Creative Team
Playwrights: Andrea Mapili and Byron Abalos
Director and Dramaturge: Nina Lee Aquino
Assistant and Movement Director: Andrea Mapili
Set Designers: Nina Lee Aquino and Farnoosh Talebpour
Lighting Designer: Michelle Ramsay
Composer, Sound Designer and Music Director: Maddie Bautista
Costume Designers: Farnoosh Talebpour and the Ensemble
Props Master: Farnoosh Talebpour
Cast: Karen Ancheta, Marie Beath Badian, Lana Carillo, Joy Castro, John Echano, Carolyn Fe, Nicco Lorenzo Garcia, Ericka Leobrera, Anthony Perpuse, Angela Rosete
Production Team
Producers: Andrea Mapili and Byron Abalos
Associate Producer: Stephanie Jung
Production Manager: David DeGrow
Stage Manager: Victoria Wang
Assistant Stage Manager: Farnoosh Talebpour
Publicist: Damien Nelson, Want & Able Arts Consulting
Graphic Designer Marshall Lorenzo
Grief Consultant: Andrea Kwan, Registered Social Worker, Psychotherapist
Biographies
Andrea Mapili (Playwright, Producer, Assistant and Movement Director)
Andrea Mapili is a multi-disciplinary artist and Registered Somatic Movement Educator. She is a graduate of the Tamalpa Institute’s movement-based expressive arts therapy and education program and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of Western Ontario. She is a movement artist, choreographer, playwright and speaker that offers private coaching and group workshops specializing in embodied public speaking, somatic awareness and creativity for health and wellness. Her sessions are soulful and playful. Her work is movement-based and focuses on women meeting themselves from the inside out. In 2017, she was the choreographer and artistic lead of Cassettes 100, a community and inter-arts project that took over the lobby of the Young Centre for the Performing Arts.
Byron Abalos (Playwright, Producer)
Byron Abalos is an actor, playwright, director and theatre producer from Toronto, Ontario with a BFA from Ryerson University. Select theatre credits: Monday Nights (The Theatre Centre), Twelve Angry Men (Soulpepper – Ensemble Dora Award), Roshni (Theatre Passe Muraille), The Making of St. Jerome (eastBOUND Theatre/Next Stage), paper series (Cahoots Theatre) and Banana Boys (fu-GEN). Film/TV credits: Star Trek: Discovery, What We Do in the Shadows, Baronness Von Sketch, The Boys, Return to Christmas Creek, Designated Survivor, Taken, Flatliners, Condor, Man Seeking Woman, Defiance, Dark Matter, Covert Affairs, The Listener, Mr. Dressup and The Magic Schoolbus. Byron was a member of The Second City Toronto's inaugural Bob Curry Fellowship. He received the NBC Emerging Voices scholarship and currently teaches acting at The Second City Training Centre. He directed Cahoots Theatre's production of Good Morning, Viet Mom and will be performing in Monday Nights as part of Luminato in June 2019.
Nina Lee Aquino (Director and Dramaturge)
Nina Lee Aquino is a Filipina-Canadian director, dramaturge, editor and theatre administrator based in Toronto. She was founding Artistic Director of fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre, Artistic Director of
Cahoots, and is currently Artistic Director of Factory Theatre. She is recipient of the Ken McDougall Award 2004, the Canada Council John Hirsch Prize 2008, the Toronto Arts Foundation Margo Bindhart and Rita Davies Cultural Leadership Award 2019, and three Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Outstanding Direction.
