Moonlight Schooner

Michael Blake

Theatre: King James (Shawn) (Theatre Aquarius), The Player in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (Mirvish/ Neptune); 10 seasons at Stratford Festival of Canada having played Othello, Edmund, Caliban, MacDuff, Don John and Sebastian among many others. Michael has worked across Canada from Bard on the Beach in Vancouver to Stephenville Festival in Stephenville, NFLD. He has played Adult Simba in Disney’s The Lion King at Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto. He was an inaugural member of English Theatre Acting Company at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa where he played Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet among others. He was seen as MLK in The Mountaintop at Theatre Kingston. He was also an inaugural member of the Soulpepper Academy where he was seen as George in Raisin in the Sun and Orlando in As You Like It among many others. Beauty and the Beast (Prince/Beast) (Theatre Aquarius). Film/Television: Selected credits: Slumberland (Netflix), The Lost Symbol (Universal), Murdoch Mysteries (CBC), The Expanse (Syfy), Degrassi (CBC). Training: National Theatre School of Canada Acting Program; Soulpepper Academy; Claude Watson Program at Earl Haig S.S. Michael was born and raised in Toronto and now calls Hamilton home.

Lisa Codrington

Lisa Codrington is an actor and writer working on both stage and screen. In theatre she’s performed everywhere from the Fringe, SummerWorks and YPT to the Shaw Festival, the Princess of Wales and the Hackney Empire in London. Currently Lisa facilitates the playwrights unit at Obsidian Theatre Company.

danjelani ellis

danjelani ellis is a Tkaròn:to-based artist and artsworker from Jamaica. Graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, danjelani is the recipient of 5 Dora Award nominations and a Merritt Award nomination for outstanding performance in a featured role. He is the artistic producer at Obsidian Theatre Company. danjelani also steers ad-hoc entity Groundwork Redux - an ever-evolving gathering of artists and projects - creating original art, performance, and community activations. www.groundworkredux.com

Daren H. Herbert (he/him)

Daren is a Bermudian artist whose love for acting continues to grow. He was an ensemble lead on Amazon's Pretty Hard Cases and a recurring on hit Netflix series'  Kim's Convenience and Designated Survivor.

He is a multiple Dora Mavor Moore Award winner, a two-time Toronto Theatre Critics Award winner, a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award winner and an NAACP Theatre Award Nominee. Daren also received the prestigious Earl Cameron Award, recognizing his achievements in theatre, film and television, from the Bermuda Arts Council in 2022. 

Daren is one of the founding members of the Gracemoon Arts Company.  For over a decade, he has been training at LS & Co. Studios, under the mentorship of Michèle Lonsdale•Smith. Daren serves as a member of the Sheridan College Music Theatre Performance PAC and is a past board member of the Musical Stage Co.

He earned his MFA in Drama from the University of California, Irvine and a BFA in Theatre Arts from The University of the Arts, in Philadelphia.

 #allblacklivesmatter

Nathan D. Simmons

Coming out of Nova Scotia, now based in Toronto, Nathan D. Simmons was raised in the communities of East and North Preston NS. Graduate of the Fountain School of the Arts. He has played on stages all across Canada, and is very excited to take part in telling this Incredible story, with some of the most talented and creative artists Toronto has to offer!

P.S. Inagua IS the best kept secret.

Theatre Credits: Fat Juliet (Eastern Front Theatre), Serving Elizabeth (Belfry Theatre), Mischief/Colony Park (Neptune TYP). TV: FROM (MGM / Paramount +), Washington Black (Disney/HULU), Moonshine (CBC).

Kanika Ambrose

Kanika Ambrose is a two-time Dora Award winning playwright, opera librettist, and screenwriter.  Her play our place, was first produced by Cahoots Theatre and Theatre Passe Muraille in November 2022 and received a Dora Mavor Moore Award for “Outstanding New Play” in 2023. She received a second “Outstanding New Play” Dora in 2024 for Truth which premiered at Young People’s Theatre earlier the same year.  

She is a graduate of Canadian Film Centre’s Bell Media Primetime TV Program (2022-2023). 

Her opera Of the Sea with composer Ian Cusson premiered at the Bluma Appel Theatre in March 2023, commissioned by Tapestry Opera and Obsidian Theatre Company. Other credits include: writer and co-creator of the concert The Big Easy: Music of New Orleans at Soulpepper in 2024, writer of two pieces on Juno nominated classical album Known to Dreamers: Black Voices in Canadian Arts Song produced by Canadian Art Song Project.

