For more information please email: origins (at) vcn.bc.ca

THE COMPANY

Donnard MacKenzie is the founder of Origins Theatre Projects Society and an awarding winning producer. He’s toured throughout BC and western Canada as an actor, acting with various Vancouver and Victoria companies, as well as the Caravan Stage Company. His acting credits with Origins include Blue Dragons, Ambushed and Diary of A Madman, and The Poet, The Friend and The Dark Lady. His recent directing credits include Origins workshop production of Defining Moments. In Victoria, he was artistic director of the student company with Kaleidoscope Theatre. More recently, he’s been an ongoing player with the Shakespeare Project. He also co founded CineVic, Victoria’s independent filmmaker’s society and created the independent feature film Wooden Nickels. A graduate of the National Voice Intensive SFU, Donnard also graduated with a BFA from UVic. He’s a proud father of two. In recent years, he’s focused more on his writing, and is now in his 2nd year in UBC’s Creative Writing MFA program. This year, he was awarded the prestigious Malcolm Lowry Scholarship for Writing. Last year he played in Beggars At The Waters Of Immortality at Pacific Theatre.

As the Artistic Director of Origins, Donnard has been active with the GVPTA’s advocacy committee, coordinating an ad hoc group to focus attention on the small venue producing companies in Vancouver.

Artistic Associates

Sara Graefe is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, fiction writer, and sometimes poet. Her stage plays--which include Sadly as I Tie My Shoes, Scribbles, Dreamspyre, and Yellow on Thursdays --have been produced as far afield as Ottawa's National Arts Centre, Yukon's Nakai Theatre, the Sydney Opera House, and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

She recently spent a year as a writer resident at Norman Jewison's prestigious Canadian Film Centre in Toronto. Now back in Vancouver, she's currently a writer and story editor for Edgemont, CBC-TV's teen series. Sara is a member of the Writers Guild of Canada, the Playwrights Union of Canada, and the Seven Sisters Writing Group.

Michael Charrois is a Vancouver-based professional actor (Equity, Actra/UBCP), street performer, writer and director; a jack-of-all-trades willing to do anything to avoid the 9 to 5 grind. He has been a professional, working actor since 1986. In the summer he likes to tour around performing one-man street shows at Festivals, and in the winter he trys to stay warm (if not dry) living in the Vancouver rain forest.

Michael is also an accomplished writer, recent productions include The
Illumination of Marshall McLuhan, and The Happy Anarchist. Origins was
pleased to assist in producing The Happy Anarchist, produced by The Happy Anarchist Equity Co-op. It was a site specific work at the New Amsterdam Cafe in the spring of 2003.

Anthony Ingram was pleased to have been the Director/Conceiver--Beggars At The Waters of Immortality, and the coordinating artist for Dumb Prophet Equity Coop.

Anthony is an actor in Film and Television as well as a whole lot of Theatre. Having graduated from the University of British Columbia with a BA in English and Theatre followed by 3 years of actor's training at Studio 58, he has spent the last nine years working full time as a professional actor...and he has never...EVER...been a waiter!

THANKS TO ALL OUR COLLABORATING ARTISTS!

It takes many people to build various theatre projects over the years. Origins Theatre Projects sends a big thank you to all of the artists who have worked to create the company's projects. Please watch here as we create a page honouring those artists.