Kitchen Potluck 2025

June 23rd 8:00pm
at The Theatre Centre

Photo: A Taste of Hong Kong, 2025
Pictured: Derek Chan

Three new plays, four brilliant playwrights, and seventeen artists to bring it all to life.

Your emcee for the night . . .

郝邦 宇 STEVEN HAO

Virgin Camp

A new Canadian musical by Cynthia Jimenez-Hicks and Cameron Kneteman
Dramaturgy by Marie Beath Badian
Workshopped by Kimberly-Ann Truong, Ellie Posadas, Chariz Faulmino

Virgin Camp – It’s horrifying. It’s hilarious. It’s holy. Think Joseph Kahn directs a musical in a megachurch basement after ten tabs of acid. Hyper-stylized. Explosive. Genre-bending. Uncompromising. A gospel of glitter and grief, Virgin Camp is not just a musical — it’s a ritual. A drag baptism. A hip-pop prayer. A campy crucifixion of everything we were taught to revere. At its core, Virgin Camp asks: What happens when you’ve been taught to kill the woman inside you — and she refuses to die?

Creative Team

Playwright

  • Cynthia (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist from Amiskwaciwâskahikan. THEATRE: Wendy in Wendy and Peter Pan, Cymbeline (Stratford), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Broadway, San Francisco), The Candidate, The Party, Christmas Carol (Citadel), Girls Like That (Tarragon), Boys Girls…Mythological Creatures (Carousel Players), Midsummer 70’s Musical - Associate Choreographer, Little Women - Choreographer (Citadel). FILM: Law&Order (Citytv), Barbelle (KindaTV), Hudson&Rex (CityTV), FROM (MGM), Rubble&Crew (Nickelodeon). Many moons ago Cynthia wrote Apple as part of fG’s Kitchen Creation Unit - cut to this year… Cynthia and Cameron adapted Apple into the pop musical it was always meant to be, VIRGIN CAMP. Big thanks to fu-GEN for all the support! www.cynthiajimenezhicks.com

Playwright

  • Cameron (he/him) is an actor, singer, composer, and acting coach from Amiskwaciwâskahikan. After being in a relationship with Cynthia for 14 years, Cameron helped convert her catholic trauma into a banger of a hip-pop musical. Cameron is the co-creator of Tune to A, developed with Carly Neis and Cynthia Jimenez-Hicks for Azimuth Theatre’s Expanse Festival. He also wrote and starred in the experimental short film Ouch, My Childhood, directed by Cassidy Civiero. His other musical-in-progress, DVP: Don't Violate Parks, is a hip-hopera about a foul-mouthed, nature-loving goblin who haunts litterers in Toronto’s Don Valley. Cameron is driven to build stories that are unapologetically engaging. VIRGIN CAMP is his first full-length musical.

Dramaturg

  • Cynthia (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist from Amiskwaciwâskahikan. THEATRE: Wendy in Wendy and Peter Pan, Cymbeline (Stratford), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Broadway, San Francisco), The Candidate, The Party, Christmas Carol (Citadel), Girls Like That (Tarragon), Boys Girls…Mythological Creatures (Carousel Players), Midsummer 70’s Musical - Associate Choreographer, Little Women - Choreographer (Citadel). FILM: Law&Order (Citytv), Barbelle (KindaTV), Hudson&Rex (CityTV), FROM (MGM), Rubble&Crew (Nickelodeon). Many moons ago Cynthia wrote Apple as part of fG’s Kitchen Creation Unit - cut to this year… Cynthia and Cameron adapted Apple into the pop musical it was always meant to be, VIRGIN CAMP. Big thanks to fu-GEN for all the support! www.cynthiajimenezhicks.com

living arrangements

A new Canadian play by Keshia Palm
Dramaturgy by Elyne Quan
Composition by Maddie Bautista
Workshopped by Merlin Simard, isi bhakhomen, Janice Jo Lee, Liz Der, Adam Palaozza

living arrangements' is a portrait of 5 people as they try and fail to maintain civility (and sanity) amidst changing housing circumstances in Toronto. When the lease-holding roommate breaks the news that she's bought a condo with her partner and is moving out, the landlord agrees to transfer the lease — to one of the 2 remaining roommates. What follows is an absurd fight for who deserves to keep their (affordable) housing, who doesn't, and what happens to them next. Using a 3-bedroom apartment in Toronto's west end as ground zero, their story (and the story of Canada's housing crisis) is told using music, physical theatre, puppets, and theatre magic.

