Board of Directors
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Selena Couture
Secretary | Pronouns: she/her/hers
Selena Couture is a white settler scholar and Associate Professor (Drama) at U of Alberta in Treaty 6 territory / Métis Region No.4. She writes about history, performance and relationships to land: deconstructing settler colonial whiteness and possession while foregrounding the maintenance of Indigenous places through performance.
Publications include, Against the Current and Into the Light: Performing History and Land in Coast Salish Territories and Vancouver’s Stanley Park and On this Patch of Grass: City Parks on Occupied Land (with her partner and daughters).She is a co-director of the Ecologies research cluster with Hemispheric Encounters and part of the Kule scholar cohort focusing on Climate Resilience in the 21st Century. She was an alternative school teacher in Vancouver for 20 years before studying for her doctorate in theatre at UBC. She also sits on the board of Solid State Community Industries.
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Dale Darychuk
Director | Pronouns: he/him/his
Dale Darychuk grew up in the Kootenays. He attended the University of Chicago where he received a B.A. in Linguistics. He then returned to Canada to attend law school at the University of Toronto. He met his future wife when they both volunteered at the Powerhouse Theatre in Vernon. His career focused on litigation particularly representing injured persons and disinherited individuals. For several years, he was President of Access Pro-Bono which provides free legal services to meet the critical needs of individuals and non-profit organizations across BC. He practiced in Port Coquitlam and New Westminster for 35 years and is now retired and living in Kelowna where he has taken up rowing and tap dancing. He continues to support all manner of the arts including a recent excursion into being a record producer.
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Thea Easton
Director | Pronouns: she/her/hers
Thea brings 15 years of experience in policy and research roles in the public sector in British Columbia – most recently in the in the areas of children and family services, youth mental health, and treaties & reconciliation. She is passionate about social justice and inspired by the story telling, beauty, and the transformative power of the arts and artists. Her volunteer work includes peer support and advocacy with community organizations in Vancouver.
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Marlene Ferhatoğlu
Director | Pronouns: she/her/hers
Marlene is a first-generation Turkish-American marketing and events specialist in the arts industry. Having moved to Canada over 19 years ago in the ancestral lands of the Metis people, known as Saskatoon, Marlene gained a Bachelor’s in Commerce for Marketing and International Business. While there, Marlene volunteered at the Saskatoon Open Door Society to provide newly landed immigrants and refugees with resources to overcome barriers in Canada.
Eventually, her work in digital marketing and art led to a career in Vancouver where she works for the Vancouver Visual Art Foundation as the Project Manager. Her work at the non-profit organization has produced several visual art events with the goal of growing Vancouver’s visual art scene to international audiences.
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Erika Latta
Director | Pronouns: she/her/hers
Originally from the Pacific Northwest, Erika Latta is the artistic co-director and co-founder of WaxFactory in New York City. WaxFactory continues to nurture a hybrid approach, based on unconventional narrative styles, originally dramaturgy, visual and physical rigor, technological experimentation and site-responsive work. With the company, she works as a director, writer, actor, sound designer and educator. As an actor and director she has presented work in international venues and festivals throughout Europe and Latin America creating long lasting partnerships with artists and designers. She holds a BFA in Theater from the University of Washington, and an MFA in Acting from Columbia University. Erika is also an associate director of the French trans-media company Begat Theater. For Begat, she co-conceived, directed, designed sound and co-wrote several of Begat productions. Begat Theater’s productions have been awarded numerous grants, co-productions and partnerships, as well as the generous support from FACE (French American Fund for Contemporary Theater). Erika is a member of the Society of Authors (SACD) in France, and she continues to author and co-author many of the original productions for both WaxFactory and Begat Theater. Outside her company, she has worked with Felix Barret and Maxine Doyle of Punchdrunk (SLEEP NO MORE), Robert Wilson at the Watermill Center, Anne Bogart (SITI Company), Robert Woodruff, Victor Gautier Martin, Tina Landau, and Chuck Mee, among others. She continues to work in cinema both as an actor, director and photographer in feature length films, hybrid performance and new media. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the School For the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University in Theater and Performance.
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Camilla Tibbs
Treasurer | Pronouns: she/her/hers
Camilla has spent almost 30 years in cultural management in Metro Vancouver and in the UK. Her career includes executive roles at Gateway Theatre, the Vancouver Writers Fest and Touchstone Theatre, plus marketing positions at the Arts Club Theatre Company, the London Symphony Orchestra and more. Currently she is the Executive Director of the Pacific Screenwriting Program. She has held numerous volunteer positions including serving on the boards of the Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards, the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres, and Touchstone Theatre.
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Johnny Wu
Vice-Chair | Pronouns: he/him/his
Johnny Wu is a bilingual Taiwanese-Canadian interdisciplinary, international performer and creator. As a graduate from Simon Fraser University with a double major in Theatre performance and Criminology, his work seeks to investigate humanity through exploring social justice via storytelling. Johnny believes that storytelling, on stage or screen, is a craft rooted in compassion — inviting participants to submerge themselves into the circumstance and experience the joys and traumas first hand to understand diverse lived experiences from an empathetic mind, critical to the catalyzing of social change. Understanding is the key to change, and storytelling is the hand that turns the key.
Johnny has trained nationally and internationally with mentors from schools such as Yale, Columbia, NYU, Carnegie Mellon, York University, and National Theatre School, as well as many other independent studios. His theatre credits include The Pink Line: Pain Held Tight presented at the Queer Arts Festival, These Violent Delights presented at the Summerworks Performance Festival, Movement consulting for Animus Anima//Anima Animus presented at The Public Theatre in New York City, Creative consulting for Portrait of my DNA presented at the PuSh Festival. His film and TV credits include Bunny Man placed first in the 10-minute short category and voted as Fan-Choice for best Overall Short at the Mighty Asian Filmmaking Marathon hosted by Vancouver Asian Film Festival. The film screened at 13 international festivals, including the Asian American International Film Festival, Diversion International Shot Film Festival, Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival, CAAM Fest. He can also be seen in CW’s Legends of Tomorrow and Kung Fu.