Staff

Photo by Dahlia Katz

Artistic Director, Alan Dilworth

Alan has been the Artistic Director of Necessary Angel Theatre Company since June, 2019. His work has played across Canada, the US and in Europe. He  is a Christopher Plummer Award laureate, a twelve-time Dora Award nominee for outstanding direction and production and the recipient of three SummerWorks Jury Prizes. Alan has staged over 25 world premieres in addition to his work on classical and established texts. He co-founded award-winning indie companies Belltower Theatre and Sheep No Wool, and was a Drummond Dorrance Fellow and Acting Artistic Director at Soulpepper Theatre Company. Alan has both an MFA in Directing and a BEd form York University, and a BA in International Relations from UBC.   

For Necessary Angel: Letters From Max, a ritual, New, The Events, The Great Fire, CRASH, and CRASH (the film). Other Selected: The Last Wife, The Virgin Trial, Mother’s Daughter (Stratford); Idomeneus, The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, Incident at Vichy, Eurydice, Happy Place, Twelve Angry Men, La Ronde (Soulpepper); This Is War (Porta, Athens); The De Chardin Project (TPM); If We Were Birds, After Akhmatova (Tarragon), The Middle Place, and Small Axe (Project Humanity).

General Manager, Kristina McNamee

Kristina McNamee (she/her) is a Toronto-based producer, arts advocate, administrator, designer, and manager with over 15 years experience. Kristina is deeply committed to helping the artists and arts organisations that she works with to accomplish their long term goals, while being a positive and proactive team member and leader. Kristina started as an indie theatre producer and designer working with a variety of Toronto artists and playwrights, bringing shows to SummerWorks and the Toronto Fringe Festival. 

Prior to joining Necessary Angel, Kristina served as Producer at Crow’s Theatre for seven years. While at Crow’s, Kristina was responsible for the management, execution, financial and critical planning of Artistic Programming; including mainstage productions, guest company relations, play development, and their touring circulation. Kristina was the Producer during Crow’s ten-fold growth as an arts organisation and the opening of a new performing arts facility, Streetcar Crowsnest. Kristina produced over 20 productions as part of Crow’s theatre season and touring circulation. Kristina has worked with such dynamic companies as Aluna Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Factory Theatre, Nightwood Theatre, The Company Theatre, The National Arts Centre, The Shaw Festival, Arts Club, The Stratford Festival, Studio 180 Theatre, Canadian Stage, among others.

Development and Communications Coordinator, Leonard McHardy

Born and educated in Toronto (Glendon College), Leonard, from an early age realised he was always happiest working in the creative environment of theatre. From his earliest experience during two seasons as an administrative intern at the Shaw Festival to directing new musicals at Toronto’s Global Village Theatre, he was destined to spend a life in the theatre. In 1975, with his partner John Harvey, he co-founded TheatreBooks, a bookstore dedicated to the performing arts which operated until 2014. From 1978 till 1981, he worked at the Stratford Festival as Director, Press & Public Relations.He has served as a volunteer on many juries and boards. In 2003, he was asked by Daniel Brooks to join the board of Necessary Angel where he served for 14 years (12 as Chair). He is honoured to be part of the dynamic team at Necessary Angel.

Photo by Dahlia Katz

Associate Artistic Director, Kanika Ambrose

Kanika Ambrose is a playwright, opera librettist, screenwriter and mom. She is a recent graduate of Canadian Film Centre’s Bell Media Primetime TV Program and Associate Artistic Director of Necessary Angel Theatre Company. Kanika’s work has premiered at stages and screens large and small in Toronto and in the USA. Her critically acclaimed play, “our place,” is the recipient of a Dora Mavor Moore Award for “Outstanding New Play”,  her opera “Of the Sea” with composer Ian Cusson premiered to great acclaim at Toronto’s historical Bluma Appel Theatre. Other credits include celebrated digital opera work “Tak-Tak-Shoo” at Opera Philadelphia with composer Rene Orth and “Truth” and Young People’s Theatre. A long-time resident of Scarborough, Kanika currently lives in Orono, Ontario with her husband and two sons.

