Artist Coordinator: Alicia Ward
Curators/Mentors: Mark Hopkins & Charles Netto

Brendan Andrews

Brendan is a Calgary-based actor and is thrilled to be a part of the IGNITE! Festival this year. Some recent theatre credits include: Absence (Fire Exit Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare in the Park), Ellie’s Epic Expedition (Sandbox Children’s Theatre), and War (Theatre BSMT). Film: Wounds, AREDPILL, and Joy to the World.
Brendan would like to thank Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre and the IGNITE! Festival for this opportunity to create and share his passion for theatre. He would also like to thank his wife, friends, and family for their ongoing encouragement and support.
 

Chelsea Dwarika & Sidney Knapp

Chelsea Dwarika has been learning about site-specific theatre with Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre since 2014, and this will be her 2nd year as part of Sage Theatre’s IGNITE! Festival. She has attended the University of Calgary (Drama) for three years, and will be heading to UBC Okanagan this fall to study in the Interdisciplinary Arts program. She likes delving into different media to create performances/discussions/experiences, and enjoys the thrill and challenge of site/social-specific creation! She likes writing poetry, making kick-ass mix CDs, and people-watching. Chelsea can’t wait to work with her Art-ner in crime (Sidney Knapp) again!
Sidney Knapp is a Calgary-based artist with a background in Performance Creation, Acting, Directing, and Vintage Jazz/Blues Dance. She is excited to be a part of the IGNITE! team again this year! Her most recent work was directing Hannah Moscovitch’s Essay in the Taking Flight Festival for her 510 Advanced Directing class at the University of Calgary. She is on the executive board for the U of C Swing Dance Club and is the Marketing Co-ordinator for Calgary’s sole blues dance company C Jam Blues. Sidney is currently completing degrees in Drama and Greek & Roman Studies.

Danielle Gurr

Danielle is delighted to be performing with the folks from Swallow-a-Bicycle again and joining these lovely emerging artists in this IGNITE! Festival. Danielle is originally from Lethbridge, currently residing in Calgary. She is a University of Lethbridge graduate, holding a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Multidisciplinary Arts. Danielle holds a great passion for dance and movement and is currently pursuing further education in dance at the University of Calgary, shifting her focus onto site-specific dance.

Tony Tran

Tony Tran is an active member of the Calgary Dance Community especially within the Urban Dance scene through his work as an instructor, performer, producer, curator and choreographer. He has travelled to the United States, Europe and across Canada in quest for dance knowledge and development with which to share what he has learned to the city of Calgary. His choreographies, which span the world of dance theatre and urban dance performance, have been presented presented in diverse festivals in Canada including Springboard Performance Fluid Movement Arts Festival, Expanse Festival, Sage Theatre IGNITE! and Dancers’ Studio West Alberta Annual Dance Festival.  Tony is also a Board of Directors member with Springboard Performance and a committee member of the University of Calgary Alumni Arts & Culture Committee. In 2012, Tony established his own collective to further the growth and education of Vogue culture and dance in Calgary as the Founder/Artistic Director of The Bad Girls Club YYC.

Linnea Ward

Linnea Ward is comedian, improviser and singer songwriter from Calgary, Alberta. She started her career at Loose Moose Theatre before moving onto the longform improv group the Kinkonauts, where she is a performer, producer and award-winning sketch writer. You can find Linnea making up silly songs and spreading joy with her ukulele all around Calgary.

Shauna Griffin

Shauna is a Vancouver-based interdisciplinary performer and devisor who is delighted to be part of this year’s site-specific series at the IGNITE! Festival! Freshly graduated from the Bachelor of Performing Arts and Studio 58’s acting program, she has been busy performing in Brave New Playwright’s festival, co-creating a brand new TBA show, and promoting opportunities for women in theatre.
 

Sarah Haggeman & Connor Pritchard

Sarah is incredibly excited to be working on her first ever self-created site-specific performance, and she’s even more stoked that it’s going to be part of the awesome and amazing IGNITE! Festival!!! She holds a Theatre Arts Diploma from Mount Royal University, and has taken lots of fabulous classes at Company of Rogues Actors Studio. She’s heard Calgary’s crazy cool theatre scene calling to her for years and loves getting involved in everything she can! Big thanks to her family and friends for all their support, love, and acceptance of so much wacky stuff done in the name of art.
Connor Pritchard is a theatre student/enthusiast/artist living in Calgary and exploring every avenue of theatre and performance that he can. As an actor, he has appeared in The Learned Ladies, Measure for Measure, The Love of the Nightingale, Eurydice (UCalgary School of Creative and Performing Arts), The Grass is Always Greener, Moving in Psychosis, and Savings and Values (Common Ground Festival). He has designed makeup for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (Search Tower Company–happening now! Go see it!), Ching Chong Chinaman (Iglesia Productions), and several directing students’ projects at UCalgary. Connor is currently collaborating to devise a show that will go up at the Common Ground Festival later this summer, and he is nearing the completion of a BFA in Drama at the University of Calgary.

