People

NEIL SILCOX

Founder and Organizer

In 2018 Neil Silcox founded the Canadian Theatre Educators' Conference, and the following year he was a core organizer of Got Your Back (GYB) Canada’s Acting Educator’s Conference. With collaborators Sarah Robbins and Jennifer Wigmore, he published “The State of Actor Training in Canada” a summary of the information gathered through the 2018 Actor Training Experience Survey, which they developed and which had more than 500 responses from theatre school graduates across Canada. In the past year Neil has begun hosting discussion groups for men who teach theatre, with a focus on how male teachers can be come more accountable, aware, and proactive in ending sexual harassment and misconduct in schools. Over the past seven years Neil has taught at York’s Theatre Program, U of T Mississauga/Sheridan’s Theatre and Drama Studies Program, Sheridan’s Bachelor of Music Theatre Program, and Brock’s Department of Dramatic Arts. He is currently the Crake Drama Fellow at Mount Allison University.

Miriam Cummings — Administrator, Virtual Symposium on Online Theatre Education

Instructor in acting and devising with a particular interest in voice; teaching independently and at Concordia University

Alethea Bakogeorge — Administrator, Virtual Symposium on Online Theatre Education

Development and Communications Associate at The Musical Stage Company. Alethea is an actor, arts administrator, and disability advocate.

Eric Armstrong — Voice Breakout room Leader, Virtual Symposium on Online Theatre Education

Voice, speech, accents & classical text teacher; Acting Area coordinator at York University, (on sabbatical for 2020-21)

Leah Cherniak —Directing breakout room leader, Virtual Symposium on Online Theatre Education

Devising/Directing/ Acting/Teaching: UofT, Ryerson, Soulpepper Academy.

Philippa Domville - Movement Breakout Room Leader, Virtual Symposium on Online Theatre Education

I am a theatre movement instructor at Ryerson School of Performance. I also work as a theatre and film actor and a theatre choreographer.

Gavin Fearon — Production & Design Breakout Room Leader, Virtual Symposium on Online Theatre Education

Technical Director and sessional instructor for stagecraft and design, Brock University Dramatic Arts

Karen Fricker — Theatre Studies Breakout Room Leader, Virtual Symposium on Online Theatre Education

Associate Professor in the Department of Dramatic Arts at Brock University, theatre critic for the Toronto Star, and vice-president of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association.

Rachel Rhoades — Applied Theatre Breakout Room Leader, Virtual Symposium on Online Theatre Education

Assistant Professor in the Department of Dramatic Arts at Brock University, Rachel has worked as an applied theatre practitioner, educator, and researcher with students ranging from Grade 1 to the graduate level for 12 years in community- and school-based settings in Boston, Toronto, and now in St. Catharines.

Jamie Robinson — Acting Breakout Room Leader, Virtual Symposium on Online Theatre Education

Actor & director; instructor at York University.

Tanisha Taitt - Keynote Speaker | The Apple Cart; This Constant Race, Or A Classroom In Colour

Tanisha Taitt is a director, actor, playwright, eacher, activist, accidental essayist, and the new High School Liaison for George Brown Theatre School, a position in which she will engage with students, educators and community to forward the school's heightened commitment to multiracial and LGBT inclusion in every aspect of its culture.  

Tanisha as worked with companies including Obsidian Theatre, Nightwood Theatre, National Arts Centre, Toronto Youth Theatre, Workman Arts, Buddies In Bad Times Theatre, and Soulpepper Theatre, and spent two seasons as a Resident Artist-Educator with Young People's Theatre.  Over the last decade she has been an arts educator of young people ages 2 to 22.  he was Artistic Mentor for the Paprika Festival Creators' Unit and Program Directo/Theatre Directo for The Musical Stage Company's youth training initiative One Song Glory.  Also a singer/songsmith, Tanisha is a recipient of the Canadian Music Publishers Association Songwriters Awar & Scholarshi for excellence in songwriting, and is currently writing two musical theatrical works.  She is a Drama Leader and mentor for tdsbEATES, a Toronto District School Board/Toronto Arts Council initiative that brings professional artists into classrooms to nurture artistic expression in students and educators, as well as an arts educator for the TDSB's EngageArts program which focuses on tilizing theatre i professional artistic development of lementary school eachers.  A longtime anti-VAW activist, Tanisha spent seven years as the Toront produce and then the Canadian mbassador for V-Day/One Billion Rising -- the global movement to end violence against women and girls, during which time she also served as ts theatre director.  In 2014 she reated Teenage Graceland, a youth theatre collective that challenges societal attitudes leading to gender-based violence.  Known by her peers for her fierce commitment to inclusion and racial/cultural representation in theatre, Tanisha also works as a Conflict Transformation and Anti-Oppression Facilitator for the award-winning Children's Peace Theatre, an organization which – through the arts - teaches young people about creating a culture of ustice in the pursuit of peace.  She spent ten years as an artist with CPT's flagship Peace Camp program, including five years as Director.  Under her leadership, the program deepened its subject matter and saw children as young as six using theatre as a means of exploring subjects ranging from climate change and Indigenous sovereignty to gender identity and media literacy.  Tanisha has served on arts council and playwriting juries, and recently sat on the Program Advisory Committee for the creation of the new Arts Education and Community Engagement post-graduate program at Centennial College.  She was 'Harolded' in 2013 and in 2015, critic Lynn Slotkin bestowed upon her an inaugural “Tootsie” Award in the “They Can Do Anything” category.  Tanisha's play Keeper was published by Scirocco Drama in late 2016.  Her approach to directing and teaching theatre can be captured in the following statement:  Acting = Stepping into the shoes of another.  Empathy = Stepping into the shoes of another.  Therefore... Acting = Empathy.  Tanisha teaches Contemporary Scene Study at George Brown, was nominated as a director for the Pauline McGibbon Award for Unique Talents and Potential for Excellence, and is a two-time YWCA Woman of Distinction nominee for her commitment to artistic excellence and social justice.