Playwrights
ABOUT THE TEAM
We are beyond elated to present 8 playwrights in the Or Festival 6 this year. Their plays were selected anonymously into a short-list by our curatorial panel from a high volume of submissions. We then gathered a group of friends together to read the plays out-loud and voted on the short-short-list which was then sent to our directors. Every night we will celebrate the world premiere of each 10 minute play anew. And we close the festival with two brand-new plays by Deaf and Hard of Hearing playwrights. We want to thank our playwrights for courageously sharing their voices and for working so hard with their dramaturgs to fine-tune their scripts.
To Our Playwrights: We are so grateful to each of you for being a part of the Festival this year. You are the foundation of it all. Thank you for inspiring us with your stories. We love you. – Or Festival Team
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CHRISTIAN VASQUEZ
Playwright of “Milkman”
Christian is the son of Salvadoran immigrants whose courage to leave El Salvador and build a new life in the United States shaped his journey. Born in Los Angeles, California during the time of the Rodney King unrest, his family later moved to Seattle, Washington before eventually settling in British Columbia, Canada. He graduated from Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. with a Bachelor of Arts in American Sign Language and is widely recognized as an ASL storytelling champion and performer within the Deaf community. Christian is also the founder of ASLCart.com and creator of the acclaimed ABC Luck! card game, which promotes storytelling through play. His recent work includes translating Native American myths for the Lower Elwha Tribal community and leading a Sign Language Arts Workshop at Riksteatern Crea in Stockholm, Sweden. He has directed Artistic Sign Language for the plays Gaslight and Cloud Tectonics at Sound Theatre Company in Seattle, delivered Visual Vernacular workshops across Canada and the U.S., and served as Stage Manager for the Visual Vernacular Festival in Washington, D.C. Christian also continues to produce creative content through his series, CV World https://www.facebook.com/thecvworld
MILKMAN When a second wave of mad cow disease halts milk production across North America, a quiet barn on Vancouver Island becomes unexpectedly important. As a serious Milkman meets Ms. Florfi, a sharp witted single mother who knows more about his past than he does, their unspoken Thoughts reveal buried memories and a forgotten love that must resurface before time runs out.
ELAINE THRASH
Playwright of “Fine Dining, Finer Judgements”
Elaine Thrash (also known as Elaine Oliveira) is a Brazilian-born multidisciplinary artist who refuses to fit into one box. For over fifteen years, she toured Brazil as an actress in major theatre productions, performing for thousands of children and families and bringing stories to life with energy, humor, and heart. When she wasn’t onstage, she was everywhere else: acting in indie films, dancing, singing, modeling, writing, and saying yes to every creative adventure she could find. After moving to Canada, Elaine kept that fire alive. She now performs annually as a scare actor at the PNE/Playland and has studied Creative Writing and Film Arts at Langara College. Acting and writing are her full-time devotion, and she thrives in spaces that challenge her, stretch her, and reconnect her with the artist she has always been. Elaine is drawn to rigorous, collaborative environments where she can push her craft and create work that feels alive.
FINE DINING, FINER JUDGEMENTS When an introverted husband and his culture‑loving wife argue over their stagnant routine, a theatrical waiter intervenes—turning a disastrous dinner into an unexpected breakthrough.
YASNA KHADEMIAN
Playwright of “Raise Your Hand (If You Think Her Skin Is Dry)”
Yasna Khademian is a playwright whose work centres on intergenerational healing, relationships between women, and chosen family. Since she began writing for theatre in 2023, her work has been supported through mentorships and play development programs with Teesri Duniya Theatre, the Arts Club (LEAP), and Playwrights Theatre Centre. Her current projects include The Robo-Bio-Doll, a feminist horror/thriller play on mental health and patriarchal violence, and Takht-e Jamshid, a dinner party gone wrong in the Iranian diaspora, where open secrets and cover-ups threaten to destroy a community’s social fabric. Yasna lives on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
RAISE YOUR HAND (IF YOU THINK HER SKIN IS DRY) On the night of her 28th birthday, a saleswoman crawls out of Jane’s mirror and tries to sell her facial serum. When her efforts fail, she tries a new tactic.
