The Plays

Danielle Levsky (she/her) is a Post-Soviet, Jewish, and Queer performer, writer, and educator who has a deep passion for bringing joy and wonder into the world through storytelling. Her specialty lies in clowning, physical theater, and interactive performance. She infuses her Jewish heritage into her work, most notably through her beloved persona Baba Yana, a Soviet Jewish Grandma Clown. She recently co-produced, co-devised, wrote, and performed in The Crone Chronicles, a physical theatre play that immerses the audience in the world of Baba Yaga's story through minimal set design and dynamic physicality. Danielle's experience as a performer and creator in clowning and mask work has also helped her challenge stereotypes and transport audiences to other worlds. Danielle has collaborated with institutions like Diversionary Theatre (San Diego), The Conspirators (Chicago), Silent Theatre Company (Chicago), Prop Thtr (Chicago), and more. She is also a certified clown teacher, with training from instructors at The Clown School, Cirque de Soleil, Theater Unspeakable, and has developed unique courses like Clown Yoga and Clown and Traditions in Judaism, which explore humor, spirituality, and ritualism in clowning. Danielle's work as a journalist also informs her creative pursuits, and she has served as the Theater Editor for Scapi Magazine and a contributor for various publications.

Wojtek Rodak (he/him) is a Polish queer artist, performer, and theater director living in Warsaw. He is a student of the National Academy of Theatre Arts in Krakow and a graduate of film production at the National Film School in Lodz. He’s mainly interested in queer and socially engaged projects, especially as an artist working with groups at risk of exclusion. In his video "Interview with the vampire," which was shown as part of the POLSKIE EIDS residency at Biennale Warszawa, he talked about the experiences of people living with HIV. He also collaborated with people with visual impairment in the project "The practice of seeing" and with queer youth in performance "Colorful dreams". In 2021, he was awarded the TR Debut prize at the 10th Young Directors Forum in Krakow, and then in the season 2021/22 he staged the play "Tom at the farm" by Michel Marc Bouchard at TR Warszawa. During the coronavirus pandemic, he was also responsible for the concept and coordination of the online art & social project "The year I stopped making art", about which an article appeared in the monograph “Lockdown Cultures” published by the UCL Press. His debut dramatic text “the cHIMera" was distinguished in the 2nd edition of AURORA: The Dramatic Award of the City of Bydgoszcz.

Andrew Kushnir (He/Him) is an award-winning playwright, director, and activist who lives in Toronto. He is artistic director of the socially engaged theatre company Project: Humanity, a leading developer of verbatim theatre in Canada. His published plays include The Middle Place, The Gay Heritage Project (with Paul Dunn and Damien Atkins), Towards Youth: a play on radical hope, Small Axe and Freedom Singer (in the recently released Moving the Centre co-written with Khari Wendell McClelland). Andrew is also the creator and host of This Is Something Else, an acclaimed investigative podcast series for the Arts Club in Vancouver. He will have his Stratford Festival directorial debut in June 2023 with Casey and Diana, a play about Princess Diana's real-life visit to Canada's first stand-alone AIDS hospice. A proudly queer Ukrainian-Canadian, he founded the We Support LGBTQ Ukraine Fund in April 2022, which, to date, has raised over $117,000 for NGOs and activists meeting the needs of LGBTQ+ Ukrainians trapped or internally displaced by war. lgbtukrainesupport.com