PWM’s Young Creators Unit is now in its 8th year, featuring an exciting group of Montréal theatre artists.
With a focus on building a home for artistic risk and discovery, this year’s YCU unit is preparing for our annual showcase! The private event will take place on Thursday, May 25th and Friday, May 26th at 7PM, each night showcasing a different group of artists.
You can go into more details on each cohort member by expanding the information beneath their names.
Due to limited seating capacity, this year’s showcase will be a closed event. To learn more about our showcase, or to be added to an attendance wait list, please contact our Programs Coordinator at alanna@playwrights.ca.
Thank you for supporting the exciting new works of emerging artists!
THURSDAY, MAY 25
Jeong Ung Song (he/him)
Email: jeong.song97@gmail.com
Artistic Pillars:
• Cultural memories
• Asian-American diaspora
• Intercultural relationships
“My mom’s not a racist, she’s just… overly careful.”
bio:
Jeong Ung Song (부천송씨) is an emerging theatre director, playwright and producer currently residing in Montreal (Tiohtià꞉ke). He was born in Bucheon, South Korea and has an artistic background in Edmonton (amiskwaciwâskahikan). A recipient of Cultural Diversity in the Arts grant by the Edmonton Arts Council, he is interested in developing stories within his cultural memories. In the past, he directed Star Spawn by Erik Richards (ReadyGo Theater), CHANZO by Mukonzie Musyoki (ReadyGo Theater), Constellations by Nick Payne (ReadyGo Theater), Bash’d: A Gay Rap Opera by Chris Craddock and Nathan Cuckow (Flaming Peanuts Theater).
He is also producing several independent films which aims to decolonize love through Asian-Canadian perspectives. In his spare time, Jeong Ung studies neuroscience at McGill University.
Play description:
The story of a Korean American woman named Miso during the LA riots of 1992. Witness the event of the riots through Miso’s interaction with her Black boyfriend and her overprotective Korean mother. Experience frustration, solidarity, and marginalization of being a minority in the 1990s. By reflecting on the relationship between Korean and Black Americans during the 1990s Miso asks: what changed? What did not?
Casey Ecker (she, her)
Email: caseymecker@gmail.com
Artistic Pillars:
• Humour in truth
• Immigration
• Unpacking privilege
• Being vulnerable.
bio:
Casey Marie Ecker is a queer multidisciplinary artist and performer. An American transplant with a passion/history in the arts!
play description:
A modern retelling of Jane Austen’s infamous matchmaker. The story follows our title character Emma as she navigates her way through privilege and the bilingual advertisement world of Montreal, Quebec.
“This is Emma Woodhouse’s world. We just live in it.”
Corbeau Sandoval (he/they)
Email: andreas.scal@gmail.com
Artistic Pillars:
They aim to create pieces that are effervescent, grounded, jubilant, and focused on changing assumed realities.
“Twas some time ago, upon this growing field at the peak of morn. Thou were’t spread unto the grass, laying, basking in light, albeit not properly as thy visage was smack’d upon the earth.”
BIO:
Born, raised, and based in Montreal (the unceded and traditional territory of the Kanien’kehà:ka known as Tiohtiá:ke), Corbeau Sandoval is a multidisciplinary theatre artist and alumni of Dawson’s Professional Theatre program. An emerging artist of the industry, they’re exploring and solidifying their craft as a storyteller in many facets. They’ve composed original music for After Fuenteovejuna, showcased their play Off-ish through NTS’s public playwrighting class, produced two short skits for Dawson’s medical symposium, and featured in various shows such as AUTS Mcgill’s Hair the Musical, Lucy Gibb Smith’s original podcast Darkstead, and the original short film Midnight Dove. With this year’s Young Creator’s Unit, they are excited to showcase their newest piece It Sticks to the Ryver.
PLAY DESCRIPTION:
Born, raised, and based in Montreal (the unceded and traditional territory of the Kanien’kehà:ka known as Tiohtiá:ke), Corbeau Sandoval is a multidisciplinary theatre artist and alumni of Dawson’s Professional Theatre program. An emerging artist of the industry, they’re exploring and solidifying their craft as a storyteller in many facets. They’ve composed original music for After Fuenteovejuna, showcased their play Off-ish through NTS’s public playwrighting class, produced two short skits for Dawson’s medical symposium, and featured in various shows such as AUTS Mcgill’s Hair the Musical, Lucy Gibb Smith’s original podcast Darkstead, and the original short film Midnight Dove. With this year’s Young Creator’s Unit, they are excited to showcase their newest piece It Sticks to the Ryver.
