Who are the Post-Modernists?
Starting in 2023, with support of the Toronto Arts Council Strategic Fund, Modern Times Stage Company started a truly unique undertaking - that of an ‘Experimental Theatre Troupe’. In short, 4-leading innovative Canadian performing arts creators were brought together to work on a unique piece that provokes, pushes, and stretches the bounds of performing arts and theatre.
Coleen Shirin MacPherson
Coleen Shirin MacPherson is an international theatre artist, playwright and director based in Toronto. She trained at Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris and is the artistic director of Open Heart Surgery Theatre, a female-led physical theatre company that creates new devised work that is poetic, relevant and experimental. She has been making theatre since 2014; as a half Parsi-Indian, Irish-Canadian theatre maker, her work often engages with ideas of cross-cultural collaboration, bending borders and aims to speak to the current moment. Her play This Is Why We Live was part of the 58th Season at La MaMa in New York City and went on to VOILA! Europe where it earned an OFFIE nomination in 2022. Her work has toured internationally to Egypt, Poland, France, the UK, China and the U.S.A.
Coleen has taught Playwriting at The University of Toronto; Devised Theatre at Brock University, Sheridan College and Hairpin Arts and was Assistant Director at the Stratford Festival for Antoni Cimolino's Richard III in the 2022 season. She is currently Creator in Residence at Cahoots Theatre (Toronto) and part of the Experimental Theatre Troupe with Modern Times.
Ho Ka Kei (Jeff Ho)
Ho Ka Kei (Jeff Ho) is a theatre artist, originally from Hong Kong. As an actor, he has toured as Ophelia in Why Not Theatre’s Prince Hamlet across Canada and the United States over five years. Other credits include: Hana’s Suitcase (Young People’s Theatre, tour: Toronto, Montreal and Seattle); I Forgive You (Artistic Fraud/NAC); Orestes (Tarragon Theatre); trace (Remount – NAC/Factory Theatre); Box 4901 (Buddies in Bad Times); camera obscura (hungry ghosts) (the frank theatre/QAF – Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Production – Small Theatre); Kim’s Convenience (CBC); The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu); and Orphan Black (BBC America).
As a playwright, his works include cockroach, Iphigenia and the Furies (On Taurian Land), Antigone: 方, and trace. His work has been developed with the Stratford Festival, Tarragon Theatre, Young People’s Theatre, Human Cargo, Factory Theatre, Cahoots, the Banff Playwrights Lab, Nightswimming Theatre. His plays are published by Playwrights Canada Press.
Jeff is grateful to have been honoured with a LAMBDA Award for Best LGBTQ+ Drama, the Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best New Canadian Play (Iphigenia); the Jon Kaplan Legacy Fund Award for a Young Canadian Playwright; the Bulmash Siegel Playwriting Award (Tarragon Theatre); a Harold Award (House of Nadia Ross); finalist for the Playwright’s Guild of Canada’s Drama award (cockroach); finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award (Iphigenia and Antigone); nominated for four Dora Awards. He is a graduate of the National Theatre School and holds an MFA from York University.
Luke Reece
In a failed attempt to escape Presto Luke left his hometown of Mississauga under the guise of becoming a Toronto-based artist. He strives to share authentic and engaging stories with audiences through his work as an award-winning producer, playwright, poet and educator. Luke is the Associate Artistic Director at Soulpepper Theatre, one of Canada’s leading non-profit theatre companies. Through Luke’s work as an artistic leader within the national arts community, he advocates for engaging and nuanced storytelling that challenges Canadian audiences. In 2021 Luke was included in York University’s inaugural Top 30 Changemakers Under 30 list.
Luke is one of Toronto’s most decorated slam poets, becoming the Toronto Poetry Slam (TPS) Grand Champion in 2017, winning the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word as the captain of the TPS team and then again in 2018 as the team coach. In 2018 he placed 2nd in Canada individually which earned him a spot representing the country at the 2019 World Cup of Poetry Slam in Paris, France where he placed 4th. He continues to give back to the Toronto Spoken Word scene as a board member for the Toronto Poetry Project. In the spring of 2020 Luke was featured performing for former Toronto Raptor and NBA Champion Serge Ibaka on his Instagram Talent Show. His body of work also includes a radio play, animated short, and a praised short film featured on CBC titled ‘Notice’.
Rafeh Mahmud
Rafeh Mahmud is a Pakistani-Tanzanian-American, recent Canadian immigrant, Daytime Emmy award winning Producer, Writer, Director, and Editor, new-immigrant to Canada. His latest film 'When Life Gives You Lemons' (2022) has 6 Official Selections, 1 Award, & 2 Nominations for Best International Short Film & Best Editing, including Oscar-qualifying festivals Martha's Vineyard AA Film Festival Virtual Experience & St. Louis International Film Festival. His previous film 'In Defense of Civil Society' (2021) has received 18 Official Selections, including Cannes' Diversity in Cannes Shortfilm Showcase, Sarasota Film Festival, & Richmond International Film Festival. 2 Award Wins in Best Picture & Best Editing, 5 Nominations in Best Dark Comedy, including a Grand Jury Nomination, and 3 Honourable Mentions.
He has worked for ABC News “Good Morning America” and for Light Iron/Panavision on Netflix's "Queen's Gambit", Amazon's "Marvelous Mrs. Maisel", CBS's "The Good Fight" among other TV-shows and films. Since moving to Toronto, he has worked on Lifetime Network "Jodi Arias: Bad Behind Bars", CBC Gem's "Virgins" and "True Dating Stories”, and CTV’s “Black Community Mixtapes.” He has also worked with the Canadian Opera Company, Stratford Festival, Crow's Theatre & Modern Times Theatre Company.
Outside of his work in film, he works as a director, playwright, and actor in theatre, and is a multiple grant-winning theatre artist. Prior to his recent immigration to Toronto, he lived and worked in New York City, and Karachi, Pakistan.
