The F Word

CAST & CREW

KESHIA CHEESMAN - Co-Creator & Performer

Keshia is a Caribbean-Canadian theatre creator, performer, and educator based in Mohkinstsis (Calgary, AB). She is passionate about experiencing, creating, and supporting art by diverse and marginalised communities, as well as uplifting children and youth through the power of theatre performance and creation. In 2021, Keshia’s play, Special, was featured in Obsidian Theatre (Toronto) and CBC Gem's 21 Black Futures, which won a 2022 Canadian Screen award for best web series. Creating The F Word with Bianca these past five years has been a dream come true and I am so excited to bring this show to the world! Photo by Mike Tan



BIANCA MIRANDA - Co-Creator & Performer

Born and raised in the Philippines, Bianca Miranda is a fat, queer, Filipino performer, playwright, and producer, grateful to be living and working in Treaty 7. She is the Associate Producer at Downstage and the Artistic Associate at Handsome Alice. As a theatre-maker and playwright, her works most often start from a personal place and examine the intersections of her identities. Some of her works in development include: Kisapmata (a Filipinx queer love story) and Opo (one’s quest to find her authentic self which just happens to be the mythical creature, “manananggal”). Bianca is in “starting to have show nightmares” level of excitement and in “will sob uncontrollably out of nowhere” level of gratitude to her art partner and best friend, Keshia, and this incredible team of rockstars! Photo by Mike Tan



DONNA-MICHELLE ST. BERNARD - Director

Donna-Michelle St. Bernard aka Belladonna the Blest is an emcee, playwright and agitator. Her main body of work, the 54ology, includes: Cake, Sound of the Beast, A Man A Fish, Salome’s Clothes, Dark Love, Gas Girls, Give It Up, The Smell of Horses, Diggers and The First Stone. As a director, her stagings include Job’s Wife (Nolan), A Perfect Storm (Nolan), Oops! (Feld), Mx (Robinson) and Our Fathers, Sons, Lovers and Little Brothers (Simamba), as well as collaborating with Cole Alvis and Nikki Shaffeulah on the direction of Lilies (Bouchard). DM is currently the emcee in residence at Theatre Passe Muraille, associate artist at lemonTree Creations, artistic director of New Harlem Productions, coordinator of the AD HOC Assembly, and of play development at Nightwood Theatre and Theatre Aquarius. Photo by Graham Isador



CLARE PREUSS - Movement Director

Clare is a multidisciplinary artist based in Mohkinstsis-Calgary. She has created choreography and movement design for over twenty plays including: The Cunning Little Vixen (Royal Conservatory of Music); The Unplugging (Factory Theatre + Native Earth Performing Arts); Chile Con Carne, The Intruder (Alameda Theatre); The Tempest, The Odyssey, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth (with Richard Lee for Driftwood Theatre), Cafe Daughter (Gwaandak Theatre + Native Earth Performing Arts); Oil and Water (Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland); Tombs of the Vanishing Indian, Salt Baby (Native Earth Performing Arts); The Invisible Girl, The Monster Under The Bed (Young People’s Theatre); The Making of St. Jerome (eastBOUNDtheatre + Next Stage Festival); lady in the red dress, Singkil (fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre); People Power (Carlos Bulosan + SummerWorks + Teesri Duniya + Theatre Passe Muraille). Clare is overjoyed to collaborate with such an incredible team for this wonderful world premiere play! Clare is the Artistic Director at Downstage | @clarepreuss. Photo by Spencer Estabrooks