Creative Team

Playwright

  • Keshia Palm (they/them) is a Tkaron:to based director, dramaturge, creator, performer, producer, and mentor from Treaty 6 territory. They have supported new work development from vancouver island in the pacific ocean to newfoundland in the atlantic. They hope to create art and spaces that bring and hold us together in all our multitudes. Keshia is the former artistic producer for Paprika Theatre Festival (2021-2024), a Gina Wilkinson Prize recipient, and the 2025 Tarragon Theatre Urjo Kareda Resident Artist. @keshiapalm // keshiapalm.com

Dramaturg

  • Elyne is a writer, actor, dramaturg and director for theatre, TV, film and interactive media. Dramaturgical credits include the Dora nominated Between a Wok and a Hot Pot by Amanda Lin. Playwriting credits include Souvenirs of Home, Stray, Surface Tension, and the award winning Lig & Bittle (co-written/co-performed with Jared Matsunaga-Turnbull). Her most recent play commissions include an adaptation of Jane Eyre, The Hidden Slipstream and Listen, Listen. Elyne’s TV writing credits include THE WAY HOME, HUDSON & REX and WONG & WINCHESTER.

Composer

  • Maddie Bautista (she/her) is a Bi, Saudi Arabia-born Filipina sound designer and composer based in Treaty 13, Tkaronto. In the daytime, you can catch Maddie creating and shaping sound in iconic theatres across the country – from composing original music in the earliest stages of new work development, to tuning systems with live musicians and mid-sized casts. She has created music and sound design for over 80 productions and counting across Canada, for theatres such as the Stratford Festival, Alberta Theatre Projects, The Grand Theatre, Theatre Aquarius, Soulpepper, the Tarragon, and more. After the sun goes down, she moonlights as half of xLq with Jordan Campbell – a queer pop performance duo who tours across the country with their daring, interactive theatre and bizarre, grungy drag. Maddie received 2 Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Love You Wrong Time (Outstanding Sound design and composition, and Outstanding Ensemble). www.maddiebautista.com

Table!

A new Canadian play by Antong Xu
Dramaturgy by Derek Chan (陳嘉昊)
Workshopped by To be announced

Table is born (assembled) in an immigrant family. Table then learns about the world as well as themself. Table talks. Table witnesses. The family moves, abandoning Table. Table travels. Table dies. In the end, on a trash mountain, Table is resurrected. 

Creative Team

Playwright

  • Antong Xu (he/him) is a settler, born and raised in Qinhuangdao, China, now based in Tkaronto. Sometimes he performs, sometimes he writes. He’s absolutely thrilled to join fu-GEN’s Kitchen Potluck this year! He was part of Tarragon Theatre’s Young Playwright Unit 2024 where he developed Table (now titled Table!). He had been developing another bilingual play at First Born Theatre’s Playwriting Roundtable 2025 while procrastinating on several other projects that may never be completed. Though he is still trying, trying.

Dramaturg

  • Derek Chan (陳嘉昊) grew up in colonial Hong Kong, studied in Norway, and currently lives and works on the stolen and ancestral lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, colonially known as Vancouver. Derek received his BFA in theatre performance from Simon Fraser University. A playwright, director, performer, translator, and producer, Derek has been co-artistic director of rice & beans theatre since 2010. He has also worked with Playwrights Theatre Centre (artistic director apprentice), Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre (associate artistic producer), and the rEvolver Festival (guest curator). Derek has been a National Arts Centre English Theatre Artist in Residence (19/20) with yellow objects, a new installation-exhibition in support of the ongoing pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. His play, Chicken Girl (2019/20), won the Sydney Risk Award for Outstanding Original Play by an Emerging Playwright, and was nominated for Outstanding Original Script at the Jessies.

