Ellipses Thinking...
Ellipsis Thinking lives at the heart of creative life. It invites us to park judgement and perfection, to drive curiosity towards possibility. The ellipsis, alone amongst punctuators holds space for the future…those three dots…build the perfect bridge from where you have been and are now, to where you are next meant to be... Greg Dowler-Coltman, arts educator, theatre director and now executive coach, is fascinated by how creativity shows up in us all. Through conversations with people actively engaged in their own creative adventures, those who identify as artists and those who choose to experience life through an artistic lens, we shed light on relationships that shape and inspire us as we meet the challenges, discoveries, and learnings we make when we courageously invite our creative spirit forth.
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53. Dan Riskin - Always Curious
06/16/2025
53. Dan Riskin - Always Curious
Whether wearing the hat of scientist, educator, journalist, speaker ... or even entertainer, Dan Riskin has always been committed to bringing science and the natural world to life for others and doing so by bringing his wide-open curiosity to the game. Dan’s desire to help people tap into the fact that science is fun and surprising and hilarious and exciting, has helped him to build a multifaceted career whether as a leading expert on all things related to bats, a host of award-winning science-based television programs including the long running Daily Planet on Discovery and Monsters Inside Me on Animal Planet as well as being one of late-night talk show host Craig Fergusen’s favorite repeat guests. And yet, when we were crossed paths recently, and discussed a possible conversation, it was Dan’s youth filled adventures in the creative and playful world of theatre that he hoped to revisit being curious about how they had contributed to his life in science.
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52. Anne Wheeler - Just Keep Growing
05/23/2025
52. Anne Wheeler - Just Keep Growing
While acknowledging that part of being in a stage of life where she is both conscious and intentional about sharing her wisdom, Canadian film icon, Anne Wheeler, joyfully continues to learn every day and in every way; the belief that we keep going when we keep growing. Anne’s storytelling palette rich in historical narratives has always been inspired by the lives of everyday people finding their way in life. Reflecting on a career that now reaches back 5 decades, Anne takes well-earned pride in having created strong films, with strong messages and strong points of view. In her early career, as a part of the Edmonton based film collective, FilmWest, she directed documentaries tackling issues of the environment, indigenous rights, women’s rights and Western politics. Later on with the more expansive frame a feature provided, she courageously brought the pain and intimacy of the trauma experienced through the horrors of war, sexual abuse or racism to light in her award-winning and deeply empathetic features, Loyalties and POW. Her reputation as a powerhouse Canadian film artist was further cemented with the release of Bye, Bye Blues, an appealing musical drama inspired by her mother’s experience as a musician in a small dance band during WWII. She has continued to write and direct both film and TV and in 2020 published Taken By The Muse, a delightful collection of stories of her path to becoming a filmmaker. Along with the Order of Canada, Anne is the recipient of 7 honorary doctorates and every time she steps up to address a group of young students she does so in the hope that they will allow themselves to, in her words, “go out and get lost” in the next chapter of their learning and growing.
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51. Hannah Beach - Play is Where We Discover Ourselves
03/07/2025
51. Hannah Beach - Play is Where We Discover Ourselves
In her daily life and professional path, Hannah Beach has always been drawn towards the bubble of play. She is deeply committed to the idea that “play is where we discover ourselves”. Travelling the country, as educator, author, emotional health consultant or keynote speaker, Hannah channels her heart’s wisdom to share the power of relationship and play in children of all ages. Her best-selling book Reclaiming Our Students: Why Children Are More Anxious, Aggressive, and Shut-Down than Ever—and What We Can Do About It, co-authored with Tamara Neufeld Strijack, has been adopted by school boards across Canada. Hannah was recognized by the Canadian Human Rights Commission in 2017 as one of five featured changemakers in Canada. Her bestselling I Can Dance book series, supporting the emotional health of children through movement, play, and expression, won a 2017 Gold International Moonbeam Children’s Book Award.
