Marie-Claude Verdier took her first steps in playwriting as a teenager when her tale Paradise.com was selected by Théâtre le Clou for Les nouveaux Zurbains série III in 1999. The text was published in the collection The Zurbains with Dramaturges éditeurs and in Jamais de la Vie by Éditions du Passage. She continued her career by studying at the École Supérieure de Théâtre de L’UQAM in criticism and dramaturgy and she did a master’s degree on the dramaturgy of the museums at the University of Glasgow in Scotland. In the fall of 2013, her first play Je n’y suis plus was presented at the french Theatre of the NAC and at Zones Théâtrales . This production received two Prix Rideau Awards.

Alexis Diamond is a Montreal-based playwright, opera librettist, musical lyricist and translator. Recently, Alexis won a Glassco Translation Residency in Tadoussac, Quebec, and an Individual Artist residency at the international Saari Residence, Finland. Her award-winning plays, operas and translations for audiences of all ages have been presented across Canada, in the U.S. and in the U.K. She is currently working on Strange Land, a historical epic set in Montreal in 1942, and two musicals. She is co-founder of Composite Theatre Co., a long-standing member of Playwrights’ Workshop Montréal and an active member of Montreal’s Espace Freestanding Room.

Heidi Taylor’s passion for theatre was ignited when she played a robot in a grade six play. Since then, she has moved from acting to dramaturgy as her primary creative activity. Her background in performance creation with cross-disciplinary company Proximity Arts sparked her beginner-mind approach to dramaturgy. She applies principles learned from early mentors DD Kugler and One Yellow Rabbit, and relies on her hands-on experiences with Public Dreams and Leaky Heaven Circus to maintain a sense of passionate liveness in the work. She is interested in the “how” of theatre – how do we create collaborative relationships and processes that inspire artists to make necessary work with transformative power?