3rd Annual
Decolonise Your Ears
New Play Reading Festival
DYE Show 1 - Nbwaachaadaa Nokomis
Playwright: Danielle Boissoneau
"Generational divides encompass three different lives as Dawnis navigates life in the city. Her urban indigenous experience is riddled with signs from beyond as she interprets what it could all mean and what it has to do with her as she grapples with the immense responsibility of healing those divisions, both within herself and within her family lines."
Content Warning: This text contains references to intergenerational traumas and residential schools.
DYE Show 2 - After Prom
Playwright: Jahnelle Jones
"When two estranged twenty-somethings break into their old high school on the ten-year anniversary of their friend’s death and get drunk in the 3rd floor girl’s washroom, they find themselves faced with their past. Taken back to their prom day-- the last day they spent with their friend; the women begin to question whether they really need all the answers to their decade old questions.
DYE Special Feature - Choti Choti Batain
Playwright: Sanskruti Marathe and Davinder Malhi
"Choti Choti Batain is the playwrights’ love letter to South Asian mothers. This story takes place in Brampton, and as the death of their father brings a family to their knees, the mother of the household attempts to divorce her dead husband to find freedom again. Choti Choti Batain was inspired by the playwrights’ own experiences with the patriarchy in South Asian/Punjabi culture and the sacrifices immigrant families must make to survive. When writing this play, the playwrights asked: what does resilience look like for South Asian women? How do Punjabi families relate to the idea of “home”? How can we find compassion for our families, while also challenging them to expand their beliefs?"
DYE Show 3 - The Foreigner
Playwright: Helen Belay
"The night Henry -- the region’s newly orphaned Duke-- is about to end it all, he's stopped by the most improbable of events occurring: an alien crashing onto Earth on a mission, who immediately conscripts him into teaching her the ways of humanity. As the lessons grow more complex, it becomes clear that perhaps the more profound facts of humanity are the ones neither ever thought they’d be privy to. An exploration of what it means to be alive and be truly seen, The Foreigner is a love letter to the outsiders, the outcast and the foreign."
Our Playwrights & Directors
Playwright
Jahnelle Jones (She/Her)
Jahnelle Jones (she/her) is a Black queer Toronto based writer, actor, director, producer and winner of the “Most Well Rounded” student award (circa 6th grade). She’s been a member of the Toronto theatre community since 2014 and got her start doing various youth theatre training programs with professional companies like Tarragon, Paprika Festival, and Shakespeare in the Ruff. She’s a founding member of the indie theatre collective Rookies with Friends, an emerging artist collective that specializes in making shows that centre queer and BIPOC young adults. Aside from theatre, Jahnelle also creates and writes for short form series, tv, and film.
Contact: jahnellejonesw@gmail.com
Playwright
Danielle Boissoneau
Danielle Boissoneau is a 2spirit femme, Anishnaabekwe from Garden River First Nation. Currently on loan to Hamilton Ontario, Danielle embodies her dreams of liberation and autonomy by collaborating with sound, ancestral language, the land and water. She invokes the practice of living artistically, by acknowledging miracles and then translating them into projects for the people. Danielle has performed her poetry at various venues, including Tipi Confessions (2019), the Ongwehonweh Storytellers Festival (2020) and the Born Celestial exhibition (2022). Her intimate relationship with sound and words goes back to childhood, she sees herself as a constant student moving from writing political essays, to sharing and publishing her poetry, and then being invited to write a screenplay for a soon to be released animated film. She is looking forward to sharing her first play during the Decolonize Your Ears Festival. Danielle is from the Old Turtle Clan.
Contact: d.boissoneau@gmail.com
Playwright
Helen Belay
Helen Belay was born in Bedford, England and raised in Edmonton, AB. Recent credits include: The Wonderful (Caravan Farm Theatre); Queen Goneril & King Lear (Soulpepper); ren & the wake (Catch the Keys Productions); Jane Eyre, The Fiancée, Heaven (Citadel Theatre); Here There Be Night (WWPT); The Blue Hour (SkirtsAFire Festival); The Society of the Destitute Presents Titus Bouffonious (Theatre Network); Cinderella (Globe Theatre); Vidalia (Teatro La Quindicina); Lenin’s Embalmers, All for Love, Middletown (Studio Theatre). FILM & TELEVISION: Dark Nature; Abracadavers; The Gauntlet; The Ugly Meadow; A Second Round of Seconds; Song of the Dead.
