Current Instructors

Alix Sideris (she/they) is a multi-hyphenated artist; an actor, movement director, certified intimacy professional, writer, director, somatics practitioner, educator, and meditation leader. Their over 25 years of artistic practice has been anchored in investigating modalities that help artists develop inspired and sustainable practices so that the strongest, most evocative stories can be shared with holistic artfulness.

Recent acting credits include Better Days (Apple TV), Room (Mirvish), The Odyssey, Valhalla, Dawn of Ragnarök (Ubi Soft). Alix was a resident actor with the National Arts Centre’s English Theatre.

Movement Direction credits include Erased (Heidelberg Stückemarkt, Germany, TPM); The Monkiest King (Centre Point); Hamlet (Stratford Festival); Bakkhai (York University).

Intimacy credits include Rent, Much Ado About Nothing, Wedding Band, Hamlet (Stratford Festival); 11h11 (series; Radio Canada); All the Lost Ones (Netflix); Gwen Shamblin: Starving for Salvation (Lifetime).

More on Alix online: alixsideris.com.

Courses

• Giving Notes

Allan Teichman is an active professional stage manager, with experience ranging from collectives to major opera and commercial theatre. He lives in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and has worked at the Shaw Festival for four decades. Along the way, Allan has also had the good fortune to be associated with a wide range of exciting projects, including work with Canadian Opera Company, Canadian Stage, Factory Theatre, The Globe Theatre, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Mirvish Productions, GCTC, National Arts Centre, Opera Hamilton, Sudbury Theatre Centre, Carousel Players and Essential Collective Theatre. Allan served on Equity Council for sixteen years, including eleven as President, and has been a member of the national Stage Management Committee for thirty years. He is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada.

Courses

• Canadian Theatre Agreement (CTA) – Session 2
• CAEA SM Advisory Committee Panel

Bradley is a Senior Business Representative at Equity, handling the Canadian Theatre Agreement (CTA) and Independent Theatre Agreement (ITA) at Equity’s National Office.

Prior to joining Equity Staff, Bradley worked as a freelance Equity Stage Manager. Select credits include: The Inheritance (Canadian Stage); Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, Dear Evan Hansen (Mirvish); Yaga (The Belfry); It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Show!, rihannaboi95 (Young People’s Theatre); Missing (Pacific Opera Victoria); Chicago (Globe Theatre); The Baroness and the Pig, Henry V (Shaw Festival); King Charles III, My Night with Reg (Studio 180/Mirvish).

Bradley is a graduate of McMaster University and Sheridan College.

Courses

• Joining Equity (2026)

Caroline Watters is thrilled to return to SMArts for a fourth year. Her stage management career has taken her all over the world working for numerous companies in various styles of entertainment. Her career highlight has been working for Cirque du Soleil for 7 years as a General Stage Manager/Stage Manager for Crystal, Toruk: The First Flight, Varekai, and Zumanity.

She obtained a BFA in Performance Production at Ryerson University and a MFA in Stage Management at Columbia University in New York. CDS provided the scale and complexity that she has desired for stage managing productions; her final Masters thesis covered all aspects of CDS Stage Management.

Caroline has always had a passion for teaching and finding unique ways to educate stage managers. This year she is opening her own educational platform to teach aspiring & working stage managers about the world of circus stage management. You can find more information at www.circusstagemanagement.com.

Courses

• Cirque du Soleil: Stage Management & Aerial Show Calling
• Cirque du Soleil: Permanent Shows
• Cirque du Soleil: The Touring Experience

David is an actor, director, and educator.

As an actor, he’s performed leading and supporting roles in theatres across Canada and the U.K., including the Stratford Festival, the Shaw Festival, the Drayton Festival, Canadian Stage, Tarragon, Mirvish Productions, Soulpepper, and The Peter Hall Company. He has also appeared in numerous TV series, including the upcoming Amazon Prime/MGM series The Greatest.

He recently directed Bakkhai at York University, in addition to directing digital productions of Tabia Lau’s The Antigone Play and Aaron Jan’s HAGS at York. He adapted/directed The Oresteia at Randolph College, and has directed at Thousand Islands Playhouse, George Brown Theatre School, TMU, Summerworks, and for BeMe Theatre in Munich.

David has also taught across all levels of actor training at York University, Randolph College, TMU, George Brown, and the University of Toronto. He is currently teaching at Brock University.

He lives in Toronto with his wonderful partner Alix and is a proud dad.

