Buddies in Bad Times TheaTre is siTuaTed on The lands of The haudenosaunee, The anishinaaBe, and The WendaT, and The TreaTy TerriTory of The mississaugas of The CrediT. We aCknoWledge Them and any oTher naTions Who Care for The land (aCknoWledged and unaCknoWledged, reCorded and unreCorded) as The pasT, presenT and fuTure CareTakers of This land, referred To as TkaronTo (“Where The Trees meeT The WaTer”; “The gaThering plaCe”). Buddies is honoured To Be a home for queer, Trans and 2-spiriT arTisTs on These sToried and saCred lands ThaT have Been sTeWarded By Indigenous peoples for Thousands of years Before The arrival of Colonial seTTlers.
cover photography + creative direction by Fran Chudnoff, styling by CC Calica, makeup by Rahnell Branton | featured: Makram Ayache
Writer + director’s note
There’s a strangeness to directing my own writing. What was once a solitary act of writing - a sublime exploration of memory and queerness — must now become a communal reckoning with actors, designers, technicians, and ultimately, you the audience. This brings me to the work in new and undiscovered ways. So often during this process, I said directing feels like writing in 3D space, where flesh, lights, and sounds become the ink which I stroke upon the canvas.
In directing this play, the ink is not my own anymore. Through my relationships on this production, we explored the intimate and sublime ways in which memory and queerness live in all of us, and the outpouring of creativity, spirit, laughter, and tears which each member of our team brought into the work has allowed us to define this story in ways I could never achieve alone.
In writing this play, I described it as a love letter to my Arabness, a love letter to my mom and dad, and a yearning to be a part of Beirut and all the people within in. I found all those things and more in the community we build — All of our parents, our ancestors, our conceptions of Beirut, whether we’re from there or not, and our shared experiences of grief, yearning, and love, cut through cement like the insistent greenery bursting toward light. Each person in this production has left their indelible mark.
I’m proud of so much that we’ve achieved in staging this story together. But perhaps, I’m most proud of the care, accountability, and integrity we weaved into the process. To be telling Arab stories in a time when we are so dehumanized is an act of resistance. To be telling queer stories in a time when we are being erased, commodified, or assimilated, is an act of resistance. To do this with queers and Arabs and queer Arabs is an act of reclamation and, to be totally vulnerable — an act of healing.
To share it with you is an extension of that healing. What I hope you leave with is not a neat resolution, but an opening. This play is not about explaining Lebanon or explaining queerness. It is about experiencing the complexity of love and memory through characters whose bodies bear the weight of politics, history, and desire. If you leave the theatre holding your loved ones closer, or reflecting on the memories that live inside you, then we will have succeeded.
Lastly, I leave you with these questions: how can we allow love to define survival? How can we insist on triumph in the face of ancestral severance?
Sincerely,
cast + creW + creative team
Makram Ayache // playwright + director
Hiba Sleiman // translation
Waseem Alzer, Oshen Aoun, Basma Baydoun, Zaynna
Khalife // performers
Anahita Dehbonehie // set + costume design
Jareth Li + Kit Norman // lighting design
Chris Pereira + Heidi Chan // sound design
Anita Nittoly // fight + intimacy director
Laura Baxter // stage manager
Honey Hoseiny // lead scenic painter + head construction + assitant set design
Pearl Alinejad // scenic paint assistant
Aidan Hammond // production manager
Chris Holtkamp // associate producer
Christopher-Elizabeth // surtitle designer
// head technicians
Antel Kollenberg, Zoe Daca, Brawk Hessel, Stephanie Taylor, Nate Gurarie, Diamond Srey, Mike Dowdall, Lindsay McDonald, June Lytle, steph raposo, Julie M. Li, Rian Tran, River Oliveira,
thank yous
Team Thank yous
Anonymous Benefactors
Georgetown Little Theatre
Cirque Ouellette
JTP Show Services
Nick Brownlee
Delara Brownlee-Dehbonehie
Ellie Koffman
Chris Malkowski
Guild Festival Theatre
Pwiddy Pwincess and an Anonymous Benefactor
Mary Hanna
Susan Heslop
MAKRAM’S THANK YOUS
Santiago Guzman
Mitchell Cushman
Josh Ricci
Kevin Saccucci
Brent Saccucci
Randa and Riad Ayache
artIst BIos
Makram Ayache (pronounced: Mak-Rum Eye-Ash) // playwright + director – Makram Ayache is a Governor General’s Award finalist and Dora Award–winning playwright, director, and performer based in Toronto. His plays explore queer Arab voices with a commitment for marrying political resistance to intimate desire. His The Hooves Belonged to the Deer (Tarragon Theatre in association with Buddies) was named one of The Globe and Mail’s 10 best productions of 2023 and won Edmonton’s Sterling Award for Outstanding Independent Production. His Governor General–nominated The Green Line won two Betty Mitchell Awards and is a 2025 Lambda Literary Award finalist. Makram likes his theatre like his lovers: bold, tender, and impossible to forget. Learn more at www.makramayache.com.