ANDY MORO - Set and Projection Design

Recent Theatre: (ARTICLE 11 w. Tara Beagan) In Spirit, Ministry of Grace, Reckoning, ROOM, Declaration, Deer Woman (National Arts Centre / Neptune Theatre / Black Theatre Workshop) The Last Epistle of Tightrope Time (RMTC) Post Mistress, Rez Sisters (NAC) Unnatuaral and Accidental Women (Caravan Farm Theatre) Blackhorse (Theatre Calgary) Honour Beat, Admissions, Little Women (Citadel) The Herd (Manitoba Theatre for Young People) Frozen River (Prairie Theatre Exchange) Third Colour,War Being Waged (Making Treaty 7) Time Stands Still, O’Kosi (Anowara Dance) Sky Dancers (Dancers of Damelahamid) Flicker, Minowin, Raven Mother (Theatre New Brunswick) Finding Wolastoq Voice (Kahawi Dance Theatre) Blood Water Earth, Blood Tides, The Mush Hole Film/TV: Co-Creation/Direction: APTN’s Indigenous Day Live 2022, Road to Hasalala Danxalax Chan Centre/CBC, Deer Woman, Reckoning ARTICLE 11 Upcoming: (Vertigo Theatre) The Extractionist / Gaslight (Making Treaty 7 w. Article 11) Ministry of Grace (Prairie Theatre Exchange) Space Girl (Atlantic Ballet Theatre) Pisuwin.



MAEZY REIGN - Lighting Designer

Maezy (they/she) is a biracial multidisciplinary artist, born and raised in Calgary. For their whole life, they’ve been raised with art and an urge to create. They are determined to create art that has the representation she never saw growing up, like mentally ill, gender diverse, queer, and racialized main characters. Recent projects include: She Sat Down and Wept (One Yellow Rabbit), Shark Bite (Lunchbox Theatre), Hay Coloured Houses (Paprika PLU), Hang In There (Chromatic PLU), and Psychotic Bitch (Ignite Festival). Maezy is thrilled to be working with Downstage again, you can see more of her work at maezyreign.com. Photo by Emily Machan



KAORI TORIGAI - Costume Designer

Kaori is lucky enough to be working and living in the beautiful city of Whitehorse, Yukon, traditional territories of the Ta’an Kwäch’än Council and the Kwanlin Dün First Nation. She has loved performing, working, and playing in theatre since she was very young. Her costuming career began when she volunteered for a show and had to pull together costumes for a cast of 8 characters with multiple costume changes in approximately 2 weeks. The hook was set and she went on to costume one or two plays or musicals a year for the next 17 years. Notable shows include Cabaret, Urinetown, The Laramie Project, Prelude to a Kiss, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, and Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet). She is truly thrilled and grateful to be part of this exciting new show!



KATHRYN SMITH - Composer & Sound Designer

Kathryn (they/them) is a designer, director, and creator who has worked across western Canada. Kathryn has worked on and created a multitude of projects including award winning clown, puppet, and new creation productions. Their focus lies in collective creation, queer stories, and the ecology of ensemble. They are the Artistic Director of Verb Theatre, the Artistic Associate at Vertigo Theatre, and a member of the Mudfoot Theatre Collective. Select design/directing credits: Murder In the Studio, The American/The Hitchhiker (Vertigo Theatre); inVISIBLE, A Chitenge Story, Between Us (Handsome Alice Theatre);Benefit, Safe Site Sessions, Bottle Picker Monologues (Downstage Theatre); Brave Girl, Care Takers, Countries Shaped Like Stars (Lunchbox Theatre); Million Dollar Quartet (New West Theatre); Amahl & the Night Visitors (Calgary Opera); Secret Garden, Merry Wives of Windsor (Theatre Calgary); The Democratic Set (Inside Out Theatre); GIANT (Ghost River Theatre). Kathryn is also an award-winning singer songwriter/sound designer under the name KP Smith. Photo by Mike Tan



CHLOE DIOCHNOS - Assistant Projection Designer

Chloe (she/they) is completing her bachelor's degree in Drama at the University of Calgary where she loves working as a student technical assistant in the theatre department. She is extremely grateful for the practicums that have afforded her experience as a stagehand, board operator and sound designer as well as opportunities in costume, set and prop-building. More recently, she participated in World Stage Design as a volunteer technician for the part-virtual-reality production Bury The Wren. Chloe is so honoured and excited to delve into The F Word with the compassionate and conscientious team at Downstage.



