Three Companies, Three Creator/Performers, Three Directors, Four Dramaturgs, Two Designers, One Stage Manager – get to know the team behind our most collaborative project to date.
The Home Project Artistic Team
Akosua Amo-Adem, Co-Creator & Performer
Akosua Amo-Adem is an actor, writer, and director based in Toronto. Throughout her career Akosua has appeared in a variety of productions around the city. Her selected credits include Obsidian Theatre’s School Girls; or the African Mean Girls Play (Head Mistress Francis), Venus’ Daughters (Venus/Sarah); Soulpepper Theatre’s A Streetcar Named Desire (Eunice), For Colored Girls…(Lady in Green), Father Comes Home From The Wars…(Leader/Runaway), The Crucible (Tituba); Canadian Stage’s Tartuffe (Dorine) and Theatre Passe Muraille’s The Middle Place (as Kaaliha/Dee). She was the director of “Every Minute of Every Day” (a radio drama for Factory Theatre) and has appeared on the cover of NOW Magazine. Akosua is a published author with an article called “See Me” in Intermission online magazine and she is currently developing her first full length play! Her on screen credits include appearances on Odd Squad, Bitten, Frankie Drake Mysteries, 21 Black Futures, and American Gods. You can also see her as a series regular on the TV show Kim’s Convenience via CBC gem and Netflix!
Qasim Khan, Co-Creator & Performer
Qasim Khan (he/him) hails from Newmarket, which is exactly as suburban as it sounds. He is also a Dora Award winning artist who is thrilled to be making his Howland debut. Most recently, Qasim starred in Paradise Lost, The Neverending Story, The Comedy of Errors, and played roles in Henry VIII, Timon of Athens, The Changeling, and a bunch of others (Stratford). Other recent work has included Acha Bacha (TPM/Buddies); Paradise Lost (Centaur); The Crucible, Royal Comedians, Alligator Pie (Soulpepper); Craigslist Cantata (National Tour); Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well, Das Ding (Canadian Stage); Anne of Green Gables and Alice Through The Looking-Glass (Charlottetown Festival). He has played roles on Riftworld, Saving Hope, Nikita, Dan For Mayor, Little Mosque, hosts The Early Modern Cooking Show, and appears in the upcoming Disney feature Sneakerella. Qasim graduated from the Soulpepper Academy, UofT/Sheridan, and is an International Actor Fellow of Shakespeare’s Globe. He has been nominated for Dora, MyTheatre, and BroadwayWorld Awards, and received the John Hirsch Award from the Stratford Festival. Qasim is an artistic leader for Howland, a company member and anti-racism advisor at Stratford, and is generally thrilled to have survived the pandemic without losing his entire mind. Follow @theqasimkhan
Cheyenne Scott, Co-Creator & Performer
Cheyenne Scott is Straits Salish of the Saanich Nation/Norwegian settler descent and an actor, playwright, and emerging creative producer with a focus on new works. Having learned theatre through a colonial lens, she is working to Indigenize her process through personal expression, land-based methodology, and storytelling. She is a Dora Mavor Moore nominated artist for co-creating Now You See Her (Quote Unquote Collective/Nightwood/Why Not Theatre). She developed her first play SPAWN through the Animikiig program at Native Earth Performing Arts and went on to produce workshop productions at the rEvolver Festival and SummerWorks Festival in 2017. Currently, she is being mentored in artistic direction and producing as Artist-in-Residence with Urban Ink alongside the development of her new play Wolf Cull and is a member of Cahoot’s 2020/2021 Hot House Playwrights lab. Cheyenne was named as the protégé of Lori Marchand for the Mallory Gilbert Leadership Award. Select Acting Credits include: Children of God (Urban Ink/NAC, Citadel/WCT, Segal Centre) The Drowning Girls (WCT), Squawk (Geordie Productions), Sidewalk Chalk (Geordie Productions), Savage (Native Earth).
Keith Barker, Co-Director & Dramaturg
Keith Barker is a member of the Métis Nation of Ontario. He is a playwright, actor, and director from Northwestern Ontario, and the current Artistic Director at Native Earth Performing Arts in Toronto. Winner of the Dora Mavor Moore Award and the Playwrights Guild’s Carol Bolt Award for best new play, Keith was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for English Drama in 2018 for his play, This Is How We Got Here. He received a Saskatchewan and Area Theatre Award for Excellence in Playwriting for his play, The Hours That Remain, as well as a Yukon Arts Award for Best Art for Social Change. His short zoom play, in a little plastic bag, in a tiny little jar, on a mantel in the house premiered as part of the Stratford Festival’s Viral Transmissions Series in Spring 2021. His audio play, Every Minute of Every Day premiered as part of Factory Theatre’s You Can’t Get There From Here podcast play series in Spring 2021 as well.
Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster, Co-Director & Dramaturg
Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster tries to understand the world by making plays. Her acting credits include Cyrano de Bergerac and Man and Superman at the Shaw Festival, seven seasons with Soulpepper Theatre and credits with a range of companies such as Public Recordings, Canadian Stage, Citadel Theatre, Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre, Cahoots Theatre, Native Earth, and Tarragon Theatre. She has directed radio play versions of Three Women of Swatow, 7 Stories, Shape of a Girl and Democracy (Tarragon Theatre/Expect Theatre). Her live theatre direction includes The Wolves (Howland/Crows, Toronto Theatre Critics Best Ensemble 2018 and MyEntertainmentWorld Best Production 2018), Cannibal (Scrap Paper/Next Stage), 52 Pick-Up (Howland, Best of Fringe 2013), Gray (Inamorata) and Three Women of Swatow (Tarragon Theatre). Amongst a number of award nominations and wins, Courtney is most proud of having twice been named a ‘Top Ten Theatre Artist’ by Toronto’s NOW Magazine.