Other short works have premiered across North America including celebrated digital work Tak-Tak-Shoo with composer Rene Orth. Kanika is a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University and is Associate Artistic Director of Necessary Angel Theatre Company. She is a proud former Artistic Producer and participant of Paprika Festival. She was featured as one of Cahoots Theatre Company’s 30 for 30 theatre makers for their 30th anniversary season. This year she is Tarragon Theatre’s OAC Playwright in Residence.

Sabryn Rock

Sabryn is an actor, singer, arts educator and director originally from Regina, Saskatchewan. Recent directing credits include Shaniqua in Abstraction (Crow’s/paul watson productions), Truth for which she received a Dora nomination for Best Director (Young People’s Theatre), Sympathy for the Devil (Soulpepper) and our place (Cahoots/TPM). Sabryn also directed the site specific production of Amiri Baraka’s Dutchman at The Summerworks Festival that took place on a city bus and has directed youth in One Song Glory as well as the Banks Prize Cabaret for Musical Stage Company. She also has assisted on several productions, most recently Sweat (Canadian Stage). Sabryn has numerous acting credits in theatre, animation, film & tv and has narrated many audiobooks. She has been nominated for several Dora awards as an actor and won the Toronto Theatre Critics award for her work in The Royale (Soulpepper). She is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, the Birmingham Conservatory at Stratford and the Canadian Film Centre’s Actors’ Conservatory.

Des'ree Gray (she/her)

Des'ree Gray is a Toronto based Costume Designer with experience in film and theatre. She is a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University's Production Design Program and takes pride in her abilities in all stages of the design process. 

Work: Costume Designer for A Case for the Existence of God (Coalmine Theatre); Costume Designer for Tyson’s Song (Pleiades Theatre); Designer for Jesus Christ Superstar (Talk is Free Theatre) Costume Designer for Appropriate (Coalmine Theatre); Assistant Costume Designer for Frankenstein: Revived (Stratford Festival); Associate Costume Designer for Treemonisha (Volcano Productions); Assistant Costume Designer for Fairview (Canadian Stage); Assistant Costume Designer for Maanomaa (Canadian Stage); Costume Designer for The Flight (Factory Theatre); Assistant Costume Designer for Da Kink in My Hair (Canadian Stage); Costume Designer for The First Stone (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre); Assistant Costume Designer for Little Women (Stratford Festival)

Nominations: 2024 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Costume Design; 2024 Virginia and Myrtle Cooper Award in Costume DesignCostume 

Online: Instagram @desreegraydesigns; Website www.desreegraydesigns.ca

Raha Javanfar

Raha is a musician, performer, theatre designer/director, and educator, and has worked for Tafelmusik, Soulpepper, Canadian Stage, Crows Theatre, and Opera Atelier, amongst others.

Raha is currently a Slaight Associate Artist at Soulpepper Theatre for which she was the Creator and Music Director of Sympathy for the Devil and Ladies of the Canyon. She was one of six co-creators of Now You See Her, an anti-patriarchy, Dora nominated play by Quote Unquote Collective, produced by Nightwood Theatre, in which she also performed the role of Daria. She co-wrote and co-directed Kensington: The Musical. The Shape of Home, a musical song cycle co-created and co-music directed by her, Beau Dixon, Hailey Gillis, Frank Cox-O’Connell, Andrew Penner, and Marni Jackson won a Dora award for Best Musical Direction. She won the Dora award for lighting design of Cliff Cardinal’s (Everyone I Loave Has) A Terrible Fate (Befall Them) and was nominated for lighting design for Is God Is (Canadian Stage) and Brothers Size (Soulpepper).

Thomas Ryder Payne

Thomas Ryder Payne is a composer and sound designer for theatre, dance and film. Selected past theatre work includes designs for Stratford, Shaw, Mirvish, Soulpepper, CanStage, Tarragon, Factory, TPM, YPT, Crows, Modern Times, Aluna, BIBT, Nightwood, Toronto Dance Theatre, NAC, Theatre Calgary, GCTC, RMTC and many others. Thomas has received 6 Dora awards.

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Diane Blake & Stephen Smith

Kevin & Roger Garland

Sheena Macdonald & Phil Schmitt

Canada Council for the Arts

Ontario Arts Council

Toronto Arts Council