Photo by Dallas Curow

Publicity, Katie Saunoris / KSPR

Katie runs the Toronto-based arts-PR company KSPR. She has worked for major Canadian institutions including the Stratford Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, Soulpepper Theatre Company, Luminato Festival, and the Toronto International Festival of Authors. Locally she works regularly with Studio 180 Theatre, ARC, Pleiades, the Howland Company, and the Theatre Centre. She brings a love of theatre and artist storytelling to Necessary Angel. 

Board

Please click on the board member name to learn more.

Richard Stursberg, Chair

Diane Blake, Vice Chair

Boyd Neil, Board Secretary

Sa’ad Shah, Treasurer

Roslyn Kaman, Co-Treasurer

Roslyn Kaman, Co-Treasurer

Roslyn Kaman is Chief Operating and Financial Officer for the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre where she has played an important role for the past 21 years in the development of the facility as a key cultural hub in downtown Toronto.

Roslyn started her career at the Financial Post as a data analyst, later moving to England with her husband where she worked as a pricing supervisor for Hertz Europe. Living in England enabled her to enjoy two of her passions; theatre and travel. Roslyn has also had the role of financial analyst at travel management company.

A member of Necessary Angel’s board since 2018, Roslyn has acted as chapter treasurer for Jewish Women International, and also serves on the Board of Trustees of The Linden School. She holds a CPA Ontario designation, a British accounting designation, ACCA, as well as a BA in Mass Communications and Sociology.

Shraddha Kothari Walker (Treasurer)

Shraddha grew up in a family that is passionate about theatre, with both of her parents serving as long-standing members of boards of various Canadian theatre companies, and an actor sister. As a student at The Bishop Strachan School, in Toronto, Shraddha was not quite talented enough to be on stage, but worked diligently behind-the-scenes, on promotions and ticket sales for various school productions. Many years later, Shraddha uses these same skills in her management role at Refinitiv (formerly Thomson Reuters, Financial and Risk) overseeing large project roll-outs for the company.

Shraddha joined the Necessary Angel board in December 2016. Outside of work and Necessary Angel, Shraddha is actively involved with the Toronto General and Western Hospital Foundation, and co-chairs LIVE it Up! for the Transplant Program at the University Health Network. She has recently been introducing her two young children to the Canadian theatre scene.

Boyd Neil, Board Secretary

Boyd Neil spent nearly 20 years as a senior executive with Canada’s leading public relations and public affairs firm (H+K Strategies), and a total of 40 years as consultant, arts journalist and speechwriter. Boyd began his career writing theatre and dance criticism and features on the arts for major publications in Canada and the U.K. (for which he was awarded the Nathan Cohen Award for Theatre Criticism). He went on to head the national corporate communications practice at H+K Strategies, then took on the role of building its national social media and digital practice.

Boyd holds B.A., M.A. (Drama) and M.B.A degrees from the University of Toronto, and taught social media, CSR and business consulting in Humber College’s Faculty of Media & Creative Arts for many years. He has been a director on the Board of Bridgepoint Health Foundation and chaired the joint foundation/hospital communications committee. He is currently also on the board of the Toronto Fringe Festival.

Diane Blake, Vice Chair

Diane Blake, founder and Chair of the Board of Directors of Myseum: a Toronto museum offering engaging programs and experiences which showcase the city’s history, spaces, culture(s), architecture, and people. She also serves as a director on the Board of the Walrus Foundation.

She has been a proud Torontonian since 1986, after receiving her undergraduate degree at University College London and masters at the University of Toronto. Prior to becoming an archivist, Diane worked in information technology.

Diane is a long time patron of many arts and educational organizations in Canada including the National Ballet of Canada, Loran scholars, the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto International Film Festival, HotDocs, and TVO.

Mickey Palha

Currently Senior Director—Major Gifts & Stewardship at the Royal Conservatory of Music. Mickey is a seasoned fundraising professional with more than 20 years of experience in high profile fundraising campaigns in the public cause and health sectors, and education in business management and radio and television journalism.

