Meet the HFTco team!
HFTco Staff
Christopher Stanton
Executive Director
Christopher Stanton oversees the Hamilton Festival Theatre Company. He is an award-winning performer, director, sound designer, composer, and educator. His stage work has taken him across Canada to Toronto, Edmonton, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Montreal – and internationally to New York, Bogotà, Munich, Brisbane, Dublin, and Vienna. Past roles in artistic leadership include UnSpun Theatre, The Room, and ARC. Chris joined the HFTco team as the Hamilton Fringe Festival Director in February 2020.
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Franny McCabe-Bennett
Managing Director
Franny McCabe-Bennett (she/her) is an award-winning actor, playwright, educator, and producer. She has held administrative and artistic roles at Factory Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times, Toronto Fringe, The Next Stage Festival, Young People’s Theatre, SOULOTheatre, Soulpepper, George Brown College, and Sheridan College. Franny creates original work from a queer, neurodiverse, sober perspective and has toured her autobiographical solo shows across Canada and internationally.
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Kitoko Mai
Frost Bites Associate Director
Kitoko Mai is a multidisciplinary artist, storyteller, and facilitator with a penchant for developing socially conscious, playful work that draws from lived experiences. Their work is rooted in anti-oppression, accessibility, curating fun, and femme aesthetics. Kitoko is also a member of the Literal Bimbo's collective, creating DIY zines by and for sex-workers. Aside from that, they have produced several independent theatre pieces and currently have scripted and unscripted TV projects at different stages of development.
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Taija Shonée Chung
ALERT Coordinator
TAIJA SHONÉE CHUNG is a Jamaican-Chinese multi-disciplinary artist, based in Toronto. A passionate actor, mover and creator, she's enthusiastic about work that explores our perception of others and ourselves in this ever-changing world. This is their third year working with Hamilton Fringe. She still enjoys singing loudly in her apartment.
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Rebecca Casalino
Outreach Coordinator
Rebecca Casalino is an artist, writer and curator based in Ohròn:wakon (Hamilton, ON) on the land of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe First Nations people. She is a white queer, maintaining her practice through deeply personal collaborations in her community and sheer willpower. Working in artists’ multiples, video, sculpture, performance and drawing Casalino channels their lived experience through their quirky, often deadpan, humour. Casalino completed her BA in Studio Art, with a minor in English, at the University of Guelph in 2017 and graduated from the Ontario College of Art and Design University with an MFA in Criticism and Curatorial Practice in 2021.
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Aleena Faisal
Communications Manager
Aleena Faisal is a Hamilton-based communications professional working in the performing arts sector. She has over 7 years of experience as a magazine editor, specializing in Korean entertainment. A lifelong learner of media communications, Aleena's interests lie in creative storytelling through writing, photography, video, illustration, and design.
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BOARD OF DIRECTORS
David Rundle
President
Fundraising, Governance, Diversity & Inclusion, Finance Committees
Cairine Wilson
Vice President & Interim Treasurer
Fundraising (Chair), Finance, Governance Committees
Ruth Hatch
Director, Interim Secretary
Finance Committee
Ruth Flynn
Director
Diversity & Inclusion, Fundraising, Governance Committees
MacNeal Lashley
Director
Fundraising Committee
Elizabeth Buchanan
Director
Fundraising Committee
Charlene Chung
Director
Finance Committee
