SARAH AFFUL Workshop: Acting

Currently based in , Sarah Afful has graced some of Canada’s biggest stages, including Julius Caesar at Soulpepper in early 2020. She has spent the past six seasons at Stratford garnering rave reviews, with critics calling her a “star in the making” and describing her as both confident and charismatic.

DARRYN DE SOUZA Workshop: Voice

Coming from a musical family, Darryn began his training at St. Michael’s Choir School in Toronto, a one-of-a-kind music school with deep training in choral and solo singing, as well as instrumental music before embarking on a teaching career, privately teaching singing and piano while providing music ministry for churches as a Musical Director | Organist | Cantor, and then as a performer/Music Director for professional theatre companies, including The Rose. Since 2009, Darryn has been Music Director for vocal group The Canadian Tenors (now known as ), performing as their live pianist, collaborator, arranger, and full time touring artist, sharing the stage with many legends such as , , Michael Bolton, Stevie Wonder, and more. Darryn is also working with other up and coming talents, including Pia Toscano, Angelica Hale, Christian Guardino and Evie Clair. After years providing musical knowledge and support to some of Canada’s most important artists, Darryn is now turning his creative practice inward, looking to expand his passion for songwriting,collaboration, singing and creation.

EVELYN HART Workshop: Movement

An Officer of the Order of Canada, Manitoba's Woman of the Year, ACTRA Award-winner, Chalmers Award for Excellence in the Arts, and Governor General's Performing Arts Award recipient, ballerina Evelyn Hart is an internationally renowned dancer and one of Canada's most treasured artists. After studying in the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School, Professional Division, where she trained under David Moroni, she joined the Royal Winnipeg Ballet in 1976, becoming a soloist in 1978 and principal dancer in 1979. During her illustrious dance career, she has performed on stages in over 118 countries, on every continent and danced with some of the world's leading male dancers such as Sir Anthony Dowell, Richard Cragun, Patrick Bissell, Andris Liepa, Jose Carreño, Alexei Ratmansky, Manuel Legris and Rex Harrington. A 50-minute film about Hart entitled Moment of Light: The Dance of Evelyn Hart was produced in 1992 by Blue Morpho Films with the National Film Board of Canada. Max Wyman wrote a biography entitled Evelyn Hart: an Intimate Portrait published by McClelland & Stewart. She will also be profiled in a CBC TV Life & Times.

LAURIE LAM Workshop: Storytelling

Laurie Lam works in theatre, film and literature as a writer, story analyst, teacher, bookseller and arts administrator. She has a BA in English Literature from the University of Winnipeg and an MFA in Screenwriting from the American Film Institute. For the past 30 years, she has worked for the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, most recently as the company’s Producer. She has analyzed scripts for the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and for film companies across Canada, and has taught screenwriting at the University of Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Film Group. Her online company L. Lam Books deals in used, out-of-print and rare books, with a specialization in visual art and Indigenous resources. In 2014, she received the Making a Difference Award from the Winnipeg Arts Council for her contribution to the growth and development of the arts in Winnipeg. She is now researching early 20th-century Canadian art for a novel about the iconic painter Tom Thomson.