Musical Theatre Lab 4

Coleen Shirin MacPherson is an international theatre artist, playwright and director based in Toronto. She trained at École Jacques Lecoq in Paris and is the artistic director of Open Heart Surgery Theatre, a female-led physical theatre company that creates new devised work that is poetic, relevant and experimental. She has been making theatre since 2014; as a half Parsi-Indian, Irish-Canadian theatre maker, her work often engages with ideas of cross-cultural collaboration, bending borders and aims to speak to the current moment. Her play This Is Why We Live was part of the 58th Season at La MaMa in New York City and went on to VOILA! Europe where it earned an OFFIE nomination in 2022.  She has been creative lead on Wild Women Podcast, an audio drama in collaboration with Martha Ross (CBC/Digital Now Grant).  Her work has toured internationally to Egypt, Poland, France, the UK, China and the U.S.A. She is the recipient of the Ken MacDougall Award in Directing. Coleen has taught Playwriting at The University of Toronto; Devised Theatre at Brock University, Sheridan College and Hairpin Arts and was Assistant Director at the Stratford Festival for Antoni Cimolino's Richard III in the 2022 season. She is currently Creator in Residence at Cahoots Theatre (Toronto) and part of the Experimental Theatre Troupe with Modern Times Theatre Company. Her play, Erased will premiere at Theatre Passe Muraille this November 2024 as part of their season.  She is excited to teach Lab 4 at Randolph again this year!