Laura Baxter (she/her) // stage manager – Baxter began her stage management career at Buddies. Her work here includes: Neon Nightz, Beauty Salon, Silicone Diaries, Breakfast, The Maids, Obaaberima, Arigato Tokyo, The 20th of November, Black Boys, Roberto Zucco, and Shedding a Skin, along with many a Rhubarb! Festival, Cheap Queers, ArtAttack!, and Hysteria Festival. Laura has worked at theatres across the country, is a specialist in outdoor theatre of all seasons, and is particularly passionate about bringing Queer stories to our stages. Thank you to my wife and our child, your unwavering love is my light.
Waseem Alzer (he/him) // performer – Fifi/Zidan – Waseem Alzer is a Palestinian performing and Dabka teaching artist based in NYC. Off-Broadway World Premieres: On That Day In Amsterdam and Eh Dah? Questions for my Father by Aya Aziz. Regional World Premieres: Layalina by Yousif Zebari, Last Ward by Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre. Follow the Freedom Theater in Jenin, Palestine.
Oshen Aoun [pronounced: Ocean] [he/him] // performer –Naseeb/Rami – Oshen Aoun is a Lebanese-Canadian actor, creator, and musician. Pursuing the constant deepening of his process, he finds fulfillment as an actor by diving into as many different worldviews as possible — thus, exploring the complexities of the human experience. Oshen is a recent graduate of The National Theatre School of Canada — it is there that he had the pleasure of portraying a wide range of characters, including the title role in Richard III and Mr. Rochester in Jillian Keiley’s production of Jane Eyre. Oshen is a percussionist, centering around the drum kit and the African Djembe, and is one of the rare Duduk (woodwind) players in Canada. He is also trained in both armed and unarmed stage combat under the guidance of Anita Nitolly. This is Oshen’s Buddies debut.
Basma Baydoun (she/her) // performer – Yara – Basma Baydoun is a Lebanese-Canadian performer and cultural practitioner whose work moves between creative projects and cultural program management. She’s collaborated with artists between Canada and Lebanon, notably Sahar Assaf, Robert Reid, Moe Sabbah, Chelsea Dab Hilke, Tahaab Rais, and Doyle Avant, and is excited to be performing at Buddies for the first time! Off stage, she works with organizations and initiatives that support Arab artists and aim to build creative bridges across borders, such as Ettijahat — Independent Culture, Director’s Lab Mediterranean, and Yaraqa. Left unsupervised, she’ll probably be dancing, exploring, or chasing cats.
Zaynna Khalife (she/her) // performer – Mona – Yeehaw, my name is Zaynna Khalife, I’m a Lebanese-Canadian actor, singer, performer, dancer, and up and coming playwright. This is my Buddies Debut, but I’m known for my work as Fatima in the New Canadian Curling Club (Neptune Theatre/ Drayton Entertainment/Theatre Orangeville) and my work with Pleiades Theatre. I hold a Bachelor of Arts from UofT, an Advanced Diploma in Acting from Sheridan, and an Acting Certificate from Lee Strasberg NYC! I’m a silly little guy who loves to boogie. I’ve been told I am a breath of fresh air and sincere in my work. Enjoy the show! @zaynnak
Anahita Dehbonehie // set + costume design – Anahita Dehbonehie is an Iranian artist currently based in Toronto. She is committed to work that questions positions of power and creates space for contemporary conversation. Her practice extends across design, direction, and playwriting. Her work has been featured across Canada and internationally, including at the Prague Quadrennial, The Vilnius Capital of Culture, and the Moscow Museum of Modern Art. Her design work on both stage and screen has been recognized with multiple award nominations and wins. In theatre she has received two Dora Awards, three Theatre Critics awards, and a Sterling Haynes Award. She has twice appeared on Toronto’s list of Top Ten Theatre Artists of the Year and is a resident artist with Outside the March.