Contact: helbelay@gmail.com
Director
Melissa Murray-Mutch (She/Her)
Melissa Murray-Mutch is an actor, playwright and arts educator from the New York metro area living here in Hamilton. Melissa is a co-founder and serves as the artistic director of the Gritty City Theatre Company. She acted in, wrote and co-wrote two short films for her company, “Hammered- An Apocalyptic Comedy” and “Hammered part 2 Moonrocks vs. Moonshine” for the Hamilton Fringe Digital Exclusives category. Melissa’s play “Unwanted'' was selected for the first “Decolonize Your Ears Festival” and Theatre Aquarius ``Brave New Works Festival”. Her work as arts educator in Canada includes Theatre Aquarius Theatre School, the Art Gallery of Hamilton and Young People’s Theatre of Toronto and across the border in New York with Manhattan Theatre Club and the American Slavery Project.
Acting work on stage in Canada includes, “The Fertility Project” (co writer), “Vagina Monologues”, "Lost Lake", "Night Desk" and “The Vagina Monologues”. In the U.S- Off-Broadway: "Death of the Liberal Class" ( The New Ohio Theater), "Playboy of the West Indies", (Lincoln Center Theater) and “This” (Shaker Bridge Theatre) and her solo shows "Obnoxious" and "Meanie" at La Mama, ETC in NYC. Melissa’s film and television roles include “Cross”, “Ginny and Georgia” “Christmas Cookie Catastrophe”, “A Christmas Stray'', “Escalation”, "The Umbrella Academy", “Titans'' and “Law and Order: SVU".
Contact: melmurraymutch@gmail.com
Director
Priya A. Thomas, PhD (She/Her)
Priya A. Thomas, PhD is a dance/theatre historian, musician, and dancer/choreographer. Her scholarly and creative activities reflect a multidisciplinary critical practice that probes changing historical understandings of the human in dance and performance practices. Her research on historical configurations of the nonhuman/monster in transatlantic contexts of the long nineteenth century (1750-1913) has been recognized through publications in leading peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, international conferences, research awards, grants, and fellowships. Her polyvocal record of artistic creation spans a range of dramatic practices (Bharata Natyam, yoga, modern/contemporary, and more recently, flamenco), and includes a catalog of work as a musician/songwriter.
Until June 2021, she served as a tenure-stream assistant professor at Texas Woman’s University. She is currently working on a SSHRC-funded book manuscript on monsters in theatrical performance, a Canada-Council funded fictohistorical performance project entitled, The Last of the Rhinestone Cowboys: Expo 67’s Sunset Years, and a new, full-length recording as a musician/songwriter. She currently serves as Book Review Editor of the peer-reviewed theatre journal, https://www.utpjournals.press/loi/tric (University of Toronto Press). She is Assistant Professor in the Department of Dramatic Arts at Brock University.
Contact: pthomas2@brocku.ca
Director
Paula Grove
Paula trained at Ryerson Theatre School and has an MFA in Acting from York University.
She was recently the Assistant Director of “Transforming Stories/Driving Change” at McMaster University’s School of the Arts. This five year project used theatre to give voice to vulnerable populations in Hamilton.
Most recently Paula was the director of Life In Transit(ion) for Frost Bites Theatre Festival 2023.
Paula’s performing credits include the Shaw Festival, the Canadian Stage Company and Toronto Free Theatre.Paula’s performing credits include the Shaw Festival, the Canadian Stage Company and Toronto Free Theatre.
Paula is also part-time faculty at the Hamilton Conservatory for the Arts and a private coach. She is the winner of the 2015 City of Hamilton Arts Award for Theatre.
Contact: p.grove@ymail.com
Our Actors
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Actor
Annika Tupper
Annika Tupper (they/she) is a Queer Métis multidisciplinary artist originally from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Treaty 6), and is a recent graduate from Sheridan College’s Bachelor of Music Theatre Performance Program. Growing up around diverse genres of music and being a classically trained musician, they are interested in exploring how different types of music can be married together to express their inner world, and specializes in many styles outside of musical theatre. Selected credits: Emma Nolan in The Prom (Drayton Entertainment), Jesus in Jesus Christ Superstar, CJ in In Studio with Britta Johnson, Ellie in An Incomplete List… (Theatre Sheridan), Tree/Asst. MD in Rooted: A Musical Poem (Theatre Sheridan + Musical Stage Co.). Along with performing, Annika is passionate about writing for musical theatre, and aims to amplify marginalized stories that have yet to be witnessed or heard within the musical theatre canon.
Contact:@annikatupper
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Actor
Jessica Rosales
Jessica is a Venezuelan-Canadian performer from Toronto, and a Queen’s University alumni holding a Bachelor of Arts (Honours), and a Bachelor in Music Theatre (a joint program with St. Lawrence College). She is thrilled to be playing Reese in After Prom for Red Beti's Decolonise Your Ears 2023 Festival. Selected credits: Marta in COMPANY (Inspired Productions), Alice in The Lancashire Lass (Kingston's Watershed Festival), Harmonia in HARMONIA (The Grapevine Theatre Project), Cathy in The Last Five Years (Blue Canoe Productions), Simon in Jesus Christ Superstar (St. Lawrence College). When at home she is writing music and recording with her brother as Fontstheduo (available on all streaming platforms). Jessica is always grateful for her Mom, Dad, brothers Gabriel & Daniel and her partner Filip.