Stephanie Jung (Associate Producer)
An actor by training, Stephanie Jung is now learning the fine craft of producing. Producing credits: Co-Producer for SMOOTHIELAND x VALLEY PARK: Episode II, Producer for Questionmark-Exclamation Theatre’s Reality Theatre at SummerWorks 2017, Co-Producer for Hands Down at Toronto Fringe 2017, Associate Artistic Producer Intern at Cahoots Theatre for their 2015/2016 season, with support from Theatre Ontario’s Professional Theatre Training Program, Associate Producer for Circle Circle’s A Man Walks Into a Bar (Toronto Fringe 2015, Next Stage 2016). Selected acting credits: Expect Theatre’s The Market Gardeners, Roseneath Theatre’s The Money Tree & In This World, thelivingproject’s The Living at Summerworks 2015, Tarragon Theatre’s If We Were Birds, Cahoots Theatre Company’s The Madness of the Square, and Factory/Luminato’s Tough! (Dora Nomination Best Ensemble for Theatre for Young Audiences). Stephanie is a graduate of the Acting Conservatory at York University and holds a Diploma in Theatre Performance from Capilano University.
Maddie Bautista (Composer, Sound Designer and Music Director)
Maddie Bautista is a sound designer, award-winning theatre creator & performer, and artist educator. She is the 2018-2019 sound design mentor with the AMY Project, and is co-directing and developing their Design Mentorship Program training young women and non-binary youth in the GTA. Her sound design and compositions have been featured in theatre companies and festivals across the country, including Luminato, Why Not’s RISER, Theatre Passe Muraille, Aluna Theatre, b current, rEvolver Festival in Vancouver, High Performance Rodeo in Calgary, and more. Award-winning performance and creation work has included the SummerWorks Spotlight Performance Award 2016 for her work in My Nightmares Wear White, Nightswimming’s 5x25 2017 Commission and NOW Magazine’s Audience Choice Award 2018 for co-creating 4inXchange in her performance art duo xLq.
David DeGrow (Production Manager)
David is a theatre maker, manager and thinker working in Toronto. He has been part of over 300 productions across Canada, and his designs have been nominated for three Dora awards. He is a PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto, where his research focuses on the dialogue between theatre space, performance, audience, and the city.
Michelle Ramsay (Lighting Designer)
Recent Credits: Under the Stairs (Young People’s Theatre); School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play (Obsidian Theatre/Nightwood Theatre); Broken Tailbone (nightswimming); Grace (Nightwood Theatre); Obaaberima (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre); Acteon & Pygmalion (Opera Atelier/The Royal Opera of Versailles/Harris Theatre Chicago); The Royale (Soulpepper); Gertrude and Alice (Independent Aunties); To Kill A Mockingbird (Stratford Festival); Drawer Boy (Theatre Passe Muraille); Ipperwash (Native Earth Performing Arts/Blyth Festival); Daughter (Quiptake/Pandemic Theatre). She has received seven Dora Awards, a SATAward, a Harold Award and the 2008 Pauline McGibbon award.
Farnoosh Talebpour (Set Designer, Costume Designer, Props Master, Assistant Stage Manager)
Farnoosh is very happy to have worked with such wonderful people on Through The Bamboo and hopes you enjoy imagining with us! Out in the real world she has found herself Stage Managing and Costuming. Selected credits from both worlds include Angelique (Black Theatre Workshop), Iphigenia and The Furies (Saga Collectif), Queen of the Morning Calm (QOTMC Inc), Porch View Dances NT (Lakeshore Arts), Don't Talk to me Like I'm Your Wife, Better Angels (Call Me Scotty Productions/Summerworks), and Cyrano de Bergerac (Amicus Productions).
Victoria Wang (Stage Manager)
Victoria Wang is a Toronto based stage manager with roots in Hong Kong. Selected credits: Four Sisters (Paradigm/Luminato), Dry Powder (Evermore Theatre), Oslo (Studio 180), The Hockey Sweater Musical (NAC/Segal Centre), Love and Information (Canadian Stage), speaking of sneaking (Riser Project), Othello (Driftwood Theatre), Binti’s Journey (Theatre Direct), HROSES (It Could Still Happen), Like There’s No Tomorrow (Architect Theatre), The Misanthrope and Importance of Being Earnest (Guild Festival Theatre), Whiplash (music video),Orchid (short film). Victoria is also the creator of an ongoing, public art project called Memory Palace, which will be on view at the Toronto Fringe Postscript Patio. Victoria is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the National Theatre School of Canada.
