Chris Dodd is an Edmonton-based Deaf performing artist, playwright, accessibility advocate and Governor General Innovation Award finalist. He is the founder and artistic director of Canada’s national theatre festival dedicated to the Deaf performing arts, SOUND OFF. He is an artistic associate with Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre and is one of their Playwrights in Development. His solo work, “Deafy”, began touring beginning at the Summerworks Performance Festival in 2019 and will be published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2021. Chris holds a degree from the University of Alberta’s Drama program. He was recently the recipient of the Guy Laliberté Prize for innovation and creative leadership by the Canada Council of the Arts.

Collin van Uchelen, Ph.D., is a Conceptual Artist and Community Psychology consultant based in Vancouver, British Columbia. His artistic practice focuses on collaborative approaches for translating art into forms that are accessible with the non-visual senses. He originated the innovative “Fingerworks for Fireworks” tactile technique for describing pyrotechnical displays to viewers with sight-loss in collaboration with Steph Kirkland, Director of Vocal Eye Descriptive Arts Society in 2014. In this approach, trained describers translate the dynamic movement of fireworks by “drawing” their shapes with fingertips onto the backs of viewers who are blind or partially sighted. Collin’s accessible “tools” for describing fireworks informed his subsequent work with All Bodies Dance Project on the creation of Translations, a contemporary dance piece designed for the non-visual senses. As Artistic Consultant, he helped co-create and refine the techniques for translating dance into accessible forms for audiences who were not using eyesight to “see” the performances. He also now consults with audio describers for art featuring movement – whether fireworks or dance.

Over the years, from her youth in Belgium to her life in Canada, there have been two constants in Anika’s life—her passion for the performing arts and a fervent desire to ensure anyone would get an opportunity to share that passion. Be it by providing access to the story through surtitles, live description, or creating visual stories allowing people on the autism spectrum to anticipate their experience rather than being overwhelmed before the show even starts. Her work testifies to an ongoing pursuit of new ways to invite people to experience live performances by developing new initiatives, such as connecting patrons with refugees to see a show together, as well as innovative techniques like writing introductions when there are no resources or the show only requires minimal additional information to become accessible. Access Co-ordinator for PuSh, Anika also continues to work as a translator, live describer, surtitler, and consultant for various local organizations such as Vancouver Recital Society, VocalEye, Axis Theatre, Revolver Festival, Kidd Pivot, and more. On an international level, she collaborates with Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussel, Peter Brook in Paris, and CDN d’Orleans in France amongst others. Another ongoing passion is working with people with lived experience, supporting them to develop their skills and careers as consultants. Anika balances her career with life as a single mother while supporting a Deaf man with a developmental disability. And a creative soul often requires the inspiration and refuge of nature, which Vancouver luckily offers.

Jack is an award-winning devisor, director, dramaturg, translator and creative producer whose work and practice has taken him across Canada, UK, EU and around the world. Project has ranged from multinational devising creations, cross-sensory, multi-disciplinary, cross-cultural and multi-lingual projects to new works, translations & texts, contemporary approaches to classical theatre. With Global Hive Labs., an international collective of artists and organisations, Jack pioneered “Active Access Design”, the integration of access into the generative process of devised creation. He is a recipient of “The Ray Michal Award”, “The Cole Foundation Award for Emerging Translators”, and “The John Moffatt & Larry Lillo Award”.

Recent projects include the Indonesia & Canada cross-cultural collaboration Wayang 4D with I. Made Sidia and Sanggar Paripurna (Bali, ID), the Active Access Design creation Palazzo del Mondo with Signdance Collective (Piacenza, IT), LA SALLE DES MACHINES: De la source à la cible with Centre des auteurs dramatique (Montreal, CAN), and the English language premiers of Haven with United Players (Vancouver, CAN) and The Ballad of George Boivin with Western Gold Theatre (Vancouver, CAN).
www.jackpatersontheatre.com