Michaela Washburn hails from Alberta and is a proud Métis artist of Cree, French, Irish, and English ancestry. Now based in North Bay, Ontario, she feels blessed to be grounded in ceremony and community-based arts in her work with Aanmitaagzi and Big Medicine Studio. An award-winning actor and writer, Washburn also has multiple award nominations, including the 2023 Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize, the Ontario Arts Council Indigenous Arts Award (2021 and 2018), and the K.M. Hunter Artist Award for Theatre (2011). A published poet, Michaela’s performance and written work has been shared internationally at festivals and theatres in Wales, Aruba, and across Canada and the United States. Her practice spans theatre, film, television, writing, spoken word, clown, improvisation, hosting, workshop facilitation, and stand-up. Michaela is honoured to be continuing to serve as an associate artist with the Stratford Festival.
Joelle Peters is an Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) playwright and actor from Walpole Island First Nation in Southwestern Ontario. A graduate of Seneca College’s Acting for Camera and Voice Program, Joelle has appeared on Shoresy (Crave/Hulu) and in the film In Her City. She is also Interim Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts. In 2020, Joelle was named the Siminovitch Prize Protégé by Laureate Tara Beagan. Joelle’s other plays include Niizh (developed with Native Earth Performing Arts and commissioned by the Blyth Festival) and do you remember? (commissioned by Burnt Thicket Theatre for the We Treaty People audio series, supported by Punctuate!/Pemmican Playwrights Unit).
Carrie Costello has adapted seven children’s books into plays for various ages, including The Paper Bag Princess, The Velveteen Rabbit, The Snail and the Whale, and There’s a Mouse in my House. The latter was produced by Carousel Players in 2009 and 2010. Carrie’s next play, Water Under the Bridge, was her first historically inspired work, which she co-wrote with Michaela Washburn. This play was produced in 2012 and toured for two years across three provinces. Torn Through Time, co-written with Frances Koncan and Cherissa Richards, was produced by Manitoba Theatre for Young People in 2019. Carrie lives in Winnipeg.