Jareth Li (he/him) // co-lighting design – Previously at Buddies: Distant Early Warning (Pearle Harbour Presents), Black Boys (Saga Collectif). Recently — Sense and Sensibility, Every Little Nookie (Stratford Festival); Prince Caspian, The Orphan of Chao (Shaw Festival); Frozen, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jersey Boys, Ring of Fire (Citadel Theatre); Peter’s Final Flight (Ross Petty Productions); The Last Timbit (GUT Creative); Top Dog/ Underdog (Canadian Stage); Access Me. Other: Instructor at York University –AMPD Theatre Department.
Kit
Norman (they/them) // co-lighting design – Kit is a technician and designer near the start of their career. They have worked at Buddies as a head technician for the past three years on shows including Angels in America, Speaking of Sneaking, and the Rhubarb! Festival. They have also worked as a lighting designer outside of Buddies on shows such as Red, The Bees Knees, and numerous productions at TYT.
Chris Pereira (he/him) // co-sound design – Chris is an actor and sound designer from Edmonton, now based in Vancouver. He originally designed The Green Line for its 2019 Fringe debut, using Lebanese music to craft a soundscape that captured the play’s emotional core. He’s thrilled that essence lives on in this new version. Notable theatre credits include The Hooves Belonged to the Deer by Makram Ayache at Tarragon Theatre in association with Buddies in Bad Times. Chris now works primarily in film and TV, with recent credits including Tracker (20th TV/CBC), The Irrational (NBC), Alaska Daily (ABC), and Dead Boy Detectives (Netflix).
Heidi Chan (any pronouns) // co-sound design – Heidi Chan creates music and sound for theatre and dance. Heidi has a background in music performance and has toured as a live musician with UK’s Shakespeare’s Globe and Hong Kong’s Tang Shu-wing Theatre Studio. Heidi performed at Buddies years ago as drummer for The Cliks, but this is their debut at Buddies as sound designer. Recent theatre credits: Anahita’s Republic (Bustle & Beast); A Number (That Arts Group); Waterfall (Theatre Gargantua); A Public Reading… Death of Walt Disney, Performance Review (Outside the March); The Trials of Maggie Pollock (Blyth); The Orphan of Chao (Shaw).
Anita Nittoly // fight + intimacy direction – Selected Fight/ Intimacy Director credits: Stratford Festival 2024 season; Bad Roads/Prodigal (Crows); Angels in America (Buddies); The Retreat (Imago); The Retreat (YPT); JCS (Here For Now); Wildwoman (Soulpepper), Hamlet (CanStage/The Rose); Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes (TIP), Fall on Your Knees (CanStage/NAC); Fairview (Canstage); Counter Offence (Segal Centre); Trojan Girls and The Outhouse of Atreus (Outside The March/Factory Theatre); Our Place (Cahoots/TPM); The Last Wife, The 39 Steps, Successions (Centaur Theatre); Whole World (Carousel Players). Selected Stunt Performer credits: Law & Order Toronto, SEE, Star Trek: Discovery, Pretty Hard Cases, Titans, The Boys, Rabbit Hole, various Ubisoft motion capture.
