PLAYWRIGHTS’ UNIT

Bronwyn Carradine is an award-winning writer, director and arts administrator. Her stage work has been workshopped, produced and developed by theatre companies across Canada, including Arts Club Theatre Company (Unexpecting, Listen to This Series, 2021) where she was part of the inaugural Emerging Playwright's Unit in 2019. As a queer artist, much of her work focuses on highlighting queer joy and representation on stage and screen. As an arts administrator, her focus has been on strengthening community connections and furthering equity for artists. She has works in development with Studio 58, Zee Zee Theatre and Arts Club Theatre Company. She's a graduate of Studio 58, a member of the Playwright's Guild of Canada, and currently works as the Artistic Managing Producer for Zee Zee Theatre.

Ben Elliott is an award winning multidisciplinary artist living in Vancouver BC. His specialties include composition and lyric writing for both stage and screen, and musical supervision and direction for theatre. Dunring trinaing at Studio 58, Ben co-wrote his first musical: The Park! with fellow classmates Anton Lipovetsky and Hannah Johnson, which received critical acclaim, an Ovation Award for Best New Musical and a second production. Since graduating from Studio 58 in 2010, Ben has continued to collaborate with Anton, co-writing The Best Laid Plans along with Vern Thiessen. When not working in the theatre, Ben writes, records, and performs his own music, animates his own music videos, and composes for film, TV and radio.

Amy Lee Lavoie is an award-winning playwright and graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s Playwriting Program. Her first play, Rabbit Rabbit, premiered with Infinitheatre, earning her two MECCA’s for Best Text and the Revelation Award. Rabbit Rabbit has been produced across Canada and the US. Other select plays include: Stopheart (Factory Theatre), Genetic Drift (Pi Theatre/Boca del Lupo), Scout’s Honour (Radio Play/Imago Theatre), Doubletree (Factory Theatre), C’mon, Angie! (Touchstone Theatre/Leroy Street Theatre), and Redbone Coonhound, an Arts Club Silver Commission that premiered in 2023. Amy Lee is currently developing an original play, Women Do Not Go on Strike, with Odd Stumble Theatre and co-writing projects with her husband/fellow writer Omari Newton including: Blackfly (an adaptation of Titus Andronicus), a new adaptation of Dante’s Inferno for re:Naissance Opera, and a new play for Geordie Theatre’s 2024/25 season.

Anton Lipovetsky is a songwriter, actor, musical director, sound designer, and educator based in Vancouver. He has performed on stages nationwide, including the NAC, Stratford Festival, Belfry Theatre and Bard on the Beach. For the Arts Club, Anton has sound designed a number of productions including Noises Off and Sense & Sensibility. Anton's original musicas have been shortlisted three times for a Playwrights Guild of Canada Tom Hendry Award. From 2020-2023 he was the "Crescendo Series Artist" for Toronto-based Musical Stage Company, and his musical commission Blackout (written with Steven Gallagher), went on to be showcased at the 2022 NAMT Festival of New Musicals in New York City. Anton is a graduate of Studio 58.

Omari Newton is an award-winning professional actor, writer, director and Head of the Acting Department at Vancouver Film School. As a writer, his original Hip Hop theatre piece Sal Capone has received critical acclaim and multiple productions, including a presentation at Canada’s National Arts Centre. Omari and his wife, Amy Lee Lavoie, wrote Redbone Coonhound, which completed a national rolling premiere with the Arts Club, Tarragon Theatre, and Imago Theatre. Omari’s work in Speakeasy Theatre's production of Young Jean Lee's The Shipment earned him a 2017-2018 Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor, as well as a nomination for Best Direction. Last season he directed Red Velvet by Lolita Chakrabarti for the Arts Club and this year he directs Miracle on 34th Street in the Stanley Theatre.

Edith Coates
Edith Coates is a queer and trans playwright based in Vancouver. Previously, she was the Level 3 student for the Arts Club's 2022 LEAP intensive, and her plays have been produced by the IGNITE! Youth Festival at The Cultch, Telling It Bent at the Frank Theatre, and the UBC Players Club. She likes to write about queer and trans identity and what it means to be a member of Generation Z (i.e., a "Zoomer"). Some say she has a dry sense of humour. Outside the theatre, she is a software developer at the UBC.

