Schedule

All events will be recorded and shared post-event

Saturday, January 25th, 2025

Agents, Casting and Getting the Job 101

10:20-11:30 am EST

  • Emily Johnston is a casting professional with nearly a decade of experience across film, television, and theatre. Most recently, she was the Casting Director on the queer holiday film Last Ex-Mas for Unsolicited Pictures. She spent over 8 years as Casting Associate at Lisa Parasyn Casting, and helped cast such television projects as The Abandons (Netflix), Wayward (Netflix/Sphere), Star Trek: Discovery (CBS), Skymed (Paramount+/CBC), Shadowhunters (Freeform), Workin' Moms (CBC), Under The Banner of Heaven (FX), and Little Bird (Crave Canada/Bell Media), as well as the film projects Don't Hang Up (BounceTV), Secrets in a Small Town (Lifetime) and Faith Heist (BounceTV). She also works as a freelance casting consultant for several theatre companies, including Canadian Stage and Company Theatre, and has just completed casting on Canadian Stage’s 2025 Shakespeare in High Park production. Most recently, Emily has joined the casting team at Ubisoft Toronto, doing motion capture and voice-over casting for video games.

  • Raised in a household of performers, Tovah Small was immersed into the world of theatre, film, and television at a very early age. She began her career as a casting associate after attending Queens University. Her keen eye for talent was honed working with Toronto’s top Casting Directors on such series as Suits (USA Network), Flashpoint (CTV/CBS/ION), and Hannibal (NBC), and feature films including Cosmopolis (Dir. David Cronenberg), Bang Bang Baby (Dir. Jeffery St. Jules) and Regression (Dir. Alejandro Amenábar). After five years in casting, Tovah further established herself at The Characters Talent Agency, nurturing many award-winning, internationally renowned performers. In 2016 she opened the Talent Division at Meridian Artists, a full-service agency where she represents both established and emerging talent.

  • Larissa has been casting for more than twenty years; her resume includes over 250 credits in film, television, commercials, audiobooks, animation, and theatre. She’s built her career on being committed to empathy, inclusion, and diversity in the casting process, and has a special talent for discovering promising faces in the industry, many of whom have launched to great success.

    2024 has been an exciting time for Larissa and her team – recently they've cast the second seasons of acclaimed series “Late Bloomer" on Crave and "Gangnam Style" on Hulu/CBC. Currently they're casting the reboot of iconic hockey film Youngblood, as well as exciting Indigenous-led feature film Nika & Madison, and several based-on-a-true-story Lifetime films. Select projects airing now and coming up soon are Crave comedy "The Office Movers," Hallmark series called "Mistletoe Mysteries," teen-drama Netflix series “BET," the third movie in some select roles for the Paw Patrol franchise, and several projects for Audible Books (including the hotly-anticipated Wynonna Earp audiobook series). 

    Some of Larissa’s career highlights include casting for Emmy-nominated television series ’“Odd Squad," as well as Kids in the Hall,  Degrassi Next Generation, Holly Hobbie, Endlings, Ghostwriter, Tallboyz, Detention Adventure, Hardy Boys, Run the Burbs, and Dino Dex, to name a few.

    Presently she is casting many movies, features and animation series and very excited for a busy 2025.

  • After over a decade of working as an actor in film, tv, and theatre, Jesse made a pivot and began his career in casting. He opened Jesse Griffiths Casting (JGC) with the goal of combining his passion for the arts with his knowledge of local talent. His focus is, and will always be, to push for more inclusion and diversity in the casting process. He devotes part of his time to the development of the next generation of artists and has taught at Toronto Metropolitan University, Sheridan College, Actra Toronto, and leads a monthly workshop for Toronto's BIPOC community. He is a mentor at the Canadian Film Centre’s Actors Conservatory, a member of the Casting Society of America (CSA), serves on the Executive of the Casting Director's Society of Canada (CDC), and is on the professional advisory committee for Seneca College, George Brown College, Toronto Metropolitan University and proudly serves on the board of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, the largest and longest-running queer theatre in the world. He is the proud recipient of the ACTRA Toronto Sandi Ross Award. Jesse is a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University with a BFA in Theatre Performance.

