Expanding the possibilities
of performance
The Summerworks Team
Michael Caldwell
Artistic Director
Michael Caldwell (he/him) is a choreographer, performer, curator, artistic director, producer, and arts advocate, based in Tkaronto, Canada.
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. Michael’s most recent choreographic work responds to the ‘site’ in as many ways as can be conceived, and subverts traditional modes of viewing. Caldwell is a two-time K.M. Hunter Charitable Foundation Artist Award finalist.
Michael has performed/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.
Currently, Michael serves as Artistic Director at SummerWorks in Tkaronto, and as Programming Advisor for Festival of Dance Annapolis Royal, in Nova Scotia. Most recently, as Creative Director: Programming at Generator, he led the reimagination of the overall governance structure of the organization, moving towards a co-leadership framework. 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.
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.
Morgan Norwich
Managing Director
Born and raised in Tkaronto, Morgan Norwich (she/her) is an arts administrator, creator and producer, who brings to SummerWorks over ten years of experience in non-profit theatre, with a specific focus on performing arts festivals and partnership building. For four years, Norwich served as Operations & Partnerships Coordinator at Theatre Alberta, where she managed membership data and ongoing partnerships. During this time, she also participated in a multi-phase adaptive change and capacity-building program led by EmcArts in the U.S. to help address complex challenges and transform their practices. In addition to her most recent role as Development Manager at Toronto Fringe, Morgan has worked with The Rhubarb Festival and SummerWorks in a variety of roles over the years. For ten years, she and playwright Johnnie Walker created and produced new works as Nobody’s Business Theatre. Their most notable project, Redheaded Stepchild, appeared at SummerWorks Festival in 2010. Written and performed by Johnnie and directed by Morgan, the show toured festivals across North America, and was published in 2016 by Playwrights Canada Press. Morgan continues to perform as a founding member of BoylesqueTO, Canada’s premiere “Boylesque” troupe, where she emcees under the stage name Balonia Wry.
Emma Westray
Festival Producer
Emma Westray (she/her) is an arts administrator and artistic producer living and working in Tkarón:to. She is committed to uplifting new artistic voices that question the status quo and developing work that meets audiences where they are, with a focus on community-building and accessibility. She is an alum of Generator’s Artist Producer Training program and has a decade of experience as an independent freelancer, working with the Toronto International Film Festival, Nightwood Theatre, Paprika Festival, Soulpepper Theatre, Theatre Direct, Crow’s Theatre, the Toronto Fringe Festival, and more. She has been the Festival Producer at SummerWorks since 2021. Most Recently, Emma was the Associate Producer at Theatre Passe Muraille.
Sebastian Marziali
Production Manager
Sebastian Marziali (they/them) is an award-winning Uruguayan-Canadian performer, designer, and creator based in T’karonto. Sebastian has worked with and learned from Masters across the Americas such as Grupo Yuyachkani, La Pocha Nostra, and Teatro La Candelaria. They’ve also performed in and designed shows across five continents. Sebastian was the lighting designer for the 2018 & 2019 Toronto International Burlesque Festivals, 2019 Vanguardia Dance Festival, and venue designer at Factory for the 2022 RUTAS Festival. They starred in, designed, and choreographed for Sold-out T.O. Fringe hits Lysistrata, Carmilla, and Mayhem at Miskatonik; blending burlesque and immersive theatre. Recently they Lighting Designed the acclaimed world premiere of Homelands for Kaha:wi Dance, as well as Convictions and Les Zinspiré.e.s for TfT. Most recently they appeared as Pablo in A Streetcar Named Desire at Soulpepper.
Juliet Jones-Rodney
Marketing Manager
Juliet Jones-Rodney (she/her) is a singer, songwriter, actor, playwright and producer from Toronto. In 2021 she began her journey as a professional artist with her performance in the Lacuna Collective for Toronto Fringe’s Next Stage Festival. During that year she also wrote her first play Forest for the Trees, which was showcased as part of the Paprika Theatre Festival’s 20th Season. In 2022 Juliet followed up with her debut single Free Falling and her second play Just Us, which was selected as one of five plays shown at Groundswell Festival, the culmination of Nightwood Theatre’s Write from the Hip program. In 2023 she released two more singles Signs and Distance and began cultivating relationships with creatives around the city across art forms. In 2024 Juliet released her single With You and is focused on releasing more music and connecting with audiences and creatives around Tkaronto. She is super excited to be joining the SummerWorks team this year!
