Rouvan Silogix is an award-winning, immigrant Pakistani-Tanzanian writer, director, performer, and classical pianist. His work primarily explores imaginative forms of art, often reimagining classical texts, digging into the profound and complex sociopolitical issues of our times. 

He is Artistic Director of Modern Times Stage. Before that, Rouvan was Associate Artistic Director (Head of New Play Development) at Crow’s Theatre, Writer-In-Development at Factory Theatre, and Associate Artist and Producer at Mammalian Diving Reflex. Prior to immigrating to Canada, he worked professionally in New York City and Karachi, Pakistan. In Toronto, Rouvan’s work has been seen on the stages of Theatre Passe Muraille, Buddies In Bad Times, The Theatre Centre, Crow’s Theatre, Factory Theatre, SummerWorks Performance Festival, Next Stage Festival, and others. In Karachi, he worked under Pakistani icon Zia Mohyuddin. Rouvan is an RBC and Toronto Arts Foundation award winner. Recent Artistic Credits include the Toronto premiere of “Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo” by Rajiv Joseph, “The Land Acknowledgement / As You Like It” by Cliff Cardinal, “”CRAZE”” at Tarragon Theatre”” and “The Caged Bird Sings” at the Aga Khan Museum.”

Mikaela Lily Davies is a graduate of the prestigious CBC Canadian Film Centre’s Acting Conservatory. She has performed in eight shows with Soulpepper Theatre (Two Dora nominations for Best Ensemble) and spent four seasons at The Stratford Festival, playing Katherine of France in Breath of Kings, Irma in The Madwoman of Chaillot and Beatrice-Joanna in The Changeling. Davies is the inaugural recipient of the Jon Kaplan Canadian Stage Performer Award. She holds a Sterling nomination for Outstanding Comedic Performance for the titular role Miss Bennet at The Citadel Theatre, a META nomination for Outstanding Supporting Performance for her work as Bess in The Last Wife at The Centaur and a My Entertainment World nomination for Outstanding Actress for her work in The Changeling. In addition to acting, Mikaela coaches, directs and creates her own work. https://www.mikaelalilydavies.com 

Nigel Irwin is a Cree/Canadian composer and musical artist from Toronto, ON.  

As Creative Director of Nagamo, Irwin has helped build the first production-music library created entirely by Indigenous artists. He works closely with a growing network of Indigenous singers and musicians worldwide. In addition, Irwin also provides original musical scores for film and television projects.  

Some credits include Crave Original Thunder Bay, CTV’s Acting Good, BBC Irresistible, Nature of Things, and CBC Podcasts. He also provided the music for a VR Experience produced by the NFB called This Is Not A Ceremony which made Official Selection at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.  

Through his own artist music, Irwin became the 2019 recipient of the Bullseye Music Award through imagineNATIVE and Slaight Music.  He will soon be releasing his first FACTOR-funded, full-length LP, Caught In A Dream, which blends impeccable pop songwriting with an indie-rock energy and Indigenous flare.  

Since releasing songs in 2014, Irwin’s music has appeared on CBC, SiriusXM, ElementFM, and Zoomer Radio. As a writer, Irwin’s work has excelled outside of music creation. Irwin has been published in VICE, The Nation, Two Row Times, and the Niagara Falls Review, covering a wide range of Indigenous stories. 

Cameron Slipp is a stagemanager, productionmanager, andcomposerbasedinKitchener, ON. StageManager: Suitcase, TheBell, I Don’tKnow, TheLast 15 Seconds. ProductionManager: InterArtsMatrix COVOX, TheEloraFestival ‘22, TotteringBiped, IMPACT ’23. Composer/Arranger: 20 GrainsofRice, Here/There: a delicatebalance, DiSCoVeR. Co-technical directorat The Registry Theatre in Kitchener. Account executive at Sherwood Systems.

Nicole Joy-Fraser is a Niagara based, Indigi-queer, multi-disciplinary artist who grew up in Mississauga. For over 20 years she has been storytelling for stage and screen, across Turtle Island and beyond, and has worked with many celebrated companies such as the Stratford Festival, Shaw, Theatre Aquarius, Charlottetown Festival, CBC, CBS and Telefilm. As a proud Bear clan matriarch, 60’s scoop witness and 2Spirit Helper, supporting each other through healing and the Indigenous arts continues to be a passion of theirs. They recently directed and mentored Candace Burnette’s workshop reading of her new play, “Flight”, at Native Earth’s new playwrighting festival this past November and were invited to participate in online Master Classes in Theatre Direction with OBE Director Dawn Walton from the UK, thanks to Why Not Theatre. She is forever grateful to her family, the Healers, Elders, and Community that have been guiding her on this beautiful path. Kinânaskomitin to MT Space for this creative storytelling opportunity. 

Brad Cook is a Dora Award-nominated theatre maker, who’s work as an actor, puppeteer, movement coach and movement director has led him to work with such companies as National Theatre (Great Britain), Mirvish Productions, Aluna Theatre, MT Space, Stratford Festival, Canadian Stage, National Arts Centre, and Lost & Found Theatre.  

He is beginning his 9th seasons at the Stratford Festival as a movement coach/movement director and has taught actor movement at the National Theatre School of Canada, University of Waterloo, Randolph College for the Performing Arts, and The Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre.  

Brad has worked extensively in new play development and creation, most recently he has been co-directing a multi-year creation project at the National Theatre School of Canada which will premiere in Fall 2025.  

Brad is thrilled to be a part of the Works-In-Progress Mini Festival. The chance to work these new plays out in front of an audience is such an important part of their development. Enjoy!

Nathalie Cocq is currently studying Film and Television at Sheridan College and is passionate about writing, film, and music. She is dedicated to uplifting marginalized voices in the creative industries.