Actress and Comedian, Arfina has been passionate about the Arts in general since childhood, writing everything from poetry to stage plays. She did her first stage play at the age of 8 in Paris and knew by then that she would be more attached to the stage than anywhere else. Even though she studied Cinema and Visual Art, the stage remained her favourite place to be. To her it's home. Her passion led her to travel the world (France, England, Comoros, Canada) to express humour, rage but mostly humanity. “In Sundry Languages” is a wonderful playground exploring that humanity and she feels honoured to be part of it.

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Art was bitten by the theatre bug (a very large and venomous one) at the age of eleven when he started attending his mother’s acting school. After learning everything possible and impossible about Stanislavski's Method of Physical Actions, he began to work as an Acting and Movement instructor.  After dabbling  in many fields, he finally dmitted to himself that theatre was his first and strongest love – much to the displeasure of one of his stern Armenian grandmothers, who considered theatre (as well as all of his other career choices) a ‘tragic waste of time’. He founded his first theatre company in 2004.

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As a believer in the power of communities she chose theatre as her medium of expression due to it’s direct relation between minds and bodies. Ludmylla Holds a B.A in Performing arts from Brazil, her birth country and recently graduated from a MFA on Directing in Ottawa, Canada. She’s eager to have as many diverse minds as possible in her projects as she believes that theatre cannot be made by one person as the celebratory power of it’s combining visions is one of its vital parts.

Une Torontoise d’origine, Moriana Kachmarsky est diplômée du Département de Théâtre de l’Université d’Ottawa, profil de jeu (juin 2017). Elle poursuit ses études à la maîtrise en théâtre avec projet de recherche-création. Elle s’intéresse au théâtre documentaire, les expériences immersives et interactives, et la création collective.

Ziying Gloria Gao is a Toronto-based theatre artist, singer and dancer who came to Canada from China in 2011. She received her Honours B.A. in Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies from the University of Toronto. In August 2016, Gao was selected to perform in ENSEMBLE Canadian Youth Theatre’s production TOUGH!. In March 2016 and May 2015, she co-wrote and performed in the earlier iterations of Toronto Laboratory Theatre’s multilingual theatre production In Sundry Languages. Gao is fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese and English. 

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Riaz is a theatre artist and activist, now residing in Toronto but originally from Bangladesh. He specializes in contemporary, text-based performance and he had enjoyed an extensive theatre and film career in Bangladesh, where I worked professionally for more than 26 years. As a theatre practitioner, he has gained a broad range of expertise, which includes acting in academic and professional theatre productions, conducting workshops, designing sets and costumes as well as sound and light.

                                                                                                Click here to Learn More about Riaz
 

Ahmed Salah Moneka was born in Baghdad, Iraq, where grew up in a creative, loving, and supportive family. He studied Theatre at the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad, and earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Theoretical Acting from the University of Baghdad. After acting in live theatre for 10 years, Ahmed became the first black television presenter in Iraq for a popular television show, Mizan Ramadan in 2012.  He then moved to film and acted in critically acclaimed and award-winning short and feature-length films, many of which have been screened at leading international film festivals. Much of Ahmed’s work focuses on the issues of human rights and freedom in his native Iraq.

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Mario works as a Psychotherapist in private practice in Toronto. He holds an M.Ed. in Counselling & Psychotherapy and certification in Gestalt Therapy. In addition to being a therapist/group facilitator, with roots in pro-feminist theory,  Mario is a graduate from the Conservatory of Theatre in Portugal with the vision of weaving together the performing Arts and Therapy. He offers annually programs in personal development and theatre using the Art of Clown together with Gestalt therapy. For more info about upcoming programs in The Clown and Gestalt workshops visit:  www.mariolourencotherapy.com 

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Yury is multidisciplinary performer in film, theatre, and circus. Originally from Moscow, where he studied theatre and acting at Boris Shukin Theatre School, affiliated with Vakhtangov Theatre (2008), performance arts at The Green Theatre in Moscow (2005); He also holds MBA from Moscow University (2001); Yury is very proud to have studied with John Turner at the Clown Farm and at Ecole Philippe Gaulier in Paris.

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I am an Economist, an Engineer, a Philosopher, an Early Child Educator, a teacher, a dancer, a wife, a mother, a pretty decent farmer and gardener but right now I am decided to go full steam into acting and yoga teaching. I surely need to do it since the acting worm that consumes my insides if I am not on stage, has revealed me one more truth…I am probably an adopted mother to my kids…you see every time an opportunity arises for a volunteer to step into the space, I would go "me, me, pick me and my kids and hubby would be so embarrassed.  :)

Maria Kordoni, a graduate of the drama school Embros, is an actor, director, and teacher of dramatic arts. She has appeared in several film, television and theatre productions in Greece between 2000 and 2011. She has acted in and directed both classical and contemporary theatre, including: Double Inconstancy, Beauty and the Beast, Ladies in the Snow, Fairytale heart, The King Stag, Fewer emergencies, The Inheritance, The Emperor’s Dove, The Wizard of Oz, and Anderson’s Dramatic Stories.  Her film credits include: The Lonely Knight, The Crisis, The Madonna of Vlatodon, Alexandria, and Red Balloon. Her television work includes the series Journeys into the Memory (Actor Portraits), Last Paradise, In the Sun of the Aegean, and Eros.  As a drama teacher, she has worked with actors, educators, and children. Maria moved to Canada in 2011 and is now running her own Greek language drama school, “Epi Skinis,” with classes for children and for adults, mounting two performances each year.