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SummerWorks > About Us > The Team

The Summerworks Team

Image of Michael Caldwell, an Asian man with dark brown hair wearing a black t-shirt and a grey cardigan with green, cream, and dark orange stripes on the sleeves. He is sitting on a metal staircase that has a green handrail. He is looking directly at the camera, smiling.

Michael Caldwell

Artistic Director

Michael Caldwell (he/him) is a choreographer, performer, curator, artistic director, producer, and arts advocate, based in Tkaronto, Canada.

Currently, Michael serves as Artistic Director at SummerWorks in Tkaronto, and as a Co-Curator for Festival of Dance Annapolis Royal, in Nova Scotia. 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.

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. 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.

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.

Photo of Morgan Norwich, a woman with short, wavy brown and blonde hair. Morgan is wearing glasses and a black jumpsuit with a zipper in the front. Morgan is posing in front of a window with dark wooden beams.

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.

Kass Prus

Values-Led Organizational Management, Metcalf Foundation Intern

Kass Prus (they/them) is a queer, trans non-binary, and multiply disabled performer, movement therapist, and facilitator. A 2nd generation Ukrainian-Canadian settler, Kass was born into a home immersed in ancestral traditions, dance, music, art, and resistance to imperialism. Early formative experiences include performing as a soloist on local stages and at international CIOFF Folk Dance Festivals as a member of Arkan Ukrainian Dance Company. Kass also holds a BFA in photography from TMU and has spent eight years studying Slavic polyphonic folk singing. They’ve had opportunities to present their experimental film and photography, as well as sing, at various venues across the Greater Toronto Area.

With over 2,000 hours of training as a yoga teacher & yoga therapist, Kass moves from the understanding that illness, pain & mental health challenges are intrinsically connected to the systemic oppression upon which colonial systems stand. They integrate these insights into their role as a changemaker and arts administrator, with recent experiences at Generator TO’s Artist Producer Training, Dancemakers, Nightwood Innovators, and with Shay Erlich Consulting.

As an artist committed to challenging the exclusion they’ve faced in the name of “tradition,” Kass’s current art-making explores using contemporary performance to queer and crip Slavic folk arts practices. This reclamation of joy and play is central to their broader personal praxis as a disabled trans person navigating unjust and traumatizing systems.

Noah Rudder

Programming Assistant

Noah Rudder (he/him) is an artist and student pursuing an Honours BA in Drama and Peace, Conflict and Justice at the University of Toronto, with special interest in dramatic performance and humanitarian crises, respectively. Noah’s family hails from Trinidad and Tobago, and he is a settler from Ajax, Ontario, on lands that the Michi Saagiig Anishinaabeg inhabited for thousands of generations prior to European colonization. At UofT, he is active in his community, serving as a Residence Don and campus ambassador for the undergraduate institution Victoria College, the current president of the Peace, Conflict and Justice Society, as well as a research assistant within the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology. He is also a performer and will be starring in a production of ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ for Trinity College Drama Society at Hart House Theatre in November 2024, and ‘Company’ for Victoria College Drama Society at Isabel Bader Theatre in February 2025.

Lisha Zhao

Development Assistant

Lisha Zhao (she/her) is an actor and dancer in her fourth year at the University of Toronto studying Management and Drama. She is a passionate actor and dancer with a deep love for theatre and the performing arts, actively participating in both on-campus and off-campus theatre projects. Lisha was the director for 2024 Director’s Showcase The Most Massive Woman Wins, and she served as the lighting designer for 2023 Director’s Showcase He Said Yes / He Said No. Additionally, she was the lighting design and technical support mentee at Shakespeare in Action. Lisha also held the role of the artistic director at 881 Chinese Drama Club at the University of Toronto, where she worked to create an inclusive drama community for Chinese-speaking students. As an actor, she has performed in on-campus productions, including On Spring’s Promise.

Avi Kleinman

Marketing Assistant

Avi Kleinman (they/he) currently moonlights as a writer and daylights as a drama student at the University of Toronto. Their work has been produced by the UC Follies and Dandelion Theatre. They can usually be found backstage, tinkering with the lightboard or working strange runes in QLab. They are interested in creative content-making and collaborating with artists to reach new audiences.