Melanie Yeats (she/her) is a theatre maker living on the unceded territories of the the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

Melanie has been fortunate to work for more than 20 years in the performing arts community and holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from Simon Fraser University.

As an artist, she has worked with a broad range of BC-based companies, such as Upintheair, Neworld, Mainly Dance, Joe Ink, Boca del Lupo, and Pi Theatre, collaborating on many new works, including interdisciplinary projects with theatre, dance, and music artists.

New to playwrighting, she is hard at work on her first full-length play, a cabaret currently titled Honey, an excerpt of which she presented at Indie Opera Week in 2019. Previously, she collaborated on several successful original cabaret performances, the most recent being Fever Cabaret, working with playwright Cory Philley and composer Joel DeStefano.

Melanie also works as an arts administrator, currently as Operations Manager at Playwrights Theatre Centre, previously with Gateway Theatre, Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, and Firehall Arts Centre. She is also proud to chair the board of directors for Universal Limited Performance.

About Tara:

Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg is an award winning creator, performer, choreographer, director and writer. Artistic Director of Tara Cheyenne Performance, she is renowned as a trailblazer in interdisciplinary performance and as a mighty performer "who defies categorization on any level"(The Georgia Straight).

Tara is celebrated nationally and internationally for her unique and dynamic hybrid of dance, comedy and theatre. The string of celebrated full-length solo shows to her credit includes bANGER, Goggles, Porno Death Cult, and I can’t remember the word for I can’t remember, and she partners regularly on multidisciplinary collaborations, commissions and boundary-bending ensemble creations. When she isn’t creating innovative movement for theatre, Tara performs around the world- highlights include DanceBase/Edinburgh, South Bank Centre/London, On the Boards/Seattle USA, and High Performance Rodeo/Calgary. Recent works include The Body Project (premiering 2020/21 season) The River with dance artist Miriam Colvin and artist and activist Molly Wickham (premiering 2021 in Wet'suwet'en Territory), empty.swimming.pool with Italian dance/performance artist Silvia Gribaudi, (Castiglioncello, Bassano, Victoria, B.C. and Vancouver, B.C.), how to be (Vancouver, B.C.) , and I can’t remember the word for I can’t remember (currently touring). Tara lives on the unceded and traditional territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səlil̓wətaɁɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation)/East Vancouver with her partner composer Marc Stewart.

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Lindy

Loving this conversation. Your discussion about dancer physique brought me back to when “they” told me I was too tall to be a dancer. Then I studied with Vickie The AD of Decidedly Jazz and Denise Clark of One Yellow Rabbit - and I found my people who danced from a whole other place! I listen when I’m eating dinner alone. Thanks for the great dinner conversation!

Wednesday May 20, 2020