Bill Millerd Artist Fund helps theatre artists hone skills in everything from singing to shamisen-playing and wig-making
The 2021 recipients were announced for the program named for the Arts Club Theatre’s director emeritus
WIG-MAKING, comedy dramaturgy, voice-training, shamisen-playing, and puppetry lessons: they’re just some of the skills this year’s Bill Millerd Artist Fund will help its recipients hone.
The Arts Club Theatre has just announced the creatives who would receive this year’s funding—$35,000 in all.
The program set up in honour of the Arts Club’s artistic director emeritus aims to assist the development of B.C. theatre artists and arts workers through a wide array of mentorships, workshops, lessons, residencies, and other training.
This year’s recipients include khattiQ, recently seen in Catalina La O Presenta: Ahora Conmigo, who’s tagged for a composition mentorship with Ashley Pearce; theatre artist Shanae Sodhi, who’ll take on an activist apprenticeship with Donna-Michelle St. Bernard; performer Kevin Takahide Lee, with Japanese language and shamisen lessons; wig and costume designer Sean Malmas and wig stylist Donnie Tejani to pursue wig-styling and -making courses; BIG Sister playwright and dramaturg Deborah Vogt, who’s slated for a comedy dramaturg mentorship; designer, composer, and multidisciplinary artist Olivia Wheeler, for puppetry training with the National Puppetry Conference; performer-creator Johnny Wu, for a playwrighting residency with ESP-I; actor Hilary Wheeler, for training with intimacy directors and coordinators; Rusticate Theatre artistic producer Tamara McCarthy, for an Indigenous cultural mentorship with Tsatassaya White; Mestiza dancer/actor AJ Simmons, for a flamenco mentorship with Oscar Nieto; Syrian-Canadian actor Abraham Asto, who’ll pursue voice-training; writer-creator Scott Button, with a “Stage to Screen” mentorship; actor-dancer-performance coach Karyn Mott, for intimacy director training with NSIP; actor Phay Moores, for a diversity and inclusion mentorship with Naheyawin; director-performer Cory Haas, with an artistic director apprenticeship with Théâtre la Seizième; dancer-performer Ghislaine Doté, to take singing lessons with Vera Wenkert; and stage manager Tanya Mathivanan, for tuition support for the MFA program at UBC.
Millerd based the fund on his own experience, in the early 1960s, when a Koerner Foundation grant allowed him to attend the National Theatre School. He seeded a fund with a significant donation that was then built up to an endowment by more than 1,000 donors and a contribution from the Department of Canadian Heritage. He launched it when he retired from the Arts Club in 2018, after helming the organization for 46 years.
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