Accelerator Lab
Accelerator Lab
About the program
Accelerator Lab International Fellowship is a cohort-based program for 4 mid-career, Vancouver-based experimental theatre artists, focused on mentorship, shared learning, cultural exchange and experience in international networking.
Over the year, through both group-based and individual activities, the cohort will explore new ways to grow mobility for their work and reinvigorate the current context for international touring, networking and relationship building.
2024/25 Edition
The inaugural edition of Accelerator Lab took place throughout TR’s 2024/25 season. Activities included attending the 2024 Noorderzon Festival in Groningen, Netherlands, six sessions between the artists and their International Mentors, ongoing sessions with TR’s Artistic Director, Maiko Yamamoto and sharing findings and discoveries through a Community Conversation as part of HOLD ON LET GO’s Festival Gatherings. Information on Cohort Artists and their International Mentors is available below.
The anticipated impact of Accelerator Lab is to grow structures that will develop new national and international networks and partnerships. It will transform local and national ecosystems for the next generation of experimental artists by introducing new practices and structures to reinvigorate the community, prioritizing artistic innovation and excellence on par with other cultural centres around the world. This is particularly meaningful post-pandemic, but we also hope to use this opportunity to identify ever-emerging contexts for artists, energizing them to propose sustainable models for their work moving forward, building a critical body of knowledge for our sector.
Accelerator Lab was funded by the Canada Council for the Arts and the City of Vancouver. For more information on the program, contact maiko@theatrereplacement.org.
The Acclerator Lab Cohort
Davey Samuel CALDERON (he/they/siya) is a director, performer, writer, producer, drag artist, dramaturg, and settler on the unceded lands of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples. He is the Co-Founder of New(to)Town Collective, a former training and experimental theatre collective known for economically accessible workshops and devised performances. He’s known for Big Queer Filipino Karaoke Night! (various presentations, 2018-2023) and his musical in development, Deep Fried: A Pinoy Musical! (PTC Company Collaboration with support from Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre). Currently, he is PTC’s Dramaturg, Public Engagement. Select dramaturgy credits include, The Frontliners by Zahida Rahemtulla (2022 Vancouver Fringe Festival), The Parallel Project by 180 Momentum Collective (ongoing), and it lives in my bedroom by Mily Mumford (2021-23 PTC Associate). As a producer and arts worker, he’s had the privilege of working with nationally recognized companies, such as Upintheair Theatre, Neworld Theatre, Alley Theatre, PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, and Paul Wong Projects. Furthermore, he is a current member of Playwrights Guild Canada’s IBPOC Publishing Committee.
Keely O’BRIEN (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist based in Richmond, BC, on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm / hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ speaking peoples. Her practice incorporates intricately handmade objects with innovative theatre creation. Devoted to a thoroughly DIY process, Keely’s work includes immersive installations, imaginative ephemera, and interactive experiences. She often collaborates with community members who may not consider themselves artists, and invites the public to participate in unusual meaning-making experiences. Keely is Co-Artistic Director of experimental theatre company Popcorn Galaxies, whose recent works include The Dead Letter Office (presented at Eastern Front Theatre STAGES Festival, The Array Showcase), and Perfect Strangers (presented at Nakai Theatre, Found Festival, rEvolver Festival). She is Theatre Replacement’s 2023 COLLIDER Artist in Residence, and an annual associate artist at Mountain View Cemetery’s Night for All Souls. She holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from Simon Fraser University, and is a self and family-taught visual artist.
Kyle LOVEN (he/him) is a queer performance and visual artist based on the unceded territories known as Vancouver. His work combines both constructed and found objects, unconventional storytelling, and various art forms with the human presence. His live performances have been seen in Amsterdam, Taipei, New York, Vancouver, Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, and other US/Canadian cities. His work has premiered at major North American performance spaces: the Arts Club, the Guthrie Theater and On the Boards. Kyle is the recipient of grants from the Jim Henson Foundation and Canada Council for the Arts, among others. Awards include the Innovation in Puppetry Award at the National Puppetry Festival. He is the creator and host of the theatrical game night, Me Love BINGO!.
Aryo KHAKPOUR (he/him) is an interdisciplinary performer, director and dramaturg. Born and raised in Tehran, Aryo has been involved in multiple theatre, dance, and film productions in Vancouver, Canada, since 2006. He co-founded The Biting School in 2013 and was company-in-residence at the PuSh Festival and The Dance Centre from 2018-2019. Aryo is an infrequent sessional instructor at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts. In his practice he explores dynamics of power, implications of ideologies, repetition of mythologies, and cultural adaptation. An intersectional feminist, Aryo interrogates the patriarchy and its harmful effects on people. His practice is heavily physical and surrealistic; it moves from theatre to performance art to dance to film and back to theatre; it deals with pain and pleasure; it is sex-positive; and aims to queer the status quo. Aryo was trained in devised practices of non-hierarchical collective creation — this is his favourite way of creating work.