Karen Ancheta (ISA/MOM)
Karen is thrilled to be in such fine company. Recently she completed a workshop with Cahoots Theatre for Hilot Means Healer by Jo SiMalaya Alcampo which makes a full production debut this September. Selected onstage credits: In the Shadows (RedBetty/Frost Bites Festival); Precious in Future Folk (Sulong/Passe Muraille); Maria in Singkil (fu-GEN Theatre); Choon- yi in Ghost Train (YPT); Thaisa in Pericles, Taming of the Shrew (Stratford Festival). Karen’s directing credits: In the Shadows of Elephants (Carlos Bulosan Theatre); The Rise and Fall of the Great Hooter Empire (rock.paper.sistahz festival); Assistant Director for People Power ( CBT) and lady in the red dress (fu-GEN). Karen teaches for Theatre Aquarius’ New Comer Program, loves collaborating with Kwentong Bayan cultivating caregiver/storytellers, and is an original member of The Hamilton 7. She graduated from RTS (recipient of the Robert Christie Award). Karen is a proud mom and boss-lady at her Instagram shop: EYE MY MAGPIE
Marie Beath Badian (DALAWA)
Marie Beath is a Toronto-based theatre maker. As an actor, she was last seen as Rhoda Nunn in Age of Arousal (Factory Theatre). As playwright, her plays include Prairie Nurse (Blyth Festival), The Making of St. Jerome (Next Stage Theatre Festival], Mind Over Matter (Convergence Theatre), and Novena (Toronto Fringe Festival). She is published by Playwrights Canada Press and Scirocco Drama. She was a member of the 2019 Banff Playwrights Lab, developing two sequels to Prairie Nurse.
Marie Beath has made multiple voyages into Byron and Andrea's Land of Uwi, and is thrilled to continue the adventure with this dreamy team of artists.
UPCOMING: PRAIRIE NURSE at Lighthouse Theatre, July 2019 and Showboat Festival Theatre, August 2019.
www.mariebeath.com
Lana Carillo (GITING)
Selected theatre credits include: The Princess of the Tower (2018 T.O. Fringe); Cannibal! The Musical (Starvox Entertainment), I'm Right Here (2015 T.O. Fringe); James and the Giant Peach (YPT), The Little Mermaid (Ross Petty Productions), Prairie Nurse (Blyth Festival), Just East Of Broadway (2009 T.O. Fringe, Next Stage Festival), Funny Business: The Musical (2007 T.O. Fringe, Diesel Playhouse), Grease: The Musical (Fallen Rock Productions/Escape Productions). Animation: "Ruby" in Max and Ruby (Seasons 6 and 7). This tiny warrior sends MASSIVE LOVE to the dream cast and creative who brought this touching tale to life. Grateful to remain a part of this fantastical journey!!!
Joy Castro (TATLO)
Joy is SO excited to be making her Toronto Fringe debut with the world premiere production of Through the Bamboo. Love & gratitude to Byron, Andrea and Nina for letting her be a part of this very special Filipinx-Canadian story. Joy is a graduate of Studio 58 in Vancouver.
John Echano (GENERAL T/EKEK)
John Echano is a Filipino-Canadian actor and theatre maker originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba. A graduate of the Theatre Performance program at Humber College. He toured The Paper Bag Princess: A Musical (To Be Determined Theatre) for the past year in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. Other theatre credits include: The Day of the Locust (Humber Theatre), How to Build a Flying Machine (Humber Theatre), New Canadian Kid (Manitoba Theatre for Young People), Diss (Sarasvati Productions), and Giving Voice (Sarasvati Productions). This summer he will performing at the Fundy Fringe festival in Cuil Creations new show I Forced a Bot to Watch 1000 Hours of...
