Farewell to Alysha & Jordy

The end of the 17th season marks the end of a year focused on intersectionalities, coming together, and community. It also marks the end of Jordy Matheson’s tenure at Zee Zee, and the end of Alysha Collie’s year-long contract as our Indigenous Community Engagement Manager.

We are so grateful to both of these amazing humans for their hard work, creativity and passion while at Zee Zee. Please join us in wishing them the best on their next exciting steps. 


Alysha first came to Zee Zee through our shared love and friendship with Deborah Williams. Alysha and her partner Dallas helped to curate our annual community-based, storytelling project in 2021, which focussed on Two Spirit & Indiqueer Futures. It was during that project that I first witnessed Alysha’s organizational skills in action, coupled with her deep care and thoughtfulness with community members. 

With Alysha in mind, we created the Indigenous Community Engagement Manager role, which was generously supported by the BC Arts Impact Grant. Over this year with Zee Zee, she would plan, execute and oversee 3 ancillary events creating new, deep and authentic connections with Two-Spirit artists and theatre-goers. 

We agreed to a slow start in May with the first event in September to kick off our season. Well, in true Alysha-fashion, she decided instead to get to work right away, and plan an event to honour National Indigenous History Month and kick-off Pride. With only a few week’s notice she planned a sold-out event, secured meaningful sponsorship to ensure it was free for all participants, and pulled off an incredible day. 

Alysha filled our 2024/2025 season with meaningful events, community collaborations and new ways of working and connecting. From the performance of Qwalena at the The Cultch (produced alongside 3Crows & Touchstone Theatre) which included an Indigenous Arts Market, Music, and treats; to hosting a workshop for Black community members in which they could explore the tension of resistance and release. She co-curated RISE, a full community-day, alongside Monice Peter and Kyra Philbert. 

This month she hosted a second annual beading workshop and expanded to include cedar weaving and regalia making, all led by Coast Salish Youth as a way to give back to the community and empower intergenerational traditional knowledge sharing. 

All while writing grants, securing meaningful funding, and educating partner organizations and government entities. Yes, she truly does it ALL. 

Alysha, Thank you. From your first day in the office bringing in medical tea that you harvested yourself, to your last day when you brought in delicious food; you have always approached all the work you do with care, compassion, kindness and thoughtfulness. It has been an honour to get to know you more, and on behalf of myself, Bronwyn and the whole board of Directors, THANK YOU. 


Jordy started working with Zee Zee as a bright-eyed college student in 2014, volunteering at the PuSh Festival as a Young Ambassador with Dave Deveau on our co-presentation of the Human Library. He then returned to the project in 2016, and has been with Zee Zee ever since. 

In 2019 he co-curated the project with Dave and then in 2020 took over as Producer, working with Cameron to steer the ship through the very “unprecedented” waters as Human Library pivoted to digital for two seasons as Virtual Humanity and then pivoted back to in person as The Rainbow Storytelling Project. Every year the feedback from the human “books” – the storytellers – was how incredible Jordy was, making people feel welcomed and seen. His attentiveness, his kindness and his charm allowed him to handle any situation with grace as he kept the project moving forward while keeping the participants safe.

Since early 2023, he has also been supporting Zee Zee in Communications land. First as the Interim Social Media Manager – while doing double duty as Producer on the 2023 edition of the storytelling project: The Queer Asian Stories. His talent and dedication were clear and we welcomed him to the team officially as the Digital Communications Manager in early 2024. 

For the last year and a half he has honed Zee Zee’s digital voice across multiple platforms. His instincts and ability to analyze the data have helped us reach new audiences and exceed fundraising goals and campaigns. Jordy is a brilliant playwright, hilarious improvisational comedian, as well as a thoughtful and dedicated administrator. He delivered THE best roast at Zee Zee’s 15th Anniversary Roast of Cam & Dave all the while rocking grandma chic!  