  • Nigel Mikoski hails from Vancouver, BC, by way of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He spent his early years working the agency landscape in Toronto for well known Canadian Celebrities such as Keifer Sutherland, Kim Cattrall, Victor Garber, Andrea Martin, Mark McKinney, Mary Walsh, and the late Jackie Burroughs, alongside his mentor Michael Oscars. In 2010 he relocated to Canada’s sprawling west coast. It’s at this time that he began working with the well known Canadian comedic actor, and America’s dad, Alan Thicke. Their success together spanned 7 years prior to his death, which included a star on Canadas Walk Of Fame, a game show, A Broadway tour, many film and TV credits, along with 2 seasons of the popular factual series Unusually Thicke (for POPtv, SPLICE), on which Mikoski was also credited as a producer. He launched Connekt Creative as an answer to the east coast style of agenting that formed his early years, for which he continues to find success to this day. His clients are headlining shows on major US streamers and studios alike. He spends any time outside the office in BC’s beautiful outdoors.

Collective Creation, Tools for Creating Your Own Work

11:45- 1:00 pm EST

with Quote Unquote Collective

  • Norah Sadava Co-artistic director of Quote Unquote Collective, is an award-winning director, writer, and performer. Norah has been involved in the writing and creation of new work with numerous companies both in Canada and internationally including QUC’s premiere production Mouthpiece (2015), which she co-wrote and performed for over four years. Mouthpiece has won multiple awards globally, and was published by Coach House Press, Oberon UK and Mitos Boyut in Turkey. It has been translated into French, Spanish, Romanian, Albanian and Turkish, and was adapted into a feature film in collaboration with acclaimed Canadian director Patricia Rozema which premiered at TIFF 2018. Now You See Her, which Norah co-wrote, directed and performed premiered in Toronto in 2018 and is published by Coach House Press. Norah also co-wrote and performed in QUC’s production of Universal Child Care which premiered at Canadian Stage in Toronto in 2024. She most recently developed a movement installation piece with FKA Twigs for Sotheby’s Gallery in London. A graduate of the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in California, Norah teaches theatre for both adults and young people.

  • Amy Nostbakken Co-artistic director of Quote Unquote Collective and a core member of Theatre Ad Infinitum UK. Amy is an award-winning director, writer, performer and composer  She has created and composed numerous productions including First Class (2009), The Big Smoke (2011) Ballad Of the Burning Star (2013), Bucket List (2016) and Mouthpiece (2015) - which she directed, co-wrote, composed and performs. Mouthpiece has won multiple awards around the world, toured internationally and was published by Coach House Press, Oberon UK and Mitos Boyut in Turkey. It has been translated into French, Turkish, Romanian, Albanian and Spanish and was adapted into a feature film directed by Patricia Rozema which opened the Special Presentation program at TIFF 2018. Now You See Her (2018), which Amy co-wrote, directed, performed and composed premiered in Toronto and is published by Coach House Press. Amy co-created, composed and directed QUC’s most recent production Universal Child Care which premiered in Toronto in 2024. She is currently developing and performing a movement installation piece with FKA Twigs for Sotheby’s Gallery in London premiering Sept 2025. A graduate of Concordia University and École Internationale de Théatre Jacques Lecoq in Paris, Amy teaches theatre and voice for both adults and young people. 

Choreography Workshop with David Connolly

2:00 pm-3:15 pm EST

  • David is the Artistic Director at Drayton Entertainment, Director of Education for their Youth Academy and an active Disability and Inclusion Advocate who is the first amputee to perform on Broadway. Thirty years later, he remains an optimistic, highly creative idea generator of whose life Dance Magazine wrote, “demonstrates the quintessential balancing act between career and community service.”  He is the proud recipient of The 2024 Canadian Actors’ Equity inaugural Change Maker Award.

    As an Educator, David has been an Adjunct Professor and Advisor to the Musical Theatre Performance Programs at Sheridan College, Western University, Randolph College, VanderCook College and most recently, the Hopkins Centre for the Arts at Dartmouth College. After serving on the faculty at Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Centre in New York, he moved to Los Angeles to enjoy collaborating with artists including Katy Perry, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Elton John, Sarah Jessica Parker, kd lang, Patti LaBelle, Sarah Brightman and many others.

    As a Director/ Choreographer, he has helmed over thirty-five productions including the professional Canadian premieres of The Prom, Kinky Boots, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Mamma Mia! and Newsies. David is a recipient of the Ontario Premier’s Award of Excellence and a speaker for the DEI Committee of the International Musical Theatre Educators’ Alliance. For four years, David curated and moderated a disability inclusion panel at BroadwayCon in New York City to help develop actionable steps to improve disabled representation onstage. He has proudly served as a peer assessor for The Canada Council for the Arts, and as an Ambassador for the Shriner's Hospital for Children, and the War Amps Child Amputee Program. 

