSELL; (with Robert Lepage) Geometry of Miracles, Zulu Time, Lipsynch, and Possible Worlds; (with Craig Francis) Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, GAME of CLONES, Jungle Book, HANS: My Life in Fairy Tales; (with Craig Francis and Paul Van Dyck) FRANKENSTEIN: A Living Comic Book. Rick is from Montreal, sometimes teaches at University of Toronto’s Drama Centre and BMO Lab, and lives in Toronto with his partner Stephanie Baptist.

Heeyun Park 박희윤 is an actor, singer and creator based in Toronto. Select credits: Mary in Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Madeleine Bejart in La Bête (Talk is Free Theatre), carried by the river (Red Snow), Lady Triệu in ANIVIA (Caminos), Morning After (a front company), Emily Brontë in Brontë (Timms Centre), Sally Bowles in Cabaret (NTS), Pamina in Die Zauberflöte (UofA Opera), HANS: MYLife in Fairy Tales (20K Collective). Heeyun trained at the National Theatre School of Canada for Acting and has a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from the University of Alberta. She is currently writing a modern retelling of the Greek myth of Arachne supported by Canada Council of the Arts.
 

Deanna has collaborated on over 100 productions across Canada, the US, and the UK with companies including the Stratford Festival, Soulpepper, Tarragon, Canadian Stage, Jamie Lloyd Company, Ballet West, and many others. Recent credits: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Mirvish/Neptune), The Darkest Dark (YPT), upcoming Ransacking Troy (Stratford). Proud member of IATSE ADC 659. Film/TV: Gray (Lionsgate/AGC), The Nature of Things (CBC), Relax I’m From the Future (Universal/Wango Films). Awards: 2 Dora Awards (5 nominations), Pauline McGibbon Award, Canadian Screen Award (nomination). IG: @deanna.h.choi 

Stefan Dzeparoski is a Toronto-based international director and creator of visually arresting live productions. He is a Director & Creative Producer at the award-winning BirdLand Theatre. Stefan is known for his interdisciplinary stage practices that merge digital and live performance. He directed Off-Broadway (Wide Awake Hearts by Brendan Gall, The Birds by Conor McPherson), in Toronto (Gruesome Playground Injuries by Rajiv Joseph, Fortune and Men’s Eyes by John Herbert) on stages in Europe (Who is Afraid Of Virginia Wolf by Edward Albee). As an award-winning director and educator, Stefan expands his creative practices into film and digital performance. His work was featured in the New York Times, New York Magazine, Globe and Mail, National Post, Toronto Star, and many online publications. His intense research of creativity led him to create a Creative Meditation StartUp, Digital Dream Society www.digitaldreamsociety.ca

Craig Francis is a writer, director, illustrator, and multidisciplinary creator. His shows have toured Canada and the US, including Off-Broadway in 2016 and 2019. A founding member of The 20K Collective, Craig co-created Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Game of Clones, and Jungle Book with Rick Miller; and FRANKENSTEIN: A Living Comic Book with Miller and Paul Van Dyck. He's a producer, dramaturg, and stage manager for Miller's solo BOOM Trilogy. Craig co-directed a workshop of the musical Blocked (TheaterWorksUSA), and is a mentor of emerging artists, including co-authoring Redwood Avenue with Andrea Friesen. New projects include HANS: My Life in Fairy Tales, and CYNIC, Craig is a speaker on LGBTQA2S+ issues. He performed improv comedy with Just For Laughs, CBC, CTV and Showtime, and his animated videos with Kidoons are installed in museums in six provinces.
 

Irina is a creative artist, graphic designer for print and web, and video production artist. She has worked on multimedia campaigns for Performing Arts Centers across Canada and the U.S, from The Joy of Dance Studio Toronto to TELUS Skins. Irina has been a longstanding multimedia collaborator with Rick Miller and Craig Francis, including creating multimedia for MacHomer, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, and Game of Clones. Recent work includes branding and projections media design for BOOM X and BOOM YZ, for which she was nominated alongside Rick Miller and Nicolas Dostie for the Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding Projection or Video Design. Irina is the multimedia designer for Jungle Book, FRANKENSTEIN: A Living Comic Book, and HANS: My Life in Fairy Tales. As a web and video production artist, Irina is the designer and production editor of the Kidoons Network animated series.
 

Rick is a writer/director/actor/musician/educator who has performed in five languages on five continents, and who Entertainment Weekly called "one of the 100 most creative people alive today". He has created solo works such as MacHomer, BOOM, BOOM X, and BOOM YZ; (with Daniel Brooks) Bigger Than Jesus and HARDSELL; (with Robert Lepage) Geometry of Miracles, Zulu Time, Lipsynch, and Possible Worlds; (with Craig Francis) Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, GAME of CLONES, Jungle Book, HANS: My Life in Fairy Tales; (with Craig Francis and Paul Van Dyck) FRANKENSTEIN: A Living Comic Book. Rick is from Montreal, sometimes teaches at University of Toronto’s Drama Centre and BMO Lab, and lives in Toronto with his partner Stephanie Baptist.
 