Honey Hoseiny // lead scenic painter + head of construction + assistant set design – Honey is a Toronto-based interdisciplinary artist, director, designer, actor, and puppeteer originally from Iran. He has over two decades of experience in theatre and performance. Honey is the 2025 Toronto Newcomer Artist Award recipient. He holds a BA in Puppet Theatre and an MA in Dramatic Literature from the University of Art in Tehran. Since moving to Canada in 2023, he has collaborated with leading companies, including Outside the March, Modern Times Stage, the Aga Khan Museum, and Crow’s Theatre, on the Doranominated Earworm. As co-founder of Simiya Group, he explores immersive art, interactive installations, and innovative storytelling that bridges performance and visual arts.
Aidan Hammond (she/they] // production manager – Aidan Hammond works in collaborative production. Trained in theatre creation and health care assistance, she is interested in supporting artistic work that explores access, abilities, and diversity. Having worked with companies from so-called Vancouver to Kjipuktuk, they’re stoked to be working with both Buddies and friends in Tkaronto. Some favourite management credits across this land mass include: Buzz’n’Bumble (Theatre Passe Muraille), Multipocalypse Livestream (Tricksters Media), Untitled Peter Tripp Project (Curtain Razors), culture.capital (Milton Lim and Patrick Blenkarn), The Huns (One Four One Collective), and Movements No. 1&2 (Babelle Theatre).
Chris Holtkamp (he/him) // associate producer – Chris Holtkamp is a Saskatchewan-born actor, director, writer, and producer based in Toronto. Buddies in Bad Times debut! Theatre: acting in Lesson for the Future (Lincoln Center), assistant directing What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (MCC Theater), directing Merry Love Happy Joy (Patrons Theatre). Film: The Same Storm. BFA: UNCSA. Chris is excited to be a part of bringing this beautiful story to the stage!
Pearl Alinejad // scenic paint assistant –
Christopher-Elizabeth // surtitle designer – ChristopherElizabeth is an Afro-Indigenous designer and artist with an interest in our ever-evolving relationship to technology, control, and play. Some cool projects I’ve worked on that fit within my remaining word count are: Lighting Designer for Sanguine (Cahoots), Lighting Designer for Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner (Obsidian/Crows), Associate Video Designer for Fat Ham (Canadian Stage) and the Creator of the Untitled Video Game Project (Tarragon/Pickles). I’m the Artistic Director of Pickles Theatre Co.
Dina Saleem // surtitle operator – Dina is a writer and performer with over a decade of experience in theatre and storytelling, focusing on memory, mental health, and its relationship with socio-politics in Lebanon and Palestine. In 2024, she was selected for Zoukak Theatre’s advanced programs What Works? and Dramaturgy of the Actor, developing scenes through writing, body movement, emotions and intentions. Her work includes assistant writer/ dramaturgy for We Are the Ones Who Live Here, a participatory play turning real stories of marginalized communities in Lebanon into performance. She has also performed in over seven plays across Beirut’s stages.
Hiba Sleiman (she/her) // translation – Hiba Sleiman is an actor, playwright, and scriptwriter. She’s played, written, and translated with companies from Beirut to New York, Calgary, Ontario, and Montreal. Her love for Arabic finds its way, playfully and intentionally, into the multilingual worlds she builds. Her translation and dramaturgical work extend across film, theatre, and music, including a poetic narrative for the Canadian Arabic Orchestra. On screen, she’s written and directed shorts like Between Here and There and Dounia, and is now developing her first full-length play with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. Montreal audiences may have caught her in Keffiyeh/Made in China, right after she starred in her first feature film in March ‘25.
Matthew Romantini // production assistant – I am an interdisciplinary performer and director, working in theatre, dance, and with orchestral musicians, the Artistic Director of Omnivore Performance, and a faculty member at Randolph College. Notable productions include Don Pasquale with the COC, The Rage of Narcissus (Expandido Theatre Group), The Boys In The Band (Ghostlight Projects), April 14, 1912 (Theatre Rusticle), co-creating Gorey Story (4 Dora nominations), and playing everyone but Peer in Peer Gynt starring Susan Coyne (both with The Thistle Project), 10 Nights of Dream (TomoeArts - Director) and directing four productions at Randolph College.
About In Arms tHEAtrE ComPAnY
In Arms Theatre Company is a creative studio for art born from rupture. Dedicated to bold, heart-led theatre that centres the margins, holds space for care, and imagines spiritual and political transformation through resistance.
