People
Theatre Replacement’s Artistic Director is Maiko Yamamoto. A leader in the Vancouver and national arts scenes and known internationally for her work, Maiko has created over 25 new works for TR, drawing upon her love of formal inventiveness and exploration, conceptual play, creative research, artist-centred processes and experimental and multidisciplinary practice. Yamamoto often collaborates with intergenerational artists, individuals and family members in making work that searches for playful, immediate and authentic ways of bringing audiences and performances together.
TR was founded in 2004 by Yamamoto and James Long. The pair met in theatre school at Simon Fraser University and for over 18 years, led the company and established its foundational collaborative practice. Together, they were the co-recipients of the distinguished 2019 Siminovitch Prize in Directing, recognizing the influential shared and individual practices of the company's co-leaders.
In 2022, Yamamoto became the sole Artistic Director of the company. For TR, she continues to build experimental and intercultural new works that interrogate systems and structures for making and producing art and fosters opportunities for like-minded emerging and established artists to create works that expand the boundaries of contemporary performance. 2024 is TR's 20th anniversary, celebrating 2 decades of signature performances and ongoing programs designed to serve a diverse public.
Maiko YAMAMOTO
Co-founder + Artistic Director
Chelsea MACDONALD
Operations Director
Katie ROBERTS
Senior Producer
Jamie KING (JK)
Associate Producer
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Co-founder + Artistic Director
she/herMaiko Yamamoto is a Vancouver-based artist who creates new, experimental and intercultural works of performance. Many of these works are built through a career-long practice of collaboration and include theatre projects, public art works, and performance installations.
In 2003, Maiko co-founded the Vancouver-based performance company, Theatre Replacement. For TR she has created over 20 new works, many of which have toured to festivals and venues around the world. These include: BIOBOXES: Artifiacting Human Experience, Yu-Fo, Train, Sexual Practices of the Japanese, Dress me up in your love, Town Choir, MINE and Best Life. She also curates and produces HOLD ON LET GO (formerly PushOFF), and in 2018 began a new project-based artist residency program for experimental makers, COLLIDER.
In addition, Maiko teaches performance and mentors artists for a range of different companies and organizations, both in Canada and abroad. She has helped artists to develop new work through programs like MAKE, a residency initiative spearheaded by 4 arts organizations in Ireland, the National Theatre School of Canada’s Acting Program, Action Hero’s You Can Be My Wingman residency, and why not theatre’s ThisGen Fellowship. She also occasionally works as a curator and writes about performance for a variety of publications.
She holds a BFA in Theatre from Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts and a Masters of Applied Arts in Visual Art from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. She’s currently working on a new work with longtime collaborator and friend, Veda Hille.
Find out more about Maiko at: thelocalbubble.org
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Operations Director
she/herChelsea feels fortunate to work across multiple areas of theatre – as the Operations Director for Theatre Replacement, as an actor, independent theatre creator as well as providing operational support for The Chop Theatre, and is President of the Board of Directors at Theatre Conspiracy.
Having previously worked as TR’s Associate Producer Intern, Chelsea was thrilled to rejoin the TR team as their first Ops Manager in 2018, having admired the company’s work since attending theatre school at SFU, graduating with a BFA Hons in Theatre Performance and a love for experimental work.
In her artistic life, Chelsea has had the pleasure of working as an actor with Radix Theatre (on two iterations of acclaimed immersive performance TBD), Leaky Heaven Performance Society, rice and beans theatre, United Players, The Troika Collective, The Arts Club Actors Intensive, TR, and many others. She is a co-founder of experimental performance collective, O, o, o, o., with whom she has been fortunate to build and create a number of original works, and experimental stagings of beloved scripts.
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Senior Producer
she/herKatie has been working as a Producer, Project and Programme Manager in theatre and festivals for over 15 years in London, Edinburgh and Vancouver. Most recently Katie was Programme Manager for Edinburgh International Book Festival, the largest public celebration of the written word in the world, and during the covid-19 pandemic worked in local government as Arts Development Programmer for the London Borough of Richmond.
Having moved to Vancouver in 2018, Katie produced the 2019 and 2020 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival and Industry Series and also worked for Capilano University, Vancouver Creative Space Society and Fight With A Stick Performance in a freelance capacity.
Prior to this Katie worked in London for 10 years, producing festivals and multi art-form events at Southbank Cente (the UK's largest arts centre), managing artist development programmes for the Regional Theatre Young Directors' Scheme and producing national and international tours at Battersea Arts Centre and Turtle Key Arts. Katie holds a Masters in Drama and Theatre Studies (specializing in Producing, Promoting and Managing Theatre) from the University of Kent.
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Associate Producer
they/themA theatre producer, director and dramaturg, Jamie King was raised on the salt and rain of the unceded and ancestral lands of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (colonially, Vancouver). Before joining Theatre Replacement, Jamie worked as a producer with Caravan Farm Theatre, The Cultch, and Electric Company Theatre. As a director & creator they have been fortunate to have worked with Arts Club Theatre, Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan, Itsazoo Productions, Studio 58, Green Thumb Theatre, Caravan Farm Theatre, Upintheair Theatre, Pacific Theatre, Rumble Theatre, Speakeasy Theatre and Bard on The Beach, as well as some incredible artist collectives. Their practice focuses on the development of new work that speaks to contemporary issues through a comedic lens (and with a lot of heart).
Associate, Resident +
Collaborating Artists
James LONG
Co-founder + Associate Artist
Veda HILLE
Associate Artist
Keely O’BRIEN
COLLIDER Artist
2023
Cindy MOCHIZUKI
Associate Artist
Anjela MAGPANTAY
COLLIDER Artist
2024
Candelario ANDRADE
Associate Artist
Amy AMANTEA
Creative Access Consultant + Collaborator, Through My Lens
Conor WYLIE
Associate Artist
Amanda SUM
Collaborator, New Age Attitudes: Live in Concert
Arthi CHANDRA
Associate Artist
Board of Directors
Amanda HARDY
President, Executive & Fundraising Committees
Associate Director of Marketing & Communications,
SFU Faculty of Science
Greer ATTRIDGE
Vice President, Fundraising Committee Chair, PIPA Officer
Content Marketing Coordinator, Vancouver Art Gallery
David DIETRICH
Treasurer, Executive Committee Chair
Staff Accountant, D + H Group, LLP
Jarin SCHEXNIDER
Director at Large, HR & Fundraising Committees
Audience Services & Administration Manager, Music on Main
Grant BOLAND
Director at Large, HR Committee Chair
Labour Relations Advisor, Canadian Air Traffic Control Association
Briac MÉDARD de CHARDON
Director at Large, Executive Committee
Project Engineer, Carbon Engineering
Jiejun WU
Director at Large
Writer, Theatre Artist & Student, UBC
Sarah EWART
Director at Large
Labour and Employment Lawyer, Forte Workplace Law
Raugi YU
Director at Large
Actor