Courses

• Giving Notes

Janelle began her relationship with the stage at the age of 3, in the traditional blue tutu & sequins – unfortunately it doesn’t fit anymore. Janelle has had the opportunity to stage manage for a variety of genres over the past 19 years including theatre, musicals, tours and special events, though the bulk of her time is spent working in the realm of dance. She has stage-managed for over 40 dance companies and independent choreographers including Fall For Dance North, National Ballet School, CORPUS, Tiger Princess Dance Projects and Peggy Baker. She has toured Malaysia & Singapore with the Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre as well as across Canada with Kaeja d’Dance. She spent 4 seasons with the National Ballet of Canada as ASM and SM for YOU Dance.

In the past 12 years, Janelle has been working more intensely as a production manager, working with Le Théâtre français de Toronto, DanceWorks (Toronto), ProArteDanza, IMPACT Festival (Kitchener) and the Magnetic North Theatre Festival (Ottawa).

She is currently the Production Manager/Theatre Manager for the University of Waterloo Theatre and Performance program, where she also teaches courses in stage management and managing the arts. In her “spare” time, Janelle has taught dance stage management at Ryerson School of Performance and York University as well as stage management workshops for community theatres.

Janelle joined S.M.Arts in 2006 as Co-Director to Founder, Winston Morgan. In 2008 they started a sister organization called P.M.Arts, which Janelle administrated with Peter Fleming. In 2010 she took over the role of Director of S.M.Arts when Winston stepped down. The organization has continued to grow and is now a not-for-profit organization with 4 – 5 projects occurring each year.

But her favourite project thus far has been her son, Hunter – the first ‘S.M.Arts’ baby.

Courses

• Giving Notes
• Scheduling and Planning
• Calling a Show
• Reading Plans / Taping a Floor
• Town Hall: OK Stage Managers – What now? What do YOU Need?
• Dance

Janet Sellery CRSP, CHSC, is one of Canada’s leading experts in health and safety and the arts, entertainment, and live events. She started in stage management and, after a critical injury involving an actor, she pioneered the health and safety program at the Stratford Festival, Canada’s largest repertory theatre.

Janet is an active volunteer with Event Safety Alliance Canada (Conference Programming Coordinator), Event Safety Alliance U.S. (Director), the Ontario Ministry of Labour Live Performance Health & Safety Advisory Committee, the Scott Johnson Working Group and the Event Safety Working Group. She has been awarded the “Jack McAllister Award” (Toronto Metropolitan University), the “Ron Epp Memorial Award for Professional Achievement” (Canadian Institute for Theatre Technology) and “Canada’s Safety Manager of the Year” (Canadian Occupational Safety Magazine).

As a consultant (Sellery Health + Safety), Janet focuses on customizing programs, training, and resources to reflect the constantly evolving and unique demands of the arts, entertainment, and live events.

Courses

• Health & Safety

Jeff Morris studied technical theatre production and administration at Ryerson’s Theatre School (1987 – 1990), pursuing a growing interest in stage management for dance. After leaving Ryerson, he worked as Production Stage Manager for Toronto Dance Theatre (1990 – 1995, company debuts in Warsaw, Berlin, Tokyo, New York’s Joyce Theater), Production Manager for Dancers for Life (AIDS Committee of Toronto, 1991 – 1997), Stage Manager for Theatre Passe-Muraille (Never Swim Alone, Metamorphosis of a Shadow), and Stage Manager for the Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists (fFIDA). In 1995 he joined the National Ballet of Canada, and has been Stage Manager for a wide range of the company’s unique classical and contemporary repertoire, including company premieres of Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale, and world premieres of The Four Seasons, Cinderella, and An Italian Straw Hat (Kudelka), Emergence and Angels’ Atlas (Pite), Romeo and Juliet (Ratmansky), Orpheus Alive (Binet), and Frame by Frame – a collaboration between the National Ballet’s Guillaume Côté and Robert Lepage/Ex Machina. In addition to his work with the National Ballet of Canada, Jeff is an adjunct faculty member with The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, a Festival Co-Director for dance: made in Canada/fait au Canada, and he taught and mentored stage managers at the Banff Centre for the Arts and SMArts.

Photo credits to Karolina Kuras.

Courses

• Calling a Show Part 2: More Moving Parts
• Reading Plans / Taping a floor
• Reading Music

Jennifer has been presenting at SMArts since 2018 and is honoured to be invited back again this year.

In her work as a Senior Business Rep at Equity, she handles Canadian Theatre Agreement (CTA) and Independent Theatre Agreement (ITA) contracts for western Canada. Before joining Equity’s Business Rep team, she worked in Stage Management, Company Management and General Management in Opera, Theatre, and Musical Theatre. Jennifer is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada.

