The 2024-2025 Young Creators Unit

Meenu Atwal is a Montreal based artist. She trained in the Professional Theatre: Acting program at John Abbott College. Upon graduating, Meenu got the chance to perform in the Geordie 2Play Tour. Most recently, she got to show off her soccer skills in The Wolves, a co-production between Geordie Theatre and Imago Theatre. Although Meenu is primarily an actor, her love for writing is not a new one. One of her earliest work was a short story she wrote in elementary school about a cat sitting by a window on Christmas. Since then, she has evolved a lot in her writing. Meenu is a storyteller through and through. She believes that as creatives, we have the power to validate, influence and make a difference. Whether it is through acting or writing, she intends to tell stories that do just that.

Rachel Chin is a writer and filmmaker from Kingston, Jamaica. She graduated with a B.A in History from Columbia University in 2018 and completed her M.A in History at McGill University in 2022. Her writing explores movement as a process at every scale, from migration to emotion. By examining the foundations of our relationship to reality— whether fictive, cultural, corporeal or tenuous— her work delves into the art and act of adaptation and the transformative potential of narrative. Narrative is her entire deal. With an artistic background spanning a number of disciplines, from prose to illustration to poetry, her participation in this year’s cohort marks her very first foray into creating for theatre.

Lila (she/they) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and performer based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. Thriving in curiosity and collaborative spaces, she approaches art with an open heart, and a desire to evoke self-reflection and positive change through themes of identity, home, connection and rebellion. Alongside developing their artistic practice, Lila is dedicated to sharing the power of theatre and storytelling by working with youth and fostering a love for the arts. Outside of theatre, she also loves learning, trying out new hobbies and baking for others. Lila holds a BFA in Acting for the Theatre from Concordia University and developed her play Summerhouse through Teesri Duniya’s Fireworks Playwriting Program in 2024.

Olaoluwa Fayokun, also known as Lu, is a Nigerian-Canadian artist, born in Nigeria and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Having immigrant parents, his conventional journey towards a law degree took an unexpected turn when he discovered the stage in 2016. Since then, Lu’s passion for Theatre has resulted in an acting certificate from the National Theatre School of Canada, and starring in the premier production of Sinkhole(or six ways to disappear) (dir. Keith Fernandez) and Sankofa: The Soldier’s Tale Retold (dir. by Tawiah M’Carthy). Through his journey, Lu finds himself continually driven by play and the need for connection through storytelling. It is a great honour for Lu to be a member of this year’s YCU cohort, as he desires to tell stories that are situated at the intersection of family, spirituality, and identity.

Lily Lachapelle is a playwright, puppeteer, and actor from Ottawa, Ontario. Her work explores the spectrum of relationships between women, with a focus on queerness. Her play Lettuce Meat was a runner up for Infinithéâtre’s 2023 Write-On-Q award and was workshopped as part of their 2023 Pipeline series. Lily’s current piece Pain in Crustaceans explores the relationship employees have to a workplace that doesn’t love them back, and underwent a first development reading through PWM at the beginning of March. Other produced works include: ONE NIGHT ONLY (Youth Infringement Festival 2022) and Subject To Change (Dan Exposition Series, 2022). 

Born and raised in Montreal, Elliot is an actor, writer, puppet enthusiast and graduate of the Dawson College Professional Theatre Program. Within his theatre training, his love of writing was fostered toward playwriting, and in 2023 he was a finalist in Inifinithéâtre’s The-Write-Stuff contest for youth with his first play The Wichita Falls Route. He is particularly interested by human stories understood through the force of the environment and setting characters operate in, as well as love, horses and neutron stars. He is grateful to be among such an inspired and inspiring group of creators within the YCU.

Misha Nye (he/him) is a theatre-maker originally from the UK. Misha is drawn to shows that are inventive and unsettling, those that shine a light into the dark auditorium and disrupt theatre’s cozy voyeurism.  Soon after arriving in Montreal, Misha did Imago’s Nested Circles residency, and he is grateful to YCU for marking the next step in his Montréal theatre journey. Misha is currently creating work about the messy link between art and activism, exploring how the climate crisis asks new questions and twists old ones into new shapes. In recent years, Misha has written and directed ‘Soil’ (2024) and ‘Floodgate’ (2022) for the Ottawa and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals. With his company Pyrite Theatre, Misha is excited to bring his YCU show to the Montréal Fringe this summer!

Sandra Soulard (they/ielle/elle) is a queer bilingual educator and artist based in Tiohtià: ke, Montreal. Their work thrives in environments where creativity fosters growth, mutual support, and kindness. A graduate of Concordia’s Performance Creation program, Sandra has immersed themself in the world of puppetry and devised theatre, contributing to a range of exciting projects. Notable works include Brillante with Productions Fil d’or (2022), the writing and directing of Vers de terre et dents-de-lion: A guide to plants for Montreal’s Fringe Festival (2023), and most recently, contributing as assistant director for Amélie: The Musical with Penumbra theatre (2025). Sandra is endlessly grateful for the patience, playfulness, and community that enriches the creative spaces they are privileged to collaborate in.

Jackson Lee Thompson is a divisor, playwright, actor and director from Edmonton Alberta. They have performed in Sorry not Sorry, U.I.G, Rapid Fire and Shame!’s improv ensembles.  They founded Out of Body Performing Arts with Baird Duncan. They have participated in many original and devised productions with the company including: The Waves (2022, 2024), BOO! Cabaret (2023-ongoing), My Dinner with Arby (2024), and The Public Domain Festival (2025) for which they were festival director and curator. . They are currently a member of the Young Creators Unit with Playwrights Workshop Montreal, working on an “adaptation” of Frankenstein by Mary Shelly (& Boris Karloff) and is currently researching an “adaptation” of King Lear under the mentorship of Rose Plotek and with support from the Jeunes Volontaires grant. As one might gather from the previous paragraph, Jake is fascinated by the adaptation of classical text into antifacist, anticolonial contexts. 

Huirui 晖睿 is a Chinese-born interdisciplinary theatre artist who directs, curates, writes, and dances. She champions an interplay of movement, devised creation, and cross-cultural narratives to create performance. Huirui has trained in Chinese classical dance and holds a B.A. in Drama and Theatre and Art History from McGill University. She was part of the 2019 ARTISTA cohort at Imago Theatre and the past leader and current advisor for Cheng Huai Art and Culture Association. Currently part of Black Theatre Workshop’s artist mentorship program and selected for residency at Infinithéâtre. Her past works include: They Must Have Smoked (Calgary Fringe, 2023), Rhinoceros In Love (Mainline Theatre, 2023), Good Morning, Townville! (McGill English Department, 2023).