Year Two Cohort

Skyler Anderson

Sky is a proud father of two boys who he dedicates all his work to. He holds a degree in Theatre from the First Nations University of Canada and is also a sessional theatre and Indigenous visual art instructor at the University of Regina. In Winter 2021, Sky curated, directed, and performed in a play reading series for the Globe Theatre, where he works as both Artistic Associate and Indigenous Liaison. In the following Spring he developed and performed an outdoor walking show alongside Greg Ochitwa that was based on stories from his life titled, Holdin’ on to What’s Golden, which he then performed as a one-person show in the Globe Theatre’s 2022 Main Stage Season. Sky was born and raised in Regina, and he is nêhiyawak, from Treaty 4 Territory.

Sehar Bhojani

Sehar Bhojani is a Muslim-Canadian artist, producer, arts leader, and dog-mom currently based in good ol’ Hamilton, Ontario. She is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s acting program. As an actor, she has appeared in various commercials, television shows such as The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu) and Coroner (CBC), and films Punchline (short) and feature film SLAXX (EMA Films). As a producer, Sehar has worked with a number of Canadian Theatre companies and is currently Associate Artistic Director of Theatre Direct in Toronto.

Jody Bauche

Jody has always considered herself an artist although her artistic career is relatively recent. Jody has been an uninvited guest on Lekwungen land for the past 20 years. Jody is Metis and has been a part of the Visible Bodies Dance Collective since 2019. Through this dance collective, Jody has been a part of four collaborative dance performances. Jody is also a graduate student at SFU, studying Communications. She believes that supporting Indigenous led artistic movements helps communities reclaim and celebrate their culture.

Alex Chen

Alex Chen is a baritone, collaborative pianist, and vocal coach whose curiosity brings fresh perspectives on a diverse body of musical works. In the words of his mentor John Hess, he is “an immensely musical and sensitive player” with “a deeply inquisitive mind.”

Alex performs regularly in the Victoria music community, exploring genres such as art song, opera, and choral music. Moreover, as a faculty member at the Victoria Conservatory of Music he supports a wide variety of students and young professional singers from the piano. He is dedicated to education and engagement, striving to create lasting impressions with his performances & foster a desire to learn more with his innovative artistic projects. Ever expanding his artistic practice, Alex was a part of the inaugural cohort of the Association for Opera in Canada’s RBC Future Launch Fellowship Program, developing many portfolio artist skills.

Recent professional highlights include performing in solo voice & chorus capacities with Pacific Opera Victoria in their 2022 Civic Engagement Program & mainstage productions, respectively; producing a visual album of Debussy’s Ariettes oubliées as part of the Gay4Nature art song duo; and facilitating the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria’s 2021 School Workshops. He currently studies voice with acclaimed Baroque soprano, Nancy Argenta.

In a past life, Alex handled birds of prey for educational programs and contemplated the physiological factors affecting birdsong during a BSc in Zoology. To keep in touch with his background in biology, he loves spending time outdoors and spotting local flora and fauna.

Leslie Doe Remedios

Originally from the traditional land of the Huron-Wendat, Seneca and the Mississauga of the credit (aka Toronto), Leslie is a graduate of York University (2008) and Studio 58 (2012). They recently completed an Artistic Associate Internship with Green Thumb Theatre, funded by the BC Arts Council Early Career Development Grant. In addition to assistant directing alongside Rachel Aberle in their 2021-22 season for Like It Or Not, Still/Falling and The Code, Leslie is also set to direct the premiere production of For Now with Green Thumb in the Spring of 2023. Favourite acting credits include “Jane” in Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, Sam” in Thanks for Giving (Arts Club Theatre Company), and “Bap” in Baking Time (Presentation House Theatre); upcoming shows include Me Love Bingo! (Arts Club Theatre) and Instantaneous Blue (Mitch and Murray Productions).

Anna Garoucheva Gonzalez

Anna is a Cuban Armenian, Russian – Swedish grown, actor, improvisor and theatre/film maker. She graduated from the University of Glasgow with a MA in Culture and Creative Arts and MLitt in Theatre Practices.

Her practice often leans towards themes of identity and belonging, in different ways. Working a lot with devising, improvisation, and movement, often playing with elements of magic, realism, and borrowing stories from her own life. Theater has always been a great vehicle for explorations of where is home? Where do we belong?

Select stage credits include Dear, Europe (National Theatre of Scotland), AN/NA, The Cabaret of Identity, Mid/Sommar and The Improv Ninjas Save the World at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Since moving to Vancouver and Canada Anna has been working in between the booming film industry and the local theatre scene. Most recently she Production Managing “The Mystics” a docufilm with Kim Harvey.

Anna is thrilled to be part of this wonderful cohort for this year’s Arts Leadership training!

Kristy Janvier

Kristy Janvier is born and raised in Flin Flon and is of Dene (English River First Nation) and mixed European decent. At the age of eighteen she began working overseas as a professional actress/dancer. After 15 years of working in the entertainment industry with Disney, Kristy returned to Canada relying on her presence/meditation practice to guide her work. Performances are influenced by improvisation yet structured from personal story incorporating images, installation, sound recording, and/or video. In addition to her performance work, Kristy has been sewing beadwork since 2018. Sales from her beadwork, Secret_Life_of_Beads, goes towards funding her family’s bush cabin started in 1934 for future generations. Past Highlights: She had an opportunity to explore her research on water, the rivers, bloodlines, and healing with the support of Young Lungs Dance Exchange in Winnipeg (winter 2016-17). Her first solo work “Forest Floor” showed with Free Flow/Saskatoon (Sept ’17), Weesageechak Begins to Dance/Toronto (Nov ’17), Nocturne/Halifax (Oct ’18), and Nextfest/Edmonton (June ’19). The video work from the E|MERGE artist residency at Earthdance, Massachusetts (Feb ’18) has screened at 5 film festivals in Canada. Her current solo work, Hide, has been supported by the Made in BC Re-Centering/Margins Creative Residency (2019) and shared in Edmonton (Feb’20) at the Expanse Festival. She has toured as an invited guest with Dancers of Damelahamid with Flicker (Oct-Nov ’17) and the national and international premier of Mînowin (Sept-Nov ’19). She has also worked with Raven Spirit Dance in The Gift (2019), presented solo work at IndigDIV (2019) and Confluence (2020).

