Bill Millerd Artist Fund

Angelica Schwartz
Design workshop with Odyssey Theatre (New York)
Angelica Schwartz (They/Them) is a Jessie Award-winning director, creator, and professional escape artist from Treaty 1 Territory (Winnipeg), now based on Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh lands (Vancouver). As Co-Artistic Director of happy/accidents alongside Stephanie Wong, they produce immersive digital and stage works designed to rethink how theatre is made and spark radical optimism. Schwartz's work spans collaborations with the National Arts Centre, Buddies in Bad Times, Electric Company, Rumble, Glitch Theatre, Bard on the Beach, and Royal MTC. They serve as the Community Engagement Manager at Neworld Theatre and graduated from both the National Theatre School (Directing) and Studio 58 (Technical).

Christine Cheung
Painter & decorator apprenticeship
Christine Cheung has been in the Arts for over 20 years. She graduated from Concordia University in Montréal with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2000. Her theatre career began in 2002 at Vertigo Theatre in Calgary, Alberta, as a stage carpenter for Death Trap. She then joined F&D Scene Changes, painting backdrops for Broadway Theatre in NYC and traveling shows like Seussical and Wicked. She also sculpted for the Calgary Zoo and Disney Parks. Christine later worked at the Segal Theatre for The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and was the lead scenic artist at Pacific Opera Victoria for The Little Prince and Rigoletto. For the past decade, she has painted TV sets for Hallmark, Disney, and Netflix in Vancouver. She enjoys coffee and volunteering for the Painter8 Arts Society.

Carlie Yeung
Translator training in Seoul
Carlie Cheukyiu Yeung is a Hong Kong-Canadian lighting designer and theatre technician. As a multilingual theatre worker, Carlie enjoys working with people from different backgrounds and believes great theatre comes from collaborating, sharing ideas, and creating together. She hopes to create inclusive, multicultural theatre that welcomes diverse voices and experiences, making audiences from all backgrounds feel seen, connected, and part of the Vancouver theatre community.

Emily Brown
Non-profit leadership training at SFU
Emily is a producer, arts administrator and director. She is very passionate about international collaboration, working with theatre companies all over the world in the UK, Italy, Germany, Austria, Czech, Poland and Portugal. Emily has worked with Presentation House Theatre, Arts Club and Bad Hats Theatre. She is also Co-Artistic Director of Hidden Stages, an immersive theatre company. Emily has a Bachelor’s degree in Acting from the University of Wales and a Diploma in Arts and Entertainment Management from Capilano University.

Jaimie Lievers
Scenic painting intensive with Off the Wall
Jaimie is a Vancouver-based Theatre and Film Artist specializing in Costumes, Scenic Painting, Props and Graphic Design. She is a graduate of the Theatre Production program at Grant MacEwan University and Digital Media Production at Edmonton Digital Arts College. Since graduating, she has had the opportunity to work on various productions with The Arts Club Theatre Company, TUTS, CTORA and Play the Fool Festival. Select credits include The Lion King (Broadway Across Canada), Theatre Under the Stars (2024), Peter Rabbit (CTORA), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Vancouver Opera), Quantum Leap and The Last of Us. She Is appreciative of Arts Club for the opportunity to expand her creative practice.

Lauren Jackson
Singing and vocal training
Lauren is a Jessie Award-winning actor living and working in Vancouver. Since graduating Queen’s University and Studio 58, for over a decade Lauren has built a career across theatre, film and voiceover. Her voice can be heard most notably on the Original Cast Recording of the hit Canadian musical Onegin, as a beloved recurring character on My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, and in numerous commercials and video games. She has appeared on stage with Greenthumb Theatre, Théâtre la Seizième, and The Arts Club Theatre Company, to name a few. She is a proud facilitator with Neworld Theatre’s LEAD Ensemble. Lauren is truly grateful for the support and acknowledgement of the Bill Millerd Aritst Fund.

Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen
Decolonial, social justice, and DEI work
Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen (she/her/kwe) is an interdisciplinary theatre artist and scholar whose research and cultural practice encompasses performance, creation, curation and dramaturgy, writing, teaching, and consultancy. A tawny mix of Ojibwe/Swampy Cree and English/Irish, Lisa’s work centres Indigenous knowledges and embodies Indigenous resurgence practices. She gratefully lives as a guest on unceded Coast Salish lands and is an Associate Artist with Full Circle: First Nations Performance. Her latest work, The Seventh Fire, an immersive audio performance inspired by ceremony, is currently touring Turtle Island and internationally. She is also proud to represent so-called Canada as a Co-Curator at the 2027 Prague Quadrennial.