Across the Theatre Landscape

MODERATOR

  • Janelle Cooper is a multi-award winning interdisciplinary Performer and Director, and a Founder of Ellipsis Tree Collective (ETC) - Alberta's first Black led and Black focused professional theatre company. Janelle’s expertise is in the excavation of lived experience through devising and multi-genre storytelling, IBPOC artistic mentorship, and EDID education and consultation for organizations like The University of Calgary's SCPA EDIAD Community Advisory Board.

3:30 pm- 4:45 pm EST

Reps from Theatre Companies give you the ins and outs.

  • Ari is a proud Sheridan Musical Theatre graduate and the casting director of the Stratford Festival. He served as Winnipeg Jewish Theatre’s Artistic and Managing Director from 2015–2022. Directing: The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk, Dear Jack, Dear Louise, After Jerusalem, Tribes, The Whipping Man, Stars of David(WJT); The Theory of Relativity, The Secret Garden(MTYP Musical Theatre Company); Frankenstein(University of Winnipeg); Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Knavish Hedgehogs at Winnipeg Fringe). Selected Acting: Mendel in Falsettos (WJT/ Dry Cold Productions); Snail in A Year With Frog and Toad and Snoopy in A Charlie Brown Double Bill (Manitoba Theatre for Young People); Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre); Tootles in Peter Pan (Stratford Festival); George in Hana’s Suitcase (Magnus Theatre). 

  • Mel Hague is a Toronto based Curator and dramaturge. Mel is the Artistic Director at Factory Theatre in Toronto. Previously, Mel has worked with Canadian Stage Company, Soulpepper Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Obsidian Theatre Company, IFT Theatre, Banff Centre Playwrights Lab, bcurrent performing arts, fu-Gen Asian Canadian Theatre, Eastern Front Theatre, Queer Acts Festival, The Paprika Festival, and Mulgrave Road Theatre. Mel was the Director of the Rhubarb Festival from 2014 – 2019, and was selected as a Leader in Residence at the National Theatre School of Canada. Selected dramaturgy work includes Fall on Your Knees (National Arts Centre, Canadian Stage, Neptune Theatre) Honey I’m Home (Lester Trips/Factory Theatre).

  • David is the Artistic Director at Drayton Entertainment, Director of Education for their Youth Academy and an active Disability and Inclusion Advocate who is the first amputee to perform on Broadway. Thirty years later, he remains an optimistic, highly creative idea generator of whose life Dance Magazine wrote, “demonstrates the quintessential balancing act between career and community service.”  He is the proud recipient of The 2024 Canadian Actors’ Equity inaugural Change Maker Award.

    As an Educator, David has been an Adjunct Professor and Advisor to the Musical Theatre Performance Programs at Sheridan College, Western University, Randolph College, VanderCook College and most recently, the Hopkins Centre for the Arts at Dartmouth College. After serving on the faculty at Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Centre in New York, he moved to Los Angeles to enjoy collaborating with artists including Katy Perry, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, Elton John, Sarah Jessica Parker, kd lang, Patti LaBelle, Sarah Brightman and many others.

    As a Director/ Choreographer, he has helmed over thirty-five productions including the professional Canadian premieres of The Prom, Kinky Boots, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Mamma Mia! and Newsies. David is a recipient of the Ontario Premier’s Award of Excellence and a speaker for the DEI Committee of the International Musical Theatre Educators’ Alliance. For four years, David curated and moderated a disability inclusion panel at BroadwayCon in New York City to help develop actionable steps to improve disabled representation onstage. He has proudly served as a peer assessor for The Canada Council for the Arts, and as an Ambassador for the Shriner's Hospital for Children, and the War Amps Child Amputee Program. 

  • Michael Caldwell (he/him) is a choreographer, performer, curator, artistic director, producer, and arts advocate, based in Tkaronto, Canada.

    Currently, Michael serves as Artistic Director at SummerWorks in Tkaronto, and as a Co-Curator for Festival of Dance Annapolis Royal, in Nova Scotia. Previously, Michael played a pivotal role in the growth and development of Fall for Dance North, serving as Executive Producer for eight years. In addition, he acts as a consultant with various arts organizations and as a mentor to many emerging artists/curators in the Tkaronto arts community.

    Garnering critical acclaim, his choreography has been commissioned/presented throughout Canada at major festivals, in traditional venues and in site-responsive and community-engaged contexts. Caldwell is a two-time K.M. Hunter Charitable Foundation Artist Award finalist.

    Michael has erformed/collaborated with over 55 of Canada’s esteemed performance creators/companies, working internationally and performing across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. His performances have earned him two (2) Dora Mavor Moore Awards for outstanding performance in dance.