Contact: Website: jessicarosales.ca ; IG: @jesse.rosales @fontstheduo
Actor
Reid Martin
Reid Martin is a Toronto based actor and singer. She is a graduate of the Sheridan College and UTM Theatre and Drama Studies Program. She holds a diploma in Professional Actor Training and an HBA Specialist Degree in Theatre and Drama Studies. Recent productions include: Shelley in The Huns (Theatre On The Ridge), Desdemona in Othello (Knockout Theatre Co.), Bombur in The Hobbit (Theatre Erindale), and Adella in The Little Mermaid (Silly Stages), amongst many others. Reid could not be happier to be involved in this year’s wonderful Red Beti's Decolonise Your Ears Festival and cannot wait to explore all Hamilton has to offer.
Contact: reidamandamartin@gmail.com
Actor
Kiera Publicover
Kiera Publicover (they/she) is a Queer, multidisciplinary artist, performer and writer. A graduate of the University of Windsor’s Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting program, they have performed and composed with companies such as Soulpepper, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Shakespeare in Action, Bygone Theatre, and so on. She has been the Artistic Director of Arrowwood Theatre Company since 2018 and served as the Playwright in Residence at House + Body Theatre in 2022. A theatre and film/television actor, Kiera has established herself as a hungry and eager artist. Her work revolves around themes of family, femininity, gender performance and experimentation with alternative forms of creation. They are the recipient of a 2021 Canada Council for the Arts Research and Creation grant and a Western Ontario Drama League Nominee, as well as a winner of the Best Romantic Comedy at the Oregon Short Film Festival for “Late Bloomer” (2022).
Contact: publicoverkiera@gmail.com
Actor
Wilamina McGrimmond
I am a proud first nations woman from Tl'azt'en nation from Tache, Northern BC. Been working and learning everything I am offered in my life. I enjoy teaching everyone about our lives as First Nation peoples. I am an activist for the environment.
Contact: mcgshadow@hotmail.com
Actor
Sagal Hussein Jama
Sagal Hussein Jama is excited to take part in Red Beti's Decolonise Your Ears 2023 Festival. Her previous works include: Clue: on Stage and Steel Magnolias with the Milton Players as well as some musical theatre with Georgetown Globe Productions and Huge Picture Productions.
Contact: sagalj14@gmail.com
Actor
EJ Candelaria
EJ is a Filipino artist originally from Calgary, AB (Moh'kinsstis). He is currently in the Bachelor of Music Theatre Performance at Sheridan College. EJ is grateful to be making his debut with Red Beti Theatre in this year's Decolonise Your Ears Festival. Recent theatre credits include: Rock of Ages, Lucky Stiff (Stephenville Theatre Festival), a workshop production of Let's Bop! the Musical (Terra Bruce), Absinthe, Bourbon, Vodka, & Sake (Calgary Fringe), Ragtime: A Concert Performance (Theatre Calgary), The SpongeBob Musical (Storybook Theatre). Sending his love to family and friends for their support!
Contact: @ejcandelaria
Actor
Freya Maria
Freya Maria (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary artist from the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta. She is absolutely thrilled to be a part of this reading alongside these talented performers! As a self-proclaimed nerd, in her free time, you can find her either playing video games, fangirling over vintage records and Broadway musicals, or enjoying a poetry book on a park bench! Freya wouldn't be where she is today without the never-ending support of her mother and father, her two sisters Nina and Athena, and her incredible mentors. Recent theatre credits include Dark Days Cabaret (Icarus Theatre); The Merchant Of Venice (Real Canaan Theatre); Voices of Tomorrow (Icarus Theatre); Twelfth Night: The Musical (Theatre Sheridan); Tiny Tenements of Terror (Musical Stage Co./Theatre Sheridan) and Concord Floral (Theatre Sheridan). She hopes you enjoy the show!
Contact: freya.maria.official@gmail.com
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Actor
Nadeem Phillip
Nadeem trained as an actor at Toronto Metropolitan University and as a Screenwriter at Toronto Film School. Noteworthy credits include the smash hit Beatles musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s As You Like It, and the award-winning musical Onegin. While currently working in Film/Television (Global’s Robyn Hood), Nadeem continues striving to add non-colonial content to the Canadian theatre milieu. Nadeem currently resides on land rightfully belonging to the Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, and Anishnaabe.
Contact: nadeemphillip@gmail.com