Derek Kwan and Heather Marie Annis 
will use puppetry, music, physical theatre, clown and interactive play to explore the environment, recycling/reusing, and the magic of the imagination. Starting with found and recycled objects, the rats transform every day cast offs (egg cartons, cardboard boxes, plastic jugs) into a series of whimsical explorations that question how humans view the waste we create and how we can give new life to things we no longer value.
Derek Kwan is an actor, singer, and theatre creator working at the intersection of theatre, music and movement in a number of forms including opera, clown, and puppetry. His career has taken him across the globe, from London, England, to performances in Czech Republic, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, and China. Derek received a Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Musical as well as a Dora Mavor Moore Award nomination for Outstanding Male Performer, Musical Division for his portrayal of Boursicot in Mr. Shi and His Lover. Performance highlights include: (theatre) a Deaf/hearing integrated production of The Tempest (Citadel Theatre), a Mandarin adaptation of the children’s classic The Blue Bird (Theatre de la Sardine, Taipei), Blood Weddings (Modern Times/Aluna, Toronto), the first male-identified performer of I, Claudia (Theatre Ignite, Taipei), the outdoor winter promenade show Tails From the City (Common Boots Theatre, Toronto); (opera/music theatre) The Ward Cabaret, an apocalyptic animal cabaret The Cave (LUMINATO/Toronto), an immersive Sweeney Todd in London, England (Talk is Free Theatre), Mr. Shi and His Lover (touring to Ottawa, Yokohama Japan, Guanajuato, Mexico, Macao, China), Play of Daniel (Toronto Consort), The Lesson of Da Ji (Toronto Masque Theatre).
Heather Marie Annis is an actor, playwright, theatrical and therapeutic clown, theatre educator, Co-Artistic Director of U.N.I.T. Productions, and “Morro” of the Dora Award and Canadian Comedy Award winning clown duo Morro and Jasp. Heather has been performing theatre for young audiences for over fifteen years and has appeared in numerous shows including Emily’s Piano (Young Peoples Theatre), The Money Tree (Dora Nominated for Best Ensemble – Roseneath), Mixed Messages, and Showdown (Mixed Company Theatre).
As a performer/creator she has toured a Bully Show (Mixed Company Theatre), an interactive show in the round for elementary schools, The Truth according to Morro and Jasp, The Funtastical Friendship of Morro and Jasp, and Morro and Jasp Go Green (U.N.I.T. Productions), Of Mice and Morro and Jasp (MTYP). She was playwright in residence for Mixed Company Theatre where she developed Bells and Whistles and Fine Line, which toured to high schools throughout the GTA. She was also commissioned for two shows by Howlett Academy: Game On! and an adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird. Heather also works in long term care facilities as a therapeutic clown, has a Masters in Environmental Studies, and believes that we can learn the most from elderly and babies. She is excited to be collaborating with Derek and the Wee Festival on this new creation.
Keira Marie Forde and Montana Summersz will explore how poetry, and reel dancing from Tobago and The Friendship dance, used between nations for many years, can be integrated into a new work for babies and adults.
Keira Marie Forde is a multi-disciplinary physical performer and creator. Keira is passionate about creating cross cultural physical work that explores her connection with the Canadian Caribbean community. Keira is a recent graduate of Humber’s Theatre Performance Program, and the George Brown Dance Performance Preparation Program. Her recent credits include: Relay with Expect Theatres Beats and Intentions; Infinity Machine with Sharron Moore at Humber Theatre; Unleashed with George Brown Dance and The North American Film Awards with Diva Diverse. Keira is actively a mentee in the Coco Collective window of opportunity program and is working on a poetry novel about navigating the school system as a child with exceptionalities.
Montana Summers is from the Oneida First Nation of the Thames. Montana began training in the exploration of indigenous and contemporary dance when he was accepted into the Indigenous Dance Residency (2015) and Kaha:wi Dance Theatre’s Summer Intensive (2016). Montana has also had the chance to work with Kaha:wi Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Santee Smith with other performances and projects including The Honouring (2015-17), Medicine Bear, I Lost My Talk – National Arts Centre Orchestra (2016) and for the Opening of the North American Indigenous Games (2017). Additionally, Montana joined Backyard Theatre for his first acting performance in The Other Side of the River (2019). Montana now focuses on creating and teaching workshops/classes for young ages in his home city of London, Ontario.
Chance Kellner and Anna Tierney are undertaking the creation of a multi-disciplinary theatre show entitled Time of Our Lives for young audiences 0-30 months that include elements of live music/sound, object theatre, light/shadow play, and storytelling through movement. They wish to explore life’s transitions and how the movement of time differs at each stage of our lives. They hope to convey these ideas through the construction of a cyclical playing space – overhead rigging that can rotate, transform, be added to, layered upon, sped up, slowed down – like the cycles and phases of life for any living thing.
Chance Kellner is a musician, educator, and theatre practitioner. She values community spaces and the ability of music as a universal language to connect people of all ages. She believes music should be shared collectively in an environment that encourages other forms of expression – specifically dance and theatre. She is now a mother to a lively and engaging 2 year old, currently living in Toronto’s west end.
Anna Tierney is a classically trained actor from London, England with firm roots in Toronto since moving here as a Permanent Resident in 2018. She first began performing professionally at Oxford University, where she studied on a scholarship, culminating in a tour of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to Tokyo, Japan. During her degree in Modern and Medieval Languages she spent a year abroad working and practising theatre in Berlin, assistant directing at the Vaganten Buhne in West Berlin and studying acting at the European Theater Institut. After leaving Oxford she went on to the acclaimed Drama Centre London (Central Saint Martins) to train as an actor, where the likes of Tom Hardy, Colin Firth, Tom Bettany and Emila Clarke had trained before her. She has since worked internationally and with some of the U.K’s most prestigious theatres. She has also created a large body of her own work.