Aidan Ware hails from Calgary, and is a graduate of the BFA Technical Theatre program at the University of Alberta. After an 18-month lighting practicum at the Banff Centre, Aidan moved to Toronto where his creativity and passion for bringing new technologies to live performance have led him to work for Solotech, Moment Factory, TIFA, and TOlive. He was the Assistant Technical Director at Canadian Stage and Director of Production for Fall for Dance North for multiple seasons. He is currently part of a team designing a new state-of-the-art space for the BMO lab at the University of Toronto, focusing on emerging technologies and artificial intelligence in performance. He continues to freelance as a Technical Director and Lighting Designer in Toronto. Other credits with Kidoons/WYRD Productions include BOOM X (TD/ALD), BOOM YZ (TD/LD), and HANS: My Life in Fairy Tales (TD/LD).
 

Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster is a founding member of the collective The Howland Company, former Assistant Artistic Director at Tarragon Theatre, and was a resident artist with Soulpepper Theatre Company for 7 years. She has performed with the Shaw Festival, Soulpepper, Public Recordings, Canadian Stage, Citadel Theatre, Blue Bridge Repertory, Cahoots, Native Earth, Tarragon and beyond. Her theatre direction includes The Orphan of Chao (Shaw Festival), Hypothetical Baby (Howland/Nightwood) Three Women of Swatow (Tarragon, 4 Dora nominations), The Home Project, (Howland Company/Native Earth/Soulpepper, 5 Dora nominations), The Wolves (Howland/Crows - Outstanding Ensemble Win, Toronto Critics Awards, Outstanding Production - MyEntWorld), 52 Pick-Up (Howland - Best of Fringe), Everybody (York University) and Casimir and Caroline (Sheridan College). Courtney is an alumna of the Loran Award, and holds a BFA from UBC and an MBA (Social Enterprise) from MUN.

Headshot by Dahlia Katz

Ordena Stephens-Thompson is a professional actor, acting coach and aspiring director who has worked in the theatre, television and film industry for many years. She is a two time Dora nominated actress and Dora award recipient for best ensemble. Her selected theatre credits includes, Sankofa A Soldier’s Tale Reimaged (Art of Time Ensemble), A Streetcar Named Desire (Soulpepper), Three Sisters (Soulpepper/Obsidian Theatres), Fairview (Canadian Stage/Obsidian Theatres), ’Da Kink in My Hair 20th Anniversary (Soulpepper/TO Live), Contraction (Studio 180 Reads), Sweat (Canstage/Studio 180), Fences (Grand Theatre), Harlem Duet (Tarragon Theatre), Risky Phil (YPT), Other Side of the Game (Cahoots/Obsidian Theatre), For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf (Soulpepper Theatre), How Black Mothers Say I Love You (Factory Theatre). Selected television and film credits include, Finch and Midland (Feature Film), Skymed, Christmas at the Drive Inn, Ruby and the Well, Kings of Napa, Hudson & Rex, Salt n’ Pepa, Grand Army, Umbrella Academy, The Handmaid's Tale, Designated Survivor, da kink in my hair (tv series, 2 seasons). The art of storytelling is a passion and a privilege.

Maev Beaty is a critically-acclaimed stage and screen actor, writer and voice-over artist with over 50 theatre performance credits. She has originated roles in over two dozen Canadian premieres (including Hannah Moscovitch’s Bunny, Michael Healey's Proud, Kate Hennig’s The Last Wife, Judith Thompson’s Palace of the End and Sharon Pollock’s Angel's Trumpet); She has co-written and starred in the award-winning Secret Life of a Mother, Montparnasse, and Dance of the Red Skirts; and has interpreted lead classic roles across the country and over eight seasons at the Stratford Festival, as well as epic theatre endeavours (Soulpepper August Osage County, Sheep No Wool/Outside the March/Convergence’s Passion Play, Nightwood’s Penelopiad, Volcano’s Another Africa, TheatreFront’sThe Mill). She is a Toronto Theatre Critics’ Award winner, multiple Dora Award winner and fourteen-time Dora nominee. She’s a former Equity Council member, activist and mum.
 

Most recently Oliver played Herr Hund in Bremen Town by Gregory Prest, at Caravan Farm Theatre in Luke Reece's The Wonderful and The Seagull at Soulpepper Theatre where he has also had the opportunity to play in over 100 works by: Shakespeare, Moliere, Chekhov, Miller, Williams, Albee, Beckett, Ionesco, Orton, Simon, Sarah Ruhl, Suzan-Lori Parks, Tracey Letts, David French, Morris Panych/Brenda Robins, Mike Ross/Sarah Wilson, Lee MacDougall, Vern Thiessen, Michael Shamata, Shaffer, Story, Stoppard, Frayn, Aykbourn. Other theatres include: Theatre New Brunswick, Grand Theatre London, CanStage, Factory, Tarragon, Passe Muraille, Crow's Theatre, Theatre Columbus. Please support Canadian Film by catching American Hangman and Don't Get Killed in Alaska on a popular media platform. And also, Slings and Arrows!
 

Rachel Cairns is an award-winning actor who has performed on stages across Canada. In addition to her work in theatre, she’s also produced award-winning digital content, like her web series Mom & Me which has been viewed over 7 million times on YouTube. Her podcast ‘Aborsh’ which explores the landscape of reproductive rights in Canada and received a Planned Parenthood Choice Award for excellence in sexual and reproductive health and rights advocacy. Her solo show ‘Hypothetical Baby’ - about the practical and existential components of deciding to become a parent, or not - premiered at the Tarragon Theatre in December of 2023. In addition to her various creative endeavours, Rachel is a professor at George Brown College’s film program and directs audiobooks for Penguin Random House Canada.