Of the Sea

Librettist

Kanika Ambrose is a playwright, librettist, and screenwriter. She has been playwright-in-residence at Obsidian Theatre COmpany and Cahoots Theatre. Her critically acclaimed play “our place,” was first produced by Cahoots Theatre and Theatre Passe Muraille in November 2022. Her children’s opera “Anansi and the Great Light” with composer Nick diBerardino and the students at Girard College premiered at Curtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia) in 2019. Other short works have premiered across North America including celebrated digital work “Tak-Tak-Shoo” with composer Rene Orth at Opera Philadelphia.

As a screenwriter, Kanika has worked in several development rooms and is in residence at Canadian Film Centre’s Bell Media Primetime TV Program (2022-2023).

Kanika is a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University and is Associate Artistic Director of Necessary Angel Theatre Company. She was featured as one of Cahoots Theatre Company’s 30 for 30 theatre makers for their 30th anniversary season.

Composer

Ian Cusson is a composer of Métis and French Canadian descent. His work explores Canadian Indigenous experience including the history of the Métis people, the hybridity of mixed-racial identity, and the intersection of Western and Indigenous cultures. He has studied with Jake Heggie, Samuel Dolin, James Anagnoson and Johannes Debus.

Ian is an inaugural Carrefour Composer in Residence with the National Arts Centre Orchestra for 2017-2019 and is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers. He lives in Oakville with his wife and four children.

Director

Philip Akin is an award-winning cultural leader and has been acting and directing for 46 years. He is a founding member of Obsidian Theatre, Canada’s leading Black theatre company, and has served as its Artistic Director from 2006 to 2020.

Selected Directing Credits: Shaw Festival: Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress, Gatsby Jazz, Sonny’s Blues by Jay Turvey/Paul Sportelli; Young People’s Theatre: Million Billion Pieces by David Brock/Gareth Williams; Obsidian Theatre: Pass Over by Antoinette Nwandu; Harold Green Jewish Theatre: Actually by Anne Zeigler, The Humans by Stephen Karam.

Philip Akin has been the recipient of the Silver Ticket Award, the Mallory Gilbert Leadership Award, the Playwrights Guild of Canada Bra d’Or Award, the William Kilbourn Award, the Herbert Whittaker/CTCA Award for Distinguished Contribution to Canadian Theatre, the Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, as well as the Life Membership Award from Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.

He is currently the vice-president of the board for Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre (2009 to present) and a director on the boards of the Koffler Centre of the Arts, Against the Grain Theatre and the Shaw Festival.

Conductor

JENNIFER TUNG is the Artistic director of Toronto City Opera and assistant conductor of the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra, Chinese-Canadian conductor Jennifer Tung leads a uniquely versatile career as music director and pianist. In 2020/21, she joined Tapestry Opera as a conducting fellow in the inaugural year of the Women in Musical Leadership program, in partnership with Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Pacific Opera Victoria. As part of her time within the program, Jennifer served as assistant conductor for the world premiere of Brian Current’s Gould’s Wall for Tapestry Opera, and a brand new production of Orfeo ed Euridice by Vancouver Opera in collaboration with Ne Sans.