His work as producer and then communications manager have helped Zee Zee remain steady during so much change internally, and externally. We are so lucky he has supported Zee Zee all these years. And on behalf of Bronwyn, myself, the Board of Directors, all the other producers, curators, storytellers, and founding Associate Artistic Director Dave Deveau we thank you from the bottom of our hearts and wish you so so so much success in your next exciting venture.

Visual Artist Call-Out | The Cultch Gallery

Zee Zee Theatre is looking for 1-3 visual artists who would like to showcase their art for the duration of our theatre production Every Day She Rose written by Andrea Scott and Nick Green taking place at the Culture Lab located at the Cultch Theatre located at 1895 Venables St, Vancouver, BC V5L 2H6 from May 1-11, 2025. Artists will have a chance to have their work in the Cultch’s gallery from April 28th to May 12th, 2025. 

Synopsis of Every Day She Rose:

“The personal becomes political in this collaboratively created work from Andrea Scott and Nick Green. After the Black Lives Matter protest at the 2016 Toronto Pride Parade, two best friends find their racial and queer politics aren’t as aligned as they first thought, and the playwrights behind them must figure out how to write about the fallout. 

Every Day She Rose is a powerful exploration of white supremacy, privilege, and patriarchy in supposed safe spaces.”

More info about Every Day She Rose at the Cultch can be found here: https://thecultch.com/event/every-day-she-rose/

Themes:

– Black & Queer identities

– white supremacy

– privilege

– patriarchy

Who:

We are reaching out to the local artist community to engage with those that have created art that uplifts voices of marginalized community members and potentially ties into some of the themes of our production of Every Day She Rose. We are currently looking for 1-3 artists at the intersections of Black and Queer identities to apply with pre-existing 2D works that are still available to them to showcase within the Cultch’s gallery. Everyone’s art however, will be considered. 

Who should apply: emerging artists, 2SLGTBQIA+ artists, BIPOC artists

Key Dates:

Application Opens: February 18, 2025

Application Closes: March 20, 2025

Application Review: March 20 – 28, 2025

Applicants Notified: March 28, 2025

Art Drop Off: April 7 – April 18, 2025

Art Installation: April 28, 2025

Art Taken Down: May 12, 2025

Art Pick Up: May 12 – 20, 2025

When & Where:

On March 28th, 2025 Zee Zee Theatre staff members will be selecting and contacting those that have submitted their works using this form to participate in the gallery space. Not every artist who submits works may be selected. Pieces that best fit the themes of Every Day She Rose will be given preference. 

From April 7th to 18th, 2025, Zee Zee Theatre staff will be collecting the selected works of art that will be hung in the gallery space. Art drop off times will be coordinated with artists at our office at The Green House at 1885 Venables St, Vancouver, BC V5L 2H6.

If selected, on April 28th, 2025 at 12:00 pm your artwork will be installed in the gallery space. On 

May 12th, 2025 at 10:00 am your artwork will be taken down from the gallery space. 

The gallery in located within the Historic Cultch Theatre located at 1895 Venables St, Vancouver, BC V5L 2H6.

You will have a week after May 12th to pick up any art that has not sold from our office located at The Green House at 1885 Venables St, Vancouver, BC V5L 2H6.

Art Specifications:

  • Dimensions: Any! Pieces can be as small as 4″ x 6″ and as large as 12′ x 20′. 
  • All artwork needs to have 2 “D hooks” on the back so they can be hung properly. If there are no “D hooks” on the back of the artwork it can not be hung. All artwork is hung from a rail system and everything must hang from wires. No nails. You must purchase and install your own D hooks. More details about how to do this will be sent via email. 
  • Canvases and framed works are accepted with the 2 “D hooks” on the back of the piece. 
  • Artists must supply their own frames and frame their own work (if applicable to your work). This must be all ready to go by April 18th, 2025. 
  • Technicians from the Cultch will be installing your artwork. Artists will not be hanging their own artwork. 