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50. Cosette Justo-Valdéz - To Inspire
02/21/2025
50. Cosette Justo-Valdéz - To Inspire
Whether from the podium surrounded by the swell of musical notes brought to life by an ensemble of artists in front of her or in the rehearsal hall exploring and honing possibilities fully alongside an ensemble of musicians or kneeling in conversation with a young audience member who sees in her, the possibility of a future as a musician, even a conductor, Cosette Justo-Valdéz inspires. My recent conversation with her was nothing short of joy, because joy is the language Cosette speaks; and perhaps it is through joy that she inspires most powerfully. Born and raised in Cuba, the daughter of amateur musicians, Maestra Valdéz has been surrounded by music all her life. After witnessing a symphony orchestra for the first time at the age of 18, she knew immediately that she was born to conduct. She picked up the baton as a student in 2003 and her journey began, eventually leading her away from her homeland to pursue a Master’s degree in Mannheim, Germany. From there, a career has opened doors for her to lead and inspire orchestras across the globe. She currently serves as the Resident Conductor of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the Artistic Director of the Vancouver Island Symphony in Nanaimo, where I was fortunate to have her join me in conversation.
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49. Rachelle Krieger - A Child’s Sense of Wonder
02/07/2025
49. Rachelle Krieger - A Child’s Sense of Wonder
Joyful, curious and optimistic by nature? Absolutely! New York based artist Rachelle Krieger firmly believes that there is something to learn in all situations and through her bold and vibrant, colour-filled and playful visual art she expresses her ever present wonder with the world unfurling all around us. Her work recently exhibited in a collection described by curator Charles A. Ridley II as “devoted to the theme of making the invisible energy of nature visible”, was in Krieger’s words, a “form of meditation”. Whether capturing singular moments of life in her plein art studies, inviting her wildly imaginative night dreams to splash magically across a canvas, or reflecting biodiversity and vitality through capturing natural elements in various stages of life in her newest medium of ceramics, one thing is undeniable. Rachelle Krieger’s art is boundless! Please visit rachellekrieger.com
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49. Rachelle Krieger - A Child’s Sense of Wonder
02/07/2025
49. Rachelle Krieger - A Child’s Sense of Wonder
Joyful, curious and optimistic by nature? Absolutely! New York based artist Rachelle Krieger firmly believes that there is something to learn in all situations and through her bold and vibrant, colour-filled and playful visual art she expresses her ever present wonder with the world unfurling all around us. Her work recently exhibited in a collection described by curator Charles A. Ridley II as “devoted to the theme of making the invisible energy of nature visible”, was in Krieger’s words, a “form of meditation”. Whether capturing singular moments of life in her plein art studies, inviting her wildly imaginative night dreams to splash magically across a canvas, or reflecting biodiversity and vitality through capturing natural elements in various stages of life in her newest medium of ceramics, one thing is undeniable. Rachelle Krieger’s art is boundless! Please visit rachellekrieger.com
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48. Anne Lindsay - Instrument as Voice
01/25/2025
48. Anne Lindsay - Instrument as Voice
Inspiration has a way of coming swiftly and if fortunate to be in the right place and time it may be received by an open and available imagination. Such is the experience of Anne Lindsay, who clearly relishes these moments when the voice that arrives invites her to lift up her violin and translate the language of the muse to the musical voice of her life. For Anne, the violin has found many voices over her musical career, rooted in her ongoing fascination with the many ways the strings can speak. While originally trained in the classical manner, she has always been intrigued by artists who have pushed against the formal traditions to discover and welcome new possibilities. In doing, she has succeeded as a solo artist, with 5 CDs featuring many of her own compositions, as well as performing alongside artists such as Roger Daltrey, Blue Rodeo, members of Led Zeppelin and the Chieftains. Her latest recording, Soloworks 2 was released last month, during a hiatus from touring across Canada with the Jim Cuddy Band. Visit her website at anne-lindsay.com for more information on upcoming performances or how you might be able to order physical CD’s to enjoy.
