Susan G. Acheson is the Owner & Managing Artistic Director of august Productions Theatrical Inc., located in Guelph, ON, Canada. She holds a post-graduate degree in Writing & Performance from Humber College and has studied at the Second City Training Centre, both in Toronto, ON. She is an accomplished singer, songwriter, playwright, producer, director & actor. She has written and recorded numerous gospel songs and directed various youth and adult drama groups.  She wrote, produced and directed her murder-mystery-comedy play, “It’s A Mystery To Me!”, at Hamilton Place Studio Theatre in Hamilton, ON. She then produced, directed and wrote the book, music and lyrics for “A King’s Heart”, an original musical which made its debut at the 2013 Toronto Fringe Festival. Her latest original musical, “A Bedtime Story”, which she also produced, directed and wrote the book, music and lyrics for, premiered this past September at the 2017 Guelph Fringe Festival. She was seen this past Spring on stage in RCMPI’s production of “9 to 5 The Musical” in the award-winning role of Roz Keith! Her other favorite roles include playing Joanne in Sondheim’s Company & Stella in Follies.

Tanya Apostolidis is a stay at home Mom who loves to write. Tanya holds a BA from Bishop’s University and a Diploma in Costume Studies from Dalhouise University. For the past twenty-five years Tanya has worked in theatre. Most recently as the Wardrobe Manager for the Stratford Festival and Head of Wardrobe for the Shaw Festival. In addition to her work in wardrobe Tanya has had the opportunity to work with young people on play development and design. She looks forward to working with the Women’s Room to further develop her skills as a playwright.

Terre Chartrand is multi-media, inter-arts artist of French-Canadian and Indigenous background who finds her greatest home in creating narrative and landscapes with light. From the linearity of traditional theatre, to the compositional arc of laying words and text over digital light, Chartrand has engineered multiple projects that have existed in temporary space. From the relishing of liminality and the ethereal, to the exploration of transitions and changes, Chartrand’s work often takes on a layer of exploration of the human experience through a political lens.

Taylor Marie Graham is a writer, director, producer, and educator living in Cambridge, Ontario. She holds a BA in theatre from York University, an MFA in creative writing from the University of Guelph, and is a doctoral candidate in the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph. She is also a partial load English professor at Sheridan College in the Department of Communication and Literary Studies. Taylor has worked in various capacities with esteemed artistic companies and educational institutions as the Toronto Fringe Festival, Canadian Stage, Theatre Gargantua, b current, Tapestry New Opera Works, Theatre Brouhaha, Alumnae Theatre, the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra, Tiny Owl Workshop, These Five Minutes, the Playwrights Guild of Canada, Humber College, Sheridan College, Artscape, and Rogers Television. She is also the artistic director of the indie theatre company Port Albert Productions. In 2016, celebrated playwright Judith Thompson named Taylor as the up-and-coming playwright to watch in Playwrights Guild of Canada’s The Playwright Applause campaign. Taylor is the proud recipient of the George Ryga Award for Excellence in Playwriting from York University. The University of Guelph has honoured Taylor with the Connie Rooke Scholarship, the Graduate Entrance Scholarship, the University Graduate Scholarship, the Graduate Tuition Scholarship, the Board of Graduate Research Scholarship, and the Carole Stewart Arts Scholarship. Taylor has also received multiple OAC creator reserve grants for the development of her writing, and her opera The Virgin Charlie was nominated in 2008 for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Opera / Musical.

Jen Hillborn is new to the playwriting thing. Growing up she participated in community theatre productions in Toronto as an actor and director. She was once cast in a big Hollywood movie, but she was kicked out before shooting started. She blames James Woods. She recovered from this experience (mostly) and has since gone on to get a PhD in Clinical Psychology and now works as a Psychologist. Jen is currently working on a story that aims to explore suffering, resiliency and humanity through the internal landscapes of people who have been admitted to a psychiatric facility.

Deanna Kruger is a playwright based in Guelph, Ontario. In December 2017, Pencil Kit Productions presented her ten-minute play Paul and Petandra at the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace. Deanna developed her play The Sword-Bearers in Nightwood Theatre’s 2016-2017 Write from the Hip script development program; The Sword-Bearers received a workshop and staged reading during the 2017 Groundswell Festival. Deanna’s work has also been staged at the Tomo Suru Players’ About Love Festival (Vancouver), Guelph Little Theatre, the InspiraTO Festival (Toronto), and the Alumnae Theatre (New Ideas Festival, Toronto). She is a past recipient of an InspiraTO People’s Choice Award and the Dorothy White Award from the Ottawa Little Theatre’s Canadian One-Act Playwriting Competition. She was also named a Top 40 Finalist for the 2017 Schreiber Shorts at the T. Schreiber Studio in New York, NY.

Rochelle Richardson graduated from the University of Guelph with a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree where she majored in English and Theatre Studies. As a black, queer, theatre artist she believes in creating intersectional – feminist theatre, focusing on social change. Some days she works as a Travel Agent helping book travel for clients, but most days she is creating theatre. She is working on a number of projects at the moment including Made By Steve. She is excited to be working with the Women’s Room to help with her focus, as she is often jumping from one project or job to the next. Rochelle enjoys travel, corny jokes, and sitting in theatres (whether they are empty or busy).

Jade Walker is an actress, writer and playwright from London Ontario. She completed the two week intensive acting course at VADA. She played Laura in Tyler Graham’s play “Swallow” at The Art’s Project in 2016 and is a member of Tinkerpace Theatre Company. She has completed two full sessions of on- camera acting classes at Pro Actors Lab Stratford with Marvin Hinz and continues to attend classes there. Her play that she wrote titled, “Bruno and Hogginfritz “was chosen to be part of The Grand Theatre’s Playwrights Cabaret and was performed at The McManus Theatre in January 2017. In May 2017 there was a public reading of “Bruno and Hogginfritz” in the upper floor studio of The Art’s Project by Tinkerspace Theatre. She will continue to workshop “Bruno and Hogginfritz” with Passionfool Theatre Company in January 2018. She will workshop her play entitled, “A Man In Power” with Tinkerspace Theatre and there will be a public reading of it in May 2018 as part of the Tinkerspace Play Labs. She is a member of Feminista in Hamilton and is currently workshopping an all female cast play that she’s writing for their playwright showcase. She is also a member of Troubadour Theatre Collective’s Playwrights Unit and is workshopping one of her plays with them that will also be performed in May 2018.