Compensation:

Compensation Offering: $100.00 honorarium to those selected plus an opportunity to generate funds from the sale of your art from April 28th, 2025 to May 12th, 2025 within the gallery space. 

Sales:

There is a potential to sell your artwork that will be hung within the gallery space at the Cultch. Details about this will further be discussed with selected artists. 

PROTEST!

Cathartic Celebrations: express resist/release expand


Join us for a transformative day of creative expression and collective practice, where we explore the tension between resistance and release. This workshop reimagines ceremony, oral traditions, and reverence through an artistic lens, offering a space for cultural preservation and emotional expansion.

Inspired by Everyday She Rose, our upcoming production, and the radical reimagining of communal spaces for reflection and renewal, this experience invites you to engage with all your senses and activate your sensations. Through playful yet meaningful practices, we honor ancestral traditions and embrace our present reality while reclaiming space for connection, expression, and healing.

Our featured artists will guide you through:

  • An Ancestral Plant Journey: Connect with the earth as we explore the significance of plants in culture and tradition.
  • Body and Voice Exploration: Tap into the power of your emotions through movement and sound, discovering new ways to resist, release, and expand your sense of self.
  • Eruption [An Experimental Cake Performance]: Taste test “edible” art tied to unceded territories and destructive conflict avoidance through sensory discomforts. 

Come ready to celebrate, protest, and play. Together, we’ll create a space that uplifts, challenges, and inspires.

When: February 23, 2025, 10am – 2pm

Where: The Greenhouse Studio at: 1885 Venables St, Vancouver, BC V5L 2H6

Who: Self-identified Black folks for workshops. Everyone welcome for the lunch provided.

Let’s reclaim, reimagine, and renew—together.

Additional Event Information:

  • The Green House space is fully wheelchair accessible.
  • There is free parking in a gravel lot behind the Green House studio on a first come first serve basis. There is additional parking on Venables Street and surrounding streets also on a first come first serve basis.
  • Ages: 16+. There will be no childcare provided on site. Please plan accordingly.
  • Space limited to 15 participants.

For additional inquiries, please email: alysha@zeezeetheatre.ca

Welcome Bronwyn Carradine!

We are so pleased to welcome Bronwyn Carradine as our new Artistic Managing Producer.

Bronwyn Carradine is a queer administrator, theatre creator and playwright. As an artist, she’s collaborated with Zee Zee since 2015 when she was the Assistant Director of Elbow Room Café: The Musical at Studio 58, since then she’s Assistant Directed Elbow Room Café: The Musical (The Cultch), My Funny Valentine (Buddies in Bad Times), written for Nyet: Again (2017) and most recently wrote Unexpecting (2023). She’s beyond thrilled to be joining the team of this company whose mandate is so close to her heart.

As an arts administrator she has focused much of her work on building community connections and furthering equity for artists in terms of safe working conditions, clear & concise contracting, deliberate hiring, inspiring auditioning, and more robust on-boarding. In her most recent role as Company Manager & Assistant to the Artistic Director at the Arts Club Theatre Company, Carradine worked to open doors for artists by implemented programs such as: Arts Worker Rush Tickets, Industry Nights, Relaxed Auditions, Audition Childcare, as well as Write from the Wings, and the Incubator Series.

When she’s not at the theatre, you can find her either on the couch with her partner and their cat watching Below Deck, or running in the mountains.

15th Anniversary Season is Live!

We are thrilled to announce our 2022/2023 season of programming, including three MainStage productions:

Click on Productions in left menu to check out what we have In Development.

22/23 Season Launch & Annual Glamour Meeting!

September 8th, 2022

The Cultch’s Historic Theatre, 1895 Venables St

Official AGM 5:15pm-5:45pm  

Season Launch 6:00pm-6:45pm

Our favourite Zee Zee tradition is back: the Annual Glamour Meeting! Part society business, part season sneak peek, part drag show, all good fun!

