The Door Project

concept Chris Bose & Natalie LeFebvre Gnam

creative direction, movement Natalie LeFebvre Gnam

music Ahmed Khalil

lighting James Proudfoot

media design and integration Jack Chipman

dance media capture Evann Siebens

costume design, styling consultation Natalie Purschwitz

creative consultants Tasha Faye Evans, Su-Feh Lee, James Gnam

promo Victor Tran, Ahmed Khalil

web design Deanna Peters/Mutable Subject

production assistants June Hsu, Brianna Bernard

production intern Jela Ahn

Ahmed Khalil is alive and well and living in Vancouver, with his heretical prairie partner and a modest collection of electronic instruments.

Brianna Bernard is a Vancouver artist who takes interest in both the creative and practical departments of art. With a background in digital media, photography and performance, Brianna has taken on roles such as stage designer, technical director and scenic photographer. She holds a BFA in Theatre Production & Design from Simon Fraser University. Originally born and raised in Jamaica, Brianna is thankful to now work, create and reside on the stolen lands of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations.

Chris Bose lives in the wilds of secwepemcullucw in a cave, writing on walls for thousands of years. Telling stories, going on epic adventures, hunting the last mastodon in his territory, searching for copper for his regalia and teeth. Part of the last of the old wild indian society, he waits for his diorama to be completed at the Canadian Museum of Civilization so he can join his ancestors and sing with them again. He is Nlaka pamux/Secwepemc and spends his time in Kamloops, BC, when he isn’t hunting mastodon.

Deanna Peters/Mutable Subject is a dance artist and designer who creates for the stage, club, screen, web and print. It's all dance!

Evann Siebens makes media, performance and photos with movement. Her lens-based practice negotiates the human body as an archival site and the politics of the female gaze. She resides on the unceded lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) nations, and strives to be an ally and learn from Indigenous practices. Evann has lost count how many times she has collaborated with plastic orchid factory (six? seven?), but is always keen for the adventure.

Jack Chipman is a Vancouver-based projection designer and technologist. His work integrates physical elements into digital spaces through the use of cameras, digital props, and image filtering. He is excited by the merging of different mediums to create an immersive experience. Jack’s past credits include The Flying Dutchman (Vancouver Opera), An Undeveloped Sound (Electric Company Theatre), Szepty/Whispers (Rumble Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (Vancouver Symphony Orchestra), Dance Craft (Joe Ink), and Ghost Forest (Simon Fraser University).

James Gnam is the artistic director of plastic orchid factory, a founding member of Left of Main as well as an associate artist with MAYDAY and Grand Poney. He trained at the National Ballet School of Canada and from 1998 to the present, has performed in the works of Crystal Pite, Twyla Tharp, Mark Morris, Jiri Kylian, Barak Marshall and collaborated in the creation of new work with Lee Su-Feh, Jacques Poulin-Denis, Melanie Demers, Vanessa Goodman, Peter Bingham and Tedd Robinson. With plastic orchid, James collaboratively devises interdisciplinary work that has been supported by Opera Estate in Bassano Italy; Circuit-Est in Montreal; Centre Q and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa; Mile Zero Dance in Edmonton; The New Forms Festival, The Vancouver Art gallery and SFU Woodwards in Vancouver.

From Edinburgh, Scotland, where he received his initial theatre training, James Proudfoot has been living in Vancouver since 1993.  Specializing in the realm of dance lighting, he has contributed designs for works to many companies, including: Lola Dance, Company 605, Co. Erasga, Wen Wei Dance, Joe Ink, EDAM, The Contingency Plan, battery opera, Kinesis Dance, Ballet BC, Move The Company, Restless Productions, Holy Body Tattoo, MACHiNE NOiSY, Anatomica, Tara Cheyenne Performance, Les Productions Figlio, Gibney Dance, Trial & Eros, Rachel Meyer, Action at a Distance, Out Innerspace, Helen Walkley, Ballet Jazz Montréal, Justine A. Chambers, NDT 2 and plastic orchid factory.

Jela Ahn was born and raised in South Korea and has moved to British Columbia, the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations in 2018. She has been majoring Theatre Production & Design at SFU since then. She's doing theatre works without limitation based in South Korea & Canada, as a theatre maker. What she is more interested in is projection, shadow puppetry, and set design.

June Hsu (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist, musician, and theatre production designer passionate in all aspects of sound, video, and lighting. Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada –the unceded and stolen territories of the xwməθkwəy̓ əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, June has been surrounded by the colourful sounds and sights from the cities to the mountains; sparking an interest in exploring the interrelations between sounds and lights and their unique personalities. She is excited to be working with Plastic Orchid Factory on The Door Project.

Lee Su-Feh (she/her/they/them)’s work encompasses choreography, performance, teaching, dramaturgy, writing and community-organizing. Born and raised in Malaysia, they were indelibly marked by teachers who strove to find a contemporary Asian expression out of the remnants of colonialism and dislocated traditions. Since moving to Vancouver, Canada in 1988, Su-Feh has created a body of work that interrogates the contemporary body as a site of intersecting and displaced histories and habits. These works have taken place in theatres, on the streets, on beaches and in the forest, in print and online.

Natalie LeFebvre Gnam (she/elle) is a dance artist, producer, teacher, curator, performance maker and mother of two, originally from Lheidli T’enneh, now gratefully living and creating on unceded xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səlil̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Territory, also known as Vancouver. She is the Managing Producer at Electric Company and the Artistic Producer of plastic orchid factory.

Natalie Purschwitz is an artist living and working on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ First Nations, also known as Vancouver, Canada. Her research draws on modes of making that include collecting, accumulating, arranging, editing, and writing. She is curious about the ways that landscapes are shaped by humans and nonhumans, through systems of organization, networks of support, and ruptures within these systems. By reconfiguring everyday objects and elemental substances, Purschwitz creates conditions for material events. Her work incorporates a range of media including sculptural installation, video, performance, photography and drawing. She has a parallel practice designing costumes and sets for contemporary dance and theatre.

Tasha Faye Evans is a dancer, theatre artist, creative consultant, cultural programmer, and educator from a legacy of Coast Salish ,Welsh and European Jewish grandparents. Her work is an integration of dance, theatre and culture rooted in the sacred responsibility to care for the future of all of our relations. Her current projects include Cedar Woman, a mask dance honouring an ancestor turned into a tree during the Great Flood and In the Presence of Ancestors, a life -long exhibition of five Coast Salish House posts being carved and raised in Port Moody. With decades of performance and creation she has participated in performances and festivals nationally and internationally.

Victor Tran, aka B.Boy Savage Rock, is a Vietnamese-Canadian street dance artist residing on Coast Salish territories. He is known for his unique blend of improvisational techniques from street and contemporary dance. Savage is a member of the Now or Never crew, the oldest crew in Vancouver, and serves as an ambassador of Hip Hop culture. He is involved in advocacy, providing support for dancers through CADA/West, and collaborates with plastic orchid factory and interplay_ on live art presentations. Victor also engages in community organizing with the Breaking BC Foundation and Hustle at RS Dance Society.