Carolyn Fe (LOLA)
Actress, Blues Singer/Songwriter, Radio Producer/Host. A guest appearance in Raoul Bhaneja’s Life, Death and The Blues directed by Eda Holmes (2014), the in-between Blues gigs in the music scene, and the role of “Precy” in Audrey Dwyer’s Calpurnia (2018) that garnered her The Toronto Critics award for “2018 Best Supporting Actress in a Play” helped in the decision to make Toronto her home. She keeps a foot in both cities, performing/writing with her "music husbands”, preparing for their 6th album. Her weekly Blues radio show called “Unsung and On The Side” is broadcasted on the Blues and Roots Radio network as she carries on in film, TV, Web, Voice and Theatre. After all, age is just a number isn’t it? Carolyn Fe claims that she is forever 30 years old with an accelerated accumulated years of experience.
Nicco Lorenzo Garcia (MATALINO)
What a privilege to return to the Toronto Fringe with a show created by this group of familiar-familials! Nicco was most recently in Gateway/Pie Theatre's, Long Division in Vancouver and in Nightswimming's production of Same Same but Different by Anita Majumdar. He has co-written two plays as part of the Carlos Bulosan Theatre Collective. People Power, where he won the Dora Award for Outstanding Performance, and secondly, In the Shadow of Elephants. Other credits: Paper Series (Cahoots); The Romance of Magno Rubio and Dust (Carlos Bulosan Theatre); Lady in the Red Dress (fu-GEN); Hana’s Suitcase (Grand); The King and I (Gateway); Andrew’s Tree and Beneath the Banyan Tree (Theatre Direct); Ice…Beyond Cool and Fire...Where There’s Smoke (DanceArts). Selected Film/TV: 5000 Years of Heroes (TrueLegend); Conviction (ABC); StreetTime (Showtime); Mayday (Discovery); DeGrassi: TNG (CTV); Owning Mahowney (Alliance); Ang Pamana: The Inheritance and Prison Dancer: The WebMusical (DigitalSweatshop) on YouTube.
Ericka Leobrera (IPAKITA)
Ericka is thrilled to be making her Toronto Fringe Festival debut with Uwi Collective in Through The Bamboo. Ericka Leobrera is a Filipino-Canadian multidisciplinary artist currently based in Toronto. She will be entering her final year at Humber College’s Theatre Arts-Performance program where she was a part of the collaborative creation of Spring is a Promise (Dir: Dan Watson), and Odd Ones Out (Dir: Herbie Barnes). Ericka performed in the Act Fast Theatre Festival where she originated the role of Jesse in We are humans aren’t we?. Other theatre credits include: A 21st Century Christmas Carol, The Girl with The Golden Locks, Robin Hood.
Anthony Perpuse (KAPRE/KOYO)
Anthony is a Dora nominated Toronto based actor for his ensemble work in Eraser presented by Why Not theatre as part of the Riser Project. Selected credits as an actor include: Theory (Tarragon), Madeleine Says Sorry (Fringe), and Rowing (Fringe). Directing credits include The Brothers Gentle (Fringe), Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (Wolf Manor), and The Empire (New Voices). Anthony was a Factory Mechanical (2016-17) and a recipient of the Perry Schneiderman comedy award. Anthony is super excited to share this wonderful and exciting production with you all. Thanks and salamat!
Angela Rosete (PHILLY)
For the past three years of her high school career at Loretto College, Angela Rosete has been a participant in the Ontario NTS Drama Festival (formerly known as Sears Drama Festival), acting as the lead role in her school’s pieces. Last year, Loretto College moved on to the provincial level of the festival after 40 years with their piece Play Rights, and the same success was brought to them this year with their recent production of A Dark Horse in Low Light. Alongside acting, Angela Rosete took on the role of co-playwright with this piece, and won the Wayne Fairhead New Play Award in Brantford, Ontario. In 2016, she also participated in the SummerWorks Festival when her school’s piece O Nosso Fado got picked up by the company. As a young Filipino artist, Angela Rosete looks forward to the experience of working with the team of Through the Bamboo.