You can follow her as she continues her artistic journey on Instagram @JulietJonesRodney or connect with her through her website www.JulietJonesRodney.ca
Peter Kelly
Patron Services Manager
Peter Kelly is a queer Toronto based dancer, performance maker, artistic director, teacher, producer, and personal trainer. Peter has completed fitness training through the International Sports Science Association (ISSA), is a graduate of the Dance Performance Studies program at George Brown College, and was a company dancer with Toronto Dance Theatre (TDT) for a decade under the direction of both Christopher House and Andrew Tay. Beyond TDT, Peter has worked as Program Coordinator for Culture Events at the City of Guelph, with SummerWorks Performance Festival as the Patron Services Manager and Volunteer Coordinator, with The Toronto Dance Community Love-In as a Space Host, with Dance Ontario as the Provincial Networks Coordinator, and was the founding Artistic Director of New Blue Emerging Dance. As a performance maker, Peter strives to construct performance works that tackle taboos, barriers, and stigmas associated with nudity, BDSM, sexual identity, and kink. Peter has had the opportunity to present work at Guelph Dance Festival, London Dance Festival, Queer Cab (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre), and Impact Festival, among others.
Krystal Jagoo
Accessibility Coordinator
Krystal Kavita Jagoo (she/her) is a fat brown queer disabled immigrant woman and settler on Turtle Island. Her earlier experience as an Accessibility Advisor at the University of Toronto informs her commitment to disability justice, which she works towards through writing, facilitation, consulting, etc. Her hermit crab essay, “University Ableism Bingo” was featured in the 2020 Pandemic: A Feminist Response exhibition, the 2020 zine, CRIP COLLAB, the 2022 Owning Our Stories journal, and it was a part of Inclusion Canada’s 2022 This is Ableism campaign. Her “Surviving Academia in this Body” clip was created through the Invisibility to Inclusion: Episodic Disabilities in Ontario Workplaces digital storytelling project to highlight how white supremacy fuels ableism. Her memoir essay, “A Slow Death in Academia” was published in Radical: An Unapologetic Anthology by Women & Gender Nonconforming Storytellers of Color in 2020, and presented at tapashta, SpringWorks’ Digital ShortWorks Showcase in 2022.
Bethany Joy Radford
Volunteer Coordinator
Bethany Joy Radford (she/they) is a fat, queer performing artist living and working in Tkarón:to. They are so excited to be back as the Volunteer Coordinator of the SummerWorks Performance Festival! They served as Volunteer Coordinator in 2022, and are excited to be back for another year of fun! They are currently the Volunteer Coordinator of the Toronto Fringe as well! Outside of Festivals, Bethany Joy is a working actor, educator, and theatre director, working in arts education and Youth Musical Theatre. They have a BFA in acting from UWindsor, and a BA in English from UWO. Bethany Joy’s main passions in life are: their fluffy kitty named Mr. Hercules, bike riding, watching theatre, and shenanigans! They believe in leaving people and places better than they found them.
Isa Chiu
Marketing Coordinator
Isa Chiu (she/her) is an actor, writer, visual artist, and digital illustrator currently based in Toronto. She has working experience as an illustrator and actor in theatre and film in Hong Kong. She has a BA in English with a minor stream in Creative Writing from CUHK. In April 2024, Isa left Hong Kong to pursue an artistic career in Toronto. She is an active new member of Toronto’s theatre community, having experience with Paprika Theatre Festival and The Theatre Centre in her first 2 months of arrival. She believes art is where individuality and community meet, strong enough for social change. Isa is also skilled in content creation and spreading positivity, as she is passionate about connecting with people! She is still jumping up and down about working with SummerWorks as Marketing Coordinator!
Instagram: @sunicorn_studios @isaggeration
Rosanna Wong
Assistant Production Manager
Rosanna Wong (she/her) is a producer, production manager, and event planner with international experience working for performing arts organizations and at Disney. Originally from Macau, Rosanna is an adventurous spirit who values cultural exchange and innovation across diverse art forms.
As an alumna of the New York University Event Management Master Program, Rosanna founded NYU’s first Chinese Theatre Organization, Mou Theatre. Her theatrical journey began in California, where she served as a stage manager for traditional and immersive productions, further honing her skills in managing stunt theatre, including indoor skydiving performances at Shanghai Disney. Rosanna also made her mark in special event production management in Macau, contributing to the success of the International Parade, International Film Festival, and other city-wide celebrations.
Now a resident of Toronto, Rosanna is deeply committed to enriching the local arts scene. Her diverse experiences and passion for cultural exchange are valuable assets that she is eager to share with this vibrant artistic hub.