The International Mentors
Matthew AUSTIN is Co-Director of MAYK – a producing organisation based in Bristol, UK. MAYK’s flagship project is Mayfest, a biennial festival of international performance that takes place in sites and venues across Bristol every other spring. MAYK also work long-term as producers with a range of artists to develop new ideas and move them through creation, production and touring. Matthew is Chair of Bristol DIY Arts Network, an informal gathering of arts organisations and freelancers across Bristol who meet regularly to address issues and organise to make change in the cultural sector. Through MAYK, Matthew was also most recently part of a consortium of organisations delivering Horizon – a showcase of performance made in England at the Edinburgh Festivals. Horizon existed to help artists internationalise their practice and build long-term relationships with presenters around the world. Matthew also has extensive experience of audience development and marketing for live performance, and was previously a tutor a residential course for early-career arts marketers to build their skills in campaign delivery. He has previously sat on the boards of Fierce Festival, Camden People’s Theatre and Bristol Festivals.
Juliet KNAPP is currently co-director of Kyoto Experiment alongside Yoko Kawasaki and Yuya Tsukahara. She graduated Oxford University with a BA in English Literature and Language. After interning and volunteering for Kyoto Art Centre and Shizuoka Performing Arts Centre she later became Communications Manager and Project Manager for Music and Performance at Ryoji Ikeda Studio. Following this, from 2017-2019 she was part of the PR team at Kyoto Experiment and assisted the director in the programming of the festival. She also has experience in editing as well as translation and interpretation related to the performing arts.
Ragnheiður SKÚLADÓTTIR was born and raised in Reykjavík. She finished her BA in theatre and multimedia at the University of Iowa in 1991 and her MFA at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis in 1996. Following her studies she moved to New York City where she lived and worked for four years. In 2000, following a 13 year stint in the U.S, she moved back to Reykjavík after being offered the position of Dean of Department of Theatre and Dance at then newly founded Iceland Academy of the Arts. Ragnheiður worked at the Academy until 2011, initiating new programs in contemporary performance practices and contemporary dance. In 2008 she co-founded the LÓKAL International Theatre Festival, an annual event that presents new local and international work in the field of theatre and performance. She was artistic director of the Akureyri City Theatre from 2012 to 2015 and manager of Iceland Dance Company 2016-2019. Ragnheiður is the artistic director and CEO of Festspillene i Nord-Norge since 2019.
Ragnheiður has years of experience as teacher and mentor (at IAA, University of Syracuse, Academy for Scenekunst in Fredrikstad, MAKE Ireland). She has also worked with various artists/groups as a producer and served as a critical friend (Kviss búmm bang, Dance for Me, Room 408, Shalala, Margrét Sara Guðjónsdóttir)
Meiyin WANG is a producer and curator of live performance. She is the Director of Producing and Programming of the Perelman Performing Arts Center, located on the World Trade Center campus in New York, which opened in the fall of 2023. Meiyin was the Co-Director of Under the Radar Festival at The Public Theater in New York. In 2013, she led the creation of the Devised Theater Initiative at The Public, a program that served as an incubator for independently produced work. She was also the curator of the Park Avenue Armory’s Artist In Residence series from 2014-2015.
Meiyin was based in the Bay Area from 2016-2020 and worked throughout the West Coast. She was the Director of the 3rd edition of La Jolla Playhouse’s Without Walls, one of the U.S’s largest site-specific and experiential commissioning festival based in San Diego. She completed a three-year residency as the Andrew W. Mellon Creative Fellow at the Meany Center at University of Washington, Seattle, investigating the relationship between emerging technologies and performance. As an independent producer, her work has been seen on 4 continents, and featured at venues including Holland Festival, The Arts Center NYU Abu Dhabi, and Singapore International Festival of the Arts. Among her projects were Toshi Reagon (Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Tina Satter/Half Straddle (Is This A Room).
Meiyin served on the board of Theater Communications Group from 2014–2016. She was awarded the Josephine Abady award by the League of Professional Theatre Women. Born and raised in Singapore to Taiwanese and Chinese parents, Meiyin is bilingual and spent her life negotiating between cultures and languages. She holds a B.A in Political Science and Theater Studies from Yale University and an M.F.A. in Directing from Columbia University.