Infinithéâtre develops, produces and promotes plays written or adapted by Québec artists, with a commitment to theatre that reflects a vast diversity of experience.
Based in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal, we seek out and encourage works that examine and reflect contemporary society in all its complexity and beauty. We present innovative new plays created in collaboration with both emerging and established artists, providing professional support that is accessible, fruitful, and sustained. While our works are primarily presented in English, we aim to explore subject matter and themes that impact the many peoples that call Québec home.
Our work is driven by a fundamental desire to spark dialogue and awaken empathy through live performance of the highest calibre.
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Zach is a Montreal-based director, producer, actor, puppeteer, puppet maker, teacher, and Artistic Director of Infinithéâtre. Directing credits with Infinithéâtre include Dominoes at the Crossroads, The Sighlence of Sky, Omi Mouna, King of Canada, and Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Stage Play. Other directing highlights include Indra’s Web (NTS) and Fifteen Dogs and Blindness (John Abbott College). The Water Chronicles, which he directed for Geordie Theatre, won the 2020 META for Outstanding PACT Production. Puppet designs include Stars: Together (Crow’s Theatre), L'Asteroïde B-612 (La Roulotte), MacBeth – Walking Shadows (Shakespeare in the Ruff), The Nisei & the Narnauks (Persephone Productions), The Aeneid (Talisman Theatre), Vertip and The Heretics of Bohemia (Scapegoat Carnivale). Zach teaches in the Theatre Department at John Abbott College, the National Theatre School of Canada, and UQÀM, and is the president of the board for the Association québecoise des marionnettistes.
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Riley Wilson (she/her) is an actor, artist, and musician dedicated to creating contemporary and inclusive theatre in Montreal. In addition to acting, she is a burgeoning playwright, and is a co-founder of Dirty Mirror Collective, an emerging theatre company with a plan to dissect the nitty gritty parts of life. She is a co-writer of the company’s inaugural show (SH)ED, and is currently working on their second production. Riley is committed to creating thought provoking theatre and thrilled to explore the administrative side of theatre creation with the Infinithéâtre team!
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Emily Enhorning (she/her) is a Montreal-based artist and cultural worker. She has held a variety of positions in arts education and administration, and is driven to support accessible, community-focused arts programming from behind-the-scenes. In her own work, she uses darkroom photography and other slow, print-based mediums to explore questions around medicine, embodiment, and control.
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Oren Safdie attended the Graduate School of Architecture at Columbia University before turning his attention to writing. Private Jokes, Public Places was an off-Broadway/London sensation set in the world of academia, which sent shock waves through the architecture community. (The Wall Street Journal named it as one of the top ten new plays of the decade.) His next play, The Last Word, ran off-Broadway, and starred two-time Emmy Award Winner Daniel J. Travanti. Other New York productions include Gratitude, Unseamly, West Bank, UK, Jews & Jesus, False Solution, The Bilbao Effect and La Compagnie, which he developed into a ½-hour pilot for CBS. His new film, The Man Who Saved the Internet with a Sunflower (directed by Emil Ben-Shimon), is set for release in May. Oren has taught Playwriting and Screenwriting at the University of Miami, Douglas College, CS Arts, Interlochen Arts Academy and St. Olaf College.
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Ashe is a multidisciplinary Montreal-based artist, with a passion for behind the scenes work such as props, sculpting, costume design and execution, and more. While always happy to engage in hands-on creative endeavors, she also enjoys digital art and graphic design, which has allowed her to join Infinithéâtre's dynamic and talented team by creating the art used for some of the company's promotional work. Ashe hopes to continuously and actively engage in the theatre community, both in her continued areas of expertise and in new challenges and future projects on the horizon.
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Retired Public Relations Manager
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A life-long Montrealer, Gerry Lipnowski worked in Communications with the largest corporations in Canada for nearly 40 years. During his career, he was frequently recognized with numerous provincial, national and international awards. A long time patron of the arts, he continues to provide support to a number of musicians in Canada, the US and China. He has served on the Infinithéâtre Board of Directors for over a decade, primarily in the role of President. Now retired from corporate life, Gerry is also a certified teacher of yoga and martial arts.
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Building Expert
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Richard Santo is a native Montrealer and graduate of McGill University School of Architecture (B. Arch. 1977) with over 40 years of experience in the construction industry. He is presently on the Board of Directors of the Brome County Historical Society (BCHS), the McGill Society of Montreal (MSM), and has been an active sponsor of Infinithéâtre since 2004.
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Writer & Communications Specialist
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Avigail is a writer, community builder, and mama with a life-long passion for theatre and the arts. A veteran of the non-profit sector, she currently serves as the Director of Communications and Community outreach at Habilitas Foundation.
