We are pleased to announce the 2022 cohort of the Necessary Angel Theatre Company Artistic Residency Program: Deanna H. Choi, Dian Marie Bridge, and Michaela Washburn. 

For our second residency we are working with three artists whose multi-faceted work and deep creative community connections we have admired for years. We are thrilled that Necessary Angel can travel with them on their artistic journey. We cannot wait to see where their storytelling and artistic voices take us this year.  

Our year-long Artistic Residency was developed to support the voices of outstanding artists as they explore theatrical storytelling at the edge of their artistic practice. The 2022 Artistic Residency began on January 3, and once again includes: a $10,000 bursary for each artist, artistic and administrative support from Necessary Angel towards the development of new work, and regular peer-to-peer artistic roundtables.

The Necessary Angel Artist Residencies are generously supported by The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation.

Necessary Angel Theatre Company acknowledges and thanks the following for their support: Canada Council for the Arts; Ontario Arts Council; the Toronto Arts Council; and BMO Financial Group. 

Learn more about our 2022 Resident Artists:

Dian Marie Bridge

Dian Marie Bridge is an award-winning theatre maker, writer, director and creative producer. She is currently the Associate Artistic Director at Luminato Festival Toronto, and holds a degree in Theatre Arts and Dramatic Literature from Brock University, and attended the University of Minnesota’s Theatre and Dance program. Two decades of practice has afforded Dian work with arts organizations nationally and internationally. Dian is the recipient of the inaugural Strombergs Family Realization Fund, through Nightwood Theatre, the Stratford Festival’s Elliott Hayes Guthrie Award for Playwriting, and SummerWorks’ RBC Professional Award. Dian was also a part of the Stratford Festival’s inaugural Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction. Her mentorship experience includes the Paprika Festival, AMY Project, Speak Sudan, B Current’s RaizinArtz, Only One You workshops, and the Boys and Girls Club of Vancouver.

Deanna H. Choi

Deanna H. Choi (she/her) composes original music for film & tv and designs sonic environments for live performance. Formerly a published researcher in behavioural neuroscience, she applies principles of psychology into her work. In 2021, Deanna served as one of six Slaight Music Residents at the Canadian Film Centre, chaired by Lesley Barber and Marc Jordan. She recently scored the documentary Last of the Right Whales (HitPlay Productions/CBC), and has designed over 100 theatrical productions with companies across Turtle Island. She teaches sound design at the National Theatre School of Canada and York University. She is the 2020 laureate of the Pauline McGibbon Award for Theatre Design, the second sound designer in the award’s history. She is a member of the Associated Designers of Canada, Screen Composers’ Guild of Canada, and SOCAN. splitbrainsound.com

Photo by David Cooper

Michaela Washburn

Michaela Washburn is a Métis artist of Cree, French, Irish, and English ancestry. Hailing from the prairies, Michaela is now based in North Bay. Her pronouns are she/her/they/them, and he/ him when they’re in drag. Washburn’s craft spans theatre, television, film, spoken word, writing, hosting, clown, improvisation, stand-up and workshop facilitation. Select theatre credits include: This Is How We Got Here (Native Earth), Almighty Voice and His Wife (Soulpepper), Guarded Girls (Tarragon/Green Light Arts), Grace (Nightwood), La Bête, Animal Farm (Soulpepper). An award-winning artist for her multifaceted performance as Métis leader Louis Riel in Confederation & Riel (VideoCabaret/Soulpepper), Michaela has also garnered multiple nominations including the K. M. Hunter Artist Award for Theatre and the Ontario Arts Council Indigenous Arts Award. Her performance and written work has been shared internationally; including festivals and stages in Wales, Aruba and across Canada and the United States. Film and television credits include: Burden of Truth, Baroness Von Sketch, Just One Word, The River You Step In. A proud member of CAEA’s elected national council, Michaela is humbled and honoured to be a storyteller, and acknowledges her current privilege to make art at such an extraordinary time in humanity’s existence. She is deeply grateful to Necessary Angel for this incredible opportunity and hopes to use it to serve the community well.