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47. Tamar Griggs - A Beautiful Journey
01/10/2025
47. Tamar Griggs - A Beautiful Journey
In the summer of 1968, when Tamar Griggs was studying art and dance in New York City, she accepted an invitation for a short sailing holiday in the Mediterranean. Much to her surprise, that brief respite would lead to a year at sea, complete with a shipwreck on the coast of Spain before hitchhiking across the Atlantic Ocean. Carried by three different boats across thousands of nautical miles, she found herself hurled into trouble, doubt, beauty, laughter and conversations with the dead. As she sailed along, Tamar simultaneously made her way through a parallel inner journey, confronting darkness and secrets that had haunted her life, and challenged her relationships for years, keeping joy at bay. In her 80’s Tamar sat down to write the stories of her life as a gift to her daughter Maya and her family and it was this particular chapter of her navigation across the Atlantic and her own uncharted waters that rose powerfully to the surface, even against her emotional protests. I had the pleasure of meeting Tamar, an accomplished nature photographer through the kind introduction of a previous guest on this podcast, her friend and fellow resident on Salt Spring Island, Lolla Devindish. We first met at her artist’s booth at the Saturday market, just before her memoir, Tamar at Sea, was published and then for the conversation you are about to hear, which we recorded a few months ago. Her book with the subtitle, Navigating Love, Loss, Secrets and Self Across the Open Sea, became the metaphoric anchor and sails for our conversation. At the time, Tamar told me that she imagined with all the energy leading up to the holidays that it might be best to share the episode in the new year and so we programmed for a January slot. I received the sad and shocking news less than a week ago, that Tamar has passed away peacefully in her home on the island. After a conversation with her beloved daughter Maya, who was certain that her Mama would have loved it to be released as planned, I have chosen to do so. It is my hope that in doing so, her voice, stories and beautiful spirit as captured here may provide some light and comfort to those grieving and celebrating her life. In the past month alone, and in multiple ways, I have been reminded of the fragility of life and how life as we know it can change in an instance. Tamar reminds us of the importance of allowing life to steep like a great cup of tea and then to share that tea party through story, image and laughter, for those who come next to better understand the path laid before them. In Memory of Tamar Griggs (1941-2024)
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46. Marty Chan - Putting One Foot in Front of the Other
12/20/2024
46. Marty Chan - Putting One Foot in Front of the Other
Putting one foot in front of another is what Marty Chan learned many years ago, when as a child of hard working immigrant parents, who prioritized chores and help at the store over homework, became anxious that he wasn’t at the same reading level as his peers, leading him to develop imaginative strategies that have come to serve him throughout his successful writing career. His books, stage plays, radio dramas, television scripts and humour articles have taken him around the world from New York to Los Angeles to Galway to Beijing and have received many awards and accolades. In 2016, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts named Marty one of the 25 most influential artists in Alberta and last year he was the recipient of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta Golden Pen Award, presented to acknowledge the lifetime achievements of outstanding Alberta writers, placing him in the illustrious company of past recipients including W.O. Mitchell, Grant MacEwan, Rudy Wiebe, Robert Kroetsch, and Alice Major. Prior to 2020, Marty travelled extensively to deliver captivating creative writing residencies for students of all ages. During the pandemic, he put his creative resources to work making it possible to shift to virtual workshops, and in the process ended up turning his basement into a full-on production studio as he devised innovative ways to continue to engage and inspire students of writing across the world through the computer screen.
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45. Dr. Sian Williams - Opening Space for Possibility
12/06/2024
45. Dr. Sian Williams - Opening Space for Possibility
While most of my podcast guests share their identification as artists and creators, I remain committed to including within that ensemble, conversations with people who feel the fire of creativity within themselves and encourage it’s light and warmth to be expressed on a daily basis, personally and professionally. In curating these recorded gatherings, I hope these conversations might resonate just as powerfully for all listeners. Dr. Sian Williams began her professional career in the arts and somewhere along the way, made a choice to set that work down; work that had defined and fueled her, to step towards another love, of science and specifically chiropractic medicine. In 2019, Sian fulfilled a career-long dream and opened Alinio Chiropractic & Massage in the heart of Edmonton’s Ice District. The Welsh word ‘alinio’ meaning alignment, is inspired by Sian’s South Wales roots as well as her belief in the importance of bringing all facets of a life into – ‘alinio’. For as long as I have known Sian, I have been inspired by her way of being in the world and when I finally found the courage to trust anyone with cracking open some space in my own bone structure, I couldn’t imagine trusting anyone else.
