ALERT – Hamilton Festival Theatre Company

ALERT

Meet Afterlife Theatre, the 2024-2025 ALERT Company-In-Residence!

Company-In-Residence Artists

Carly Anna Billings

Co-founder, Afterlife Theatre

Carly Anna Billings (she/her) is an actor, comedian, singer, theatremaker and storyteller born and based in Hamilton, Ontario, the traditional lands of her people the Mississaugas of the Credit. She has spent her young performing career on stages from Charlottetown to Edmonton to New York City and back again. A co-founder of Afterlife Theatre, she believes laughter and joy are the foundation for a healthy and creative arts practice, they’re the best medicine.

Patrick Tweed

Co-founder, Afterlife Theatre

Patrick Teed (he/him/they/them) is a white, queer, neurodivergent artist-academic and musician, currently living on Dish-with-one-Spoon Wampum Belt Territory who brings an unorthodox training into their theatre practice. A current PhD candidate whose research at York University, Patrick is an artist whose attention to theoretical questions is unique. A co-founder of Afterlife Theatre, Patrick intends to continue to examine the possibilities for political theatre in the Canadian performing arts landscape.

Tone Bailey

Junior Producer

Tone Bailey is a multi-disciplined artist from Brampton, ON. Tone’s work features the mixed-media of photography & digital illustration into scenes filled with bright, gradual colour and thematic exploration. Inspired by 1970’s album covers, he creates "slice of life" pieces of sustainable futures and isolated moments that feel like daydreams. He won First Place Prize in the Visual Arts category of Scarborough Arts' 2024 Juried Exhibition for work from the project "(There Is) No Utopia."

Annie Laleon

Junior Producer

Annie Laleon is so excited to step into the role of Junior Producer! Growing up onstage as an actress, then finding the love of text analysis and behind the scenes production was the best thing that could have happened to her. She is ready to take her production and direction skills to the next level! Locally; Annie has recently starred in Dundas Little Theatre’s “Much Ado About Nothing” as Margaret / HeroU/S, and Theatre Ancaster’s “The 39 Steps” as Clown 2.

MEET AFTERLIFE THEATRE

Afterlife Theatre is committed to staging urgent and provocative works that speak to questions of time, human-ness and how we arrive at the present through our inheritance of the past.

We believe work uninformed of the past cannot possibly look to the future. It is from this position of engaging with questions about the past, cultural memory and its provisional hold over the present and future that Afterlife seeks to intervene.

A bi-city theatre company with roots in Hamilton and Toronto, our original and reimagined works have been supported by the OAC, Hamilton CEF, HFTCO, our community and more. In 2022, our inaugural live performance piece, Meat(less) Loaf, was met with critical acclaim during its run at the Hamilton Fringe Festival.

A company with many works in progress, including Uninvited Guests that was presented in process as a part of the 2023 Frost Bites Festival, Afterlife Theatre is honoured and excited to be the ALERT Company in Residence to continue connecting and growing in the place and with the people which have always been at its centre.

The ALERT Resident Company program is a customized 7-month training opportunity for companies/collectives with one or more works-in-development. The program culminates in a public presentation at the 2025 Hamilton Fringe Festival (July 16-27, 2025).

The ALERT Resident Company receives a $2000 bursary and engages in a series of free workshops and training sessions tailored to the company’s unique needs. They will also be paired with professional mentors throughout the term. The program gives the company access to a dedicated ALERT Program Coordinator, experienced HFTco senior staff, and the broader network of the Hamilton arts and culture sector through HFTco’s existing partnerships. They will be invited to attend HFTco staff meetings and events.

The ALERT Resident Company will be supported by two Junior Producers. The Junior Producers will be selected by the Resident Company in consultation with HFTco staff. The ALERT Junior Producers will support the ALERT Resident Company through the full program term and attend all ALERT workshops and training sessions along with the company.

WHO SHOULD APPLY?

If you are an emerging live performance maker based in the Greater Hamilton area – and you’re eager to level up your company’s creative and production skills – the ALERT Resident Company program is for you!

Applicants should:

Be over 18 years of age
Be an existing company or collective with a minimum history of 1 (one) public production or showing
Define yourselves and/or your company as “emerging” or “early stage” in that you will clearly benefit from participation in the ALERT program
Be based in the Greater Hamilton Area (ie. less than 40km beyond Hamilton)

PROGRAM DATES:

ALERT Resident Company – January 1 to July 31, 2025

ALERT Junior Producers – February 1 to July 31, 2025

Applications for the ALERT Resident Company program extended to 11:59pm, December 8, 2024.

Please contact Managing Director Franny McCabe-Bennett with any questions about the program or the application process.

The Artistic Leadership and Entrepreneurial Training (ALERT) program is a professional development program designed for emerging artistic leaders 18 years and over who want to help define the theatre culture in Hamilton. Participants take part in workshops with arts professionals and are partnered with professional mentors. The program runs on a two-year cycle, with one year focused on Artistic Producing and Leadership Skills (Producing Stream) and the second on Devising and Performance (Artistic Creation Stream).

ALERT runs from fall 2024 to spring 2025.

THIS YEAR:

Applications open soon for this year’s Company-in-Residence, and TWO paid Junior Producer positions in support of the Resident Company’s work.

The ALERT Artist Development program would not be possible without the generous support of our partners:

Previous ALERT Cohorts

Resident Company 2023-2024

femmepire
Kitoko Mai
Claud Spadafora

Junior Producers
Lian McMillan
Teryn Lawson

2022-2023 Participants
Mohad Abdiyan
Jordan M. Burns
Shayna Burns
Trick Campbell
Sungwon Cho
Fay Daemi
Faith Mo
Johnny Thirakul

2021-2022 Participants
Catherine Allen
Lexi Bardy
Jordan M. Burns
Jet Coghlan
Chelsea Haraburda
Justin Shaw
Brianna Seferiades
Olivia Zotti

2020-2021 Participants
Carly Anna Billings
Sophie Hughes
Manisha Maharajh
Mykola Paskaruk
Olivia ‘Margo’ Prunean
Kit Simmons

2019-2020 Participants
Nathalie Cortes
Olivia Hopen
Matthew Lazaris-Brunner
Micaela Morales
Rachel Offer
Ryan Percival

2018-2019 Participants
Luis Arrojo
Beekaa Abraham
Aaron Joel Craig
Khaleel Gandhi
Rebekka Gondosch
Victoria Hudson-Muir
Anthony Raymond Yu
Dylan Vandemaele