Introducing the 26/27 Cohort
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Buhle Ngaba is a multi-award winning South African actor, writer and speaker.
Her research and performance interests include developing new thought processes around the role of storytelling and creativity in unearthing and amplifying African women's voices from the archive; to inspire new narratives and push the boundaries of performance. Buhle studied Acting and Contemporary performance at Rhodes University and Processes of Performance at the University of Leeds (UK). She performed in the world premiere of John Kani’s play Missing at the Baxter Theatre (SA) and went on to tour internationally with the production earning her nominations for the “Best Supporting Actress” for the South African Fleur Du Cap Theatre Awards as well as the Naledi Theatre Awards. Buhle has most recently been awarded the prestigious Barney Simon artists residency at the Market Theatre (Johannesburg) and is currently writing her latest theatre production that will she perform at its world premiere in June at Vienna Festival (Austria) 2024.
A recipient of the prestigious Brett Goldin bursary, Buhle expanded her knowledge and acting ability of Shakespeare during her residency at the Royal Shakespeare Company (Stratford upon Avon). Following the residency, Buhle has appeared on several Shakespearen stages; she also developed Shakespeare Grounded, a radical workshop program and approach to accessing Shakespeare's stories and their meaning in institutions. Buhle started her own business in 2016 and has used the company as a means to accrue value for her work through; producing, writing, as well as performing. The company continues to produce her internationally acclaimed books as well as theatre productions. She played Jodie in Mirror Mirror (directed by Asanda Sandulela) which premiered at Toronto Film Festival 2022, showed at Berlinale Generation film festival and was awarded Best Short Film at the 2023 Durban International Film Festival.
She wrote her first play Swan Song during her time at Stratford and since its premiere, Ngaba has won two South African Kanna Theatre awards including “Best Upcoming Artist”. The production has also received rave reviews and boasts sold out seasons at Suidooster Kunstefees (South Africa,2021), Wiener Festwochen (Vienna,2022) and Basel Theater Festival (Switzerland,2022). In 2018, Buhle was nominated for a Fleur Du Cap Theatre Award for “Best Leading Actress” for her performance in What Remains ; a theatre production by acclaimed writer Nadia Davids and multi-award winning director, Jay Pather.
As a published author (The Girl Without A Sound, The New Girl Code) , Buhle seeks to promote diversity in children's literature and to develop the legacy of storytelling amongst the youth. The Girl Without A Sound and Swan Song were both written and produced by her company Maru Factory(Pty)Ltd. Maru Factory was formed to give expression to Ngabas dream of being a renowned global producer of entertainment content .
In 2022 Ngaba completed a Prohelvetia Swiss studio residency in Basel culminating in the first iteration of her latest play (to premiere in 2024). As a digital curatorial artist in residence at the Centre for Humanities Research (UWC) she recently completed writing the puppetry theatre production on the life and times of Charlotte Maxeke the first black woman to graduate with a university degree in South Africa with a B.sC from Wilberforce University Ohio in 1903.
In 2023, she curated the Triggers from the Future; 76’ - Present exhibition in collaboration with Babalwa Solwandle (UWC, Mayibuye Archives) and Robben Island Mayibuye Archives (Cape Town, South Africa).
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Celeste Sansregret (she/her)
Descended from a Metis/Ukrainian settler family, Sansregret is a citizen of the Manitoba Metis Federation (MMF), residing for a long time as a happy guest on Treaty 13 in T’karonto.
A writer, actor, producer and senior arts administrator working in theatre, television and film. she made her first stage appearance at age 3 and has appeared on stages across Canada. She toured the national Fringe circuit with two solo shows she starred in and created: WONDERBAR and IN A MAGIC KINGDOM. A number of plays in development received support from Native Earth Performing Arts including : PREDATION, URSA MAJORIS, 23 BEDS and IN TRANSIT.
A graduate of the Canadian Film Centre (Prime Time Television) and the University of Winnipeg (Theatre) her writing for stage and screen has won multiple awards. She’s excited to work with Pemmican Collective on 23 BEDS, a true story about homelessness in Canada.
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Bio coming soon
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Originally from Ottawa, of mixed settler and Anishinabe decent. A member of the sketch troupe Tonto's Nephews, former Artistic Associate at Native Earth Performing Arts. Toured Darrell Dennis’ Tales of an Urban Indian across Canada and Australia.
Theatre credits: The Welkin (Soulpepper), Bad Roads (Crow’s Theatre) Little Red Warrior & his Lawyer (N.A.C), The Darkest Dark (Y.P.T), Detroit (The Coal Mine), Where the Blood Mixes (Soulpepper), Midsummer Night’s Dream (Stratford), The Drawer Boy (Theatre Passe Muraille), Thunderstick (Persephone Theatre), King Lear (N.A.C), Trudeau & Levesque (VideoCaberet)
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Danielle LaRose (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist of Métis/Mennonite heritage based in amiskwâcîwaskahikan (Treaty 6, Métis Region 4). After graduating from Grant MacEwan University, she went on to obtain her Master’s degree from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and work in theatres across the UK for eight years. Upon returning to Turtle Island, she has appeared on stage as a performer, off-stage as a director, has written several plays, and composed original musical scores for the stage.
