ELIZABETH MORRIS - PERFORMER

Elizabeth was born in England. She lives in Kingston, Ontario. She graduated at Gallaudet University with a BA in Elementary Education and Educational Drama. Also, she graduated at OCAD University with a MDes in Inclusive Design.

Her master degree’s thesis was based on “Creating live theatre to be more accessible and inclusive for Deaf and Hard of Hearing community (including their families and friends)”. Her thesis’ prototype was shown at GradEx 102nd exhibition and won a medal for Inclusive Design.

For Theatre and Film, she is a professional Actor, Inclusive Designer, ASL coach, Deaf Community Consultant, and Deaf Interpreter. As an Actor, she performed at Stratford Festival (Stratford, ON), Young People’s Theatre (Toronto, ON), Theatre Passe Muraille (Toronto, ON), National Arts Centre (Ottawa, ON), Citadel Theatre (Edmonton, AB), and Concrete Theatre (Edmonton, AB). Recently, she performed at Citadel Theatre’s production of “The Tempest”. At Stratford Festival, she was their first Deaf signing actor for “The Madwoman of Chaillot”.

As an ASL coach, her recent assignment was for Stratford Festival’s production of “Coriolanus”. As a consultant, her recent assignment was for Shakespeare in the Ruff’s production of “The Winter’s Tale” (Toronto, ON). As a Deaf Interpreter, her recent assignment was for the National Arts Centre’s production of “Come from Away”.

Also, she is a co-founder of Deaf Spirit Theatre (since 2015). She is very excited to return with DST’s fifth time at SOUND OFF Festival. 

HAYLEY HUDSON - PERFORMER

Hailey is Deaf actor and dancer. Originally from Coaldale Alberta. Currently living in Kingston Ontario. Growing up in a musical family and having a grandfather loving to recite poetry as where she got her passion for performing from.

Growing up she always wanted to perform. Taking a drama course in junior high school was when she realized that she wanted to be an actor. She danced for 8 years and won several awards in dance competitions. She graduated at a theatre school called Rosebud School of the Arts in Rosebud Alberta as first Deaf student.

She has been in several community theatre productions which allowed her to perform in American Sign Language (ASL) she moved to Ontario to pursue her dream in becoming an actor.

She co-founded Deaf Spirit Theatre in 2015 with Elizabeth Morris and Theresa Upton. Hayley has been in The Tempest at Citadel Theatre as Ariel with a Deaf and hearing actors in 2019. Deaf Spirit Theatre has been to the SOUND OFF Deaf theatre Festival since 2017. Past summer in 2020 she has been in a Toronto Online Fringe Festival with her theatre company. She currently lives in Kingston with her husband, three kids and two black cats. Hope you enjoy the show!

ROBERT BHOLA - PERFORMER

Robert Bhola is a Canadian/Trinidadian and an ASL interpretation artist who brings the emotions of music to life through visually mastered renditions of songs from all genres.

Robert is immersed in Deaf culture and community. He is a hard of hearing CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) with 5 Deaf children and works with Deaf youth. He has worked as an ASL Coach and Instructor for over a decade and taught both children and adults.  Lyric interpretation has long been a passion for Robert. Having reached over 1,000 collective views on his videos to date, he hopes that his YouTube channel and social media handle 258SIGNS merges music with the Deaf/Hard of Hearing world.

With his creative artistic interpretations, Robert hopes to continue to spread awareness of Deaf culture through American Sign Language to everyone.  Since 2019, Robert has been involved with Deaf Spirit Theatre performing at SOUND OFF in Edmonton, Ontario and the Fringe Festival in Toronto. 

Video links:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2bK5-reqE8zppmJJ9kZdVQ

THERESA UPTON - PERFORMER 

is a Deaf actor, playwright,  and co-founder of Deaf Spirit Theatre in Kingston, Ontario. She is also a poet, creative writer, and storyteller. She is originally from Saint John, New Brunswick. She grew up in a musical family. She had participated in school’s productions. She was the only Deaf person in her large family, who resided in rural of New Brunswick. In 1980, she moved to Sir James Whitney School for the Deaf in Belleville, Ontario. Since 1985, she lives in Kingston, Ontario. She is the mother of two adults and a grandmother of a toddler.