Join us for our official AGM then stick around as we launch our entire season with another sneak peak of our show in development “Cool Moms” by Thanks Jem.

Tickets $5 at the door which includes a one year membership to Zee Zee!

This is a limited capacity, distanced and masked event. All will need to show a record of their vaccine status and must stay in the seats unless going to the bar or bathroom and remain masked unless they are consuming food or drink and only then while in their seats.

Featuring Thanks Jem

The following business will be considered by the membership:

  1. Acceptance of agenda (motion required).
  2. Approval of minutes of 2020 AGM (motion required).
  3. Report by management to the members with financial statements presented (motion required).
  4. Election of directors of the Society (motion required)
  5. Any further information respecting the society required by the bylaws or the regulations.

CASTING CALL

Zee Zee Theatre is inviting submissions for our upcoming production of 

Men Express Their Feelings

By Sunny Drake


CREATIVE TEAM:

Director:  Cameron Mackenzie 

Stage Manager: Jenny Kim

Creative Consultant: Paneet Singh

Intimacy Coach / Choreographer: Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg

Design Team: Kimira Reddy, Donnie Tejani, Sara Vickruck, Carol Macdonald

Technical Director: Ash Shotton

Other Cast Members: Munish Sharma, Jeff Gladstone

AUDITION DATES & LOCATION: 

November 24, 11-3pm, location TBC

DATES:

Preliminary Cast Reading: December 9, 2021

Rehearsals begin:  February 22, 2022 at The Greenhouse Rehearsal Hall (1885 Venables St, beside The Cultch)

Performances :  March 17-April 3, 2022 at Firehall Arts Centre (280 East Cordova Street)

Artists will be engaged under the Equity DOT Contract

THE ROLE: 

RAJ SHARMA, 17, male, hockey player and star goalie, first generation Indo-Canadian, beginning to explore his pansexuality.

Zee Zee is committed to equity, diversity, and representation. With regard to cultural specificity, for this role we will only be seeing male identified actors of South Asian descent. 

TRIGGER WARNING:

The show deals with race-based bullying and implied sexual activity. The role will require kissing another male actor four times. Intimacy coach will be provided.

TO SUBMIT:  

Please send headshot and resume and any questions to Associate Artistic Director Dave Deveau at dave@zeezeetheatre.ca

Please note:

In order to better serve our local community we will only be seeing actors based in the Lower Mainland.

In accordance with our COVID-19 Safety Plan all artists, staff and contractors must be double vaccinated except for those who have a verifiable medication condition or religious exemption based on a prohibited ground in human rights legislation. Artists will be required to provide proof of vaccination to Zee Zee prior to commencing work. Other COVID-19 protocols, such as masking, are also in place and evolve to reflect best recommended practices at the time of production. These protocols will be communicated clearly to artists at the time of offer, and be included in the rider to their contract.

PLAY SYNOPSIS: 

A comedy about culture, hockey, relationships and sex. Two dads and their sons are sentenced to stay in the hockey locker room until they’ve talked through their feelings about a violent incident. In 90 hilarious minutes, these guys get to know each other and themselves a whole lot better, while redefining what it means to WIN. Men Express Their Feelings enriches, instigates, and empowers questions of gender, sexuality, identity and the cultural impact on all of these. 

DEADLINE TO SUBMIT:

November 22, 5 pm


For questions or accommodation requests related to the submission process, please email Associate Artistic Director Dave Deveau dave@zeezeetheatre.ca

21/22 Season Launch & AGM

September 18th, 2021

The Cultch’s Historic Theatre, 1895 Venables St

Official AGM 5:15pm-5:45pm  

Season Launch 6:00pm-6:45pm

OMG WE’RE LIVE!

Welcome back to your favourite tradition: our Annual Glamour Meeting.

Part society business, part season sneak peek, part drag show, all good fun.