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44. Josh Languedoc - Unpacking What We Are Carrying
11/22/2024
44. Josh Languedoc - Unpacking What We Are Carrying
In the case of his first formal play, Rocko and Nakota: Tales From the Land, theatre artist Josh Languedoc has come to realize that while the play was first produced in 2018 professionally, he had been carrying in pieces for many years, being unpacked and revealed gradually along the way. Josh, a proud member of the Saugeen First Nation, now lives as a guest in Treaty 6 Territory as an Anishinaabe playwright, producer, storyteller, and teacher. His most recent production, Civil Blood: A Treaty Story, an immersive contemporary tale inspired by the signing of Treaty 6, the love story of Romeo and Juliet, and the lessons learned about what it means to be treaty people. This intriguing production, co-written by Josh and Neil Kuefler and produced by Thou Art Here and Common Ground Arts onsite at Fort Edmonton this past summer, invited audiences to consider present truth by meditating on our collective past. At the time of our conversation, Josh had also just begun work as an Associate Producer at the National Arts Centre of a project titled #ReconcileThis, one of many topics we had a chance to dive into.
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43. Jenna Rodgers - Practice and Preparation
11/08/2024
43. Jenna Rodgers - Practice and Preparation
The role of mentor suits Jenna Rodgers’ love of partnership whether she’s sitting alongside a playwright in the supportive role of dramaturg, as the leader of an artistic ensemble somewhere in the midst of bringing a story to the stage or in the past few years as a mother of two, learning how to best respond to the wild wonder of early childhood; an improvisation unto itself. While her professional path following her double Science and Arts major led her to a life in the theatre, Jenna remains committed to a practice that embodies the inquisitive curiosity of a creative laboratory. A graduate of the National Theatre School’s Artistic Leadership Residency, the Banff Centre’s Cultural Leadership Program and a member of the artEquity National Facilitator Training cohort, Jenna also holds an MA in International Performance Research from the universities of Amsterdam and Tampere. Highly committed to shifting the landscape of opportunities in the theatre, Jenna remains an active and passionate advocate for equity in the arts. Most recently Jenna was appointed the Artistic Director of Edmonton’s Concrete Theatre and as she enters into the next scene of her creative narrative, she finds herself in the familiar space of preparation.
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42. Jordan Hart - Letting Go
10/25/2024
42. Jordan Hart - Letting Go
For the past decade, Toronto-based singer songwriter, Jordan Hart has been engaged in an adventure in letting go; no small task for someone who admittedly holds tightly to the controls every time he enters the studio. His tendency to lean towards the idea of perfection, has been anchored in a desire to connect deeply with his listeners. Lately, Jordan has begun to dance more freely with the idea that in letting go, he is able to experience a kind of freedom to be even more fully connected, trusting that every listener, of recordings and performances, is going to define perfect by their own standards and that the music will resonate as it is able given each new moment.
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41. Shelley Lepp - Why We Write
10/11/2024
41. Shelley Lepp - Why We Write
The transformative work of the Writer’s Collective of Canada is anchored in the core belief in the power of seeing, hearing and inviting ourselves to know one another better. Shelley Lepp joined the WCC as a volunteer facilitator in 2018, then Co-Executive Director in 2019, and early in 2024 stepped into the role of Chief Executive Officer. Shelley holds a Master’s Degree in Adult Education and Community Development from OISE, University of Toronto. Her academic research has focused on the practice and pedagogy of expressive writing as a non-clinical mental health intervention. She is a passionate writer, mental-health advocate, and community builder. Shelley and the work of WCC, through free writing workshops, accessible to all is deeply rooted in the belief that ‘creative expression nourishes the physical and mental health of individuals and creates more resilient communities. It sparks activism and action, bridges and builds connection, fosters dialogue, helps us make sense of the world and fulfils our innate need to feel seen and heard.” She remains endlessly curious about the power of story to build connection with self and others.
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Season 4 - TRAILER
10/09/2024
Season 4 - TRAILER
New Season Launches Oct 11
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40. Shannon Litzenberger - Artistic State of Emergence
05/17/2024
40. Shannon Litzenberger - Artistic State of Emergence
Shannon Litzenberger is keenly committed to the exploration and rehearsal of new ways in doing and being in the practice of art and living. As a dancer and performance maker, her work explores our relationship to land, the politics of belonging, and the forgotten wisdom of the body. She collaborates frequently with the wind in the leaves collective and has been an invited resident artist with major arts organizations nationwide. As a skilled freelance strategist, leadership developer, and embodiment facilitator, she works with organizations in the arts, academia, and the corporate sector. Sparked by her own experiences and observations of Canada’s cultural reality during and emerging out of the pandemic, Shannon wrote a powerful essay titled, State of Emergence: Why we need artists right now. Anchored in systems and policies shaping society, she asks the question: What would it mean to ambitiously mobilize artists to do their most essential work well and fully, with the aim of catalyzing transformative change? She goes on to ask, Could the chaotic domain of the artist’s creative process be the fertile ground from which a healthier and more sustainable, just, and caring society emerges?