Kitchen Potluck 2025 Actors

  • living arrangements

    Merlin Simard (she/they/iel/elle) is a performer, playwright, dramaturge, and screenwriter originally from Tiohtiá:ke (Montréal), now based in Tkarón:to (Toronto). As a performer, Merlin has worked with Factory Theatre, TDT, Stratford, Crow’s, Outside The March, Buddies In Bad Times, Talk is Free, and many other theatre companies across Canada.

    She has also acted on Grand Army (Netflix) and This Life (CBC), as well as in the short film Poils Anyways (Fittonia Inc.), which she also wrote. Merlin is also developing several projects spanning across theatre, TV, and VR in both English and French. Her practice focuses on themes of access, gender euphoria, technology, and multilingual performance.

    @hussy4hussy \ merlinsimard.com

  • living arrangements

    Magda “isi bhakhomen” Uculmana-Falcón (they/them) is a downtown Toronto-based artist. Their varied works explore themes of healing, black femme power, ancestral memory, rhythm, humour and absurdity. Through stories they aim to build worlds that give black folks the freedom to breathe, to laugh and to heal.

  • living arrangements

    Liz Der is a queer, mixed-race, Dora Award-nominated actor, writer, and collaborator. Her heritage often features in her work as she explores what it means for her to culturally cross-pollinate and create understandings of home. Liz loves the little things: the minutiae of everyday life that move us closer together; small gifts like trading ratios for salad dressings, sharing a too-small umbrella, or cracking a joke at just the right time.

    Past performance credits include: Trojan Girls and the Outhouse of Atreus (Outside the March/ Factory), The House of Bernarda Alba (Aluna/ Modern Times) and Shadow Girls (Pencil Kit Productions).

  • living arrangements

    Janice Jo Lee (she/they) is a queer Korean folk musician, spoken word poet, bouffon-clown, theatre maker, sound designer and arts educator born and based in Toronto. She has released three albums of music, two poetry chapbooks, and has composed music and sound for two musicals and five plays. Janice works as the DEIA Coordinator for Folk Alliance International. This summer she is directing Play Play Clown Theatre’s Hope in Hot Times at the Hamilton Fringe, produced with support from Theatre Direct. In August her band Janice Jo Lee and the QTs makes their South Korean debut at the Jeonju International Sori Festival.

    janicejolee.ca @janjolee

  • living arrangements

    Adam Paolozza is an award winning performer, director, teacher, and producer. With his company Bad New Days Adam creates collaboratively-devised, imagistic theatre, guided by the belief that the live experience has the potential to activate unique ways of seeing the world.

    Bad New Days highlights: The Double; Flashing Lights; Paolozzapedia; the Dora award-winning Italian Mime Suicide; and Last Landscape.

    Other highlights: Direction: Finding Home (*Dora award nomination); The Cave (by JMar Electric). Acting: Feu Monsieur Feydeau (Théâtre Français Toronto)

    Adam is a graduate of Ecole Jacques Lecoq and has a Performance Studies MA from York.

  • Virgin Camp

    Ellie Posadas is a Queer Filipinx-Canadian, multidisciplinary artist from Scarborough, Ontario. She is a co-creator, and performer of the award winning, comedy theatre group, ‘Tita Collective’. Ellie was featured in the 2021 TIFF for the world premiere of ‘Scarborough’, based on the award winning novel by Catherine Hernandez (Vancouver Film Critics Circle nominee for ‘Best Supporting Actress’ in a Canadian Film 2021). She is an alumni of Randolph Academy’s Triple Threat Program. Other selected credits include: ‘Swipe Right: U up?’(Second City, Understudy), The Penelopiad (Hart House), Emily and EV (Nota Collective), SILENCED (HERstory Counts), Avenue Q (The LOT).