Arash Ebrahimi (he/him)
Email: arash.himi@gmail.com
Artistic Pillars:
• Intercultural dialogue
• Exploring styles
• Engaging with the audience
BIO:
Arash Ebrahimi is an actor, singer and an upcoming playwright. He is an alumnus of the theatre program at Dawson College (Dome), where he was the recipient of the Victor Knight Memorial Scholarship for Perseverance. Arash was exposed to theatre at a very young age in Iran. However, he soon faced the political obstacles of becoming a performer in his country. At the age of 17, He made the tough decision of leaving his family behind to pursue his passion. He found the Montreal theatre community very welcoming and it did not take him long to feel home.
PLAY DESCRIPTION:
Arash, a struggling actor determined to make it big. His life takes an unexpected turn when he meets the love of his life. But as fate would have it, their love story is nothing short of a rollercoaster ride filled with laughter, tears, and a few twists and turns.
“I’m gonna tell you a secret boy. In this business, if you wanna make it, you gotta either sing, dance or be funny. You can’t sing for shit. You probably dance as good as you sing. And you’re boring as fuck which means you ain’t funny.”
Valerie Boisvert (she/her)
Email: valerie_greenwood@hotmail.com
Artistic Pillars:
The use of comedy and psychology to explore the highs and lows of human relationships to themselves and society.
“The reason I existed for four hundred and sixty six pages is because my life wasn’t perfect. There was always something to work on, some new objective to look forward to. That’s why the moment I got everything I wanted, you gave up on me.”
BIO:
Valerie Boisvert is a bilingual, emerging theatre creator and actor born and raised in Montreal. Upon her graduation of Dawson’s professional theatre acting program, Valerie wrote and acted in her first play, Down the Rabbit Hole, which she produced under her theater company, The Loose Cannons at the Montreal Fringe Festival of 2022. It is under this company that she will be putting on her second Fringe play, Who, Me?, a comedic solo-show about finding one’s identity through fanfiction, which she has been developing at the YCU. Come see a small snippet of Who, Me? showcased at PWM (and then come see the full thing in June at the Montreal Fringe!).
PLAY DESCRIPTION:
A comedic solo-show about the discovery of one’s identity through fanfiction. Valerie, amid cleaning out her childhood bedroom, finds a notebook she used to write fanfiction in as a teen. All’s well until the notebook comes to life, bringing alive all the characters Valerie has written in her past, and they’ve got quite the bone to pick with her.
FRIDAY, MAY 26
Tyson Fraleigh (they/them)
Email: tysonfraleigh@gmail.com
Artistic Pillars:
• Social commentary
• Satirical exploration
• Introspective horror
BIO:
Tyson Fraleigh is a writer and playwright based in Tiohtià:ke (Montreal). Their work focuses on the mundane horrors that fill our day-to-day lives and how to survive them. Their past work includes The Mentorship (2022), Only Human (2019), Carry On (2018), and Swimming Solo (2017). Their artistic pillars are research-informed creation, social commentary (satirical or serious), and taking the piss out of stupid ideas.
PLAY DESCRIPTION:
Indie film director Laurie is ready to enter the big leagues. When she is invited to dinner with legendary director-producer Charlie Jones, Laurie is ready to do anything to impress. But when Laurie and her partner Harper arrive at Charlie’s home, the night quickly descends from a simple interview into mind games and abuse. In the face of endless cruelties, will Laurie end this twisted cycle… or continue it?
“That’s why you are a director, Laurie. Because the world pushed you and pushed you and pushed you, but you kept getting back up. You can only be genius if you are flayed alive. And now, it is our turn for butchery.”
Katherine Dos Santos (she/her)
Email: kath.a.dossantos@gmail.com
Artistic Pillars:
• Somatic movement
• Playwriting
• Feminist methodologies
“Why is Dad cutting down the trees? This is a good set-up we finally have going. Ken’s doing fine out there! He has shelter, you bring him food… What more could he need?”
