Alison Lawrence – Co-Producer
Alison is a writer and actor. Her plays include The Thing Between Us, which premiered at the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace and was subsequently shortlisted for the Playwrights Guild of Canada’s Carol Bolt Award; Piece by Piece, which premiered at the Next Stage Festival and as part of the New American Voices series at the Tristan Bates Theatre in London’s West End; and The Catering Queen, which had two sold-out, critically acclaimed runs: first winning Pick of the Fringe and NOW Magazine’s Outstanding New Play at the Toronto Fringe and in an independent production at the Tarragon Theatre’s Extra Space. The Catering Queen is published by Scirocco Drama. Alison’s other work includes And All For Love, which premiered at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
As an actor, Alison starred in her own plays The Catering Queen and bittergirl; she will soon be seen in the new Amazon Prime comedy The Lake. Other work includes Studio 180’s production of The Laramie Project, Top Gun! The Musical at the Toronto Fringe, Toronto's Factory Theatre and also at the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Alison is a MacDowell Fellow and an alumna of the Banff Playwrights Lab. She has written personal essays for The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail and The National Post.
Her play, The Right was developed with Studio 180 in Toronto. Her new comedy, Too Close to Home premiered at Theatre Orangeville in 2020.
Mary Francis Moore – Co-Producer
Mary Francis is an award-winning writer, actor and director. She is the Artistic Director of Theatre Aquarius, and the former Associate Artistic Director at the Confederation Centre for the Arts/The Charlottetown Festival, where she created 2017's acclaimed The Dream Catchers , and directed On the Road with Dutch Mason, Kronberg, Atlantic Blue and Dear Rita . She is the director of the international touring production of You Fancy Yourself and its critically acclaimed sequel The Cure For Everything, and recently co-created and directed the Dora Award-winning One Thing Leads To Another for Young People's Theatre in Toronto and on tour across the country. She also directed The Canadian Musical Theatre Project’s world premiere of Johnny Reid and Matt Murray’s My Bonnie Lass and was the curator of Harbourfront Centre's Junior - Big Thoughts for Growing Minds.
Mary Francis, Alison and Annabel Fitzsimmons are the creators of the hit play, book and musical bittergirl. Bittergirl: the musical premiered at the Charlottetown Festival in 2015 to sold-out houses and has played at theatres across Canada. The bittergirls also co-wrote the self-help guide Bittergirl: Getting Over Getting Dumped, published by Penguin Canada, Plume U.S. and in Brazil.