Courses

• Canadian Theatre Agreement (CTA)

Jennifer Stein is an award-winning director and producer with executive-level experience in all aspects of event management including creative ideation, team building, production supervision, client servicing, and technical execution.  She is equally at home in the commercial and non-profit environments.   Jennifer has worked across Canada and internationally on large-scale ceremonies, major concert events, commissioned festival works and major corporate activations. She identifies, secures and directs top tier artists for numerous clients.

In the Sport and Entertainment sector, Jennifer was the Creative Producer for the 100^th Memorial Cup Opening Ceremony in Mosaic Stadium. She has acted as the Director of Entertainment for many All-Star Game Festivals for both Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League.  She served as the Creative Producer of the nightly Victory Celebrations during the TO2015 Pan Am and Parapan American Games.

Jennifer was the Festival Director of the 100^th Grey Cup Festival, which welcomed over 400,000 attendees to Toronto.  The festival presented more than 50 stand-alone events and used seven marquee venues.

In the corporate world, Jennifer has produced projects for Shopify, Amazon, Microsoft and TD.

For two years she served as Producer and lead curator of Union Summer, transforming the doorstep of Canada’s busiest transit hub into a true outdoor destination. Union Summer featured 10 weeks of daily multi-disciplinary programming and public engagement of all kinds. Over 600 artists performed each year.

For three years Jennifer was a Creative Producer for the Luminato Festival, an international celebration of art and creativity.

As a theatre-maker, Jennifer was the Associate Artistic Director of Young People’s Theatre. She received 2 Dora Mavor Moore Awards for her directing work.  She began her career as a stage manager for theatre, opera and industrial events.

Jennifer recently earned a certificate in Entertainment Law from Osgoode Hall Law School.

Courses

• Special Events

Kat Chin is a Chinese-Jamaican, Equity Stage Manager based in Toronto, Canada, and a graduate of the Ryerson Theatre School.

Select credits include: Hansel & Gretel: A Sticky & Sweet Panto, Rez Gas, Steel Magnolias (Capitol Theatre); Alice In Wonderland (Bad Hats); Bittergirl The Musical (TIP); Kelly v. Kelly, Dixon Road (Musical Stage); I Am William (Stratford); Queen Goneril and King Lear, August: Osage County, Bed and Breakfast, Cowboy Versus Samurai, & 11 other productions (Soulpepper); Wicked Nix, The Fixing Girl (YPT); Aportia Cryptych (COC); The Magic Flute, Acis & Galatea, Orpheus & Eurydice, Dido & Aeneas, Something Rich & Strange, Don Giovanni, Idomeneo, & 10 other productions (Opera Atelier).

Career highlights include: stage managing Kim’s Convenience from its humble beginnings at the Toronto Fringe Festival, across Canada on its National Tour, to off-Broadway at the Signature Theater, NYC; ASMing at the Royal Opera of the Château de Versailles in France.

She has worked on various projects that involve film and digital components as AD and/or Script Supervisor, most notably 21 Black Futures from Obsidian Theatre & CBC.

Kat has also worked with the National Ballet of Canada, Cahoots, Art of Time Ensemble, Theatre Passe Muraille, fu-GEN, Why Not, The Glenn Gould School, George Brown Theatre School, TIFF and Hot Docs. She has been a member of the CAEA Stage Management Committee since 2013, and is a member of the US Stage Managers Association International Cohort. Kat has also taught Advanced Stage Management at Toronto Metropolitan University, and coaches at NTS.

Upcoming: Pelleas et Melisande (Opera Atelier); Anne of Green Gables: The Musical (Confederation Centre)

Courses

• Scores: Prepping, Qing, and Calling
• Calling a Show

Laura is a Toronto/ Treaty 13 stage manager. She works in a variety of theatres, found spaces, parks, and even sometimes outdoors in the winter. Laura has been working almost entirely digitally for 15 years, and is super excited to share what she’s learned!

Laura has had the pleasure of stage managing for theatres across the country and around Toronto, including Buddies in Bad Times, Soulpepper Theatre, Obsidian Theatre, Nightwood, YPT, Factory Theatre, Canadian Stage, Studio 180, Dance Immersion, Tarragon Theatre, Cahoots, Theatre Passe Muraille, Blyth Festival, Caravan Farm Theatre, and others.  Laura is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, 2005, and a member of CAEA since 2009. I would not be able to make art without the support of my wife and daughter. 

Courses

• Working with a Digital Prompt Script