Cast & Crew


THE COMPANY

Annie Luján (she/her) is a Latinx actor, clown and theatre creator from Toronto, ON. She is a graduate of the 2022 Soulpepper Academy and Concordia University with a BFA in Theatre Performance. Recent Credits include: King Lear, Peggy Pickitt Sees the Face of God (Soulpepper), Comedy of Errors (The Grove), Quest for the Moon (Capitol Theatre), Storybook Search (Bad Hats) and Last Landscape (Workshop, Bad New Days). She is currently co-creating a duo clown show, MONKS, that will premiere at the 2024 Toronto Fringe.
Adam Paolozza is an award-winning performer, director, teacher, and producer. With Bad New Days Adam creates collaboratively-devised, imagistic theatre, guided by the belief that the live experience has the potential to activate unique ways of seeing the world. Adam is passionate about movement, mask and physical theatre and advocates for these disciplines in the Canadian theatre community. Bad New Days highlights include : Spent; The Double; Flashing Lights; Paolozzapedia; Melancholiac: The Music of Scott Walker and the five-time Dora award-winning Italian Mime Suicide (co-directed with Kari Pederson).
Upcoming: Last Landscape, a large-scale object theatre piece on themes of ecological-grief, and a new puppet-TYA adaptation of Pinocchio. Other highlights: As director: Finding Home (Animacy Theatre *Dora award nomination); The Cave (by Tomson Highway, John Millard and Martha Ross). Adam is a graduate of Ryerson Theatre School and Ecole Jacques Lecoq. He’s directed and taught at University of Toronto, Brock University, Humber College, the Soulpepper Academy, and TMU. He’s currently completing an MA in Performance Studies at York University. To learn more about Adam and Bad New Days’ work visit www.badnewdays.com and socials @badnewdays
Heeyun Park 박희윤 is an actor, singer and creator based in Toronto. Select credits: Mary in Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Madeleine Bejart in La Bête (Talk is Free Theatre), carried by the river (Red Snow), Lady Triệu in ANIVIA (Caminos), Morning After (a front company), Emily Brontë in Brontë (Timms Centre), Sally Bowles in Cabaret (NTS), Pamina in Die Zauberflöte (UofA Opera), HANS: My Life in Fairy Tales ( Kidoons and 20K Collective). Heeyun trained at the National Theatre School of Canada for Acting and has a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from the University of Alberta. She is currently writing a modern retelling of the Greek myth of Arachne supported by Canada Council of the Arts.
Craig Francis (he/him) is a writer, director, illustrator, and multidisciplinary creator. His shows have toured Canada and the US, including Off-Broadway in 2016 and 2019. A founding member of The 20K Collective, Craig co-created Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Game of Clones, Jungle Book, and HANS: My Life In Fairy Tales with Rick Miller; and FRANKENSTEIN: A Living Comic Book with Miller and Paul Van Dyck. He's a producer, dramaturg, and stage manager for Miller's solo trilogy (BOOM, BOOM X, and BOOM YZ) in Canada, the US, France, and Taiwan. Craig co-directed a workshop of the musical Blocked (TheaterWorksUSA), and is a mentor of emerging artists, including co-authoring Redwood Avenue with Andrea Friesen. New projects include CYNIC, and The Time Machine. Craig is a speaker on LGBTQA2S+ issues. He performed improv comedy with Just For Laughs, CBC, CTV and Showtime. His videos with Kidoons and not-for-profits are installed in museums in six provinces. Craig lives in Montréal, has illustrated several books, and voiced animated series.
Rick Miller (he/him) is a Dora and Gemini award-winning writer / director / actor / musician / educator who has performed in five languages on five continents, and who Entertainment Weekly called “one of the 100 most creative people alive today”. He has created and toured solo shows such as the BOOM Trilogy (BOOM, BOOM X, and BOOM YZ), MacHomer, Bigger Than Jesus and HARDSELL; and family shows with Craig Francis and Kidoons, such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Jungle Book, and FRANKENSTEIN: A Living Comic Book. With Robert Lepage, he has collaborated on Geometry of Miracles, Zulu Time, Lipsynch, and on the film Possible Worlds. Current projects in development include MONEY, HANS: My Life in Fairy Tales, and The Time Machine. Rick hosts an intergenerational podcast called Xing The Gap, and sometimes teaches an interdisciplinary class at the University of Toronto called The Architecture of Creativity. He lives in Toronto with his partner Stephanie Baptist. www.rickmiller.ca
 