Jessie Liang
Originally from São Paulo, Brazil, Jessie Liang has appeared in theatrical and television shows including Netflix's The Night Agent and Virgin River, The CW's Supergirl, and Arts Club's 2020 touring production of Kim's Convenience. More recently, she was the assistant director for Redbone Coonhound (Arts Club) and co-director for A Life Sentence (Vancouver Fringe). Jessie's play, Surrender, was workshopped as part of vAct's 2022 MSG Lab program and then presented at Ruby Slippers’ Advance Theatre Festival in early 2023. She's thrilled to have another opportunity to work on this story! You can connect with her: @jessieliang21

Sydney Marino
Sydney Marino is a Vancouver-based playwright, director, and educator. Her playwriting credits include Unravelling (Or Festival), Scrappy Campers (Killarney Theatre), Siren Song (Brave New Play Rites), Deal with the Devil (Brave New Play Rites), and 49th and Kerr (Killarney Theatre). She has developed work in the LEAP Playwriting Intensive, PTC Block A Cohort, and Story Theatre’s Writer’s Room. Currently, Sydney has TYA work in development with Story Theatre and with Killarney Theatre, where she is also the Artist in Residence. She is also an educator, instructing playwriting courses at the Arts Club. She holds a BFA in Creative Writing from UBC. Sydney is excited to develop new work in the Emerging Playwrights' Unit.

Jiejun Wu
Jiejun Wu (she/her) is an emerging writer and arts administrator based in Burnaby, on the unceded territories of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples. She received her BFA from UBC with a double major in English Literature and Creative Writing. Her previous works have been presented as part of UBC’s Bryan Wade Brave New Play Rites Festival and Momentum 180’s The Parallel Project. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys reading, going on hikes, and buying yarn she’ll never use.

Francis Dowlatabadi (he/him)
Francis is a Persian-Canadian artist dedicated to work that gives voice to unheard stories and attempts to uplift humanity. Francis's previous credits as a playwright include An Empty Home (rEvolver Festival), The Parallels Project (Momentum 180), and My Roommate Ahriman (Rumble Theatre). Selected credits as an actor include Alex in The Bibliomancer (Ruby Slippers Theatre), Omar in The Frontliners (rEvolver Festival), and Capitano in Love, Lust, and Lace (Gas Pedal Productions) He holds a BFA in Acting from UBC, where he was awarded the John Emerson Memorial Scholarship for promise in musical theatre.

Jessica Lemes da Silva (she/her)
Born and raised in Miami, Florida, Jessica received her B.A. in Music (oboe performance) from the University of Miami. She shifted gears to study Sound Design for visual media at the Vancouver Film School, which led to sound work at Skywalker Sound in California, on feature films such as Beowulf, Iron Man, and Despicable Me. Jessica shifted gears again to focus on writing for stage and screen, exploring themes of belonging, building chosen families, and bridging the worlds of queerness and religion. In 2014 her short play Donors was an official finalist in the New York Screenplay Contest. Jessica holds a creative writing certificate from SFU’s The Writer’s Studio, and she is grateful to write, teach, and live with her wife and two children on the unceded land of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Listen to her most recent work, Sacred Hearts (2021), wherever you get your podcasts.

Mida Maleki (they/them)
Mida is an Iranian queer person of colour living on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Musqueam people. They are a singer, actor, and playwright, focusing on the stories of people like them (queer Iranians) that are either overlooked or told in voices that aren't their own. Mida has been a part of multiple playwright programs, including Frank theatre's Telling It Bent, the Arts Club’s LEAP, and Sky Theatre's My Home Is a Suitcase, showcasing their one-person show in the IGNITE! Youth Festival, where they had the opportunity to write, act, and direct.

David Volpov (he/him)
David is a graduate of UBC's BFA Acting program, where he was the proud recipient of the Jessie Richardson Scholarship. He has since expanded his disciplines to writing and producing, and follows every urge to create stories that are deeply important without taking themselves too seriously. A past participant of PTC’s Block A program, his writing credits include Civil Court (Or Festival), The Minimum-Wage Dame (Eternal Theatre Collective), and the upcoming Murder of Method: A True Crime Story (Promethean Theatre). David is currently the executive director of Promethean Theatre Company, where he facilitates opportunities for emerging theatre artists.