Chenise Mitchell

Chenise is a Toronto-based dancer/performer. After completing her BFA at Ryerson’s dance program, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks drew her to Calgary where she teaches youth classes and attends the Professional Training Program for a second year. She is an ‘Outstanding Graduate’ of Cawthra Park Secondary School’s dance program, where she developed her passion for creative performance and creation. She worked with some of Canada’s most renowned dancers and choreographers like Vicki Adams Willis, Nicholas Villeneuve, Michael Trent, Sharon Wong, Belinda McGuire, Clarence Ford, Paul Chambers and Hanna Kiel. Chenise has performed in New York City and on the Downtown Disney stage in Florida. In Toronto she danced at The Winter Garden Theatre, Dundas Square, Harbourfront Centre and The Air Canada Centre for galas, and shows like WE Day and the MMVAs. At Ryerson’s theatre dance program, Chenise was able to develop her devotion to collaborative creation and her love of jazz. Here in Calgary she continues this journey as an independent artist, performing in shows and festivals like Soteria with the Mount Royal Artio Choir, Dance Montage, Theatre Junction Lab Sessions, IGNITE! 2015, Annual Alberta Dance Festival. Calgary’s inclusive arts community encourages Chenise to continue her exploration of collaborating between art forms, which leads her to another turn with IGNITE! Festival.

Alicia Ward & Naomi Lawson-Baird

Alicia Ward is a multidisciplinary artist based in Calgary who graduated from the University of Calgary’s Drama Department. After graduating, Alicia spent a very informative year interning at Theatre Junction followed by two consecutive years in the Professional Training Program at Decidedly Jazz Danceworks. Alicia is fuelled by creating art collaboratively and is thrilled by opportunities to merge her roles as dancer, actor, facilitator and creator. In addition to creating and performing Alicia works in an administrative role for Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre where she had the opportunity to be the local coordinator for Haircuts by Children by Mammalian Diving Reflex and the artist coordinator for the IGNITE! Festival Site-Specific Series. Alicia is thrilled to have been part of the production team for the 2016 Rhythm, Body and Soul Festival. She also has a passion for teaching dance and drama to all ages at various locations in Calgary.

Naomi Lawson-Baird, born and raised in Vancouver, B.C., started performing at age 6 in many commercials, TV and film projects including The Dead Zone and Scary Movie 3. She then went on to train in many styles of dance and performing arts at institutions such as Drive Dance Centre’s Scholarship program and then on to receive her Diploma in Contemporary Dance Studies at TrinityLaban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London, UK. Most recently, Naomi finished two years at Decidedly Jazz Danceworks in the Professional Training Program (Calgary, AB).

She has had a vast range of performing experiences for example: Performing in Wembley Arena’s opening ceremonies for the 2011 Champions League Final in London, Dancing in videos with Marianas Trench, Matthew Good Band, Anchoress, and Diljit Dosanjh, and performing with companies like: Soulocentric’s Bach Tots, Vancouver’s Chic-A-Boom-Room, The Lovers Cabaret and Restless Productions. As well, Naomi has guest performed with companies like Moscow Ballet, Ballet Jorgen, Ballet B.C., Alberta Ballet, ColabArt Productions and Bravo Dance Company.

Naomi is very excited to be a part of the IGNITE! Festival’s Site-Specific Series and is looking forward to seeing all of the wonderful work over the week.

Mark Hopkins – Curator / Mentor

Charles Netto – Curator / Mentor

Charles is the Co-Artistic Director of Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre.
Charles works primarily as a writer, director and producer. He has directed, and had a hand in writing and creating numerous Swallow-a-Bicycle productions: i­ROBOT Theatre, Eavesdrop: The Coffee Shop Show, Freak Show: Tall Tales and Terrible Truths, Death of the Freak Show, Wanderlust, Shhhh!, as well as shorts A World Gone Mad, Free Coffee and Sprawl.
Charles co-wrote the play Super 8 with Mark Hopkins. Super 8 won the Alberta Playwriting Contest and premiered at Lunchbox Theatre in 2012. Charles and Mark wrote the screenplay for the short film version of Super 8 that premiered in Calgary in March 2014.