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39. Stephen Nachmanovitch - The Art of Is
05/03/2024
39. Stephen Nachmanovitch - The Art of Is
Stephen Nachmanovitch, an accomplished and classically trained violinist, has for years been espousing the life affirming power of stepping away from the notes on the sheet to explore the freedom of playing between, within and around the notes, of music, art and life as one beautiful composition. He performs and teaches internationally at the intersections of multimedia, performing arts, ecology and philosophy. He is the author of Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art (1990) and The Art of Is: Improvising as a Way of Life (2019); both of which make the compelling argument “that artistic power is available to anyone at any moment. It is not a psychological tool or an artistic one...it is a way of being.” For more information on Stephen and his work, visit
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38. Brent Allan – Living Your Most Fabulous Life!
04/12/2024
38. Brent Allan – Living Your Most Fabulous Life!
Brent Allan has always led with heart, art and a deep passion to make positive impact on the world he encounters. Drawing strength from his early personal experiences during the dark days of the HIV crisis in Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver, Brent has come to be recognized globally as a highly respected and sought after advocate and crusader for people living with HIV, through education, the arts, health policy and practice and industry. The way they have defined and designed life, community and family speaks to a true embodiment of the creative spirit. In fact, Brent often finds themself being sought after by peers and professional colleagues when they are in search of unconventional wisdom and fresh perspective. I caught up to Brent at their home, bearing the wildly saucy name, Buggery Acres on the Da Da Wjurng lands of the Kulin Nation just north of Melbourne, Australia. You can find a documentary on the HIV Science as Art project that Brent curated for the 2023 International HIV Conference in Brisbane by visiting ordinarypodcasts.com and clicking on the Ellipses Thinking page which will take you to this specific episode.
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37. Vern Thiessen – In Search of the Untold Story
03/29/2024
37. Vern Thiessen – In Search of the Untold Story
Vern Thiessen’s curiosity is forever leading him to the untold story, inspiring plays that have embraced theatres around the world. Thiessen, one of Canada’s most produced playwrights, a recipient of numerous awards and honours, including Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Award, for Einstein’s Gift in 2003, continues to seek out those places where a drama might find breath and lead to a life on stage. Beyond his formal writing career, Vern has always supported other writers, formally in classrooms teaching playwrights of all ages and experience and informally, he has brought his mentorship to inspire a new generation of theatre artists in rehearsal halls, workshop readings and mainstages. Our conversation ranged from the importance of authenticity as a writer to some lessons learned from failure to the vitally important reorientation in place and space of an artist with privilege.
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36. Gianna Vacirca – Play...Pasta...Possibilities
03/15/2024
36. Gianna Vacirca – Play...Pasta...Possibilities
Throughout these conversations on the creative process, the idea of play features heavily. There’s an incredible joy in the experience of inviting our imagination to a party of our own making and then hosting it as the guest of honor. If we believe that the innocent creative child we were when we were small, remains alive within us, then play at any age opens the door to our freedom to express ourselves and be fully alive. For Gianna Vacirca, her playful self seems never hidden within, and in her words and in her life, PLAY shows up as a language. And so, a few years ago the much sought-after actor, dancer and choreographer turned inwards not to invite PLAY which was already present, but rather she turned to play to invite new connections to her community, to her family story and to her own creativity...and the playground ... was her kitchen and her pasta.
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35. Fred Keating – Hosting An Open Mindset
03/01/2024
35. Fred Keating – Hosting An Open Mindset
Fred Keating has a long and multi-faceted career in theatre, radio, TV and film in character roles and as a host, motivational speaker and podcast producer/host. I consider Fred to be a dear friend and celebrate him as one of my personal mentors and as someone who left an indelible imprint on me as a young artist and educator. He has always led with generosity, and this was certainly the case in our conversation in which we double-clicked on some of the many learnings that Fred has experienced and continues to gather over a lifetime of living through a creative lens.
