Our Team
DONNA-MICHELLE ST. BERNARD
aka Belladonna the Blest is an emcee, playwright, administrator, and agitator. She is a coordinator with the AdHoc Assembly, artistic director of New Harlem Productions and former General Manager of Native Earth Performing Arts. Her work has been recognized with nominations for the Governor General’s Award, Siminovitch Prize, KM Hunter Award, Herman Voaden Award, Enbridge PlayRites Award Dora Mavor Moore Award. She is co-editor with Yvette Nolan of the Playwrights Canada Press anthology Refractions: Solo and the upcoming Indian Act. DM is currently the emcee in residence at Theatre Passe Muraille and playwright in residence at lemonTree Creations.
Twitter: BelladonnaNHP
Instagram: belladonnatheblest
Facebook: NewHarlemProductions
Website: 54ology
Photo by Graham Isador
COLE ALVIS
(she/her) is a 2 Spirit Michif (Métis) artist based in Tkarón:to with Chippewa, Irish & English ancestors from Turtle Mountain. She is one of the leaders of lemonTree creations, manidoons collective, AdHoc Assembly and is on the board of the Dancers Of Damelahamid. Recently, Cole performed in Louis Riel (Canadian Opera Company & National Arts Centre) and directed the Dora-nominated bug by Yolanda Bonnell (manidoons collective & Luminato), Lilies by Michel Marc Bouchard (lemonTree creations, Why Not Theatre & Buddies in Bad Times Theatre) and, alongside fellow Dora-nominated Michael Greyeyes, co-directed an Indigenous opera double bill called Two Odysseys: Pimooteewin / Gállábártnit (Signal Theatre, National Sami Theatre Beaivváš & Soundstreams). This year, Cole is calling on the women in her matriarchal line to remember together their Michif ancestors.
Twitter: Cole_Metis and LTcreations
Instagram: cole.alvis and lemonTree__creations
Facebook: lemonTreetheatrecreations
Website: lemontree
Photo by Dahlia Katz
JIVESH PARASRAM
is an Award Winning multidisciplinary artist, researcher, and facilitator of Indo-Caribbean descent. His work has played across Canada, and Internationally. He is the founding Artistic Producer at Pandemic Theatre and the incoming Artistic Director for Rumble Theatre. Jiv grew up in K’jipuktuk (Halifax) and currently endeavours to split his time between T'karón:to (Toronto) and the Unceded Coast Salish Territories (Vancouver). He has received two Harold Awards including the Ken McDougall award for direction, the Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award, and was a member of the second cohort of the TAC Cultural Leaders Lab with the Banff Centre.
Twitter: jivisawesome
Photo by Graham Isador
YVETTE NOLAN
is a playwright, director, and dramaturg (Algonquin). Plays include BLADE, Annie Mae’s Movement, The Birds, The Unplugging, Gabriel Dumont’s Wild West Show (co-writer) and the libretto Shanawdithit. From 2013-2011 she served as Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts. Her book Medicine Shows about Indigenous theatre in Canada was published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2015, and Performing Indigeneity, which she co-edited with Ric Knowles, in 2016. She has been honoured with the Mallory Gilbert Award, the George Luscombe Award, the Maggie Bassett Award, and a Harold. She is currently the Richler Writer in Residence at McGill University.
Photo by Keesic Douglas
CHRISTINE QUINTANA
Born in Los Angeles to a Dutch-British-Canadian mother and a Mexican-American father, Christine is now a grateful visitor to the unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh people. Christine is an actor, playwright, and co-Artistic Producer of Delinquent Theatre. Christine received the 2017 Siminovitch Protege Prize for Playwriting from Marcus Youssef, and was the Urjo Kareda Emerging Artist Resident at Tarragon Theatre. Creation/performing highlights include Never The Last (co-created with Molly MacKinnon), produced by Delinquent Theatre, recipient of 5 Jessie Richardson Theatre Award nominations including Outstanding Production and Outstanding New Script and winner of Significant Artistic Achievement; Selfie (commissioned by Théâtre la Seizième in French, and Young People’s Theatre in English, winner of the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding TYA Play, the Sydney Risk Prize for Outstanding Script by an Emerging Playwright, and the Tom Hendry award for TYA); Good Things To Do (rEvolver Festival and FoldA). Christine is a proud co-founding member of the Canadian Latinx Theatre Artist Coalition. She holds a BFA in Acting from the University of British Columbia.
Photo by Reznek Collective