Staff
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Gabrielle Martin
Artistic Director | ext 101 | Pronouns: she/her/hers
Gabrielle Martin is a cultural producer and live arts curator practicing transformative experiential design in one of society’s few remaining ritual spaces. Her work prioritizes embodied criticality, imagination, pluralism, and risk. It centres the body, and is framed by social and political urgencies.
Gabrielle has a BFA in Contemporary Dance from Concordia University (Montréal), a Certificate in Dramaturgy from the Centre National des Arts du Cirque (Châlons-en-Champagne), and an MA in Arts and Cultural Management from Rome Business School.
Recently, Gabrielle has participated on curatorial and selection juries for Denmark’s CPH Stage International Days, England’s Horizon Showcase, and Canada’s Governor General’s Performing Arts Award in Dance. Before joining PuSh in 2021, she worked as Festival Manager with the Vancouver International Dance Festival. Prior to working in arts management, Gabrielle performed over 1,400 shows internationally with Cirque du Soleil’s TORUK – The First Flight and Cavalia, participated in choreographic residencies in Belgium, Sweden and France, and presented her work in the UK, US, and across Canada.
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Annie Clarke
Managing Director | ext 102 | Pronouns: she/her/hers
Annie Clarke (she/her) is a third generation settler, born and raised in Vancouver on the unceded territories of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) peoples. Annie has recently returned to Vancouver after spending much of her career in Tkaronto (where the trees meet the water) on the ancestral territories of the Anishinaabe, including the Mississaugas of the Credit first nation, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat.
From 2022-2024 Annie worked on more than twenty productions as Producer at Toronto’s Soulpepper Theatre. She was also the lead producer for Soulpepper’s new play development program and Slaight Music residency program, and led the company’s Compassion Fund pilot with Theatre Direct’s Balancing Act initiative. Previously, Annie spent four years working at Generator, including as Interim General Manager, and was the General Manager of Groundling Theatre Company. Annie also worked as an independent producer and marketing consultant, and has collaborated in various capacities with Discord and Din Theatre, Shakespeare in the Ruff, One Little Goat, Studio 180 Theatre, and Native Earth Performing Arts, as well as Vancouver’s F-O-R-M (Festival of Recorded Movement).
In addition to Toronto, Annie has lived and worked in Montreal, New York, and Paris, and holds a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University.
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Tricia Knowles
Marketing & Communications Manager | ext.201 | Pronouns: she/her/hers
Tricia Knowles (she/her) is a queer, Mi’kmaq settler who has been exploring identity through a pre-colonial lens, within the arts and within the natural spaces and places where branches of her ancestry intersect. With more than 25 years of experience in media, marketing, and promotions she has worked with several artists and festivals such as Kingston WritersFest, National Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Wavelength Music, Skeleton Park Music & Arts Festival, Kick & Push Theatre Festival and Harvest Fest.
Tricia has a passion for creative placemaking and for crafting interactive, immersive events which inspire residents to be part of the change they want to see in their community. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of Calliope Collective and the lead creator of its HYDRA project. She has worked as a producer with WWF’s Earth Hour, Ottawa’s Music and Beyond, and Fort Henry’s award-winning immersive experience Fort Fright. She holds a certificate in Cultural Planning and Development from UBC and a diploma in Radio and Television Arts (Broadcast Journalism) from NSCC.
A stiltwalker and costumer, Tricia is an admirer of both old-timey and contemporary circus. Her other joy practices include swimming, bicycles, foraging, dancing, live music, and getting lost in a forest or a book.
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Lindsay Nelson
Producer | ext 113 | Pronouns: she/her/hers
Lindsay is an arts administrator and theatre performer, with a wide range of experience in the event industry.
She first got involved with PuSh in 2019 as an intern for Accessible PuSh, learning all she could about making theatre accessible. For the 2022 festival, Lindsay shifted to Volunteer Coordinator, and this year she is enjoying her second year in the role of Festival Producer.
As a performer, Lindsay holds a Theatre Arts diploma from McEwan University, and an MA in Classical Acting from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.
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Luka Kawabata
Patron Services and Administration Manager | ext 104 | Pronouns: he/him
Luka Kawabata 川端ルカ is a queer, Nikkei-Canadian artist living and working in the unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh people. As a baritone and producer, he strives to push the boundaries of representation in opera through the creation of new works.