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34. Karen Close - The Art of Creative Sage-ing
02/16/2024
34. Karen Close - The Art of Creative Sage-ing
Throughout her career as an educator in Toronto and then Victoria, Karen Close aimed to inspire her students through literature and visual arts; she loved to witness young people become better able to articulate themselves and to share their understanding with others through their writing and art making. Karen passionately believes in the importance of storytelling to give us a way to know ourselves more deeply and share our wisdom. So when she stepped away from the formal classroom, it was no real surprise that she brought this same desire to engage imaginations to her new community of Kelowna. In fact, in an interview with a local newspaper several years ago, she acknowledged her dream of helping to build the city into a centre for creative ageing and has fostered numerous local initiatives with that aim. Her passionate belief in the healing power of the arts and the importance of creativity on individual and community wellness is as strong as ever and her definition of community has widened its reach as the online Journal for Creative Ageing, she created in 2011, aptly named Sage-ing: With Creative Spirit, Grace and Gratitude, now boasts readers and contributors spanning the globe.
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33. Jan Alexandra Smith - “There I Am”...Finding Home Again
02/02/2024
33. Jan Alexandra Smith - “There I Am”...Finding Home Again
When a previous guest recently reached out to say that I simply had to speak with Jan Alexandra Smith, who in his words “is one of Canada’s finest actors and directors”, I thought, “what wonderful idea.” For nearly 35 years, Jan has been stepping onto stages in roles that have entertained, challenged, surprised and thrilled audiences across this country. The work itself has fueled her passion for sharing stories and her love of creative expression. And yet leading up to 2020 and then throughout the pandemic quiet that performing artists were cast in, Jan was becoming aware of what she describes as a dwindling pilot light in her sense of what theatre seemed to be offering to her lifelong passion for it. She began to wonder if the party was over for her and theatre. And then a conversation with a friend and colleague led to her discovery of a highly inventive company whose work felt both exciting and inviting to her imagination, sparking not just a reignition but a bright burst of new flame for her love of movement-based theatre.
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32. Roseanne Supernault - Story is Medicine
01/19/2024
32. Roseanne Supernault - Story is Medicine
From early childhood as a member of the Whitefish Lake Atikameg First Nation in Treaty 8 territory, Roseanne Supernault has held the medicinal impact of story as a deep, core belief; one that guides and strengthens her in both life and art. In honoring her own storytellers, wisdom keepers, mentors and teachers she gratefully acknowledges the shoulders she stands upon and is coming to understand her role in providing the same for those who are following her lead. On the heels of starring in a terrifying new thriller, Cold Road, and beginning the post production process on her first feature film, Dusk & Dawn.as writer, director and producer, Rose continues to navigate her creative adventure with courage and compassion. Roseanne has been acting since childhood and has appeared in numerous Film and TV productions, including Blackstone, Maina, Rhymes for Young Ghouls and most recently on the CTV comedy series, Acting Good and in the feature Cold Road, directed by Kelvin Redvers, slated for streaming on CRAVE later this year.
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31. Christy Morin - The Alchemy of the Arts
01/05/2024
31. Christy Morin - The Alchemy of the Arts
Since 2005, Christy Morin has been the heart of Arts on the Ave in Edmonton, Alberta. Arts on the Ave actively celebrates its unique neighbourhood community north of the downtown core as “a place whose “personality” is vividly expressed through the arts; possessing a dynamic momentum, “an arts pulse” where the artist and community continually engage.” At the core of the organization, or more accurately, the movement, lives a deep commitment “to the community through the cultivation of positive urban renewal. It is through culture-led urban regeneration initiatives, a vision of creative spaces and place-making that these art-infused communities have begun to flourish and provide a safe, nurturing environment for artists to thrive.” From the earliest days of its dreaming and the establishment of a dedicated creator-centric community coffee house, The Carrot, to expanding to its current scale, hosting two much loved festivals, Kaleido, a fall festival of the arts and its winter companion, Deep Freeze: A Byzantine Winter Festival about to take to the streets later this month, Christy and her team have embraced the Arts as the alchemical element spinning gold through community development and acting as a transformative agent in advocating for the healthy lifestyle of the whole neighbourhood and beyond.