About tHE mEnA CoLLECtIVE
The MENA Collective is led by Makram Ayache, Nabil Traboulsi, and Anahita Dehbonehie. We arose out of a need to create a platform for Middle Eastern and North African theatre artists. We are a producing company, an advocacy group, and an educational initiative aspiring to uplift MENA voices in the Canadian theatre ecology.
Heidi Chan creates music and sound for theatre and dance. Heidi has a background in music performance and has toured as a live musician with UK’s Shakespeare’s Globe and Hong Kong’s Tang Shu-wing Theatre Studio. Heidi performed at Buddies years ago as drummer for The Cliks, but this is their debut at Buddies as sound designer.
Director of Finance and Development
KRISTINA LEMIEUX
Rhubarb Festival Director
LUDMYLLA REIS
Hosting Lead
SEBASTIAN URMOM
Custodian KEVIN NICOL
Hosting Team
Recent theatre credits: Anahita’s Republic (Bustle & Beast); A Number (That Arts Group); Waterfall (Theatre Gargantua); A Public Reading…Death of Walt Disney, Performance Review (Outside the March); The Trials of Maggie Pollock (Blyth); The Orphan of Chao (Shaw).
Operations Coordinator
Anita Nittoly // fight + intimacy direction
MASON MCDONALD
Production Manager
REBECCA VANDEVELDE
Technical Director
ANTHONY ALLAN
Producer
CONI AGURTO, MAXWELL COWAN, HANNAH KENNEDY, DIVINE MARKSOWUSU, MACKENZIE MCCALLUM, LESLEY NICHOLLS, ASHER ROSE, SARAH ROWE, SIWAR SORIA, MAIREAD STEWART, DANNY SYLVAN
Head of Security
AIDAN MCKENDRICK
Security Team MARY RUMBAWA
Selected Fight/Intimacy Director credits: Stratford Festival 2024 season; Bad Roads/ Prodigal (Crows); Angels in America (Buddies); The Retreat (Imago); The Retreat (YPT); JCS (Here For Now); Wildwoman (Soulpepper), Hamlet (CanStage/The Rose); Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes (TIP), Fall on Your Knees (CanStage/NAC); Fairview (Canstage); Counter Offence (Segal Centre); Trojan Girls and The Outhouse of Atreus (Outside The March/Factory Theatre); Our Place (Cahoots/TPM); The Last Wife, The 39 Steps, Successions (Centaur Theatre); Whole World (Carousel Players). Selected Stunt Performer credits: Law & Order Toronto, SEE, Star Trek: Discovery, Pretty Hard Cases, Titans, The Boys, Rabbit Hole, various Ubisoft motion capture.
AIDAN MORISHITA-MIKI
Bar Personnel
Honey Hoseiny // lead scenic painter + head construction
Marketing Manager
KATIE CLARKE
RICHARD BELL, CHARLEE BOYES, DANIEL HOANG, RONNIE LÉGÈRE, ASHER ROSE
Chris Holtkamp is a Saskatchewan-born actor, director, writer, and producer based in Toronto. Buddies in Bad Times debut! Theatre: acting in Lesson for the Future (Lincoln Center), assistant directing What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (MCC Theater), directing Merry Love Happy Joy (Patrons Theatre). Film: The Same Storm. BFA: UNCSA. Chris is excited to be a part of bringing this beautiful story to the stage!
Senior Manager of Bar and Nightlife
AL THOMAS-HALL
SEDINA FIATI
JESSE GRIFFITHS
ALEXANDER HUTCHISON
MICHAEL MAN
ANU RADHA VERMA
Dina Saleem // scenic paint assistant
ArtAttack! Coordinator
CHRIS IRONSIDE
Tallulah’s Event Producer
KATHERINE TEED-ARTHUR
Chamber Coordinator
AMBER PATTISON
Publicity
KATIE SAUNORIS | KSPR
ALEX RAND
Dina is a writer and performer with over a decade of experience in theater and storytelling, focusing on memory, mental health, and its relationship with socio-politics in Lebanon and Palestine. In 2024, she was selected for Zoukak Theater’s advanced programs What Works? and Dramaturgy of the Actor, developing scenes through writing, body movement, emotions and intentions. Her work includes assistant writer/dramaturgy for We Are the Ones Who Live Here, a participatory play turning real stories of marginalized communities in Lebanon into performance. She has also performed in over seven plays across Beirut’s stages.