Luka is a graduate of the Yulanda M Faris Young Artist Program with Vancouver Opera and the Beth Morrison Projects: Producer Academy, having performed with companies spanning the continent, including Edmonton Opera, Manitoba Opera, Saskatoon Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria and Opera on the Avalon.
He is the creator of ‘The HAFU ハーフ Project’, a semi-autobiographical musical exploration of the history of Japanese immigration and internment in North America and the social navigation of identity.
Luka is an avid language enthusiast, traveler, coffee lover and recently started to understand the fun of lifting weights! -
Jenny Lee Craig
Development Associate | Pronouns: she/her/hers
Jenny Lee Craig (she/her) believes wholeheartedly in the power of the arts to bring people together and enrich communities large and small. She has several years experience working in various aspects of management and production for many of the lower mainland’s favourite events, including the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, the Vancouver International Film Festival, PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Just For Laughs VANCOUVER Comedy Festival and many more.
In her spare you can find her walking her dog Valentina, singing with her community choir, or splashing around with her local synchronized swimming team.
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David Kerr
Production Manager | ext 111 | Pronouns: I celebrate and honour all pronouns, my preference is DK
DK (David Kerr) would like to acknowledge that he was born and raised on Treaty 6 Territory, the Homeland of the Métis. He pays his respect to the First Nation and Métis ancestors of that place and reaffirms our relationship with one another.
DK has been a fixture in the Vancouver Festival world for the past 30 years, more than half of that in various management positions. He is well versed in the presentation of large-scale indoor and outdoor projects. Aside from PuSh, he is the Production Manager for the Vancouver International Children’s Festival and the Vancouver International Burlesque Festival. He is also the Site Manager for the Vancouver Folk Music Festival and a Production Consultant for the Talking Stick Festival
DK has consulted on several other projects as well including the Canada 150+ Indigenous Production Assistant Program and landscape planning for Bard on The Beach.
Prior to moving into Production Management DK Stage Managed for numerous Vancouver theatre companies and toured the world with LaJoye Productions’ “Snowflake”.
He was also the Second General Manger of Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan back in the good old days.
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Chipo Chipaziwa
Youth Program Coordinator | Pronouns: she/her
Chipo Chipaziwa (she/her) is a performance artist based on the traditional territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations (Vancouver, Canada). Her practice considers the performativity of her Black female body within the context of North America, whilst investigating the power dynamic of performer and audience. She has received her BA in Visual Arts at the University of British Columbia in 2019.
Chipaziwa has performed at The Polygon Gallery (2023); The Surrey Art Gallery (2022); and with the City of Vancouver (2021). Chipaziwa is a recipient of Canada Council for the Arts’s Concept to Realization Grant (2024); The BC Art Council’s Early Career Development Grant (2023); Canada Council for the Arts’s Research and Creation Grant (2023); the City of Vancouver’s Communities and Artists Shifting Culture Grant (2023); the City of Vancouver’s Cultural Learning and Sharing Grant (2022); and The BC Art Council’s Early Career Development Grant (2022).
She has been nominated for the Philip B. Lind Memorial Prize (2024), and her first artist book is scheduled to be released in November 2024.
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River Huckleberry Kero
Box Office Coordinator | Pronouns: he/him
River Huckleberry Kero (he/him) works and lives on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations. He writes off the side of his desk and makes comics when he can. He loves working in the local festival scene. He lives with his husband and his two cats.
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Andrea Cownden
Programming Coordinator | ext 204 | Pronouns: she/her/hers
Andrea Cownden (she/her) is a cultural producer and accessibility advocate based on the unceded lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations colonially known as Vancouver. She is currently the Programming Coordinator at the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, where she has been part of the team since 2023.
With a background in dance and audio description, Andrea has worked with artists such as Lee Su-Feh, Naomi Brand, and Sasha Kleinplatz and collaborated on choreography and accessibility initiatives with organizations like All Bodies Dance Project. Her experience in integrated access and creative audio description has deepened her commitment to inclusive programming.
