ABOUT US
Our mission is simple yet radical: to demystify the canon — opening its doors to artists who have been historically excluded from it. We offer Black and BIPOC artists a space to engage with classical texts while preserving their artistic and ancestral integrity.
Notre mission est à la fois simple et radicale: déconstruire pour mieux démystifier les textes canoniques — et en ouvrir les portes aux artistes historiquement exclus de celui-ci. Nous offrons aux artistes noir·e·s et racisé·e·s un lieu où dialoguer avec les grandes œuvres tout en préservant leur intégrité artistique et ancestrale.
OUR TEAM
Lydie Dubuisson
Director and Seasonal Lead Creator at Repercussion Theatre with UnCanon Theatre
Lydie Dubuisson is a director, playwright, curator, and dramaturg based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. She has directed projects with Black Theatre Workshop, Roseneath Theatre, Les Francos de Montréal, Just For Laughs, and Collectif Potomitan, among others.
As a playwright, she is the author of Quiet/Silence and Sanctuary/Sanctuaire, and the co-author of Blackout: The Concordia Computer Riot (Playwrights Canada Press). From 2020 to 2023, Dubuisson served as Artistic Associate at Black Theatre Workshop.
Across her body of work, Dubuisson explores intersectionality, collective memory, and multilingual creative processes.
esi Callendar
Performer and Seasonal Lead Creator at Repercussion Theatre with UnCanon Theatre
esi Callendar is a theatre artist based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. Their work tends to deal with family histories, race,sexuality, consequence, and play. Esi co-founded the feminist theatre collective Sort Of Productions and documented its work in their chapter “ineffable dramaturgies: experiments in Black queer and trans liberation,” in Contemporary Black Theatre and Performance: Acts of Rebellion, Activism, and Solidarity (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023).
They have a masters in African Studies and won the 2024 German African Studies Association Young Scholar Award for their thesis on collaboration and solidarity between Black artists of diverging backgrounds at the perforcraZe International Artist Residency in Ghana. As a PhD student in McGill University’s English Department, esi researches queer and trans African and diasporic activist performance practices.