    With a bachelor’s degree in film/art history from Syracuse University in upstate New York, and professional dance training at Dance Arts Institute, Michael now serves as President of the Board of Directors at The CanDance Network.

Monologue Slam

  • Mike Payette is a director, educator and actor who has appeared at some of Canada’s finest theatres.  He has worked with incredible companies across the country including The Citadel, Vertigo, Banff Centre, Geordie, Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland, Repercussion Theatre, Segal Centre, Centaur, The Grand, Factory Theatre, Neptune, and the National Arts Centre, among others. 

    Directing credits include Craze, Come Home: The Legend of Daddy Hall, Cockroach and Paint Me This House of Love (Tarragon), Blithe Spirit (Shaw Festival), Choir Boy (Canadian Stage/Arts Club Theatre), Harlem Duet (Black Theatre Workshop), Another Home Invasion (Tableau D’Hôte Theatre), Hosanna and Choir Boy (Centaur), Around the World in 80 Days, The Paperbag Princess, and Reaching for Starlight (Geordie), Venus, Burning Vision and Indecent (National Theatre School), Sensitivity (Obsidian Theatre/CBC Gem, as part of 21 Black Futures), the French-language premiere of Héritage – A Raisin in the Sun (Théâtre Duceppe), along with the national tours of The Tashme Project (Tashme Prod/Centaur/Factory/Firehall) and Lorena Gale’s Angélique (BTW/Tableau D’Hôte/NAC/Factory/Obsidian). 

    A lecturer at Toronto Metropolitan University, and frequent guest artist at the National Theatre School of Canada, Mike is a two-time Montreal English Theatre Award (META) recipient and was the co-founding Artistic Director of Tableau D’Hôte Theatre and past Assistant Artistic Director for Black Theatre Workshop.  He was also Artistic and Executive Director of Geordie Productions in Montreal before becoming Artistic Director for Tarragon Theatre in Toronto where he is currently based.

Hosted by Will Parry

5:15- 6:30 pm EST

Available on a first come first served basis. Perform your monologue live and receive in-the-moment feedback from three industry professionals. This is NOT a competition but rather an opportunity for feedback. If you are not chosen to perform come learn and cheer on your fellow artists.

  • Marjorie was born in Tkaronto/Toronto to Hong Kong immigrants who arrived in the late 60s. As a theatre and opera artist, she works variously as writer, director and dramaturge as well as in the intersection of these forms and roles. Her work has been seen and performed in the United States, Scotland, Hong Kong, Russia and across Canada. Her full-length works as a playwright include the plays Lady Sunrise, The Madness of the Square, a nanking winter, Tails From the City, as well as the libretti for the operas, Sanctuary Song, The Lesson of Da Ji, M’dea Undone, The Monkiest King and The Nightingale of a Thousand Songs. Currently she is adapting the Giller Award winning novel, Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien into an opera with composer Tim Brady. Some of the companies Marjorie has directed for include: Gateway Theatre, Cahoots Theatre, Native Earth Performing Arts, Theatre Passe Muraille, Obsidian Theatre and Theatre du Pif (Hong Kong). Marjorie has been nominated for ten Dora Mavor Moore Awards for her acting, writing and directing and is the recipient of four. She has also received the K.M. Hunter Artist’s Award in Theatre, the Entertainment World Award for Best New Work, a Harold Award, as well as the George Luscombe Award for Mentorship. Other notable nominations include the John Hirsch Directors’ Award, the Governor General’s Literary Award for her playwriting debut, China Doll as well as Lady Sunrise, and the Canadian Citizen Award for her work with Crossing Gibraltar – Cahoots Theatre’s program for newcomers, where she was previously artistic director (2013 – 2019). She has been artist-in-residence with Factory Theatre, Banff Playwrights’ Lab, Tapestry Opera, Cahoots Theatre, Theatre Centre (with 6th Man Collective), Theatre Direct Canada, SUNY (Geneseo, New York) and Theatre du Pif (Hong Kong). She balances her writing and artistic practice with her role as the current Artistic Director of Theatre Passe Muraille since 2019, where she places access, community, innovation and collaboration at the forefront of the company’s approach.

  • Raised in a household of performers, Tovah Small was immersed into the world of theatre, film, and television at a very early age. She began her career as a casting associate after attending Queens University. Her keen eye for talent was honed working with Toronto’s top Casting Directors on such series as Suits (USA Network), Flashpoint (CTV/CBS/ION), and Hannibal (NBC), and feature films including Cosmopolis (Dir. David Cronenberg), Bang Bang Baby (Dir. Jeffery St. Jules) and Regression (Dir. Alejandro Amenábar). After five years in casting, Tovah further established herself at The Characters Talent Agency, nurturing many award-winning, internationally renowned performers. In 2016 she opened the Talent Division at Meridian Artists, a full-service agency where she represents both established and emerging talent.