DANIEL MCLEOD
Playwright of “Audition 1939”
Daniel McLeod is a Vancouver-based writer, songwriter and refugee advocate. He was a member of the creative team and cast for the BC tour of Headlines Theatre’s award-winning audience participation play Sanctuary?, and was part of the workshop to create Headlines’ Dying for a Living. He has written, produced and directed 4 musical theatre plays at the Vancouver Fringe Festival. TrudeauMania, a musical biography of Justin Trudeau’s father Pierre, was runner-up in Theatre BC’s 2019 Canadian National Playwriting Competition. Shakespeare Sings! was nominated for the 2025 Ovation Award for Outstanding New Musical. He is a 3-time semi-finalist in the UK Songwriting Contest. He writes songs in a wide range of genres including R&B, pop, rock, hip-hop, blues, country and folk. Acting credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream and As You like It at Waterfront Theatre.
AUDITION 1939 Audition 1939 is about the destructive nature of totalitarianism, past and present, imagined through the lens of an acting audition for Operation Konserve (“Canned Goods”), a real event in which Fascist Germany dressed concentration camp detainees in Polish military uniforms and staged mock attacks to justify the invasion of Poland, setting off World War 2.
ASHLEY WONG
Playwright of “On The Way Home”
Ashley Wong (she/her) is a playwright, by technicality— one who feels very lucky to have had their absurd comedies produced by Festival Dionysia and the Bryan Wade Brave New Play Rites Festival in 2026! Also, the proud curator of one too many playlists composed of deeply melancholic alt-rock and the loudest song from every musical, a pages app poet according to 312 files, and aspirationally, a writer for television.
ON THE WAY HOME Two women in their 80s. One pretend bus stop. A love story neither can remember.
BRENDA-LEE BOUBARD
Playwright of “Nurse…HELP!”
Brenda-Lee Boubard (She/Her) is a Mètis (Cree/Ojibwa), Deaf Artist. She was born in Winnipeg, MB then moved to Calgary, AB then to Vancouver, BC. She is currently writing a graphic novel titled Apocalypse/fantastic. Brenda attended the Youth Canada Tournament for the Deaf (YCTD) in 2013 and 2017, The Flying Hands in 2016 and more. She loves drama and stories. Her dream is to see her graphic Novel/ comic adapted into a TV series one day. She wants to make this dream come true.
Nurse…HELP! A physical comedy about a nurse who ignores the escalating pleas of patients at a walk-in clinic.
*This play was developed during the Deaf Artists Retreat from Aug 12-31st in 2024, executive produced by Landon Krentz, with the support of performers Caroline Herbert, Matthew Courtemanche, and Mustafa Alabssi.
LEYSAN TIMIRBOULATOVA
LEYSAN TIMIRBOULATOVA
Leysan Timirboulatova is a Vancouver-based playwright, actor, and creator whose work explores femininity, power, and personal transformation. Blending poetic text, movement, and theatrical ritual, she examines identity, emotional awakening, and the body as a site of storytelling. Working across theatre and film, she creates bold, emotionally charged performances that center transformation and self-reclamation.
BITCH SAVE YOURSELF A woman devotes herself to a man and mistakes his light for God. She calls it love. When he disappears, she shatters, then rises bloodied and blazing to crown herself as Source. Bitch Save Yourself is a ruthless reckoning with illusion, devotion, and the radical act of self-sovereignty.
DAVID VOLPOV
Playwright of “The Donor”
David is selling a TV stand and a pressure washer on FB Marketplace and encourages you to connect if you’re interested. Recent writing credits: “Tragedy, Slander, & Wine” (Promethean Theatre) and “The Treadmill” (IGNITE! Youth Festival). As a fundraiser, David secured $70K+ in grant funding for Promethean Theatre and worked in corporate sponsorships for Bard on the Beach. David’s short film, “Jinsei No Toki”, which he wrote and produced, is currently on the festival circuit. David is thrilled that “The Donor” is his third play to be featured at the Or Festival, following “Civil Court” (2022) and “Talking to the Dead” (2024).
THE DONOR An art gallery patron pulls her donation, and the chief fundraiser will do anything to get her money back.
Special Guest Performance on Friday, April 17th!
Julio The Frog & Kentucky The Chicken
Julio is a frog, Kentucky is a chicken, and Maya Graves-Bacchus and Talia Marie Varoğlu are humans. They make up an entirely codependent cohort of world-renowned performers known for their insightful critical commentary on sixteenth-century geopolitics in a twentieth-century medium. They are settlers living on the Unceded Territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Peoples. They exist primarily inside their own heads and occasionally consume food or drink, going out of their way to bring amusement to whomever is foolish enough to give them the slightest encouragement.
Julio and Kentucky shall visit the Jericho Arts Centre on Fri, April 17th at 7:30pm.