VANCOUVER EXPERTS

Chris Reed/Continental Breakfast is an indigenous non-binary Drag performance artist and cultural event producer. They are Beardy’s and Okemasis Cree and are a settler on the stolen lands of the Txʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. They work as a host, dancer, and performer in the alternative art scene. They aim to help people understand the strong existence of the non-binary community, and the importance of diversity in art. They are Emprex 47 of the Dogwood Monarchist Society, having worked to raise $32,000 in their year as the charity’s representative. They have produced shows such as Late Night Snack, Blackout: A Britney Spears Drag Musical, and The Darlings. They also co-founded the Vancouver production company, Queer Based Media.

Emily Soussana is an award winning video and production designer based out of Tiotia:ke (Montreal). They are a graduate of The National Theatre School of Canada's scenography program, the University of Ottawa's Theatre program and spent time as a projection technologist at The Banff Centre. They are the co-founder of potatoCakes_Digital, a multimedia design and technical Integration company. Over the course of the pandemic they’ve pivoted their focus to more pedagogical projects. In 2020 they co-created the Level Up symposium and are currently working with Playwrights’ Workshop Montreal as a digital dramaturg.

David Mesiha is a Toronto & Vancouver based award winning Composer | Sound | Mixed media Artist. He is known for his music composition and multimedia installations alike. After graduating from the music program at Simon Fraser University, David started professionally composing music for theatre, film and multimedia while constantly seeking out new collaborations with innovative artists and companies.
David's artistic practice has often seen him take on a collaborative role in the total conception, co-creation and realization of work with particular sensitivity to dramaturgy as well as immersive audio-visual design. https://www.soniccanvasdesign.com/about

Alan Jernigan (he/him) is an activist, entrepreneur and gamer, dedicated to creating and sharing transformational experiences. In professional life, Alan is the Studio Director and a co-founder at Charm Games, a game developer creating beautiful adventures in virtual reality, like the VR game-of-the-year finalist FORM (2017), and award-winning Twilight Path (2018). Alan has 11 years of leadership experience in the entertainment industry as an organizational/executive consultant, financial manager, and studio founder.

Athomas Goldberg is a 20-year veteran of the computer graphics and video game industries specializing in real-time interactive animation and behavior-based AI systems. He has worked for several major game developers, including Electronic Arts, where he oversaw the architecture and development of ANT, the character animation system currently in use across all of EA’s sports and action titles, as well as Relic Entertainment, Microsoft Studios, Oculus VR, and Epic Games. He continues to provide animation expertise on character-based interactive entertainment and education projects through his company, Lifelike & Believable Animation Design.
His new media performance practice seeks to marry the visual expressivity of modern graphics technologies, including motion capture, procedural animation, stereo 3D projection and virtual / augmented reality with the emotional immediacy of live performance techniques drawn from theatre, dance, circus arts and Bunraku puppetry. His most recent work, worlds, which he co-directed with Thecla Schiphorst, featured 5 dancers on 3 stages in 2 cities (Vancouver & Montreal) separated by 3700 km, performing together in a shared virtual world.

Debi is an interdisciplinary performance artist that loves to weave together sound, text, movement and technology to create contemporary stories. Her performances have been recognized as “unique and magical” (Rondo Classic, Finland) and “electric & poignant” (Schmopera). Debi is the founding artistic director of re:Naissance Opera in Vancouver, BC. With re:Naissance she has created #DidoAndAeneas (2014), an interactive, social-media opera; Acis & Galatea which was recognized by Vancouver Classical Music as one of the city’s best operas in 2017. In 2019, Debi spearheaded OrpheusVR, an interactive Virtual Reality Opera that was featured at the VIFF Immersed exhibit at the 2020 Vancouver International Film Festival.

Morgan is a sex and reproductive health advocate and educator, specializing in pregnancy aftercare and supporting individuals exploring their relationships to sex, kink, and intimacy.
Since starting this work in 2014, Morgan has been fortunate to be a facilitator/speaker on topics of sex, kink, or intimacy for organizations such as Metro Vancouver Kink and Institution for Sexuality Education and Enlightenment. In the Fall of 2020, she became a certified Birth Doula through Nesting Doula Collective and completed the Full-Spectrum Doula training with Birthing Advocacy Doula Trainings.
Morgan resides on the stolen ancestral lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ peoples, colonially known as Vancouver, BC. Her practice focuses on providing care to marginalized communities at the intersections of societal, such as those impacted by racism, poverty, homophobia, and other intersections of societal oppressions. She’s inspired by her ancestry, the beloveds around her, the world as she sees it, and beyond how she can imagine it.
She is a healer by way of body painting, curation, and interviews. The inspirations in her work include storytelling, science fiction, intergenerational sharing, and what happens after the revolution(s). She believes in ancestral memory and abolition and encourages everyone to explore the complexity of the messiness that is the human experience.