The Or Festival is a passion project. Our artistic team will shift and change each year depending on artist availability. Our goal is to have a platform where local artists may show-case their work, share their voice and connect with the community. We are very grateful to the amazing artists who live in Vancouver and who make festivals possible by submitting.

Curatorial Team

Garvin Chan 陳嘉泓 (they/them) is an ace (asexual) theatre maker/director from Hong Kong currently situated in the unceded territories of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Since graduating from Simon Fraser University’s theatre performance program, they have been featured in Pedro Chamale’s Peace Country (2022), directed a quad-lingual rendition of Stephanie Kuo’s Final Boarding Call (2020), developing an artistic practice that dives headfirst into mortality, identity, and disconnection through both black humour and blue humour. Since then, they have assisted with administration and at Rumble Theatre while creating, directing, and performing in their shows Year of the Frog and What the F-Word is Going On?. Year of the Frog has been featured in the Ignite Youth Festival (2022) and vAct’s MSG Lab (2023), whereas What the F-Word is Going On? has previously received a public reading at LEAP (2023) and has also been featured in Upintheair Theatre’s 2024 rEvolver Festival.

Jennifer Burgmann is an actor, writer, and aspiring director. She holds a BFA in Theatre
from SFU, and is a recent graduate of the Realwheels Acting Academy. Her work in
performance includes solo pieces, one-act and full-length plays, and multidisciplinary
collaborative projects. She was the Assistant Director to Ashley Corcoran for Teenage
Dick presented by the Arts Club Theatre Company in 2023, Director/Dramaturg for
Bloodwork in the 2024 Or Festival, and Assistant Director to Alex Lazaridis for
Mermaibleism, the capstone project of the 2024 Realwheels Academy, in which she also performed. In 2009, Jennifer developed a rare illness that resulted in disability. Her stories about her experiences have been published on The Mighty, Yahoo, and MSM, and she is currently writing her first play.

CORE ARTISTIC TEAM

Olivia Etey is a Vancouver-based playwright, producer and the creator of the Or Festival. She graduated from UBC with a double major in Creative Writing and English Honours. Her produced plays include: Foreplay (2015), her musical: The Midnight Serenade (2015), Living on the Grid (2016), which debuted at the Vancouver FRINGE Festival as part of The Only Animal’s Generation Hot Series, The Hoarder (2017) and her juke-box Opera Forever Hold Your Peace (Opera Unbound, 2022). Olivia’s play Woman Against Gravity (2021) was showcased in the Stage One Festival of New Canadian Work at the Lunchbox Theatre in Calgary.

Ashley Mann, she/her, identifies as a culture facilitator, creator, and performer. Currently working with OR festival for the first time this year, she envisions building a bridge between the hearing and deaf and hard of hearing community in the theatre world. Ashley’s goals aim to foster inclusivity and connection within diverse communities. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/fTppfG4R8ao?feature=share 

Julia Lank (she/her) is a stage manager and graphic designer living on xʷməθkwəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh, and Səl̓ílwətaɬ land. Opera: Don Pasquale, Le portrait de Manon (Vancouver Opera); L’elisir d’amore (BLO). Musicals: City Of Angels (PIT Collective); Putnam County Spelling Bee, Jasper In Deadland, Tuck Everlasting (Arts Umbrella). Plays: Peace Country (rice & beans), Gertrude & Alice (United Players); The Cafe (ITSAZOO and Aphotic), How To Believe In Anything (The Cultch); Marjorie Prime (ETC); Gramma, The Cake (Pacific Theatre). It’s a pleasure to meet and collaborate with so many talented and passionate theatre makers.

Christian Ching is an emerging lighting designer, producer, and scenographer with a love of design and nature. They are a graduate of Simon Fraser University (2021) with a double degree in Theatre Production and Design and in the Biological Sciences. Their practice revolves around collaboration and the ecological aspects of design. They like to run RPGs, draw, and make music.

Coming from a background of being a former professional ballerina, Claudia Chan has a strong passion for collaboration between different areas including theatre arts, music, and dance. While primarily focusing on technical directing, Claudia also has a passion for lighting design and understands and enjoys the importance of collaboration and teamwork. Growing up in Hong Kong, Claudia is currently residing in Vancouver, unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations where she also calls home.

Zac Scott is an actor, sound designer and producer, and is the general manager and one of the founders of Sticks and Stones Theatre. Select past credits include Body Awareness (Mitch and Murray Productions), Armstrong’s War (Western Canada Theatre), Hidden (Itsazoo productions), The Out Vigil (Twenty Something Theatre), This is War (Rumble Theatre) The Aliens, This Is Our Youth, The Open House (Sticks and Stones Theatre). He would like to thank his family, friends and Ruthie for giving out love and support like they are free hats. Zac is a graduate of Studio 58.