In addition to various fundraising roles with the Heart and Stroke Foundation, Mickey has served as senior director of individual giving with McMichael Canadian Art Collection, major gifts officer with United Way York Region’s ‘30 million in 3’ campaign, development associate—major gifts with the St. Elizabeth Health Foundation and philanthropy officer—education, training and outreach with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority

Sa’ad Shah

A filmmaker, scriptwriter and producer, and a member of arts-related advisory councils, Sa’ad is currently president and managing partner of Grey House Advisory Inc., a Toronto based boutique investment consulting firm focused on private equity and venture capital. He has spent the last 20 years in the banking and asset management industries with a focus on alternative investment strategies. Prior to founding Grey House in 2015, Sa’ad was a managing director at The Carlyle Group.

Sa’ad wrote and produced a short film entitled, “In Difference”, and produced a short documentary called “Shooting War”, included in the official selection of 2017 Tribeca Film Festival and premiered in NYC in April, 2017. A member of MENSA and the Summit Series, LLC, he is also a member of the Council of Advisors to The Wende Museum in Los Angeles. Sa’ad graduated from Columbia University (New York).

Emma Stenning

Emma is the Executive Director of Soulpepper Theatre Company. Previously, Emma was the Chief Executive of Bristol Old Vic, where she led the company, in partnership with Artistic Director Tom Morris, for nine years. Under her tenure, the organisation delivered a £25m redevelopment of its historic theatre, transformed its business model and re-established its profile on the regional, national and international stage. Emma was also Head of Producing at Manchester International Festival, Head of Theatre for the London region of Arts Council England, a Cultural Programme Advisor for the 2012 Olympic Games, and Executive Director at Battersea Arts Centre.

Emma is a 2005 Clore Fellow, an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Bristol University, Winner of the Clore Prize, and recognized by the Cultural Leadership Programme as a ‘Woman to Watch’.

Nalini Stewart

For over 25 years, Nalini Stewart has held leadership roles on local, provincial and national boards in the arts and education fields. She has been chair of the Ontario Arts Council, chair of the Writers’ Trust of Canada, acting chair of the Canada Council for the Arts and president of the Canadian Club of Toronto. She is a founding member of the Asia Pacific Foundation, the Ontario Arts Foundation, the Ontario Cultural Attractions Fund and the Power Plant Art Gallery at Harbourfront. She has been on the boards of OMNI TV, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, Tourism Toronto, the Stratford Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. She is currently an honorary governor of York University and a member of the governing council of the National Theatre School of Canada.

For her contributions to the arts, communications and education in Ontario and across the country and for her efforts to promote diversity awareness, inclusion and equality Nalini received the Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship, and is a recipient of the Order of Ontario.

Richard Stursberg, Chair

Richard Stursberg has spent his entire career in broadcasting, film, television and program Production, serving as assistant deputy minister Culture and Broadcasting in the Government of Canada, president of the Canadian Cable Television Association, CEO of the satellite TV companies Starchoice and Cancom, chair of the Canadian Television Fund, executive director of Telefilm Canada (the film financing company) and head of English services at the CBC. For his efforts, he was named Shit Disturber of the Decade (2000-2010) by Playback magazine.

Richard currently runs a boutique consulting firm (Aljess), lectures at Ryerson University on celebrity and media policy and is a respected author with works including The Tower of Babble (named one of the best books of 2012 by the Globe and Mail) and a new book released in 2019 entitled The Tangled Garden: A Manifesto for Canadian Culture in the Digital Age (Lorimer).

He is one of the founders of Digital Media at the Crossroads and the newly established Marshall McLuhan Foundation, and is currently president of PEN Canada.

Daniel Weinzweig

With more than 20 years’ experience in executive search, Daniel is founder of Searchlight Recruitment Inc. and currently co-managing partner. Before founding Searchlight, Daniel led Korn Ferry International media and entertainment, and not-for-profit practice, and managed search assignments in North America and the U.K.

Daniel has been active for more than 30 years in the North American and British film and television industry. Daniel worked in the U.K as CEO of Mayfair Entertainment International, a publicly traded media company active in UK Cinema exhibition, west end theatres and film and television sales. In Canada, Daniel was part of senior management at Cineplex Odeon Corporation and Astral Films Ltd. and founder and president of Norstar Entertainment.

Driven by a lifelong passion for the arts, Daniel serves on numerous cultural boards and advisory committees, including the International Society of the Performing Arts (ISPA) and Soundstreams (Chair).