Morgan Brie Johnson
Co-Artistic Director (she/her)
Morgan Brie Johnson is a Dora award-winning playwright, performer and theatre creator. Her
artistic work sits at the intersection of several disciplines of creation and performance, primarily:
clown/mask/bouffon, playwriting, and dramaturgy. She is most excited by new work that is
research-based, political, satirical, absurd, or darkly comedic, and her practice is driven by
questions of boundary blurring and belonging, particularly around land, gender, and home. These
interests in form and content are rooted in her experience as a bi/queer femme, settler, activist,
and artist living in an era of unprecedented social and environmental precarity.
She holds a BFA in Acting from the University of Windsor, and did her MES and PhD at York University, the latter of which included a research-creation project exploring methods, pedagogies, and critical reflections of theatre and performance practice on a land marked by ongoing legacies of settler colonialism. As a performer, she has trained in clowning, mask, and bouffon performance and creation with John Turner, Deanna Fleysher, Karen Hines, Martha Ross, John Beale, Jon Davison, and Adam Lazarus. As a writer, she has published creative fiction in various literary magazines. Morgan also has a strong background in community outreach, facilitation, and activism. She has been actively involved in many social justice groups, as well as partnering past theatre shows with community and environmental groups such as Justice for Workers, Greenpeace Canada, First Story Toronto, and Toronto and Region
Conservation Authority.
She co-founded Animacy Theatre Collective, a physical theatre collective dedicated to strange, ecological, and feminist storytelling, which she has run with her theatre partner Alexandra Simpson since 2017. Her work with Animacy includes the immersive outdoor winter show A Raccoon Solstice (with Theatre Direct and Common Boots Theatre); the dark satire JUICE BREAK (What the Festival 2025, directed by Karen Hines); the performance installation Slow as Snails (ROM After Dark Series 2025); and the horror comedy Pest Me Pet Me (Undercurrents Festival, 2023). Animacy’s Dora award-winning TYA show Finding Home: A Salmon’s Journey Upstream continues to tour across the province with Theatre Direct. For TV and film Morgan starred in the kids series Polkaroo Counts! (2020) and Polkaroo Reads (2021) for TVO Kids, playing the popular Canadian TVO icon Polkaroo.
Alexandra Simpson
Co-Artistic Director (she/her)
Alexandra Simpson is an award winning interdisciplinary theatre artist, playwright, mask
builder, sculptor, and activist. She is passionate about using comedy and imagination to explore
complex and intersectional issues, identities, and stories. Her work as an artist reflects her
interest in boundary blurring art practices and queer narratives. She is drawn to satire and
comedy as a way of investigating social and environmental issues and works primarily in clown,
mask, and bouffon. Alexandra has a BFA in Performance Acting and an MFA in Documentary
Media from Toronto Metropolitan University. In 2025, She completed her doctorate in
Environmental Studies at York University, researching community resistance against the
extractive industries through a decolonial and embodied lens. She has continued to pursue her
interest in physical theatre forms and has trained with a number of mentors in the through The Manitoulin Conservatory for Creation and Performance, One Clown North, and Pig Iron Theatre.
In 2017, Alexandra started Animacy Theatre Collective (animacytheatrecollective.com), with Morgan Brie Johnson, a Dora award-winning theatre company focused on the creation of original works about social and environmental justice that are physical, funny, and imaginative. With Animacy, Alexandra has co-created, performed and produced many original works including: Finding Home, nominated for 5 Dora Awards, winning Outstanding New Play in the TYA Division, 2023 (Theatre Direct), the show continues to tour parks, theatres and schools across Ontario; Pest Me Pet Me (Undercurrents Festival, 2023), Upstream Downtown (Toronto Fringe Festival and Toronto Festival of Clowns, 2018), In Search Of (Next Stage, 2021), Care (Erring Festival and Balancing Act Conference, 2022), and Slow As Snails (Royal Ontario Museum 2025).
As a mask builder and sculptor, Alexandra works with a variety of materials and approaches including additive sculpture, Worbla, leather, latex, found objects, fabric, and papier-mâché and is deeply interested in sustainable and embodied design methods. She has trained
with master mask makers including Sarah and Poala Sartori, Alessanda Faienza, and Loiic Nebrada. Alexandra has taught mask building and performance workshops for a variety of arts and community groups including Scarborough Arts, Project Humanity, Workman Arts, and high schools across the GTA. Currently, she is a Metcalf Intern with Clay and Paper Theatre, focusing on developing her skills in large-scale puppet creation and community engaged and sustainable approaches to design.
Karthy Chin
Interim Managing Producer (she/her)
Karthy Chin is a Toronto-based theatre director, producer and writer. As a theatre director, she has worked with a variety of companies including Stratford Festival, Factory, Cahoots, Tarragon, Driftwood, and Musical Stage Company. She assisted Tony-award winning director Rachel Chavkin on the Canadian pre-Broadway production of Hadestown at Citadel Theatre. In her own independent directing practice, she is most proud of her collaborations with visual artists in staging theatrical interventions to facilitate dialogue between both art forms.
As a producer, she has worked for Luminato, Shakespeare in the Ruff, the Toronto Fringe Festival, SummerWorks, and Nightwood Theatre. She is also a member of IATSE 411, the production coordinator caucus for film. Most recently, she was the Interim General Manager at Fujiwara Dance Inventions, where she initiated a web redevelopment project that will be launching this fall.
She has been a member of Factory Foremen (director training), Paprika Directors Lab, Factory Foundry (new playwrights unit) and Generator’s Artist-Producer training program. She is passionate about accessibility within artistic processes and increasing accessibility at arts organizations.
Outside of the arts, she has a keen interest in material culture, history, food and books.
Suchiththa Wickremesooriya
Associate Artistic Producer (he/him)
Suchiththa Wickremesooriya is a theatre-maker and performer who is known for work that is physical, grounded, and for theatre that includes the Deaf and Disabled communities. He is also a twice-Dora nominated producer and Broadway World Award nominated actor. His producing work has included theatre for young audiences, a feminist play festival, new works, adaptations and outdoor theatre. Suchiththa’s goal as an artist is to tell stories that others aren’t considering, and to shed light in dark places so that we can bring things out into the open. He believes that peace can only be found in the light and facing the uncomfortable realities that we all live in. Sometimes, he does this through humour! Outside of the arts, he enjoys raising his son alongside his wife, growing as many fruits and vegetables as he can manage, and volunteering with charities that support vulnerable populations.
Patricia Allison
Communications Manager (she/her)
Patricia is a multidisciplinary artist and marketing manager. She comes from a dance/physical theatre background and is passionate about building community through online platforms. She loves emojis and .gifs (pronounced like jiffy peanut butter–yes, she’s one of those.). She’s a member of the Shakespeare in the Ruff Leadership Collective and the co-leadership at Generator. She is the lead producer on and can’t recommend the artistproducerresource.com free online resource enough! Run, don’t walk to check it out. She has an MFA in Dance, she co-won a Dora once AND she adores cheesy jokes so she fits in at Common Boots quite well!
Board of Directors
Jenny Salisbury – Interim Board President
Norm Seli – Treasurer
Chandler Buchanan
Michele Chan
Richard Chan
Mitzi Jasmin
Shivani Lakhanpal
Melissa Shaddick