Chris Dodd is an Edmonton-based Deaf performing artist, playwright, accessibility advocate and Governor General Innovation Award finalist. He is the founder and artistic director of Canada’s national theatre festival dedicated to the Deaf performing arts, SOUND OFF. He is an artistic associate with Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre and is one of their Playwrights in Development. His solo work, “Deafy”, began touring beginning at the Summerworks Performance Festival in 2019 and will be published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2021. Chris holds a degree from the University of Alberta’s Drama program. He was recently the recipient of the Guy Laliberté Prize for innovation and creative leadership by the Canada Council of the Arts.

April Hubbard is an arts administrator, accessibility consultant, Disability educator, circus artist, drag performer, tv host, event planner, and a proud queer, Mad, Disabled, settler/Mi’kmaw woman based in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. Over the past two decades, she has worked to create spaces where those with unseen bodies and unheard voices can feel welcome in the arts. April empowers community members to be leaders in designing the society in which they wish to live by challenging assumptions and normalizing the presence of Disabled people in our world.

For years Justin Neal juggled day jobs with his love for theatre in San Francisco and New York. Settling in his family’s traditional Sḵwx̱wú7mesh territory, he earned a joint MFA in Creative Writing and Theatre from the University of British Columbia. In 2020, he founded Holy Crow Arts in Vancouver, producing his play So Damn Proud with the fledgling theatre company. His feature The Skins Game is in development with Curiosity Pictures and Really Real Films. Neal’s original series for television, Boundary Bay, and his feature, The Traveller, have received development funding through the Indigenous Screen Office and Creative BC. He is a resident of the 2022 Norman Jewison Film Program Writers’ Lab at the Canadian Film Centre. www.justinbneal.com

Debbie Patterson is a Winnipeg playwright, director and actor. Trained at the National Theatre School of Canada, she is a founding member of Shakespeare in the Ruins (SIR), served as Artistic Associate at Prairie Theatre Exchange (PTE) from 2012 to 2018 and is a member of the PTE Playwrights Unit. She is in demand across the country as a consultant on crip aesthetics/accessibility and as a dramaturge versed in disability aesthetics. She was honoured with the United Nations Platform for Action Committee’s 2014 Activist Award and the Winnipeg Arts Council Making a Mark Award in 2017. She was twice shortlisted for the Gina Wilkinson Prize. She is a proud advocate for disability justice through her work as founding and current Artistic Director of Sick + Twisted Theatre. She lives a wheelchair-enabled life in Winnipeg and in a cabin on the shore of Lake Winnipeg with her partner and collaborator, Arne MacPherson.

Paul David Power has spent the past 20 years working as a writer, actor, director and communications professional in various mediums and for diverse organizations – including dramatic script for the stage. His formal training includes holding a BA in English with a concentration in theatre and a BAA in Journalism. Paul has a long history in raising awareness and understanding about disability issues through his work as a playwright, columnist, director and actor.  He is the arttistic director of Power Productions. www.powerproductionsnl.com

Hannah is a director, writer, producer and actor. Most recently she assistant directed alongside Jack Paterson on The Ballad of Georges Boivin (Western Gold) and Haven (United Players). She has an MA in Acting from East 15 and a postgrad filmmaking diploma from the London Film Academy. www.hannahsiden.com

Over the years, from her youth in Belgium to her life in Canada, there have been two constants in Anika’s life—her passion for the performing arts and a fervent desire to ensure anyone would get an opportunity to share that passion. Be it by providing access to the story through surtitles, live description, or creating visual stories allowing people on the autism spectrum to anticipate their experience rather than being overwhelmed before the show even starts.  Her work testifies to an ongoing pursuit of new ways to invite people to experience live performances by developing new initiatives, such as connecting patrons with refugees to see a show together, as well as innovative techniques like writing introductions when there are no resources or the show only requires minimal additional information to become accessible.  Access Co-ordinator for PuSh, Anika also continues to work as a translator, live describer, surtitler, and consultant for various local organizations such as Vancouver Recital Society, VocalEye, Axis Theatre, Revolver Festival, Kidd Pivot, and more. On an international level, she collaborates with Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussel, Peter Brook in Paris, and CDN d’Orleans in France amongst others. Another ongoing passion is working with people with lived experience, supporting them to develop their skills and careers as consultants.  Anika balances her career with life as a single mother while supporting a Deaf man with a developmental disability. And a creative soul often requires the inspiration and refuge of nature, which Vancouver luckily offers.

Jack is an award winning theatre maker whose work and practice has taken him across Canada, UK, EU and around the world. Work has ranged from devising creation, multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural and multi-ligual projects to new works & texts, contemporary approaches to classical theatre. www.jackpatersontheatre.com