BIO:
Katharine dos Santos (she/her/elle) is an emerging writer, performer, and theatre-maker based in Tiotià:ke/Montreal. Originally from southern Ontario, she spent her childhood immersed in imagined worlds amidst stacks of library books, eventually stumbling into live performance, where she was struck by the joy and community that arises out of creative collaboration.
As a queer and biracial second-generation settler, Katharine is passionate about social change and decolonization and has worked in educational, psychosocial, and agricultural contexts. She holds a B.A. in English literature from Western University and has also trained in performance creation at Concordia University.
PLAY DESCRIPTION:
A family drama that examines the needs of an intergenerational intercultural immigrant family, the effects of disability on a family dynamic, and the childhood loss of innocence. It is also about the unlived lives adults carry, the need for belonging, and how a family responds to circumstances beyond their control. It is told in a Trinidadian dialect in the style of Canadian “kitchen-sink realism.”
Ella Williams (she/her)
Email: ellacaitlinwilliams@gmail.com
Artistic Pillars:
• Playwriting
• Dramaturgy
• Collective Creation
• The Six Viewpoints
BIO:
Ella grew up in central Vermont. After studying playwriting at The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago, she earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre from Concordia University in Montreal. Ella is interested in applying feminist methodology in the performance creation process and likes to consider herself an emerging theatre artist. She is particularly excited about new play development, non-linear strategies in dramaturgy, Authentic Movement, and sound design.
PLAY DESCRIPTION:
The story of the seven people whose lives are changed when the ghost of an anarchist granite surfacer crawls out of a washing machine and begins to cause trouble in the town he worked and died in. The story of the love that invoked this ghost and the small doomsday cult the ghost will eventually help dismantle. Melt is an inquiry into what love means under capitalism.
“Like, for forty years almost all of the granite workers died extremely young because they were exposed to so much dust that it literally killed them. And the granite shed bosses refused to do anything even though the unions were organizing and organizing and everyone knew exactly why all these people were dying!”
Kay Komizara (she/her)
Email: kay.sophia.komizara@gmail.com
Artistic Pillars:
• Anarchist
• Cybernetic
• Dionesian
“I’m sure you’ve been honest, too. You ever heard the expression “glass walls make for poor neighbors?” Maybe, some things aren’t meant to be transparent.”
BIO:
Kay Komizara is a Tio’Tia:Ke(Montreal) based, self-taught theatre creator, improviser, writer, and director who has been producing shows since 2013. She draws inspiration from unconventional mediums and her anarchist politics to create effective stories that inspire others to create their own. In 2019 Kay was diagnosed with stage four cancer, and through chemotherapy she first conceptualized what would become After the Orgy: A Hyperreal Tragedy, her most ambitious work to date. You can see her directing talents in Death of a Starman at this year’s Montreal Fringe festival.
Play description:
To capture the essence of cancer and hyperreality, After the Orgy is itself a copy of a copy. Remixing characters from played-to-death tragedies like Antigone and Othello in a neo-mythic sci-fi future. The story takes place when the world’s first trillionaire and their company, InterNXT, plan to end reality by launching a new version of the internet that can manipulate all connected systems and data. To commemorate this event, they host an end-of-reality party. However, plans go awry as the party turns into an end-of-the-world orgy and the detective hired to track down threats is seduced by a terrorist.
Headshots by Emelia Hellman.
This program is facilitated by YCU Dramaturg, Leila Ghaemi.
Leila Ghaemi (she/elle) is a first generation Iranian-Canadian theatre maker. She recently returned to her hometown of Montreal, Quebec after a decade of working for various theater companies in the United States, including American Conservatory Theater, New Repertory Theatre, and Boston Playwright’s Theatre. Leila received her BFA in Theatre Arts and MFA in Theatre Education & Direction from Boston University’s School of Theatre. She currently serves as co-artistic director of Persephone Productions and teaches theatre at The Study School. Leila’s specialties include theatre education, direction, and new play development. She is thrilled to be joining the PWM team and continue using her various platforms to advocate for intersectionality and empowerment in the arts.
ThE YOUNG CREATORS UNIT is financially supported by
