Tara began her career with The National Ballet of Canada after graduating from the National Ballet School. She then danced for The Alberta Ballet and was Principal dancer for Canada’s Ballet Jorgen for 16 years. Bengt Jörgen created many lead roles in full length ballets for Tara including Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella, Anastasia, Coppelia, and The Nutcracker. She had the opportunity to guest perform internationally with The Hong Kong Ballet, The Ohio Ballet, Banff Festival Ballet and The Miami Hispanic International Ballet Festival. She has worked with many of Canada’s most sought after choreographers including Gioconda Barbuto, Roberto Campanella, Robert Desrosiers, Robert Glumbek, Allen Kaeja, Karen Kaeja, Malgorzata Nowaka-May, Crystal Pite, Kathleen Rea, and Wen Wei Wang. Tara worked on many creative dance project with Proartedanza, DNA Theatre, and Allison Cummings and was featured in Michael Greyeyes short dance film ‘Seven Seconds’. Tara was also part of the award winning dance film ‘Old Country’ by Allen Kaeja. Since moving to Kitchener and having her second child Tara has been teaching and coaching young dancers, choreographing, and performing as a freelance artist. Tara was invited to be a part Allen and Karen Kaeja’s Dance Ontario Lifetime achievement award performance in January 2020. Tara will be creating a full evening of dance which will be presented at The Registry Theatre in 2021 . She is thrilled to be sharing and creating with the community in partnership with Pat The Dog Theatre.

Caitie is a dramaturg, playwright, and emerging screenwriter who is as excited about telling stories as she is about empowering others to do the same. Over her career as a dramaturg, Caitie has designed and facilitated several playwriting units for emerging artists, most notably at Tarragon Theatre (Young Playwrights Unit 2017-2020), and Driftwood Theatre Group, where she began as Company Dramaturg in 2020. Most recently, Caitie was the Assistant Dramaturg on Queen Goneril by Erin Shields at Soulpepper Theatre. Caitie has been compiling Pat the Dog’s monthly e-bulletin of resources for playwrights since 2017, and offering dramaturgical support to playwrights through the organization since 2022. She is thrilled to be taking her relationship with Pat the Dog one step further, by becoming facilitator of this exciting new Unit!

Amy Neufeld is a perfectly fine person who lives, works, knits, and writes in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. She has one husband, one calico cat, and two kids. She writes plays, novels, humour pieces, and short stories.

As a child, Amy used to read under the covers in the dark after her flashlight had been taken away. She wants to write stories that inspire that level of disobedience in others.

Amy has written for CBC’s The Irrelevant Show, SEE Magazine, Shameless Magazine, The Daily Drunk, and Bear Creek Gazette among others.

Vanessa C Spence is a classically trained theatre actor, published author, playwright, producer, and arts educator. She is a creative entrepreneur with over six years of experience in the performance arts industry and social sectors. Vanessa is the artistic director of Virtu Arts, a production company that develops and creates live performance art that is shared in a virtual space to be enjoyed by all. At the root of her life’s work and her artistry, Vanessa seeks to inspire empathy and action by shedding light on the thought processes of women in marginalized communities. Her latest project entitled Stretch Marks, based on her self-published book of poetry explores the mental, emotional, and physical imbalances BIMOC (Black, Indigenous, Mothers of Colour) face through the many stages of motherhood. Part 1 of this three-part series focused on the moments leading up to a young woman’s decision of whether to become a mother or not. Vanessa is excited to continue the development of Stretch Marks Part 2 with the support of 2021 Women’s Room.