Laura Ross
Intensive Summer School with Frantic Assembly (London)
Laura Ross (she/her) is a Vancouver based choreographer and performer. She’s had the pleasure of creating choreography for such productions as Godspell (Chemainus Theatre), Ride the Cyclone (CCPA), Reflections on Crooked Walking (Firehall), Pride and Prejudice (WRPC), Elf: The Musical (Arts Club - Associate Choreographer*), M is For Music (VSO), and A Christmas Carol (Pacific Theatre). Laura is grateful to expand her movement vocabulary and pedagogy with Frantic Assembly in London, with immense gratitude to the Bill Millerd Artist Fund. She is also a proud graduate of The Canadian College of Performing Arts. Laura-Ross.com

Lindsay Wu
Singing and music theory training
Lindsay Wu is an actor currently based in Vancouver. Originally from Toronto, Ontario, she recently relocated to pursue opportunities in theatre and film in the West Coast. Her work focuses on storytelling, classical text, and contemporary performances on stage. She trained at the Theatre and Drama Studies program at the University of Toronto combined with Sheridan College. Over the past five years, she has performed at various stages in Ontario, including the Shaw and Stratford Festivals, and NAC.

Mishelle Cuttler
Attend Prague Quadrenniel
Mishelle Cuttler is a Vancouver-based composer, sound designer, and musical director focused on integrating sound, music, and storytelling. She is collaborating with co-curator Lisa Cooke Ravensbergen to adapt the spatial audio design for The Seventh Fire for Canada’s exhibition at the Prague Quadrennial in 2027. At the Arts Club, Mishelle has designed sound and music for Someone Like You, Made in Italy, The Matchmaker, and Sweat. Recent projects include The Tao of the World, Hedda Gabler (Stratford Festival), three seasons at the East Van Panto, and five seasons at Bard on the Beach. She is an adjunct professor in Sound Design at UBC and the West Coast Rep for the Associated Designers of Canada. Future projects are at www.mishellecuttler.com/upcoming.

Mayara Nobre
Assistant Set Designer for Heist at the Arts Club
Mayara Nobre is a multidisciplinary Brazilian artist creating on the unceded lands of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She studied Scenic Arts at the University of Brasília, focusing on Acting as well as Directing, and is now completing Studio 58’s Production Program. Recent credits include Something Rotten! (Stage Manager) and A Journal of The Plague Year (Assistant Lighting Designer). She is excited for upcoming projects, including Heist at the Arts Club (Assistant Set Designer) and Theatre Replacement’s upcoming East Van Panto (Assistant Director). Mayara owes everything to God and her family for their unwavering love and support.

Nico Pante
French Translation Mentorship with Cory Haas
Nico Pante is an emerging producer, actor, and theatre-maker holding a BFA in Acting from the University of British Columbia. He co-founded Fool’s Errand Productions, a clown and physical theatre company producing cabarets, community events, and workshops. Nico’s focus lies in clown, devised, and interdisciplinary performance. He is passionate about performance experiences that connect audiences across difference and that centre queer and trans perspectives. He is dedicated to creating opportunities for the growth of artists around him. Nico is so grateful for the support of the BMAF to pursue this mentorship which couples his love of theatre with his love for language. nicopante.com

Paige Fraser
Dance training at Harbour Dance
Paige lives and works in Vancouver: the unceded land of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. As an actor she has had the opportunity to work with companies across the lower mainland including: The Arts Club, Bard on the Beach, Green Thumb, Axis Theatre and others. She is a graduate of Capilano University’s Musical Theatre Diploma and Studio 58’s Acting Diploma, a two-time Jessie nominee, and a two-time Ovation winner. Outside of performing, Paige also teaches theatre and dance. She is deeply grateful to the Arts Club and the Bill Millerd Artist Fund for this support.

Pippa Mackie
Writing mentorship with Dave Deveau
Pippa Mackie is an award-winning actor and playwright. Most notable credits include Juliet: A Revenge Comedy (co-written with Ryan Gladstone) which has been touring since 2019, including Off Broadway at the Soho Playhouse 2025, and a sold out run at The Cultch (with more dates coming). Her play Hurricane Mona received a World Premiere Production at The Cultch produced by Touchstone Theatre and Ruby Slippers Theatre, is the recipient of the Sydney Risk Prize and David King Prize for Comedy and has been published with Playwrights Canada Press. She is currently developing a play for young people titled This Is A Play.