Join us for our official AGM then stick around as we launch our entire season.

With a sneak-peak scene from our Spring main stage production, drag performance from our playwright-in-residence and story by one of the curators and storytellers from this past year’s Virtual Humanity.

This is a limited capacity, distanced and masked event. All will need to show a record of their vaccine status and must stay in the seats unless going to the bar or bathroom and remain masked unless they are consuming food or drink and only then while in their seats.

Tickets $5 at the door which includes a one year membership to Zee Zee.

Featuring Alysha Collie, Thanks Jem, Munish Sharma, Jeff Gladstone

The following business will be considered by the membership:

  1. Acceptance of agenda (motion required).
  2. Approval of minutes of 2020 AGM (motion required).
  3. Report by management to the members with financial statements presented (motion required).
  4. Election of directors of the Society (motion required)
  5. Any further information respecting the society required by the bylaws or the regulations.

It’s Here! Our 2020-2021 Season!

We are living through extraordinary times of global complexity, uncertainty, and a sea of question marks within many sectors. 

As live event makers, we create the unexpected, we respond in the immediate, we investigate community building in new ways that are still heartwarming, eye opening, challenging, and subversive. Artists create beauty and we create opportunities to reflect and we create moments of communal laughter and joy.

Our question for this, our 13th season, in the midst of a pandemic and a revolution dismantling white supremacy is “How do we share our humanity now?”  Please join us on this journey.

Thank you for believing in Zee Zee and the arts as a force for positive change.


The Season:

Family Drag Brunch & Dress-Up

Curated by Dave Deveau & Cameron Mackenzie
October 4, 2020, 11am via Zoom
Part of Transform: A Cabaret Festival
Presented with the Cultch & Urban Ink

With DJ O Show
Featuring Celestial Seasons, Jaylene Tyme, Karmella Barr, Thanks Jem
Hosted by Isolde N. Barron & Peach Cobblah


TERF Wars & Transgressions

by JD Derbyshire & Dave Deveau
In consultation with Jessie Anderson & Morgane Oger
October 25, 2020 3 pm via Zoom (Reading)
April 2021 (Workshop)

Featuring JD Derbyshire, Andrew McIlroy, Deborah Williams


Trans Scripts, Part I: The Women

by Paul Lucas
November 14, 2020, 7 pm Streaming Online
Part of Trans Awareness Week
Originally produced with the frank theatre
in association with the Firehall Arts Centre


Quarantine at the Elbow Room

by Dave Deveau
Based on Elbow Room Café: The Musical by Dave Deveau & Anton Lipovetsky
December 12, 2020 on Zoom
Presented with The Cultch


Virtual Humanity

curated by Zee Zee Theatre
Inspired the Human Library created by Stop The Violence (Copenhagen)
March 2021 via Zoom


On Tour:

Home is A Drag

by Dave Deveau & Cameron Mackenzie
(On Virtual Tour)

Part of Children’s Festivals, Conferences, and Pride Celebrations throughout the year including Campbell River Pride, Burnaby Pride, Pender Island Price, Nutrient Children’s Festival (Saskatoon), BC Teachers’ Federation Conference


Parents Are A Drag

by Dave Deveau & Cameron Mackenzie
Touring (maybe) Spring 2021
Originally commissioned by the Vancouver International Children’s Festival


In Development:

Cool Moms

by Charlee Sideen aka Thanks Jem
A new Zee Zee commission


Launching Summer 2021

A National Queer & Trans Virtual Playwriting Unit

A Zee Zee Theatre initiative in partnership with:
Gwaandak Theatre (Whitehorse)
The Frank Theatre (Vancouver)
Theatre Outré (Lethbridge)
Theatre Projects Manitoba (Winnipeg)
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (Toronto)
Native Earth Performing Arts (Toronto)
Imago Theatre (Montreal)
Neptune Theatre (Halifax)


Season art by Isa Rodrigues