Taanishi kiyawâw. Danielle LaRose dishinikashoon. Ni wahkômâkanak michif de nipaapaa, au nom de Daze, Nadeau, Marchand, Bouvette i LaRose, Pembina (Red River Valley) d’ooshchiw. My matrilineal Mennonite family, names Abrams and Kehler, also trace our settler roots back to the Red River Valley. Aen koonteur niya, okitohcîkew niya. I am a guest on Treaty Six territory and a proud member of the Métis Nation of Alberta. I currently live in Amiskwâcîswakahikan and I have had the privilege of working as a playwright, performer, director, composer, and storyteller across Turtle Island and the UK. "The Poisoner's Daughter" will delve into my family history using elements of Michif language, Métis folklore, and traditional Métis music. With this piece, I hope to share the story of my great-great-grandmother, Hélène LaRose nee Bouvette, in the spirit of kwayaskâstâsowin- setting things right.
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Bio coming soon!
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Tan’si, I’m Cree-Métis, originally from St. Albert, Alberta and a citizen of the the Métis Nation of Alberta.
I have a B.A. and MLIS from the University of Alberta and am now a retired librarian from the University of Saskatchewan, returning home to amiskwaciywaskahigan. In Edmonton, I co-organized the Acimostǎtowin Indigenous Theatre Gathering through Theatre Alberta in 2024. In 2025, I received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Indigenous Librarianship from the International Indigenous Librarians Forum.
While I have been engaged with theatre since my youth, I am fairly new to playwriting. My work-in-progress play, Not Your Ordinary Love Triangle, is about the intersections of Indigeneity and neurodiversity. Excerpts of this play have been read / produced at the Spring Festival of Shorts in Regina (dramaturgy by Yvette Nolan) and at Script Salon in Edmonton, with dramaturgical assistance from Marie Beath Badian (via Gwaandak Theatre) and David van Belle.
Additionally, I have three 5-minute plays that are works-in-progress.
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Matthew MacKenzie is a citizen of the Métis Nation of Alberta and proud father of Ivan (Eevan, Vanya, Vanichka). Artistic Director of Punctuate! Theatre, Matthew is also the founder and an Artistic Associate with Pyretic Productions, a founding member of the Pemmican Collective, as well as Canadian Liaison of the Liberian Dance Troupe. Matt’s plays include First Métis Man of Odesa, Bears, After the Fire and The Particulars.
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Nicole Joy-Fraser (She/They-Tsa’tinée, Nehiyaw, Métis, Settler) is an award-winning, multidisciplinary artist with mixed Settler and Indigenous bloodlines from Horse Lake First Nation, AB. For over 25 years they have been storytelling for stage and screen, across Turtle Island and beyond, and they are also a regular facilitator of Community Arts, invited Cultural Carrier and Oshkabewis or “Helper to the Elder”. As a proud Bear clan matriarch, 60’s scoop witness and 2Spirit Helper, supporting each other through healing and the Indigenous arts continues to be a passion of theirs. She is currently a regular facilitator and cultural carrier at Parkdale Queen West Community Health Centre, Niagara Chapter Native Women, Brock University and Niagara Catholic District School Board. Nicole’s Autobiographical Cultural Sharing “Ni Nagamoon” is making is Regent Park debut this fall thanks to a co-presenting partnership between Carousel Players and Native Earth Performing Arts, two organizations who have nurtured her artistic journey and Indigenous reclamation.
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Teneil Whiskeyjack is a Plains Cree multidisciplinary artist from Saddle Lake Cree Nation whose practice spans theatre, movement, storytelling, writing, and community-based creation. A multidisciplinary artist, keynote speaker, facilitator and creative consultant, her work is rooted in Cree ways of knowing, embodiment, cultural reclamation, and the relationship between land, body, spirit, and story.
Beginning her professional acting career at a young age, Teneil received the Outstanding New Performance by an Actress in Film award from First Americans in the Arts for her role in Dreamkeeper. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Drama from Concordia University of Edmonton and is a recipient of the Esquao Award for the Arts.
Her debut play, Ayita, a multidisciplinary work bringing contemporary Indigenous dance and theatre into relationship, headlined the 10th anniversary of SkirtsAfire Festival. Her recent performance credits include Wolf Cull at Vancouver’s Transform Festival and STRIFE with Punctuate Theatre. She has toured extensively across North America with Bear Grease and continues to expand her practice through international artistic and cultural exchange, including a residency in Chile in partnership with Kimvn Teatro.
Her international practice continues through collaboration with Silvestre Cultural Association founder Rosangela Silvestre on Ancestral Nature — Cultural Connections, an intercultural performance project set to premiere in Edmonton in May 2027. Through these relationships, Teneil continues to deepen her engagement with global Indigenous artists, embodied cultural practices, and cross-cultural approaches to contemporary performance.