Rahat Saini
Sufi music & performance mentorship
Rahat Saini is Surrey-based multidisciplinary artist whose love for performance began quite early. At 18 months old, still very much in diapers, Rahat began to sing. At 10 years old, she fell in love with acting. At 19, she found stand-up comedy. Armed with a BFA in Theatre from the University of Victoria, Rahat has dedicated herself to the performing arts for the last decade, a journey that has carried her from stage to screen and beyond. Passionate about the power of stories, Rahat’s work centers our shared humanity through a focus on marginalized and often-forgotten perspectives. She is grateful to the Arts Club for this opportunity to further develop her ever-expanding artistry.

Seamus Fera
Assistant Director for Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors at the Arts Club
Seamus Fera is a Jessie Richardson Theatre Award nominated emerging director. Recent Directing credits include Metamorphoses (United Players), A Doll’s House Part 2 (Western Gold Theatre and Pacific Theatre) and Bare (Eternal Theatre Collective). Apprentice/Assistant Director credits include Antigone (Bard on the Beach), Charles III (Arts Club), Escape Alone and Seventeen (Western Gold Theatre). He holds a BFA in Acting from UBC and is the Artistic Associate/Literary Manager for Western Gold Theatre. Seamus also works extensively with youths as the director of Place des Arts Youth Theatre Ensemble and Arts Umbrella’s Advanced Theatre Troupe.

Sean Guist
Attend the Stages Festival Industry series in Halifax
Sean Guist holds an MFA in Directing from the University of Lethbridge and is a queer theatre artist, director and creator. He has facilitated new work development through play readings, cabarets and residency programs over the last decade and is the Artistic Director and founding Curator of OUTstages at Intrepid Theatre. Guist is the director and co-creator of the solo queer opera The Book of My Shames, which has toured the country since 2019; and is the director and dramaturge of Playlist, the new solo show from writer/performer Ivan Coyote that premiered in 2024 and is currently touring across Canada and internationally. He also can be seen on drag stages as the campy and bearded queen Woofie.

Sargil Tongol
Apprentice Directorship with Anita Rochon
Sargil Tongol is a director, educator, and arts administrator. Sargil's work revolves around collaboration and involves inviting play, inclusivity and the community into the room all while finding the heart in a piece. He aims to continue searching for ways for theatre to resonate, generate conversation, and be accessible for both collaborators in the room and audiences of all ages. Selected credits include Camp Goneaway, (Ragamuffin Productions, Vancouver Fringe 2024, Awarded Best of Fest and Patron's Pick), Oz (Assistant Director, Carousel Theatre for Young People). He holds a Bachelor of Education, a Bachelor of Arts Majoring in Theatre Studies and Minor in History, both from UBC, and a Diploma from Douglas College in Theatre Performance. He is Co-Artistic Director of Ragamuffin Productions. @giltwithtglasses

Stephanie Wong
Design workshop with Odyssey Theatre (New York)
Stephanie Wong (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice explores the intersections of live performance and immersive experiences. Her art is an invocation to imagination, which she explores through direction, dramaturgy, new work creation, performance, and design. As the Artistic Producer at Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre and the Associate Artistic Director at re:Naissance, their advocacy is rooted in radical softness and collective care. Joyful achievements include: Selling out her immersive show The Liminal in 2023 and 2024, voice acting in the Peabody Award winning video game 1000xRESIST, and touring her stop motion short bàba / 爸爸 through film festivals internationally.

Tim Carlson
Tuition support: SFU
Tim Carlson is an award-winning actor, writer and comedian based out of Vancouver, BC. Theatre highlights include the award winning two-man production of The Hobbit (Pacific Theatre), Christmas at Pemberley (Arts Club) and Jack at the Bean (Presentation House). He has an extensive film career that includes working with Netflix, CBS, CBC, and Fox. He has performed improv comedy across North America headlining in New York, LA, and Toronto. He is the DM & Chief Creative for the award winning TTRPG group BlackwaterDND. He is the Company Manager at Green Thumb Theatre, a graduate of Studio 58 and currently finishing his BFA at SFU’s School for Contemporary Arts.