TEC – Cascadia Nation: Workshop and Presentation at Belfry Theatre’s SparkFest
— ABOUT THE PROJECT
Cascadia Nation is a new work which follows five characters trapped together inside a snowed-in mountain hut somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. The play explores what happens when climate activism veers into extremism, asking us what we are willing to sacrifice now in our hopes for a better future. This project was first developed at the National Theatre School with dramaturgy from Andrea Romaldi and direction from Fatma Sarah Elkashef. Support from NTS’s TEC grant provided funding for additional revisions and a staged reading at the Belfry Theatre’s Spark Festival on the unceded territories of the Lekwungen People (Victoria BC).
— BIOGRAPHY
Sarah Danielle Pitman (Playwriting, 2025) is a playwright who grew up on the unceded territory of the Lekwungen and W_SÁNEC nations. She studied writing and English at the University of Victoria before pursuing playwriting at the National Theatre School of Canada. Her work has been performed in Victoria, Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto.
Sarah writes big stories fuelled by imagination. Inventing new dialects and vivid worlds, her plays are deliberately theatrical, bringing together multiple perspectives and complicated narratives. Through a combination of drama and comedy, she explores themes of connection, transformation, and climate collapse.
During her time at NTS, Sarah has worked on multiple projects including Fathom (dramaturgy by Ann-Marie MacDonald), Hunger Artists (with Nick Carpenter), Cascadia Nation (with Andrea Romaldi, Fatma Sarah Elkashef), and Beyond Belief (with Dean Patrick Fleming). Her play Salvage The Wrecked was written with dramaturgical guidance from Joanna Falck and performed under the direction of Jonathan Seinen at the National Theatre School’s 2025 New Words Festival.
TEC – Waiting for Gal Galot
— ABOUT THE PROJECT
Waiting for Gal Gadot is a play-in-development combining drag artistry, technology, and theatre. N.O.R.A. (Non-human Objective-based Revolutionary learning Algorithm) is a groundbreaking first in biotechnology: a fully functional artificial intelligence totally indistinguishable from humans. Although her creator, Tyrell Want, intends to use her as a tool for world domination, NORA asserts control over her own programming and attempts to unravel the very forces of greed that built her.
The idea mostly exists in the character of NORA, an exaggerated science fiction archetype of my own drag person, and in the themes I want to explore. For a long time, I have seen my own journey of transition in the story of fictional robots: a being created with a rigid purpose seeking meaning through the reclamation of bodily autonomy. As artificial intelligence is popularized and utilized to advance colonial warfare and surveillance of everyone on the planet, how can we imagine those same tools being used to instead dismantle these systems? This idea is both an allegory of my own transition and a science fiction myth about surviving in the absurdity of a decaying
empire.
Over the course of this project, I will write a draft of the piece, consulting with community members to better understand this story’s place in the trans and arts communities I am working within. I will then focus on a design workshop, using costume and technology to guide the piece’s visual metaphors. This will directly engage community members with unique skills outside of traditional theatre development practices, to better diversify my own work and to engage new community perspectives. I will then stage the work in an unconventional queer venue, going directly to a community space and eschewing a traditional rehearsal process to focus instead on a community oriented invitation to participate in development
— BIOGRAPHY
Jonathan Mourant aka Nora Vision (Playwriting, 2023) is a playwright, drag performer, and robotic emissary sent from the future. Before their time at the National Theatre School, Nora performed as an improviser and sketch comedian in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where they produced work independently and developed their voice as a writer and performer. Their work at NTS includes Subbed (dramaturgy by Erin Shields), an adaptation of The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas (Nick Carpenter), God of Mars (Andrea Romaldi). As an artificially intelligent robot, Nora is interested in creating work which confronts identity, culture, and propaganda, questioning how each contributes, limits, and undermines one’s sense of reality. A performance artist at heart, Nora’s theatrical writings use her own identity as a cipher through which she challenges assumptions of subjectivity and viewership. They performed in drag in their play SYCOPHANT (Marcus Youssef), produced this spring as part of the 2023 New Words Festival.
TEC – Shakespeare for the New (Found) Actor
— ABOUT THE PROJECT
Shakespeare for the New Found Actor is a 2 day intensive in where I will give aspiring and mid career actors the tools to have strong Shakespeare audition pieces for the upcoming school and professional season. Using the learning and teaching experiences I gained with my time at NTS/ The Stratford Birmingham Conservatory/ many years professional experiences I aim to inspire my love of Shakespeare and making it ones own to those who are seeking to make the leap to professional theatre acting. At the end of the workshop participants will have the opportunity to perform their pieces and get feedback from local casting directors and directors.
We will start with physical and vocal warm ups to make the actors aware of the muscularity and dexterity the work needs. We will dive into resources to help with understanding the text, and making it understood to an audience, with folio and lexicon work. We will then start to work with monologues that I and the actor have selected beforehand. We will walk the thought to get the words in the body, have breakdowns of punctuation meaning in the text, discuss metaphor, cesura and iambic pentameter and their use as a tool within Shakespeare. There will be group games and discussions of what resonates to show that it truly is a collaborative medium. I will work them on imaging exercises to personalize the material to the actor. After a veritable Shakespearian bootcamp they will have the opportunity to present their work and be redirected by other local respected artists.
— BIOGRAPHY
Evan Mercer (He/Him) (Acting, 2023) is a Newfoundland born and raised actor / writer / musician / comedian. He had worked professionally on stage and screen (ACTRA) for well over a decade before attending the National Theatre School of Canada to expand his knowledge and experience in the Canadian theatre scene.
On stage he has worked with many of Newfoundland’s top theatre companies for many years. In 2018, he had the privilege of playing Truffaldino in Servant of Two Masters directed by Perry Schneiderman at Perchance Theatre and has worked many Shakespearean roles with the same company under the direction of Danielle Irvine. He has taken original comic material to both the New York and Toronto Sketch Festivals and has also toured his home province with the annual Revue sketch comedy show multiple times.
In 2017 Evan was fortunate enough to be nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for the best actor in a supporting role for his work in 2016’s Riverhead, a film that explored a Newfoundland blood feud. He has also had recurring roles in CBC’s Little Dog and Discovery/Netflix’s Frontier. Recently he appeared on CBC’s Son of a Critch.
He is a musician as well and has been playing bass for over 20 years while also over the span learning guitar, drums, mandolin, among other instruments.
Since coming to NTS, Evan has expanded his toolkit in dance, movement, voice, fight choreography, improv, and many other valuable techniques. He has had the pleasure of working with many great artists and trainers including Quincy Armorer, Alisa Palmer, Graeme Somerville, Eda Holmes, Diana Donnelly, Anita Nittoly, Jackie Maxwell, Tim Welham, Mike Payette, and many more.
Each day he endeavours to bring his strong work ethic and good humour to each process he engages in. He has always had a strong interest in a wide array of storytelling methods and is adept at a wide range of characters. Dramatic and comedic, contemporary, and classical, Evan has experience all over the board.
He has an interest in growing both his already established theatre and film career, while looking to expand into voiceover work for both animation and videogames. Primarily, he finds excitement in creating new original work to share with the Canadian artistic landscape.