Previously, she held positions with Federation CJA, Centaur Theatre, and Habitat for Humanity, among others.
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Educator
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Elisha Conway is a faculty member at John Abbott College in the department of Theatre Arts and Entertainment Technologies, where she teaches various courses centered on theatre history, text analysis, and design theory. Elisha entered the theatre field first as a designer; however, she has since pivoted to focus on dramaturgy and practice-informed theatre research. Elisha holds a PhD from McGill University and received her master’s degree in Dramaturgy and Theatre Theory from University of Ottawa. Elisha’s research areas include Canadian and Quebecois theatre, as well as international festival theatre.
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Artistic Director
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Zach is a Montreal-based director, producer, actor, puppeteer, puppet maker, teacher, and Artistic Director of Infinithéâtre. Directing credits include Omi Mouna, King of Canada (Infinithéâtre), Indra’s Web (NTS) and Fifteen Dogs (John Abbott College). The Water Chronicles, which he directed for Geordie Theatre, won the 2020 META for Outstanding PACT Production. Puppet designs include Stars: Together (Crow’s Theatre), Asteroid B-612 (La Roulotte), MacBeth – Walking Shadows (Shakespeare in the Ruff), The Nisei & the Narnauks (Persephone Productions), The Aeneid (Talisman Theatre), Vertip and The Heretics of Bohemia (Scapegoat Carnivale / Segal Centre). Zach teaches in the Theatre Department at John Abbott College as well as the National Theatre School of Canada and was recently elected president of the board of the association québecoise des marionnettistes.
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Visual Artist & Professor
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Born in bath, England, and raised in Stratford, Ontario, Caroline Lindsay Hart has been an adoptive Montrealer since 1976. Growing up in the hot-house theatrical world of the Stratford Festival, she then graduated from Trinity College, U.of T. and promptly headed for Montreal. Touching down at Theatre de la Poudriere and the National Theatre School, Caroline soon gravitated to the visual arts. She studied painting at Concordia with Guido Molinari, Yves Gaucher and John Fox, and has subsequently been a professor of painting there for some 15 years. She has exhibited in Canada and abroad and her work can be found in numerous private and public collections.Item description
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Educator
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Hanna Hershman was born and raised in Montreal. As an educator, she has worked both in the public and private sectors. At St George’s School of Montreal, she coordinated the Student Support Department for many years, and was Interim Head of the Elementary School, as well as being a mentor for both teachers and administrators. Her work centered on evaluation and professional development for teachers. Following a passion for global education and teaching, Hanna was invited to give workshops on English reading, writing, and conversation, to teachers and educators in Canada as well as India, Tanzania, and the Dominican Republic. Currently, as a consultant and learning specialist, Hanna is teaching students from diverse cultures in Montreal. Hanna is an avid proponent of meditation, voracious reading, creative cooking, and loves hiking, not necessarily in that order.
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Multidisciplinary Artist
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Jen Jack is a multidisciplinary scenographer and puppeteer based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal, completing a BFA in Design for the Theatre at Concordia University. Their current creative preoccupations are urban space, ephemeral materials, movie palaces, and modes of mapping. Jen is a coordinator for several Montreal-based arts initiatives, including the Art Matters Festival, Café Concret, and Contra Montreal. They have also worked as a puppeteer with Bread and Puppet Theater in Vermont. Select design credits include scenographer of GRIEF (Concordia Theatre, 2023), assistant scenographer of Danse Macabre (Allen Weiss, Centre Pompidou-Metz, 2022), and they are currently developing a piece in collaboration with Mark Sussman/Great Small Works for Festival Casteliers in March 2024.
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Architect & Author
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Helen Malkin is a consultant with a degree in architecture and a background in museums. She worked for many years at the Canadian Centre for Architecture directing the exhibition programme. Since then she has worked on a variety of architectural and cultural projects and is currently working with a team of people to put together the new Holocaust Museum in Montreal.
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Artist & Entrepreneur
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Gabriel Safdie was born in Jerusalem, Palestine. He studied at McGill and continued in literature at Sir George Williams, UBC, University of London and La Sorbonne. He spent 7 years in London and Paris teaching, writing and working on his doctorate. On his return to Canada, he taught literature, creative writing, and drama at Dawson College for 16 years. He then directed the family company until 2014, while he was fully engaged in the arts. His role involved extensive travel and enabled his exploration and recording of the cultures he worked with. China, India, Egypt, Europe, Southeast Asia, Mexico, and Brazil. He has exhibited his photography extensively in Canada and China, has written drama and fiction, and has published his poetry. He is currently working on a book covering his 40-year relationship with China. He is the founding director of Centre des Arts de Stanstead, resurrecting the Old Border Theatre (1912) as Théâtre Sans Frontières as the pivotal project.