Anahita Monfared

Anahita Monfared (they/she/he) is a (gender)/queer and Iranian actor, writer and spoken word poet with multidisciplinary curiosities. They are passionate, and driven by storytelling that requires risk, demands honesty and is intentional in making space for stories we have not heard before, or have only heard single stories of.

Most recently part of Frank Theatre’s Telling It Bent Poetry and Playwriting Cohort and the Arts Clubs LEAP Playwriting Intensive! They are currently co-writing “Beyond Consent: Transforming Rape Culture into Queer Trans Nurturance Culture” with Angelic Goldsky, forthcoming 2024 with Thorntree Press and studying Theatre, along with a minor in Psychology at New York University.

Passionate about the possibilities of love and connection that theatre holds- Anahita is so excited to be part of this year’s IBPoC Arts Leadership training program!

Natércia Napoleão

Natércia Napoleão (she/her) is a multifaceted Brazilian theatre artist.

Over the past eighteen years, she has notably contributed to the Albertan theatre community and beyond, with experience in site-specific theatre, dance theatre, multimedia performance, television, musicals, and a wide range of classical and contemporary theatre. Performance highlights include the acclaimed Fado: The Saddest Music in the World (JAYMAC Outstanding Production Award) at the Firehall Arts Centre in Vancouver.

Directing credits include Hummm (Climate Change Theatre Action/ New Harlem Productions); Orange Skies (Tarragon Theatre’s Young Playwright’s Unit); and the multidisciplinary theatre piece, Threshold (The Lobbyists collective/2021 Chinook Series). Dramaturgy credits include Hot House Crossing, a playwriting program for newcomer and refugee artists, for Cahoots Theatre.

Natércia is a producer with Dora Award nominated manidoons collective, having just supported the premiere production of esteemed playwright Yolanda Bonnell’s White Girls in Moccasins. She is also a 2021-2022 Innovator working with Nightwood Theatre and a 2022 ThisGen Director Fellow with Why Not Theatre.

As a writer, she is currently developing her first full-length play, Michener Park, alongside renowned Chilean author, playwright and activist, Carmen Aguirre. Natércia is also an essayist, and her recent works include, “Reimagining Community and the Workplace of Theatre” (Culture Days AB) and “2020: Year of the Iconoclast” (Theatre Alberta).

As a community advocate, Natércia spearheads and contributes to grassroots initiatives regularly. She has worked as a strategic planner with institutions and companies exploring equitable practices, such as Musical Stage Co. and Outside the March.

Natércia is a graduate from the University of Alberta’s BFA Acting Program and is the incoming CAEA representative for the Alberta North/N.W.T. region.

Gail Nyoka

Gail Nyoka’s favourite art forms are theatre and oral storytelling. She enjoys writing and telling stories to both adult and young audiences.

Her plays have been performed in theatres in Ontario, Quebec and Ohio and she has taken her storytelling performances to Britain, the USA and Canada. Recently, she recorded stories for Young People’s Theatre in Toronto as part of their Storyteller Series.

The play, King of the Animals, opened the season at Talespinner Children’s Theatre in Cleveland in 2020 and returned for a full run in 2022.

Other works include the TYA production, The Oba Asks for a Mountain, Chalmers Award winner, Mella Mella, and plays written for adults, In Plain Sight, and The Waters.

Gail enjoys writing for radio. In 2021, Playwrights Local in Cleveland ran her radio play, Love and Ecstasy.

Gail is currently working on a hybrid memoir, Oceans Carry Us.

Kodie Rollan

Kodie Rollan is a Philippine-born, Scarborough-raised, Moh’kins’tsis-based playwright, dramaturg, lyricist, and producer. He is excited to return as the Assistant Dramaturg for the Playwrights Lab. As an arts leader, Kodie is passionate about community-building, creating spaces for shared storytelling, and arts equity within the nonprofit sector.

He received his Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and his Masters in Arts Leadership from Queen’s University. He is currently the Artistic Director of Chromatic Theatre and is also currently a facilitator of the Rozsa Admin Fundamentals Training program with the Rozsa Foundation. He is excited to be part of this cohort to continue his journey in arts leadership.

Sangeeta Wylie

Sangeeta Wylie is a Vancouver-based actor and writer, with several credits in film, television, and theatre. She worked with Oscar nominated Deepa Mehta (Beeba Boys), who called her ‘exceptionally talented, genuine and fearless.” Her first full-length play, the critically acclaimed we the same, premiered with Ruby Slippers Theatre at The Cultch, Vancouver 2021. It received 6 Jessie Award nominations, winning two awards, and is part of the curriculum at University of Victoria’s Theatre department. Sangeeta has been developing her writing through Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre, Playwrights Theatre Centre, Teesri Duniya, and Green Thumb Theatre. She had a recent publication in Font Magazine. Sangeeta acts on the Board of Directors for the Cultch Theatre, plays classical piano, and holds degrees in Chemistry with a Music Minor and Dentistry.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.me/sangeetawylie.