Theresa had been teaching ASL for nearly 30 years; in private sessions, public education system, college, and university. She is also an artist who creates a range of ASL stories, ASL poetry/poems, translating songs/children’s books into ASL. In 2019, Theresa went with a group of researchers to Edmonton to do a research project on the Citadel Theatre’s production of “The Tempest”. 

Theresa is also a Direct Support Worker with Community Living Kingston. She acts as a Deaf interpreter and facilitator for intellectually and dual diagnosis clients.

JUAN JARAMILLO - PERFORMER

Juan Jaramillo was a former Child and Youth Advocate at the Ontario Advocate’s Office for Children & Youth.  He worked to support Ontario’s youth for the last 9 years. He was born in South America, Colombia. He then moved to Canada at a very young age. He grew up in the Spanish community surrounded with Latino music and dance.

He was formerly a member of the Gallaudet Dance Company in 1993 and used this time to gain experience and knowledge about dance choreography with ASL song interpretation.  Back home, the most popular request was “Rock Around The Clock" from the era of the 1950’s dance styles he learned while at Gallaudet University.

He co-founded the Dancing Hands Troupe with Patti Trofimenkoff in 1992, and he has performed (Skits, Poetry, Pop, Hiphop, Reggie, Religious song, Dance group) for over 25 years across Canada and the USA.

His performance experiences range from events such as weddings, graduations, churches, conventions, fundraising, mayfest, theatres and online screen. He was honoured to perform at the World Winter Deaf Athletes Champion’s event in Toronto in 2012. One of his highlights was performing both the Canadian and USA National Anthems, at the Blue Jays game in Toronto Skydome (2002), the NHL 100 Centennial Winter Classic games in both Toronto (2017), and Ottawa (2018).

His most rewarding experiences have been teaching and coaching deaf children in ASL song/dance performances during his time at the ECD school for the Deaf as a Child and youth worker. He is recently involved with the Deaf Spirit Theatre, SOUND OFF Theatre Festival, and Toronto Fringe Festivals. He continues to expand his portfolio through collaboration on various stage productions and online performances.

Video links:

https://www.youtube.com/user/DeafPerformers

ALEXANDRA HICKOX - DESIGNER / STAGE MANAGER

Alexa is a Deaf artist who works with both still and moving images. She graduated from Ontario College Arts and Design University and she was recently awarded her Masters Degree with Distinction in Film Production at York University.

Alexa works within her community to produce, stories that explore the diversity, nuances and particularities of Deaf lived experiences. She is currently developing a community online platform called Undivided were Deaf artists create short films.

In 20020 as the stage manager and video producer for Deaf Spirit Theatre she produced a film for the Toronto Film Festival called Thea’s Zoom Adventure, an online play for children. Alexa is working remotely as an editor for Melmira, producing social media for this Deaf US based Deaf advocate. She is in collaboration with Chris Corsini and just released the music video MaMa that incorporate sign language with modern dance. Alexa has worked with John Greyson, as both an actor and photographer assistant for Jericho/Bagdad. 

Video Link: https://linktr.ee/UndividedFilmProduction

JOSE GASPAR SANABRIA - ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER

He was born in Mexico City, term the studies until the Bachelor of Business Administration at the University of the Valley of Mexico and comes from generations with hearing problems (deafness) from his great grandparents, grandparents, parents and brothers.

He previously served as President of the Mexican Federation of the Deaf, AC FEMESOR in the year 2009-2016 and the Member Directing Council of the World Federation of the Deaf WFD, for a period of 4 years, which was elected during the XVI World Congress of the Deaf in Durban,  South Africa, in July 2011.

Since 2006-2016, he has been working with various government Institutions, such as: Education, Health, Human Rights, Work, Accessibility, Legal Assistance, Certification of Interpretations, Sensitization Courses and Advice in the National Council for People with Disabilities.

He currently resides in Kingston, ON and since 2017 he has been collaborating with Deaf Spirit Theatre.