Passionate about fostering meaningful artistic experiences, Andrea brings a keen eye for innovative performance and audience engagement. She is excited to continue shaping dynamic and accessible programming in the performing arts.
Photo by K Ho
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Brian Postalian
Industry Producer | Pronouns: any pronouns
Brian Postalian (Բրայն Փոսթալյան) is a performance creator, educator, and producer born and raised in Toronto/Tkaronto by way of Armenia (via Turkey and Lebanon), Ireland, UK, and the Czech Republic. With their company Re:Current Theatre, they make work that reconsiders how we share space together in communal places, blurring the divide between audiences and performers. Their work extends beyond traditional stages and uses the communal form as an intervention of the private self in public space. Their work New Societies used immersivity and interactivity with a focus on game theory and social engagement to create idyllic societies.It has been presented across Canada and Internationally; where it has been translated into Mandarin with the National Theatre of Taipei. Brian’s recent work co-creating the Dora Award nominated Access Me with the Boys in Chairs collective was published by Playwrights Canada Press as part of Interdependent Magic: Disability Performance in Canada.
Brian holds a Master of Fine Arts at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts in Theatre Game Design and Interdisciplinary Performance Studies. They are a certified facilitator of Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process. In their spare time, Brian likes to host board game nights, ride their bicycle, play with their dog Amie, and recently started Lindy Hop swing dancing. Brian currently lives on the unceded Coast Salish territory of the Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam Nations (also known as Vancouver, BC).
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Rose Senat
Volunteer Coordinator | Pronouns: she/her
Rose is a multidisciplinary artist based from Hamilton with over a decade of community engagement experience. Her artistic work is autobiographical, informed by her lived experience as a Black woman in Canada and the U.S. with roots in Haiti.
She is passionate about creating safe and welcoming spaces and opportunities for racialized communities to access the arts. She is a serial hobbyist and in her spare time you can find her running TAKEUPSPACE, photographing those around her on film, and caring for her calico Xena and over 50 house plants.
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Steve Chow
Graphic Designer | Pronouns: he/him/his
With a 250 lb. bench press and multiple tournament wins, Steve is arguably pound-for-pound Vancouver’s strongest graphic designer. His unpredictable technique was cultivated in early stints at The Western Front, Ricepaper, and indie music labels; and later refined with LolaDance, Wen Wei Dance, and The Holy Body Tattoo — leading to an undisputed, record-breaking 10-year run as Communications Manager of The Cinematheque.
In addition to PuSh, Steve’s current training partners include the Vancouver International Film Festival, DOXA, the National Film Board of Canada, Vancouver New Music, the Criterion Collection, and independent filmmakers in Canada and around the world.
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Trevor Battye Advertising Sales
Sponsorship and Advertising Consultant
Trevor Battye Advertising Sales provides client-driven advertising and monetization strategies for print and digital publications, festivals, and events for over 15 years. Clients include The Alberta Teachers Association, The Vancouver Writers Festival, The Vancouver Film Festival, and The Tyee among others.
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Denim & Steel Interactive
Website Designers & Developers
Through digital strategy, design, and custom development, Denim & Steel is behind the online presence for leading artistic and cultural producers like PuSh. Our work brings innovation and reliability to producers and connects audiences with new, memorable experiences through the web and mobile apps.
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Jodi Smith
Publicist | Pronouns: she/her/hers
Managing Director of JLS Entertainment
Jodi Smith, executive director of JLS Entertainment has been working in the entertainment industry in various capacities for over twenty-five years. Throughout her career, Jodi has produced live events, is involved in artist management, entertainment coordination (including PNE, Harmony Arts Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, First Night & Vancouver Olympics) and has been a freelance publicist for festivals, musical concerts, dance, special events, theatre and literary fests.
JLS Entertainment’s past and present publicity clients include Vancouver Opera, MusicFest Vancouver, Ballet BC, CelticFest Vancouver, Vancouver International Flamenco Festival, Dance In Vancouver, Dancing on the Edge, Carousel Theatre for Young People, Toronto Dance Theatre, DTES Heart of the City Festival, Chutzpah! Festival, and the Alcan Dragon Boat Festival.
Jodi Smith has sat on various boards throughout the years and has taught publicity and marketing at the Trebas Institute.