Factory theatre
Factory Theatre’s mission is to enthrall audiences with the imagination of Canadian playwrights and develop the next generation of diverse theatre artists. Since its founding in 1970, Factory has committed to exclusively produce Canadian plays. Factory has made it an artistic priority to invest in, and showcase Canadian artists who bring their stories to our theatre in Toronto. This has made Factory the home of the Canadian playwright and for over five decades, developing and producing some of the finest theatrical works in our national canon and giving space to some of the most gifted and prolific playwrights in Canada.
Artistic Director
MEL HAGUE
Managing Director MARK AIKMAN
Associate Artistic Director
KALALE DALTON-LUTALE
Fundraising + Development Manager
MOLLIE GARRETT
Development Associate
CAITIE GRAHAM
Creative Director – Communications
CLAREN GROSZ
Production Manager
PATRICK LYNN
Patron Services Manager
SUSANNAH MACKAY
Senior Producer
RACHEL PENNY
Foundation + Corporate Development
Associate MARK WILLETT
Head Technicians
MAKIAH BAUTIS (Mainspace Theatre), \
KI KARL TILANDER (Studio Theatre)
Patron Services Representatives DAN AUDET, COREY BROWN, BENJAMIN CALDWELL, EMMA, NEHA PODUVAL, MEGHAN SALMON, JOBINA SITOH, MARK WILLETT, ANITA YUNG, KERRY ZENTNER
Board of Directors Chair
LEN RACIOPPO
Vice Chair
STEWART ADAMS
Treasurer
LAURA FRITH
Secretary
EBONY ROSE
Directors
MARK AIKMAN
KAILA BASILIJ
JOSEPH BOROWIEC
ALEX BOULOS
MEL HAGUE
GRAZYNA KRUPA
Factory’s communIty oF donors
VISIONARY PATRONS ($10,000 +)
Anonymous
Coerente Capital Management
Kingfisher Foundation
The Henry White Kinnear Foundation
The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation
Metcalf Foundation
The Racioppo Family Foundation
Bruce & Elda Ratford
The William and Nona Heaslip Foundation
TD Bank
CREATOR’S CIRCLE ($5,000 – $9,999)
IATSE 58
The Wuchien Michael Than Foundation
Work in Culture | Catalyst and Transformation Fund
$2,500 – $4,999
F.K. Morrow Foundation
$1,000 – $2,499
Anonymous (2)
Sarah & Laina Bay-Cheng
The Lynn Bevan Fund
Emily & Alex Boulos
The Paul Butler & Chris Black Foundation
Cheryl Hawkes
Grazyna Krupa
Larry Lubin
Ron Struys
FACTORY INSIDERS ($500 – $999)
Anonymous (2)
Stewart Adams
Rik Aikman
Joe Borowiec
Richard Cioci
Laura Frith
Andrew Gillespie
Mark Kudlac
William Milne
Susan Moellers
$300 – $499
Anonymous
Sherry Haynes
Steve Lico
Dr. Robert Motum
Penny Noble
Maureen Simpson
Jack Wiseman
JoIn the Factory 55!
Whether it’s $5 or $55, there are so many ways to support Factory Theatre, and we’re grateful for whatever path you choose.
In celebration of our 55-year commitment to Canadian plays and artists, we’re launching a Factory 55 campaign! We’re hoping that 55 of you will join us in building the next chapter of Factory Theatre by becoming a Factory 55 Monthly Donor. We are setting a goal of 55 new monthly donors between May 2025 and May 2026. Factory 55 Monthly Donors will be commemorated on a plaque that will live in Factory’s Studio Bar at the end of this year long initiative. Sign up to be a Factory 55 Monthly Donor today and leave your mark on the history of Factory Theatre’s tomorrow.
Factory Theatre is a fiercely Canadian theatre company at the forefront of investing in a Canadian cannon of work.
