About Us
Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre is based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 2006 by Mark Hopkins and Charles Netto. For more than a decade, our main focus was creating original site-specific theatre (in other words, performance in unusual spaces). In 2018, we adopted a new Art Manifesto that guides our work.
The name comes from a quote by playwright Arthur Miller: “a playwright lives in an occupied country. He’s the enemy. And if you can’t live like that, you don’t stay. It’s tough. He’s got to be able to take a whack, and he’s got to swallow bicycles and digest them.”
Our Manifesto
Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre creates productive discomfort. We engage with power structures, shining an interrogation light in society’s eyes.
We endanger the eardrums of the status quo by amplifying the voices of outcasts, misfits, diverse communities and artists who face barriers.
We hold ourselves accountable for the discomfort we create, to the communities we encounter, and to ethical working practices.
Art is how we do this. Art is awesome, and fun to make.
We learn and mutate as we engage with different sites, communities and artistic practices.
We don’t just swallow bicycles. We swallow complacency, conventions, problematic issues and sometimes cookies.
Our Team
Mark Hopkins
Mark Hopkins is the Artistic Director of Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre, which generates productive discomfort through art-making, and an Associate with Human Venture Leadership, which seeks to build our collective capacities to reduce ignorance, error, waste, suffering and injustice.
Mark Hopkins
Artistic Director
Mark Hopkins is the Artistic Director of Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre, which generates productive discomfort through art-making, and an Associate with Human Venture Leadership, which seeks to build our collective capacities to reduce ignorance, error, waste, suffering and injustice.
Read full bioBianca Guimarães de Manuel
Bianca Guimarães de Manuel está no in-between Brazil and Canada. She is uma Latinx Scenographer and Performance designer interésted in como creation happens between people and things.
Bianca Guimarães de Manuel
Artistic Associate
Bianca Guimarães de Manuel está no in-between Brazil and Canada. She is uma Latinx Scenographer and Performance designer interésted in como creation happens between people and things.
Read full bioKris Vanessa Teo Xin-En / 张欣恩
Kris Vanessa Teo Xin-En/张欣恩 (she/her/hers) is a Singaporean-Canadian Chinese theatre artist based in Calgary, Alberta. She graduated from the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama.
Kris Vanessa Teo Xin-En / 张欣恩
Outreach Coordinator
Kris Vanessa Teo Xin-En/张欣恩 (she/her/hers) is a Singaporean-Canadian Chinese theatre artist based in Calgary, Alberta. She graduated from the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama.
Read full bioMpoe Mogale
Mpoe Mogale is a Black Queer Femme that reigns from Lebowakgomo, South Africa. They are a recent University of Alberta Political Science graduate, where their honours thesis explored the representation of Blackness in Edmonton's Arts community.
Mpoe Mogale
Administrator
Mpoe Mogale is a Black Queer Femme that reigns from Lebowakgomo, South Africa. They are a recent University of Alberta Political Science graduate, where their honours thesis explored the representation of Blackness in Edmonton's Arts community.
Read full bioBoard of Directors
Eva Verity
Eva Verity
President
Eva Verity is a creative producer and facilitator who has led artistic projects and programs with local communities (children, youth, refugees and senior citizens) in more than 30 cities.
Read full bioTazeem Weljie
Tazeem Weljie
Vice President
Taz has over 15 years of experience in strategy and business operations spanning six countries (Canada, China, Guyana, Japan, UK, and the US) and three industries.
Read full bioDayna Huish
Dayna Huish
Secretary
Dayna Huish is a leader in technology engagement in the energy industry and is in her 3rd term on the Swallow-a-Bicycle Board of Directors.
Read full bioLaura Nixon
Laura Nixon
Director-at-Large
Laura Nixon is a proudly born and raised Calgarian working in energy regulation with a Masters in environmental science and reclamation.
Read full bioKodie Rollan
Kodie Rollan
Director-at-Large
Kodie Rollan is Philippine-born, Scarborough-raised, Calgary-based playwright, actor, and producer.
Read full bioKiana Wu
Kiana Wu
Director-at-Large