NAOMI ESAU - Stage Manager

Naomi is thrilled to be back working with Downstage this season! Her favourite Stage Management credits include; Men Express Their Feelings (Downstage), Heaven (Lunchbox Theatre) Much Ado About Nothing (CYPT),, A Christmas Story, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Christmas Carol, The Christians, (Rosebud Theatre), [titleofshow] (Birnton Theatricals), and Junie B. Jones; The Musical (Storybook Theatre). She is also an actor, musician, seamstress, part-time princess, and baker of many cupcakes. Photo by Lauren Hamm



ADAM KOSTIUK - Downstage Production Manager & Technical Director

is an emerging artist in the Calgary community, working as a production manager, stage manager, console operator, labour, and as an award winning lighting designer. Despite working in this creative field, Adam would say his passions lay more with supporting people than with theatre; theatre mainly being a means to help people bring important, personal, and engaging stories to life. In the same breath, Adam could not be more thrilled to help bring the 2022/23 season to life at Downstage as they seek to accomplish the same. Adam graduated from the University of Calgary in 2019 with degrees in Urban Studies and Drama, building a design portfolio that includes the lighting design award winning *antigone lives at the U of C in 2019, Mary Poppins at Keyano College in 2022, and assisting the lighting design for the Betty award winning Clue at Vertigo in 2022.



DANIELLE WHYTE - Downstage Managing Director

is an independent filmmaker, producer and arts administrator. She’s passionate about creating opportunities for career progression for emerging artists and thrives on making it possible for the artists around her to fulfil their artistic visions. Danielle has worked on more than 70 film,television and theatre productions and has earned several Rosie (AMPIA) and Betty Mitchell nominations, primarily for producing. She is a graduate of the Cinema, Television, Stage and Radio program at SAIT and holds an MBA from the Haskayne School of Business. Danielle is the Managing Director at Downstage.



ELSHA YEYESUSWORK - Downstage Community Programs Director

is a ceramicist and community organizer devoted to embedding principles of equity and diversity into her artistic and professional endeavors. At performance art collective Raw Voices YYC, Elsha worked to amplify the voices of underrepresented groups on stage and off in her capacity as a curator and Public Relations coordinator. Through various volunteer endeavours, she has cultivated a deep commitment to the advancement of women, queer folx, and visible minorities. As Vice President of the Calgary Regal Leo Club and President of the University of Calgary Anti-Human Trafficking Coalition, Elsha worked to meet the specific needs of underserved and at risk populations. She is a recent graduate from the University of Calgary, earning her Bachelor of Arts in International Relations, and is eager to pursue her graduate studies in Political Science and Development Studies in the near future.



ALDONA BARUTOWICZ - Downstage Publicist

Aldona B has been a publicist for the past 14 years with a focus on theatre and entertainment. Her clients include the Calgary International Film Festival, the Calgary Black Film Festival, Downstage, Hit & Myth Productions, StoryBook Theatre, to name a few. Her work also includes assisting fellow entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and help them to identify their unique voice. Through Aldona B Creative she offers communications, photography and fashion styling services. Aldona is also on the Board of Directors with the Calgary Allied Arts Foundation, a not-for-proft organization focusing on supporting visual artists in Calgary. Constantly striving to enhance our communities and city’s profile, it is her infectious passion for her work - and clients - that set her apart.



HAYLEY DECHAINE - Downstage Public Relations Coordinator / Aldona B Creative

Hayley’s passion for writing, storytelling, and communicating in a way for others to enjoy, ultimately led her to the public relations program at Mount Royal University, where she is now in her fourth and final year. Hayley has been at Aldona B Creative since 2021, where she has been able to apply her skillset to her love of arts and entertainment.