MEET THE DIRECTORS OF SEASON 8

DIANA BENTLEY
Director of Yerma

Diana Bentley is well known to our audiences as the Co-Founder and Co-Chief Engineer of the Coal Mine Theatre. She is an actor, producer, writer and (now!) director. She is a graduate of the Canadian Film Centre’s Actors Conservatory, the London Academy of Musical and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and The University of Toronto. She recently accepted an Equity Award of Distinction for “collective courage sparking a culture shift” in the Canadian Theatre community. She is the proud mother of Henry and step-mother of Rosie and Theo Dykstra. Yerma by Simon Stone after Lorca will mark Diana’s Coal Mine directorial debut.

DIANA ON YERMA: "Sarah Gadon and I met in a Lindy Davies workshop years ago and were deeply changed and inspired by Lindy's approach to acting. Since forming that connection as colleagues we have been searching for a project to work on together, and we were thrilled to find that we had a mutual passion for Simon Stone's retelling of Yerma (after Lorca, 1934). I won't be the first person to say how earth shattering, moving, funny and astonishing this script is-- and I'm thrilled to be finally collaborating with Sarah who will be playing the title role, and a sensational cast of actors and designers to bring this work to life in the intimacy of our theatre."

LEORA MORRIS
Director of The Sound Inside

Leora is a director/creator who splits her time between Canada and the USA, collaborating with institutions like the Public Theater, O’Neill Theatre Center, San Diego Rep, Alliance Theatre, NYU Tisch, Olney Theatre Center, Small Wooden Shoe, Dancemakers, Volcano Theatre, Tarragon Theatre, and Nightswimming. Her previous Coal Mine projects include Orphans (2017) and Knives in Hens (2019), and other Toronto highlights include He Left Quietly by Yaël Farber and Duma Kumalo (2014 Summerworks Best Production Award) and the 2018 premiere of The Philosopher’s Wife by Susanna Fournier. She currently resides in Vancouver where she teaches directing and acting at the University of British Columbia, and has recently begun developing new performance works for children and babies under the age of 5. Leora was shortlisted for the 2020 International Rolex Mentor and Protégé Prize and is currently a Green College Leading Scholar. MFA Directing, Yale School of Drama. www.leoramorris.com

LEORA ON THE SOUND INSIDE: “When I first read The Sound Inside, I felt like the wry, observant Bella was inviting me to follow her into some kind of delightful labyrinth; a hall of mirrors that kept shifting configurations. I loved watching her insular world get cracked open by a disarming, enigmatic 18-year-old student. It feels rare to watch a relationship develop between a younger man and older woman that is not about romance, sex, or mothering; but composed of something strange and cosmic. I was titillated by the unpredictable ways in which the chance collision of their lives changes the course of both of them. And since they are both fiction writers, these two slippery, unreliable narrators describe things differently, mingling their own stories with the events in the books they read and write. I was left asking - are they authoring their books and lives, or are their books and lives authoring them?”

MITCHELL CUSHMAN
Director of The Effect

Mitchell Cushman is a director, creator, and founding Artistic Director of Outside the March, one of Canada’s leading immersive theatre companies. His work has been seen on stages as large as the The Stratford Festival and The Royal Alexandra Theatre, in spaces as intimate as kindergarten classrooms and living rooms, and in locales as far flung as London, New York, Whitehorse, Edinburgh, Munich, Finland and Japan. Since the onset of the pandemic, he has been exploring new possibilities for live performance, co-creating the internationally-acclaimed telephonic adventure The Ministry of Mundane Mysteries (OtM), the “Grand Act of Theatre” Something Bubbled, Something Blue (NAC/TIFT/OtM), and directing a feature film adaptation of the award-winning Lessons in Temperament. In 2015 he co-created the award-winning Brantwood – Canada’s largest exploration of immersive musical theatre. In 2018, he co-created and director the intercontinental three-day immersive experience, The Curious Voyage. Other favourite directing credits include: The Tape Escape, The Flick, Dr. Silver, Jerusalem, Lessons in Temperament; The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale; TomorrowLove TM , Mr. Burns, Vitals, Terminus, Passion Play, Mr. Marmalade (Outside the March); Treasure Island, Breath of Kings, Possible Worlds (Stratford); Hand to God; The Aliens (Coal Mine); Merrily We Roll Along (YES Theatre); Hand to God (RMTC). Mitchell has been the recipient of the Siminovitch protégé award, a Dora Award for Outstanding Direction, three Dora Awards for Outstanding Production, and his productions have received 14 Toronto Theatre Critics Awards. He holds an MFA degree in Directing from the University of Alberta.

MITCHELL ON THE EFFECT: “I’ve wanted to share Lucy Prebble’s gem of a script with Toronto audiences for the better part of a decade, and I’m so glad to be finally able to do so, in the magical, transportive intimacy that exists at the Coal Mine - with this phenomenal cast and creative team. The Effect is about love and depression, twin abilities that make us see more and less clearly at the same time. It’s also one of the sharpest, and darkly funny scripts of the 21st century - with exactly the razor wit you would expect from Prebble, one of the staff writers on Succession. Come join The Experiment this fall!”