Jahnelle Jones
Assistant Producer
Jahnelle Jones (she/her) is a Black queer Toronto based writer, actor, director, producer, and winner of the “Most Well Rounded” student award (circa 6th grade). She’s been a member of the Toronto theatre community since 2014 and got her start doing various youth theatre training programs with professional companies like Tarragon, Paprika Festival, and Shakespeare in the Ruff. Aside from theatre, Jahnelle now creates and writes for tv and film. With her creative partner, Kat Khan, Jahnelle started Second Adolescence Productions, a production company focused on creating diverse coming-of-age stories. Together the duo are writing a comedic feature film called Fan Club, which was chosen for the 2023 Netflix-BANFF D.O.V. Program. Jahnelle enjoys creating and consuming work that centers racialized women, especially Black women, in spaces she feels they are underrepresented in and brings three dimensional characters to life.
Prism Arcobaleno
Assistant Producer
Prism Arcobaleno (they/them) is a nonbinary/genderfluid, queer, and disabled creative living in Tkaronto. They love art in all its forms for the way it contributes to a healthy mind, body, and soul, and believe that it is highly individualistic; anyone can participate in it. Prism’s forms of artistic expression are in fibre arts such as crocheting, sewing, and cross stitching as well as practicing theatre and musical arts. They are beginning to lean more into their interest in the production/technical sides of performance.
Prism has been involved in community theatre since childhood, and aspires to be a leader in the arts circle. Working over the past two years with community arts companies such as Arts4All, Jumblies Theatre, ReDefine Arts, and Red Pepper Spectacle Arts, Prism’s career as an arts administrator and producer is taking off; they are excited to be on this year’s SummerWorks producing team.
Max Cameron Fearon
Assistant Producer
Max Cameron Fearon (they/them) is a queer, genderqueer, Mad, and disabled artist based in Tkaranto. They’re interested in interdisciplinary performance, collaborative storytelling, and community engagement through the arts. Their practice centres care, celebrates (re-)emerging artists, and explores how the relationships we form with ourselves and others reflect larger social realities.
A wearer of many hats, Max most often works as a Director (Groundswell Festival, Theatre of the Beat, several Fringe Festivals); Assistant Director (Hart House, Ergo Arts Fest, Driftwood Theatre); Dramaturge (Nightwood, Dead Name, and Friendly Bear Theatres); and Community andEducational Arts Facilitator (Workman Arts, Project: Humanity, The Canadian Opera Company). They’re also an Access Consultant, Lighting Designer, and Performance Technician.
Max is a member of the 2024 Langham Directors’ Workshop at the Stratford Festival; where they recently Assistant Directed Wendy and Peter Pan, and will Direct a workshop production of Antigonick in the fall. This is their 4th year with SummerWorks, having previously served as Artistic Directing Intern, Marketing Coordinator, and Assistant Producer – Programming.
Cara Spooner
Artistic Advisor
Cara Spooner (she/her) is a choreographer, caregiver and caretaker who makes site-responsive performances, gardens, textiles and maps.
Her performance work has been presented in Canada at the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), The PuSh International Performance Festival (Vancouver), Canadian Stage (Toronto), FADO Performance Art Centre (Toronto) and The Goethe Institut (Toronto) as well as internationally at Stromereien 11 (Zürich) and Theatre Der Welt (Düsseldorf). Her Audience Handbook has been translated and printed internationally.
She is of Belgian, Scottish, Ukrainian and Russian Jewish ancestry and is based in Tkaranto/Toronto Canada with her partner and two children where she is currently the Artistic Producer at Dancemakers.
Diane Roberts
Artistic Advisor
Diane Roberts (she/her) is an accomplished director, dramaturge, writer and cultural animator, who has collaborated with innovative theatre visionaries and interdisciplinary artists for the past 30 years. Her directorial and dramaturgical work has been seen on stages across Canada and her reputation as a mentor, teacher and community collaborator is nationally and internationally recognized. Diane is a PhD candidate in Interdisciplinary Studies at Concordia University in Montreal, a 2019 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar and a 2020 Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship award holder.
Diane’s celebrated Arrivals Legacy Project www.arrivalslegacy.com
Gloria Mok
Artistic Advisor
Gloria Mok (she/her) is a playwright, producer, production manager, designer, and theatre creator who has worked with a wide range of arts organizations across Toronto and nationally. She is a settler and daughter of first-generation Chinese-Canadian immigrants from Hong Kong. Alongside Chinese-Canadian theatre creators Aaron Jan and Bessie Cheng, Gloria co-founded Silk Bath Collective in 2016, a company focused on creating multidisciplinary plays about the Chinese diaspora. Gloria is the Producer at Nightswimming in Toronto, a dramaturgical company with a national mandate focused on commissioning new theatrical creations and developing performance research. Gloria is a long-time fan of SummerWorks, having worked the 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020 editions of the Festival. She premiered her project Long Distance Relationships for Mythical Times at SummerWorks in 2022 and is honoured to be joining this year’s Artistic Advisory.