Our Team

Michelle Urbano

(she/her)

Artistic Director

Michelle Urbano is a Toronto theatre creator, puppeteer, storyteller, and producer, recognized in 2017 by Cahoots Theatre as one of their “30 for 30” – 30 artists shaping the next 30 years of Toronto theatre. Her background is in devised theatre and new play creation, and as such, she feels most at home working with a team on creative projects. Michelle was the Producer for SiA’s otîhêw last summer. She lives just on the other side of the Humber River, and is thrilled to be connecting more deeply with the Weston community through her new position as Artistic Director.

Michelle was the co-Artistic Director and Producer for the award-winning found-object puppetry company, Artichoke Heart and recently Produced the Toronto International Storytelling Festival, leading the project in its 43rd (2022) and 44th (2023) edition. She recently completed a tour of Quest for the Moon, and Old Man and the River with the Wee Festival. She was an artist-in-residence at Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, and completed three tours with the company (Canada, USA, China). She has performed and worked in a variety of capacities with the CBC, Factory Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Theatre by the Bay, Pandemic Theatre, Eldritch Theatre, the Old Trout Puppet Workshop, and more.

JR Williams

she/they

Executive Director

JR Williams has a background in nonprofit project management. They earned their Master of Arts degree in Psychology from The New School before spending several years as Associate Director of a nonprofit serving survivors of gender-based violence. Within academia, JR specialized in the psychology of identity within a social and interpersonal context. They have significant experience in community-based and narrative-based research methods and data analysis. As the previous Associate Director of a nonprofit, they were responsible for multiple facets of the organization’s functioning. Eventually deciding that storytelling was the purpose of life, they started pursuing production work for both stage and screen, and have worked in theatre since 2021.

Our Executive Board