TART TALES
company bios

SHERRY MACDONALD
Playwright
Sherry’s plays have been staged in various cities in Canada and the U.S. and include The Seduction Theory, The Stone Face, The Duchess of Alba, Iraqi Karaoke, and Cowgirl Jane, among others. Also a filmmaker, her short films Blindspot, and Iraqi Karaoke (the latter based on her play) have been screened locally and internationally. Scenes from a Marriage (a work in-progress) has been developed through her participation as a story-teller at various story-telling events including Vancouver Story Slam, The Flame, and The Moth. Sherry is also working on a musical about the 1935 longshore workers’ strike in Vancouver titled Battle of Ballantyne Pier, excerpts of which were recently presented as part of Heart of the City, Magnetic North, and In Tune Festivals. While raising three boys as a single mother and dealing with an irrational ex-husband (ingredients for Scenes from a Marriage), Sherry returned to post-secondary education, eventually earning an MFA in Creative Writing from UBC. Her work is published by Anvil Press. Sherry has been a proud Tart member since the writing group’s inception six years ago.
SALLY STUBBS
Playwright
A Vancouver playwright and educator, Sally also directs, acts, and produces. Her scripts, published by Scirocco Drama, have been presented in Canada, Sweden, India, South Africa, and the U.S. Recently, Sally’s first screenplay – Doors & Windows – was a finalist in World Webfest Mania. Her play, Our Ghosts, was produced by Nanaimo’s Western Edge Theatre (dir. Wendy Wearne). It was also livestreamed as part of The Canadian Play Thing and #CanadaPerforms before receiving a live! (socially distanced) workshop in Vancouver (all directed by Rachel Peake). An excerpt of the script was published in Understorey Magazine (editor Natalie Meisner). Projects in process: Polly & the Penthouse: A Spirited Musical; Centurions webisodes; Silence & Centurions (working title), a documentary; Underbelly, a series pilot. Selected awards/honours: Canada Peace Play Prize (U of C/Downstage); Enbridge Award (ATP, Established Playwright); Writer in Residence, City of Richmond; Prime Minister’s award for her theatre work with youth. Sally is a proud co-founder of CASA: a Canadian-South African partnership between Playwrights Guild of Canada and the African Women Playwrights Network. She is also a happy Tart, and thanks both the Tarts and Wet Ink Collective for their support. Big thanks to Janet Munsil and TCPT! www.sallystubbswriter.com www.thecenturionsproject.ca
TINA TEENINGA
Playwright
Vancouver-based playwright and actor, Tina has a curiosity and passion for investigating what it
means to be human. Recent credits include multiple major roles in Movin’ On Up new play festi-
val (Staircase Theatre), Women of Lockerbie (Lock & Key), Agnes of God (Stones Throw/Pacific Theatre), and Wolf at the Door (Otherwise Productions), which she also wrote and produced.
She wrote and starred in Saddest Girl in the World, seen all across Canada. Currently two scripts, Red Bicycle and Sparrow’s Nest are in development with Pacific Theatre. Tina is pres-
ently raising two spirited children and one rascally puppy with her amazing partner, James.
LESLIE STARK
Playwright
Leslie Stark is a playwright, poet, performer, dancer, mom, high school teacher, and founder of the Elegant Ladies Collective (Vancouver Fringe Festival, 2014-2018). She has been with the Tarts since the early days. She is also a small business owner (Serenity Hoops) sings in a band (The Appetizers), and she serves on the boards for VPH, Touchstone Theatre and VIDF. Leslie has a BA in Drama (U of Manitoba) and a BEd and MFA in Creative Writing (UBC), where she and Sherry MacDonald met and were in a playwright’s cabal together. She has been published in Geist, Kiss Machine, and Fugue, and is the editor of the upcoming poetry collection “Cotelydon” published by Vancouver Poetry House. In non-Covid times, she often performs at spoken word and storytelling events. She lives on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples–Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations.
CHRIS LAM
Reader
Chris Lam is an actor, director and playwright currently working and living on unceded Coast Salish Lands. His recent directing credits include AMÉLIE, GIRLFRIEND, FRANKENSTEIN: LOST IN DARKNESS and WHAT A YOUNG WIFE OUGHT TO KNOW. He has worked with Gateway Theatre, Firehall Arts Centre, Pacific Theatre, Boca Del Lupo, Arts Club, Frank Theatre, Urban Ink, VACT to name a few. He is also the recipient of the Ray Michal Award for Outstanding Emerging Director, Ovation Award and CTC Award for best Director. He was a reader for Sangeeta Wylie's WE THE SAME as part of the Heart of the City Festival being presented in November 2020.
ADAM HENDERSON
Reader
Adam trained at The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. In England, he acted with The National Theatre, in London’s West End, at theatres across Europe, and danced at Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House. Favorite Vancouver theatre roles include Jerusalem, Waiting for Godot, All that Fall, Peer Gynt, Mary Stewart, Cyrano de Bergerac & Dial M for Murder. He teaches voice acting at UBC, and The Vancouver Film School, and was dialect coach on films like Disney’s “Tomorrowland”, Netfix’s “Altered Carbon”, and “Nancy Drew”, “Arrow”, “Psych” etc, and for The Arts Club, and other theatres. He has directed many shows for United Players, Persephone Theatre etc and has recorded hundreds of audio books.