Breton Lalama

Breton Lalama (he/him) is a writer, performer and filmmaker. Most recently, the film he co-wrote and starred in, Really Happy Someday, won the VIFF 2025 People’s Choice Award, the 2025 Inside Out Festival Best Canadian Feature Award, and the 2024 Whistler Film Festival’s Best Screenplay Award and Best Canadian Feature Award after premiering at TIFF 2024. As an actor, he’s worked with Young People’s Theatre, Canadian Stage, Bad Hats, Soulpepper, Neptune Theatre, The Royal Manitoba Theatre Center and more. FILM/TV includes: Law and Order: Toronto (CityTV), The Madness (Netflix), Y: The Last Man (FX/Hulu), Slasher (Shudder), Pretty Hard Cases (CBC/NBC), Really Happy Someday (Spindle Films), Let’s Go Bananas! (CBC Gem). His plays and screenplays include: LAST SHOW ON EARTH TRADEMARK SYMBOL! (Neptune Theatre premiere); WHAT FOR WHAT (in development, Tarragon Theatre Residency); Really Happy Someday (also co-producer and lead actor, TIFF 2024 premiere); when i was a boy i wasn’t (also director, self-produced, screened internationally); LUCKY BASTARDS (in development; Summerworks and Side Stream Festival); THE SIXTH DAY (in development, Daniel MacIvor and Beverly Glenn Copeland). Breton is the cofounder of the Spindle Films Foundation to support transgender Canadian filmmakers and a member of the Pink Triangle Press advisory council.

@bretonlikethecrackers

www.bretonlalama.com

Adrienne Wong

Adrienne Wong is a theatre writer, director, performer, and creator whose work straddles theatrical and digital space. Her projects include The Apology Generator (CBC Radio Q residency), SadSongs.ca (Nightswimming Theatre), Landline (co-created with Dustin Harvey), Me On The Map (co-created with JD Derbyshire, Jessie Award nomination, Banff Playwrights Lab), Mixie and the Halfbreeds (co-written with Julie Tamiko Manning), and most recently SmartSmart. Her scholarly writing appears in various publications and journals. She teaches extensively and contributes to the cultural sector as a board member for Playwrights Guild of Canada, a Steering Committee member for Balancing Act Canada, and an Advisory Committee Member for HowlRound Theatre Commons. Former Artistic Producer at Neworld Theatre, she is now Artistic Director of SpiderWebShow Performance and co-curates FOLDA, the Festival of Live Digital Art. Adrienne holds a BFA Theatre from Simon Fraser University, and an MFA Writing from the University of Victoria.

Elyne Quan

Elyne is a writer, actor and director. She holds a MFA in Dramatic Writing from New York University/Tisch, a BA Honors degree in Drama from the University of Alberta and is an alumna of the TV program at the Canadian Film Centre. Elyne is currently developing her sci-fi drama series, THE TUBE, for television and has a feature screenplay in development with Piller/Segan. She was recently commissioned by the Stratford Festival for her adaptation of Jane Eyre. Produced plays include the Sterling Award winning Lig & Bittle (with Jared Matsunaga-Turnbull), Stray, Look Both Ways, Souvenirs of Home, Trust, What, One Block Radius and a radio play, Direct Dial (CBC Radio). Recently, her play Pond Life was read and performed at theatres and universities around the world as part of Climate Change Theatre Action, an international effort to bring awareness to climate change. Webseries credits include factual series Today on Earth and Dirt on Green and she has an extensive list of new media concept and design credits. She has been an artistic associate at Workshop West Theatre and a former Co-Director at Concrete Theatre. Elyne currently lives in Toronto.

Diane Flacks

Diane Flacks is a writer/actor in theatre, TV, radio, and print media. Diane writes and produces TV, including as a key creative on Workin’ Moms, Baroness von Sketch Show, and Kids in the Hall - for which she was nominated for an Emmy. She co-created and wrote numerous TV series, worked as a story-breaker on new series for numerous production companies, and served as supervising producer for three seasons on the APTN series Qanurli? in Iqaluit.

As a playwright and actor, her fifth one-person play, Guilt (a love story) directed by Alisa Palmer, premiered at the Tarragon, and then toured to the Centaur and the RMTC to rave reviews, and is headed to Victoria and the Western Canadian Theatre Company. Diane also recently co-wrote and acted in a new play, PALS, at the WJT, directed by Jillian Keiley, with her theatrical brother, Richard Greenblatt, with whom she also wrote SIBS and CARE, both for the Tarragon Theatre. Diane and Richard adapted SIBS into a film for CBC and an audio play for PlayMe(CBC). Also written for the Tarragon, is her play about medical risk and compassion, Waiting Room. She also wrote and starred in Unholy, her hit, critically acclaimed play about women and religion for Nightwood Theatre, directed by Kelly Thornton. Unholy was remounted twice in Toronto, nominated for a Dora for outstanding new play, and was filmed live for TV

Selected theatre acting credits: most recently, Diane played Constance in Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet for Perchance theatre in NFLD, directed by Alisa Palmer. She also played Mayer Lehman in The Lehman Trilogy for Theatre Calgary, (nominated for a Betty Mitchell award for best ensemble and production) directed by Sarah Garton Stanley. Diane appeared in the adaptation of Ann-Marie MacDonald’s Fall on Your Knees, directed by Alisa Palmer at CanStage, NAC, Neptune and the Grand theatres. FOYK was Dora nominated, and a recipient of a number of Robert Merritt awards in Halifax. Diane played the titular role of Nathan in Nathan the Wise in Stratford. Diane also received a Dora nomination for outstanding performance in Body Politic, by Nick Green, directed by Alisa Palmer. Currently she is touring in the new play Spycraft, launching at the Theatre Centre.

