Abigail Whitney (Director) is currently majoring in the performance stream at the University of Toronto's Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies and is double minoring in English and in Equity Studies. Whitney has trained with renowned Canadian professionals from the National Voice Intensive, Soulpepper Theatre and the Randolph Academy of Performing Arts. Recent credits include portraying Nawal in Djanet Sears' production of Scorched (2018), co-directing I Can't Trust Anyone, Everyone Hurts Me: A Comedy (2018) at UofT's Drama Festival, voicing the audio installation L'esprit de l'escalier (2018) by the CCC and performing live in Deanna Bowen's exhibition On Trial The Long Doorway (2017) at Mercer Union.
Alongside acting, Whitney is signed with Dulcedo Modeling Management, and has been published in Vogue Italia, PhotoVogue (2016), AFROPUNK (2016) (2018), and Gritty Vibes Magazine (2017). To name a few, Whitney has modelled nationally with Lululemon (2018), Simons (2018), Covergirl (2018), Haley Elsasser in collaboration with L'Oréal (2018), and in a national Sephora campaign (2018)
She looks forward to making her directorial debut with Les Frères at the George Ignatieff Theatre from November 29-December 1.
Sandra A. Daley-Sharif (Playwright) is an Afro-Caribbean artist, living in Harlem. She has earned her merits over twenty years as an OBIE Award winning producer, award winning playwright, director, actress, and dramaturg. She is a 2015 recipient of the Josephine Abady Award. She is pursuing her MFA in Playwriting at Hunter College under the mentorship of Master-Artists-in-Residence ANNIE BAKER, ADAM BOCK, KRISTINA SATTER, ANNE WASHBURN and BRANDEN JACOBS-JENKINS, plus Distinguished Lecturer BRIGHDE MULLINS. Not one, but two of her plays made it to the Kilroys List 2017.
Sandra’s stories are committed to TRUTH. Two people revealing themselves honestly.
Most recently, her short play Anonymous was produced at both The Fire This Time Festival 2018 and the EstroGenius Festival 2018. Sandra’s play Straddling the Edge is a Barbour Award finalist and is now being workshopped at the cell theatre, directed by Kira Simring. Les Frères is a 2018 Bay Area Playwrights Festival finalist and a 2017 Eugene O’Neill semi-finalist. She received a SPACE on Ryder Farm Creative Residency, where she began her new play The Island Bull’s Wife. It is now complete, under the mentorship of Adam Bock. She was named a NYFA Fellowship Finalist for Playwriting. Her short play Man in the Moon was developed and presented by The Exquisite Corpse Company; Shirley and Iris was presented at the Going to the River Festival 2016 at EST, and Jake was produced at New Perspectives Theater, and most recently at Silver Spring Stage. Her choreo-poem Genesis was presented May 2017 at 50in50:Writing Women Into Existence, curated by Dominique Morisseau. And, her play Los Samaritanosabout life at the Mexican border is being considered for development at the Arizona Theatre and being reviewed in the semi final round, for a week-long development at Women in Arizona Theatre.
