Michele Decottignies, Artistic Director
Michele Decottignies is an award-winning Calgary-based playwright, producer, presenter, and director. She is also one of Calgary's most accomplished Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) facilitators, having taking master training in Canada and the U.S. and used TO techniques in her arts-based community development and social justice practice, and in professional interdisciplinary artist-community collaboration, for over a decade now. Over the past three years, Michele has received over $200,000 from national and provincial arts funders to continue her professional artist-community collaboration, and has received many awards/ honors for her work with diverse communities.

She was recently awarded the Moondance Columbine Playwrighting Award for the advancement of non-violent resolutions to conflict in Mercy Killing or Murder: The Tracy Latimer Story as well as being named by Alberta Playwrights’ Network at one of Alberta’s Top 100. Michele was also recently awarded with a Calgary Award for community achievement in the arts. In 2005, she received the Alliance Atlantis Award of Distinction, given to the person in Canada who has made the most outstanding contribution to the disability arts and culture movement. Michele was also the 2005 recipient of the Calgary Professional Arts Alliance’s Enbridge Emerging Artist Award and the 2005 U of C Fine Arts Creative Achievement Award in Drama.

Michele was one of only eight people from all over the world to take an advanced Master Class in Theatre of the Oppressed techniques with David Diamond (Headlines Theatre) and Marc Weinblatt (The Mandala Centre for Awareness and Transformation) and a Master Class in Theatre of the Oppressor techniques with Marc Weinblatt (The Mandala Centre) and Cheryl Harrison (Seattle Liberation Theatre). Her ongoing social justice pursuits were recently recognized by Augusto Boal and the International Theatre of the Oppressed organization, with a declaration of Stage Left Productions as one of only six world-wide Centres for the Theatre of the Oppressed. Her work with people with developmental disabilities was featured on the CBC National TV program Moving On, on the CBC National Radio program The Arts Today, on Pyramid Production’s TV Series The Criminal Mind; and in a variety of print media.

Michele has written, produced, and directed over 200 plays and has been published in Canadian Theatre Review, the journal Medical Education (England), MRC Reflections, and Theatre Alberta News; she also co-edited the Spring, 2005 issue of Canadian Theatre Review on “theatre and disability”. She’s currently engaging in Theater of the Oppressed work with several different communities across Alberta and BC; developing Canada’s Disability Arts & Culture Network; curating Balancing Acts: Calgary's Annual Disability Arts Festival; facilitating training on the Stage Left model; and providing drama education to disabled people.

Michele has worked with Crazy Horse Theatre, One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre, Theatre Calgary, Alberta Theatre Projects, Live Arts Theatre Alberta, and Lunchbox Theatre. She assisted Michael Green in founding the Performance Creation Canada Network, and is currently a member of it’s Steering Committee, plus an active member of the International Theater of the Oppressed organization, a featured artist in the Alberta Playwrights’ Network Catalogue, and Stage Left’s representative to the International Guild of Disabled Artists and Performers.

Michele is a graduate with distinction of Mount Royal College’s Theatre Arts Diploma Program, as well as the recipient (with distinction) of a BFA in Secondary Drama Education from the University of Calgary. She intends to do an interdisciplinary PhD at UBC, examining arts-based community development processes with marginalized communities as a social justice modality.

Nicole Dunbar, Associate Artistic Director
Nicole Dunbar is an exceptional emerging artist in the realm of professional artist community collaboration. In only a few short years, she has developed innovative and accessible approaches to professional theatre for a generation of future artists that include children and youth; youth and adults with disabilities; at-risk youth, and LGBTQ youth. Besides her use of the Stage Left model, Nicole’s artistic expression is focused exclusively on increasing access to the professional arts community to those facing barriers. To this end, she has developed a performance style that immerses community artists in performance creation, while being attentive to the high artistic merit necessary in visual story-telling, clowning, and physical theatre.

Nicole primarily has a passion for the use of performance to create community, and has created exceptional drama education and exploration programs for people with disabilities with the Autism and Asperger’s Friendship Society, Optional Rehabilitation Services, and other disability service providers. She also does an extensive amount of work with children and youth, as a founding member of Kids Plays Klassics, lending her talents to the Calgary International Children’s Festival, as well as a number of other companies and projects, and as a family entertainer, director, and producer.

Nicole is also an accomplished actor, director, playwright, and producer and has worked with many local theatre companies. As a solo artist, she has written and enacted seven original performances that make excellent use of visual theatre, physical story-telling, and animated engagement. As a member of an ensemble (Kids Plays Klassics), she has guided the development of seventeen new Canadian plays, many of them original adaptations of classic fairy tales, in addition to directing, producing, and acting in them. Her work has reached a new audience of over 10,000 people.

With Stage Left Productions, Nicole has an active role in the continual evolution of the Stage Left arts-based community development and social justice model. Her expertise has brought several new initiatives to the company, including a Transitions Drama Program for disabled youth who are using Popular Theatre and Theatre of the Oppressed Techniques to learn to navigate their way into the adult world and who are now also being mentored in production and/ or performance roles at Balancing Acts. She was also the principal dramaturge, assistant director, co-producer, and principal actor to Notwithstanding, has taken over the reigns as Producer of Balancing Acts, and is the Associate Producer of Canada’s Disability Arts & Culture Network and Co-Chair of the national Steering Committee. Outside of the disability community, Nicole is also working with Stage Left on the development of the Calgary Centre for the Theatre of the Oppressed, and engaged in Theatre of the Oppressed work with many different communities.

Nicole is a graduate of the University of Calgary, with undergraduate degrees in the Fine Arts and Psychology. She is the recipient of numerous awards/ nominations and scholarships for academic excellence, including the Donald Norman Balancing Acts Memorial Award, the Victor Mitchell Award, a Jason Lang Scholarship, and an International Student Centre Travel Bursary. Her goal is to combine the Stage Left arts-based community development model with drama therapy to engage in international development initiatives through-out the world. After her stint with Stage Left, and a few years immersed in international development initiatives abroad, Nicole intends to complete a Master’s Degree in Drama Therapy and to establish a practice in the use of the arts in personal wellness, development, and social justice.

Shelly Hering, Choreographer
Shelly is presently a student at the U of C studying both Dance and Disability Studies. She has been in the performing arts for over ten years and enjoys using a variety of mediums to perform. With most of her experience in dance, she has studied, performed, and taught a wide variety of different dance techniques. Shelly has some theatre experience as well and has really enjoyed learning more about and expanding her knowledge of drama and acting. Last year she had an opportunity to try her hand at directing and found the experience exciting and eye opening!

Shelly has also recently become interested in, and had several opportunities to be involved with, some film related projects and short films. Shelly's interest in and desire to work with and be involved in the disability community has allowed her to meet some fascinating and extremely gifted people. She has enjoyed the many different areas and places that it has taken her. Stage Left has been a wonderful opportunity for her to combine her great interest in the arts and performing with her desire to work in the disability community. She has already learned and enjoyed so much, and she looks forward to all the new and exciting challenges and opportunities that will come.

Paul Martin, Webmaster
Paul brings his years of programming and web design expertiese to the Webmaster position. He has designed web pages for Stage Left Productions, The Cerebral Palsy Association in Alberta, and The University of Calgary, just to name a few. Paul graduated from The Southern Alberta Institute of Technology, with a Computer Technology Diploma. He has had many years of experience with computers, and considers them as one of his hobbies.

His accomplishments include receiving a Rutherford Scholarship, and winning third place in a provincial bowling tournament (5-pin).

When not on a computer, he can be found curling or watching baseball.

If you would like to contact Paul, you can email him at paulbmartin@operamail.com