Paolo Santalucia, Co-Director & Dramaturg
Paolo Santalucia is an award-winning actor, director and writer. He is a graduate of the Soulpepper Academy, and has been a member of Soulpepper’s ensemble for the past ten seasons. Paolo has performed in theatres across Canada and the United States, including Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, The Grand, Manitoba Theatre for Young People, Young People’s Theatre, Chicago Broadway Playhouse, and the New York City Pershing Signature Centre, where he appeared in two New York Times Critic’s Pick productions. Paolo is a co-founder and Artistic Leader of the award-winning Howland Company. Paolo also teaches classical performance with the University of Toronto’s Theatre and Drama Studies Program, and is the recipient of two Dora Mavor Moore Awards in acting, one nomination for direction, and has been shortlisted for the John Hirsch Award for Directing.
Isaac Thomas, Dramaturg
Isaac Thomas moonlights as a dramaturg, having worked on various scripts including Sunny Drake’s Men Express Their Feelings, Keith Barker’s The Hours that Remain, and Donna-Michelle St Bernard’s The First Stone. He is currently the managing director of Native Earth, the longest standing board member at Cahoots Theatre, one of the newest at TAPA, and an occasional workshop performer for new work. He has acted, directed and taught in Canada, the US and India. He has been the Drama School Director at Young People’s Theatre and general manager of Theatre Kingston. He has worked extensively as a stage manager with various companies including fu-GEN, Modern Times, Nightswimming, Turtle Gals and Canadian Stage. Amongst his slew of under-utilized degrees, he holds an MFA in acting from Ohio University, and an MA in English Literature from Delhi University.
Jareth Li, Production Designer
Born in Singapore, Jareth is a stage designer now based in Toronto by way of Calgary. He has a love for new work that examines identity politics, culture, and heritage. To him, home is a busy and lively kitchen party, and peace in a quiet garden.
Select design credits include: The Wolves (The Howland Company & Crows Theatre), Casimir and Caroline, Punk Rock, Lemons… (The Howland Company); Ring of Fire (Citadel Theatre); Serving Elizabeth (Western Canada Theatre); Iphigenia and The Furies (Saga Collectif, Dora Award Nomination); Chautauqua (Pearle Harbour); Portia’s Julius Caesar (Shakespeare In The Ruff); Black Boys (Saga Collectif & Buddies In Bad Times).
In addition to his artistic practice, he is a member of The Howland Company, as well as a stagecraft instructor at York University. He believes strongly in mentorship, and creating opportunity for upcoming generations of designers. Online: @Jareth.Li
David Deleary, Sound Designer
David is a member of the Ojibway First Nation of Bkejwanong, also known as Walpole Island, which is located in southern Ontario. Currently a resident of Toronto, David is an experienced musician and composer as well as a music producer and sound designer.
Gregory Prest, Loop Pedal Consultant
Gregory last worked with The Howland Company when he directed Punk Rock in 2018 and has worked with Soulpepper since 2009 when he was a member of the Soulpepper Academy. He is an actor and director originally from Pictou, Nova Scotia, who now makes Toronto home.
Sam Hale, Stage Manager
Selected Credits: Casimir & Caroline, The Wolves, Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons, 52 Pick-Up, The Glass Menagerie (The Howland Company); Little Shop of Horrors (Stratford Festival); Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Picture This, Parfumerie, Riverboat (Soulpepper); Jerusalem, Mr. Burns (Outside the March); Disgraced (Mirvish/Citadel/Hope & Hell); The Realistic Joneses, An Enemy of the People (Tarragon); Body Politic (Buddies in Bad Times/lemonTree Creations); Hedda Gabler (Necessary Angel/Canadian Stage); Into The Woods, Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Talk Is Free); The 39 Steps (3P Productions); My Fair Lady (Capitol Theatre); Hilda’s Yard, Here on the Flight Path, Aunt Agnes For Christmas (Foster Festival); Fall For Dance North (Sony Centre/Harbourfront).
Sam has also worked for dance: made in canada, Hot Docs, TIFF, & University of Toronto.
The Companies:
The Howland Company:
The Howland Company strives for innovation on and off the stage. We are an artist-led and art-driven theatre company, dedicated to the production of electric stories that speak to the world and the times in which we live. Through an agile, collective-leadership model, Howland aims to build new operating structures that empower its artists with agency, skills, and growth opportunities. We seek to challenge and inspire our audiences through productions, training and community initiatives like our Reading Group, fostering a new wave of theatre makers and theatre goers.
Native Earth Performing Arts:
Native Earth Performing Arts is Canada’s oldest professional Indigenous performing arts company. Currently in our 38th year, we are dedicated to developing, producing and presenting professional artistic expressions of the Indigenous experience in Canada. Through stage productions (theatre, dance and multidisciplinary art), new script development, apprenticeships and internships, Native Earth seeks to fulfill a community of artistic visions. It is a vision that is inclusive and reflective of the artistic directions of members of the Indigenous community who actively participate in the arts.
Soulpepper:
Located in its multi-venue home, the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in Toronto’s Distillery Historic District, Soulpepper is Canada’s leading artist-driven theatre company. We believe that vital stories can connect us all and that they can motivate us toward social change. Soulpepper traditionally produces a year-round season of over 500 events, and plays a civic role in our community through free education programs, Community Conversations, artist training, and environmental sustainability initiatives. Soulpepper strives to ensure theatre is accessible to all by offering ASL interpretation, Relaxed Performances, as well as free tickets to frontline workers and those under 25 years old. During COVID, Soulpepper has adapted to digital platforms offering over hours of free shareable content, including play readings, workshops, interviews, and concerts. To learn more about Soulpepper visit soulpepper.ca
The Howland Company 