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30. Cynthia Jimenez-Hicks - Riding the Waves
12/22/2023
30. Cynthia Jimenez-Hicks - Riding the Waves
For the past decade theatre artist, Cynthia Jimenez-Hicks has been surfing some incredibly wild waves, fuelling her love of what she refers to as creative chaos. Since graduating from the National Theatre School of Canada in 2015, she has appeared across North America on stages of all sizes, hopping confidently from comedy to drama. From the soul building and edifying work of bringing the seed of an idea to life on the smallest of stages to the high-flying adventure of hitching on to an internationally recognized sensation as a member of the San Francisco company of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Cynthia’s understanding of what it means to stay present to self, art and life has continued to expand. We sat down together days after it was announced that she would be heading to the Stratford Festival this season in the role of Wendy in the premiere production of Ella Hickson’s, Wendy and Peter, the latest iteration of the J.M Barrie classic.
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29. Cassandra Lemoine – In Translation
12/08/2023
29. Cassandra Lemoine – In Translation
For as long as she can remember, Cassandra Lemoine had been surrounded by pop music and show tunes. Inspired by the acclaimed Canadian tenor, Benjamin Butterfield during a master class he delivered at her high school, she soon found herself in a classical music program at the University of Victoria, where much to her delight everything was new! She delighted in the adventure of living in a kind of translation, not simply of language, as much as the classical opera repertoire demands but of a complete newness of her experience of learning and of music. Sitting in a lecture hall or concert venue with classmates that appeared to her to have been immersed in classical music from infancy, cast her in this intriguing and welcomed space of curiosity. Over the past decade, Cassandra, has established herself as a highly sought after soprano living in Copenhagen, loving living in a constant state of translation, performing roles ranging from Mozart to Puccini and Sondheim to Lloyd Webber.
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28. Max Wyman – The Compassionate Imagination
11/24/2023
28. Max Wyman – The Compassionate Imagination
Max Wyman’s most recent book, “The Compassionate Imagination: How the Arts are Central to a Functioning Democracy” serves as an invitation to consider what might be possible, not if, but when we embrace culture, and creative imagination at the core of what it means to be a member of a thriving, growing, curious, healthy and functioning society. Wyman who worked as an arts critic and columnist for The Vancouver Sun and CBC Radio for over 30 years is the author of 7 books on the arts in Canada. He has served on the board of the Canada Council for the Arts and as President of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, is an officer of the Order of Canada and holds the Queen’s 25th, 50th and 60th Jubilee Medals. Considered “a timely book that expertly shows how the arts contribute to human flourishing in all its manifestations” by Anne Bamford the Strategic Director of Education, Culture and Skills for the City of London. From its announcement at being named a finalist for the 2023 Basillie Prize in Public Policy, the jury called the book “a profound and beautifully written examination” in which “Wyman offers deep insights into how and why arts and cultural funding is vital to safeguarding Canada’s present and future.” And finally, from Angela Elster, President and CEO of Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, “At a time when our world is in crisis, this stellar book brings clear vision and strategy. The Compassionate Imagination presents a beacon of hope.” Hope: An image that matched perfectly how I felt upon finishing the book myself.
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27. Leo Chan – Innovation
11/10/2023
27. Leo Chan – Innovation
“Innovation = Transforming Ideas into Value” Leo Chan firmly believes that everyone is an innovator and his mission is to create space, opportunity and practice so that everyone might believe it to be true as well and then to make it so in their lives. Leo is a people and heart-first entrepreneur and the founder of Abound Innovation Inc. An innovator himself, Leo holds 55 US patents and over 20 years of experience supporting organizations looking to unleash the innovative potential of their employees by transforming them into confident innovators. A glance at Leo’s schedule of appearances speaking at conferences and delivering hands-on workshops is evidence of the value placed upon innovation and creativity in the world today. For more information on Leo and his work, visit: https://aboundinnovation.ca/
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26. Diana Hayes – Language of Light
10/27/2023
26. Diana Hayes – Language of Light
Poet Diana Hayes has walked with grief for over 20 years since the death of her mother. The fact that both she and her mother, whom she remembers as her confidant, muse and dearest friend, were both facing a breast cancer diagnosis at the same time, added even greater complexity to her grieving process. Diana’s collection of poetry, The Language of Light serves as her tribute to her mother and has been alongside and within Diana as a central part of her creative and grieving process. Since 1981, she has made her home on Salt Spring Island where she divides her time between writing, photography, producing literary events and festivals, and when possible, travel. In 2002, she founded the Salt Spring Seals, an open-water swim team that swims year-round in the bays around Salt Spring and the Gulf Islands.
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