PRODUCTION TEAM

Jeff has a lifelong passion and vision for combining art and technology to develop original works. His projects are inspired by a love of storytelling and innovation. Through Kidoons theatrical productions and digital works on the Kidoons Network, Jeff's artist collaborators help organizations to tell their stories onstage and online. He works with Not-for-Profits and corporate clients across Canada and the United States with a vision to inspire and empower all generations. He dedicates his work on this play to his mother, Evelyn Lord.
Melanie is pretty jazzed to be back for her third project with Kidoons. She is a Toronto based set and costume designer who has worked extensively with Eldritch Theatre (17 seasons), Theatre français de Toronto (14 seasons), and Videocabaret (over 20 seasons), amongst many others. She is also a Production Designer, Costume Designer and Art Director in the tv world. Melanie has received 3 Dora Awards, 8 other Dora nominations, and a Prix Rideaux Award. Melanie is a graduate of TMU (formerly Ryerson Theatre School), and a member of Associated Designers of Canada.
Irina is a creative artist, graphic designer for print and web, and video production artist. She has worked on multimedia campaigns for Performing Arts Centers across Canada and the U.S. and managed event marketing campaigns ranging from The Joy of Dance Studio Toronto to TELUS Skins. Irina has been a longstanding multimedia collaborator with Rick Miller and Craig Francis, including assisting on onscreen media projections for MacHomer, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, and Game of Clones. Recent work includes branding and projections media design for BOOM X and BOOM YZ, for which she was nominated alongside Rick Miller and Nicolas Dostie for the Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding Projection or Video Design. Irina is the multimedia designer for Jungle Book, Frankenstein, and upcoming projects HANS: My Life in Fairy Tales and The Time Machine. As a web and video production artist, Irina is the designer and production editor of the Kidoons Network animated series.
Aidan Ware hails from Calgary, and is a graduate of the BFA Technical Theatre program at the University of Alberta. After an 18-month lighting practicum at the Banff Centre, Aidan moved to Toronto where his creativity and passion for bringing new technologies to live performance have led him to work for Solotech, Moment Factory, TIFA, and TOlive. He was the Assistant Technical Director at Canadian Stage and Director of Production for Fall for Dance North for multiple seasons. He is currently part of a team designing a new state-of-the-art space for the BMO lab at the University of Toronto, focusing on emerging technologies and artificial intelligence in performance. He continues to freelance as a Technical Director and Lighting Designer in Toronto. Other credits with Kidoons/WYRD Productions include BOOM X (TD/ALD), BOOM YZ (TD/LD), and HANS: My Life in Fairy Tales (TD/LD).
Paul Van Dyck is a playwright, screenwriter, director, performer, and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC, a BA in Film Studies, and a BAH in Specialized Studies in Stage and Screen from Queen’s University. Awards include: The Tom Hendry Playwrights Guild of Canada; The Montreal English Critics Circle Revelation; META for Outstanding Direction; The New York Frigid Festival, Atlantic Fringe Festival, and Montreal Fringe Festival Best Production. Paul is a past participant of the Directors Project at the Shaw Festival, and the founding AD of Rabbit in a Hat Productions. Recently, Paul co-wrote Kidoons’ production of FRANKENSTEIN: A Living Comic Book, and the feature film, Snow Angel, which premiered at the Festival de Cinéma in Québec. Paul has appeared in dozens of films, TV series, and plays.