Hope Van Der Merwe: Artistic Director
Hope Van Der Merwe is an actor, playwright, and poet currently studying at York University’s BFA Acting Conservatory. Her first play, Something Wicked premiered at York University’s 2020 playGround Festival. Most recently, Hope interviewed Kate Hennig for The Canadian Plaything’s Playwright to Playwright series, sponsored by PGC’s PlayConnect program. Hope’s latest performances include Luca Winer’s TwentySomethings, York University’s 2020 playGround Festival’s Something Wicked, and v-day @ York’s production of Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues.
Alysha Mohamed: Artistic Director
Alysha Mohamed is a poet, playwright, and actress currently studying at Queen’s University. Her first play, My Hands Were Made For This, placed third in Toronto Fringe’s New Play Competition and received a professional staged reading with Lunchbox Theatre in 2019. Her latest performances include 5th Company Lane’s productions of Christina, the Girl King by Michel Marc Bouchard and Scratch by Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman. Most recently, two of her poems, “Nanima” and “The Colonizer’s Nightmare” have been published in Arc Magazine’s summer issue.
Ziyana Kotadia: Financial Manager
Ziyana Kotadia is a storyteller, student politician, and poet pursuing an Honors Specialization in Global Gender Studies from Huron University College at Western University. She is currently the 2020-2021 President and CEO of the Huron University College Students’ Council and was the 2019-2020 Vice President and Artistic Director of the Huron Underground Dramatic Society. Her most recent publications include The Skin I Wear in Camille Inston’s INTERMISSIONS: Works for a New World digital gallery and Racial Fetishism: Prejudice Dipped in a Smile in the Symposium academic journal.
Alexis Hope: Social Media Coordinator
Alexis Hope is an actor, poet, and playwright currently studying as a senior at Foundations for the Future Charter Academy High School. Her most recent productions include The Giver by Eric Coble, The Addams Family by Rick Elice and Marshall Brickman, and Rowing to America by Kitty Chen. Her latest pieces of writing – “Black Crowns”, “Battlefield”, and “The Day The River Ran Red” – will be featured in the winter issue of her digital school magazine, Rising From The Flames, which she presides over as Co-Executive Editor and Co-Social Media Manager.
Emma Richmond: Technical Director
Emma Richmond is a director and producer, who most recently co-directed a virtual production of “We Are The Tigers” for the theatre company that she co-founded and is Managing Director of Play Online Theatre Company. She hopes to one day live in an apartment with a kitchen island.
Zoey Shea Peacock-Jones: Technical Director
Zoey Jones is a sophomore transfer student at The New School in New York City studying Creative Technologies and Acting. She is a Co-Founder of Play Online, a student led online theatre company. Her recent works include designing and technical directing for “We Are The Tigers” directed by Emma Richmond, and being a technical producer for an off-broadway online play festival.
Black Swan Production Company 