Diane’s four other solo shows Myth Me, By A Thread, Random Acts and Bear With Me (adapted from her book of the same name), have been critically acclaimed and remounted internationally. She played the lead in the independent queer film Portrait of A Serial Monogamist. She was CBC radio’s national parenting columnist for 7 years, and a featured columnist at The Toronto Star for four years. She has written the Dora Awards for the last 8 years. Diane is the proud mom of two astonishing sons.

Corey Payette

Corey Payette is an interdisciplinary storyteller, writer, composer, director in theatre and film. He is a member of the Mattagami First Nations, with French Canadian and Irish ancestry, and lives on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl'ilwətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.
 
Known for his deeply moving, large-scale original musical creations, Payette’s work challenges the public’s notion of what musicals can be, inserting Indigenous perspectives and narratives into mainstream spaces, igniting conversations that inspire social change. Payette’s work explores themes of colonization, Indigenous language revitalization, cultural healing, reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, and the complexity of historic and contemporary Indigenous experiences across music, theatre, and film. Payette’s deeply collaborative, multi-disciplinary, and community engaged creation process has been integral in shining a light on stories that have gone unheard for generations. In 2021, Payette received the inaugural BC Award for Reconciliation from The Honourable Janet Austin, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, created to honour those who have demonstrated exceptional leadership, integrity, respect, and commitment to furthering Reconciliation with Indigenous peoples in the province of British Columbia.
 
Payette has been the Artistic Director of Urban Ink since 2014, an Indigenous and Culturally Diverse creation company in the Downtown East Side of Vancouver, past Artist-in-Residence and Associate Artist with English Theatre at Canada’s National Arts Centre, and founding Artistic Director of Raven Theatre, focusing on his new musical works. Payette has served as Artistic Associate with Full Circle: First Nations Performance, Talking Stick Festival, and The Indigenous Cycle at the National Arts Centre, an investigation into the broad spectrum of the Indigenous body of work being created within Canada’s borders. This cycle resulted in the creation of a new department of Indigenous Theatre at the National Arts Centre, which launched its inaugural season in 2019.
 
As a musical creator, Payette writes the music, lyrics, and directs the productions. His original musical Children of God has been performed across Canada since 2017 at The Cultch (Vancouver), National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Citadel Theatre (Edmonton), Western Canada Theatre (Kamloops), Segal Centre (Montreal), Vernon Performing Arts Centre (Vernon), Capitol Theatre (Nelson), Key City Theatre (Cranbrook), Surrey Arts Centre (Surrey), and NVIT (Merritt). Upcoming tours planned across the Prairies and Northern Territories.
 
His second musical Les Filles du Roi (The King’s Daughters) written in English, French, and Kanien’kéha (Mohawk) with Julie McIsaac had its world premiere in 2018 at The Cultch (Vancouver). In 2021, Payette directed a film adaptation produced by Urban Ink and Raven Theatre that is to be presented by the Cultch in 2023. Payette’s third musical Sedna co-created with Reneltta Arluk and Marshall McMahen had its world premiere at Caravan Farm Theatre in 2018, and had its Vancouver premiere postponed due to the pandemic.
 
In 2023, his original musical Starwalker premiered at the York Theatre. In 2021, Starwalker began development under Warner Media / Access Canada writer’s program as a television series. Payette next original musical On Native Land is currently in development with Raven Theatre and Urban Ink and his following original musical has been commissioned by the Stratford Festival.

As a director, other credits include: Moonlodge (Urban Ink/NAC English Theatre), associate director for A Christmas Carol (NAC English Theatre 2017 & 2018), and most recently made his film directing debut with Stories that Transform Us which premiered at VIFF in 2021, Guide My Way concert film at Transform 2023 and Les Filles du Roi feature film that was released in 2023 and has played over 10 International film festivals, currently featured on the TIFF film circuit, and has won Best Feature Film, Best Original Score, and Best Director at the Flathead Lake International Cinemafest, Best Original Score at the Leo Awards, and Best Music at the Hamilton Film Festival.
 
Corey holds a B.F.A. in Music Composition from York University, and composed the film score to the documentary AMIN AMIR (OMNI TV). He is the past Grand Chief of the Board of Directors of the Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance (IPAA) and past board member of Vancouver Aboriginal Health Society providing mental, physical, and spiritual relief to Indigenous peoples on the DTES (Vancouver, BC).

Payette has three musical albums “The Music from Children of God”, “The Music from Les Filles du Roi”, and “The Music from Sedna”, Children of God, Les Filles du Roi, and Starwalker scripts have been published through Scirocco Drama, and piano/vocal songbooks are available as well. He is the recipient of the John Hirsch Prize from the Canada Council, Fleck Fellowship from the Banff Centre, has won 4 Ovation Awards and 2 Jessie Awards for his writing and directing work. He lives in East Van with his husband Marshall and tuxedo cat Mabel.