Live Design Experiment #2

Presenters: Amanda Smith, Jaclyn Turner, Natjelly Lozada, and Teiya Kasahara

Host: Andrew Scriver

About the Presenters

Amanda Smith (she/her) is a Toronto-based stage director and Founding Artistic Director of FAWN Chamber Creative, with whom she commissions, produces and directs experimental operas and concerts. In 2020, she was a Dora Award Nominee for Outstanding Direction on FAWN’s opera-ballet Pandora, which was also nominated for Outstanding Production. Described as a “visionary” by LUDVIG VAN, Amanda’s passions are hinged on heightening the audience experience while exploring the potential of the operatic creative process through inter-disciplinary collaborations.

Jaclyn Turner (she/her) is a graduate of the architecture department of Kansas State University. Specializing in architectural visualization, she has worked for architecture firms across the continent. She has notably led teams in blending architectural design with gaming technology. In 2019, she shifted gears to theatre design, designing the set for Encore and projections for Blackout and Winter’s Daughter, all for Tableau D’Hôte Theatre in Montreal. Also with Tableau D'Hôte, she is currently adapting En Pointe, a series of short street plays, into a graphic novel.

Natjelly Lozada (she/her) is from Mexico city. She has a Bachelor in Dramatic Literature and Theatre (UNAM, Mexico) and a DEC in Theatre Production (JAC, Montreal). In Mexico, she worked as an actress for theatre and as artistic coordinator and performer at Six Flags and Kidzania. She has worked as Stage Manager , VSM, Sound Designer, Lighting Designer and Assistant for various companies such as the Segal Centre, QDF and creature/creature, among others. In 2020, she did an artistic internship for creature/creature as part of the demART Program financed by CAM.

Teiya Kasahara 笠原貞野 (they/them) is a first-generation Nikkei-Canadian settler, and is a queer, gender non-binary, interdisciplinary performer-creator based in Tkarón:to. Teiya comes from a background of over a decade of singing both traditional and contemporary operatic roles across North America and Europe and explores the intersections of identity through opera, theatre, electronics, and taiko within their artistic practice.