Teneil is the recipient of the 2026–2027 New Work Award with Good Women Dance Collective, supporting the development of her multidisciplinary solo work. Her evolving artistic practice explores Cree language, Indigenous contemporary movement, ancestral knowledge, and the body as a site of memory, transformation, and creative power.
Beyond the stage, Teneil works as an artist, keynote speaker, facilitator, and creative consultant, creating spaces where story, culture, embodiment, and community come into meaningful relationship. At the heart of her work is a commitment to remembering—remembering our relationship to ourselves, to one another, and to the knowledge we carry.
Collaborators
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Guillermo Verdecchia
is a writer of drama and fiction as well as a director, dramaturge, translator, and actor. He is the recipient of a Governor-General's Award for Drama for his play Fronteras Americanas and a four-time winner of the Chalmers Canadian Play Award. His work, which includes the critically acclaimed Feast, The Art of Building a Bunker (with Adam Lazarus), the Governor-General shortlisted Noam Chomsky Lectures (with Daniel Brooks), the Seattle Times' Footlight Award-winning Adventures of Ali & Ali (with Marcus Youssef and Camyar Chai), A Line in the Sand (with Marcus Youssef), bloom, and Another Country has been recorded, anthologized, translated into Spanish and Italian, produced in Europe and the US, and is studied in Latin America, Australia, Europe, and North America.
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Monica Dufault is the Artistic Director of Carousel Players. She started her career in theatre as an actor, performing with The Shaw Festival, The National Arts Centre, Theatre Aquarius, and Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, among others. Monica has acted in many plays for young audiences with Manitoba Theatre for Young People, Prairie Theatre Exchange, and especially with Carousel Players, and was nominated for a Dora Award for her performance in their production of Where the Wild Things Are. As a playwright, she has written several plays for young audiences, including Peg and the Yeti, which has been produced by Carousel Players and theatres across Canada, and will be remounted by Carousel and Manitoba Theatre for Young People this season. Monica was the Artistic Director of Niagara’s Essential Collective Theatre from 2014 to 2018, where she directed 12 productions, including The Welland Canal Play. For Carousel Players, Monica has directed Hare & Tortoise, Whole World, The Incredible Adventures of Mary Jane Mosquito, Water Wonder, Lig & Bittle, HBD2Me, The Velveteen Rabbit, Pop! Pop!, What’s So Funny?,Tiny Treasures, Lig & Bittle, Where the Wild Things Are, Like It Or Not and Birdsong. She holds an MA in Comparative Literatures and Arts, is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, and taught acting and scriptwriting at Brock University for fifteen years. She has been on the board of ASSITEJ Canada (Association international des théâtres enfants et jeunesse) since 2020, and is currently President of the organization.
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Monique Mojica (Guna and Rappahannock) Monique’s theatrical practice is centred in land-based embodied research and the development of culturally specific Indigenous dramaturgies. Her first play, Princess Pocahontas and the Blue Spots was produced in 1990 and is taught in curricula internationally. She founded Chocolate Woman Collective in 2006 to create the play Chocolate Woman Dreams the Milky Way.
She is the co-editor, with Ric Knowles, of Staging Coyote’s Dream, vols. I & II and of the newly released volume III, co-edited with Lindsay Lachance which won the Canadian Association for Theatre Research's Patrick O'Neill Award for Best Edited Collection 2025. Also recently launched is Chocolate Woman Dreams the Milky Way: Mapping Embodied Indigenous Performance, written with Brenda Farnell which was awarded an Honourable Mention for a subsequent book from the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association.
Most recent performances include: Izzie M.: The Alchemy of Enfreakment written by Monique with a diverse creative team, Child-ish, and My Sister’s Rage for Tarragon Theatre and The Unnatural and Accidental Women at the NAC. Monique has collaborated with Santee Smith since 2013 as the dramaturg for Kaha:wi Dance Theatre’s tryptic, Re-Quickening/ Blood Tides/SKe:NEN and for Teneil Whiskeyjack’s Ayita for Edmonton’s SkirtsAfire Festival.
She was a member of the first Indigenous Dramaturgy Circle at Tarragon Theatre, the inaugural Wurlitzer Visiting Professor at the University of Victoria’s Theatre Department in 2023 and the George A. Miller Visiting Artist at the University of Illinois – Urbana/Champaign in 2024. Upcoming: In the Fall, Monique will return as a mentor in the Animikiig Program at Native Earth Performing Arts and will teach Embodied Story Creation and Dramaturgy at the Centre for Indigenous Theatre in 2027.
Punctuate! Theatre is thrilled to once again partner with the Pemmican Collective for the 2026/2027 Creators’ Cohort- Turtle Island’s largest collective of Indigenous playwrights.
We are honoured to support these Indigenous playwrights and their work!.
Thank you to our Funders
