About the playwrights
Dave Deveau
Dave is an award-winning writer who investigates queer themes that speak to a broad audience. His work has been produced across North America and in Europe with recent productions in Poland and Germany. He is the Co-Artistic & Managing Director of Carousel Theatre for Young People and the Associate Artistic Director for Zee Zee Theatre. He is devoted to developing intelligent, theatrical plays for young people that foster conversation. His plays for young audiences include Celestial Being, Tagged and Our in the Open (Green Thumb); and Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls (Roseneath/Carousel). For adult audiences his work includes Elbow Room Cafe: The Musical, Lowest Common Denominator, and My Funny Valentine. In total, his plays have been nominated for 28 Jessie Awards, 4 Ovation Awards, and 4 Dora Awards. He is published in Scirocco’s Fierce anthology and his first collection CISSY: Three Gender Plays is published by Talonbooks. In drag he’s known as East Van’s Cheapest Date, Peach Cobblah. www.davedeveau.com
Meghan Gardiner
Arts Club audiences may know Meghan from performances in such shows as The Cull, The Sound of Music, Beauty and the Beast, A Christmas Story: The Musical, Blood Brothers, Paradise Garden, and Evita. She has written two plays for Green Thumb Theatre, Blind Spot and Role Call, the latter winning her the Sydney Risk Award for Emerging Playwright in 2012. She premiered We Three in 2018 at Carousel Theatre and premiered Gross Misconduct in 2019 at the Gateway Theatre, produced by SpeakEasy Theatre. Meghan has three plays currently touring with Shameless Hussy Productions (Love Bomb, Dissolve and To Perfection) and is currently working on commissions for Carousel Theatre, Arts Umbrella, and the Arts Club Theatre Company. She is a proud YWCA Women of Distinction nominee and lives in Vancouver with her husband and daughter.
Alexandra Lainfiesta
Born and raised in Guatemala, Alexandra is a multiple award-winning actor, writer and educator. Most recently Alexandra was selected as one of eleven recipients for the BC Lieutenant Governor General Arts and Music Award. A graduate of Studio 58 and The Canadian College of Performing Arts, Alexandra is the recipient of two Jessie Richardson Awards for Best Actor in a Lead Role and two Dora Mavor Moore Awards as part of the ensemble that created A Tonic For Desperate Times. As a writer, Alexandra is currently developing her first full length play Bella Luz with Arts Club Theatre Company’s Silver Commission, and co-writing Mimi on the Beach with Theaturtle in Toronto. Alexandra is a co-founder of the Canadian Latinx Theatre Artist Coalition and one of three BC/YUKON councillors for Canadian Actor’s Equity Association. Her passion for writing and teaching has led her to also pursue her MFA in creative writing at The University of Victoria. You can catch Alexandra at Bard on The Beach this season performing in As You Like It and Julius Caesar. IG: @alelainfiesta www.alexandralainfiesta.com
Amy Rutherford
Amy is a graduate of The National Theatre School and Birmingham Conservatory. She has worked for over twenty years in theatre, film, radio, and TV with many of Canada’s leading artists as a writer and performer. Amy has co-written several plays: The Public Servant (CommonBoots Theatre) Sad Object / Bad Object (Toronto Festival of Clowns) and Out of the Woods (Sidemart Theatrical Grocery). Her play Mortified premiered at Vancouver's Studio 58 and won The Playwrights Guild of Canada’s Carol Bolt Award for Best New Play in 2018. Mortified was also published by Playwrights Canada Press. Amy is a contributing writer to Ryberg.com and Intermission Magazine. Her article Kindness From Strangers was one of Intermission's most viewed articles of 2019. This is her first time participating in The Radar.
Jovanni Sy
Jovanni is a Montreal-based director, playwright, performer, and the former artistic director of Gateway Theatre (Vancouver) and Cahoots Theatre (Toronto). His plays include A Taste of Empire, The Five Vengeances, and the Jessie Award-winning Nine Dragons. Directing credits include: The Five Vengeances, The Orchard (After Chekhov), Yoga Play, Valley Song (Vancouver); Murder on the Orient Express (Calgary); Stitch (Toronto); and Blackbird, Antigone, God of Carnage (Hong Kong). Jovanni played Mr. Miyagi in the pre-Broadway tryout of The Karate Kid, the Musical. Other recent acting credits include Forgiveness (Theatre Calgary/Arts Club Theatre Company), Noises Off (Arts Club Theatre Company), and Prison Dancer (Citadel/NAC).