Festival Creative Producers and Administrators

Back to Festival 2022

Festival Creative Producers + Administrators gain hands-on leadership training in this conversational and collaborative program for young people, led by young people. Festival Creative Producers + Administrators engage with the Festival as creative thinkers, planning events and promotional projects to ensure the success of the festival for its participants and audience. Participants receive a personalized mentorship with a Paprika staff member that may involve seeking sponsorship, planning a hoppin’ fundraiser, production and technical experiences, and more. Festival Creative Producers + Administrators have a hand in it all and are a vital part of Paprika.

FCPA participants will host an arts and crafts night for Paprika participants, facilitators, and staff, following the festival. Led by young artists, Jam Bridgett and Sameena Anis, the Paprika peeps will share space, decompress from their festival experience, and create together one last time for the sake of making art—no pressure, just good vibes.

FACILITATOR

Kevin Matthew Wong

Kevin Matthew Wong

Kevin Matthew Wong (he/him) is a Hakka Chinese-Canadian theatre creator, facilitator, performer and producer. His artistic practice often involves personal storytelling, object puppetry and video projections. Kevin is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Broadleaf Theatre, a company that merges environmentalism and live performance. His documentary-theatre solo-performance The Chemical Valley Project – a collaboration with co-creator Julia Howman and Aamjiwnaang First Nation Water Protectors Vanessa Gray and Beze Gray – tackles environmental racism in Canada. Kevin has collaborated with companies such as Theatre Passe Muraille, Cahoots Theatre, the Macau-Toronto music theatre company Music Picnic, The Shaw Festival, The Stratford Festival, and the American social justice residency The Gardarev Center. Kevin is also a Producer at Why Not Theatre, leading its Make stream of projects and tours including Mahabharata at The Shaw Festival, Prince Hamlet, and What You Won’t Do For Love, starring Drs. Tara Cullis and David Suzuki. kevinmatthewwong.com

Fatima Adam

Fatima Adam

Fatima Adam (she/her) is a Toronto-based producer, theatre creator and performer. Passionate about creative collaboration, she has worked with The AMY Project, SummerWorks Performance Festival, BlackCAP, Why Not Theatre and more. Fatima hopes to continue bringing underrepresented talent to the forefront and widening accessibility for artists in the GTA

Nidhi Baadkar

Nidhi Baadkar

Nidhi Baadkar (she/her) is a dancer and movement artist with 15 years of training in South Indian Classical Dance form of Bharatanatyam and currently pursuing her contemporary dance training at The School of Toronto Dance Theatre. Her training also includes other forms like Indian martial art form of kalarippayattu, yoga, modern dance, physical theatre, and break dance. Nidhi recognises herself as an aspiring movement artist who wishes to develop a vocabulary of her own which is deeply rooted with Indian aesthetics. She has worked and performed in Kingdom of Bahrain, India, and Canada. Working towards diversifying into her production and arts management skills, she is the co-creator at Nautanki Creations, a dance collective based in Brampton, Ontario and was the co-curator of 2nd Nautanki Creations Festival 2021. Currently she is part of the Festival Curation and Program Administrator cohort of the Paprika Festival 2021 and Dance Advance- a choreographic development residency program by Sampradaya Dance Creations.

Jordan M. Burns

Jordan M. Burns

Jordan M. Burns (they/he) is a Disabled, Indigenous, Two-Spirit, Neurodivergent, multidisciplinary artist from Treaty 3 territory on Turtle Island. Jordan serves as a co-founding artistic director with Third Wheel Theatre Co., this position has allowed them to explore a multiplicity of roles as director, producer, puppeteer, actor, and playwright. Jordan is also a proud honours graduate of both Humber’s Theatre Performance program and York’s BFA Acting program. Some of their favourite credits include Salt Baby (dir. N. Robitaille), Mno Bimaadiziwin (dir. H. Barnes), Cat in the Hat (dir. S. Prelletz), The Echoes II: Pigeon Pie (dir. M. Wodzinska), Vermilion (dir. G. Kosmidis), and A Pineberry’s Past (writ. J. Burns). Jordan is thrilled to spice it up as part of Paprika’s FCPA and Indigenous Arts Program cohorts and they’re looking forward to continuing the development of their work. See what Jordan’s working on now by following @ThirdWheelTheatreCo / @BurnsBright97 on Instagram!

Yago Mesquita

Yago Mesquita

Yago Mesquita (he/him) is an emerging queer Brazilian-Canadian theatre artist from Tkaronto. As a playwright, Yago’s play, A, Brazil flag emoji, 47, was presented at the 2021 CAMINOS Festival (Aluna Theatre). He was also a collaborator on fu-GEN Theatre’s MH370 and a member of The Foundry at Factory Theatre. As a writer, Yago’s short story, & Dawn burned, was shortlisted for The Malahat Review’s 2021 Far Horizons Award for Short Fiction. As a performer, credits include HUMMM by Donna-Michelle St. Bernard, Erased by Coleen Macpherson, and Eva in Rio by Gabe Maharjan. www.yagomesquita.com