Sunday, January 26th, 2025

Coffee House

Available on a first come first served basis. An opportunity to perform a song, a poem, or an original piece!

Hosted by Will Parry

10:00 am-11:45 am EST

Industry Networking Lunch

12:00 pm- 3:30 pm EST

Come and enjoy and industry lunch to connect with other students and industry professionals. This event is in-person only and has limited spots at a first come, first serve basis. You will be notified via email if you have secured a space, or have been put on a wait list.

Industry Fair

12:00 pm - 3:30 pm EST

In-person only in the Hart House East Common Room. When you are not in the industry lunch, continue your networking at our Industry Fair! Meet representatives from Arts Orgs in our city and hear about the amazing opportunities they have to offer. NO RSVP necessary!

Casting for Commericals

COMING SOON

  • Izad Etemadi is an Iranian-Canadian actor and writer based in Toronto. He was a resident of the 2021/2022 CBC Actor’s Conservatory at the Canadian Film Centre and the recipient of the 2017 Emerging Queer Artist Award from Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.

    Select on-screen credits include: Orphan Black: Echoes (AMC), Ghosts (CBS), Overlord and the Underwoods (CBC/Nickelodeon), and Revenge of the Black Best Friend (CBC Gem) In 2022, he originated the role of Samuel in the new Canadian musical Grow at The Grand Theatre and returned later that season to play Buddy the Elf in Elf the Musical. He recently played Donovan in the world premiere of The Bidding War at Crow’s Theatre and will play Olaf in Frozen at The Citadel in 2025.

    His critically acclaimed solo comedy show, Izad Etemadi: Let Me Explain, produced by Green Light Arts, has played to sold-out houses and rave reviews across Ontario and will tour Canada later this year. As a screenwriter, he is working on projects in development and production with Cameron Pictures, Shaftesbury Kids, and Border2Border Entertainment. His short film Plant Daddy won the 2023 Queer Your Stories short film competition, garnering a screening at the Inside Out Festival.


    Izad’s work uses comedy to explore issues of queer identity, immigration, body image, and the terrors of being a millennial. Outside of acting and writing, he has over seven years of experience working in casting for film and television.

West Coast Agent AMA

  • Nigel Mikoski hails from Vancouver, BC, by way of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He spent his early years working the agency landscape in Toronto for well known Canadian Celebrities such as Keifer Sutherland, Kim Cattrall, Victor Garber, Andrea Martin, Mark McKinney, Mary Walsh, and the late Jackie Burroughs, alongside his mentor Michael Oscars. In 2010 he relocated to Canada’s sprawling west coast. It’s at this time that he began working with the well known Canadian comedic actor, and America’s dad, Alan Thicke. Their success together spanned 7 years prior to his death, which included a star on Canadas Walk Of Fame, a game show, A Broadway tour, many film and TV credits, along with 2 seasons of the popular factual series Unusually Thicke (for POPtv, SPLICE), on which Mikoski was also credited as a producer. He launched Connekt Creative as an answer to the east coast style of agenting that formed his early years, for which he continues to find success to this day. His clients are headlining shows on major US streamers and studios alike. He spends any time outside the office in BC’s beautiful outdoors.

  • Zahf Paroo has been working as a professional actor, host, and voice-over and sketch-comedy artist since 1995. He graduated with honors from the Theatre Arts Program at Mount Royal University and has worked and lived all over the United States and Canada.

    Through his long and diverse career, Zahf has had the opportunity to work in sci-fi (Altered Carbon, Defying Gravity, Stargate SG-1, Battlestar Gallactica, Fringe, Andromeda, Continuum) as well as comedy (Scaredy Cats, Malibu Rescue, Scary Movie, The Big Year, Psych, A Guy Thing, Say it Isn't So, Scooby-Doo 2, Package Deal), dramatic content (Allegiance, Edgemont, Degrassi -The Next Generation, Firewall, Motive), fantasy (The Magicians, Seventh Son) and feel-good seasonal projects (A Timeless Christmas, A Godwinks Christmas: Second Chance First Love).

    Zahf is also an accomplished theatre performer and spent a year on Broadway in the original cast production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Bombay Dreams", playing 14 characters in the show.

    In his personal life, Zahf is a teacher, playwright, director, avid foodie, sneakerhead, husband and father who loves diversity in music, fashion, and entertainment.