2024 PRODUCTION TEAM
Lava Alapai
Producer
Lava Alapai is a multi-ethnic playwright, director, and photographer born in Okinawa, Japan, and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing and Theatre at UBC.
Writing credits include Middletown Mall (Eugene O’Neill NPC semi-finalist), which will receive a world premiere with Third Rail Repertory Theatre in 2024, The Event for Artists Repertory Theatre’s Mercury Festival, and Mutt for ManyHats Collaboration.
Some of her recent directing credits include The King of the Yees for Profile Theatre, Stains for Ashland New Plays Festival, Beatrice for Portland Opera, School Girls, or; the African Mean Girls play for Portland Center Stage/Artists Repertory Theatre co-production, Is God Is for Washington Ensemble Theatre, The Chinese Lady, The Revolutionists, and An Octoroon(co-direction) for Artists Repertory Theatre.
Lava is thrilled to be collaborating in producing this year’s festival!
Damini Kane
Marketing Coordinator
Damini Kane is a creative writing student at the University of British Columbia. She has been published in literary journals, online and in print, such as the Lakeview Journal, The Purple Breakfast Review and Muse India. Her piece, Aleppo, was long-listed for the DNA Out of Print Short Fiction Contest. She was also a winner of the Campus Diaries 25 Under 25 contest, a national talent hunt that highlighted the skills of 25 people in four categories: Photography, Design, Science and Technology, and Writing. Damini loves to write character-driven stories, and fantasy stories with a heavy focus on interpersonal conflicts. Her first novel, The Sunlight Plane, was published in 2018 by Authorspress. Her short story, Mariska and Major, was also featured in Podcastle in 2020. She has been featured in the ISO Break reading series by Asia Pacific Writers and Translators (APWT), hosted by Tim Tomlinson from the New York Writers’ Workshop.
She occasionally blogs, and would love to have the time to make more YouTube videos.
Find out more: https://daminikane.com/
Anna Thorsen
Associate Producer
Anna Thorsen is a Zambian/Swedish writer, filmmaker and theatre lover from Vancouver, Canada. Anna is one of the Associate Producers for the Brave New Play Rites 2024 Festival and works as a Dispatcher for IATSE Local 118. She is currently pursuing her BFA in Creative Writing at UBC and holds a certificate in Documentary Film Production from Langara. She has made over 10 short films. Before 2019, Anna spent 15 years working in corporate retail as a visual merchandiser, clothing designer, and event planner. In her down time, Anna is either at home with her two cats, running the Seawall, or watching the latest Broadway show that’s in town!
ANOSH IRANI
Faculty Advisor
Anosh Irani is a three-time Governor General’s Literary Award-shortlisted author and playwright, and a two-time winner of the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play. His novel, The Parcel, was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, and was chosen as one of the Best Books of the Year by the Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire, National Post, CBC Books and The Walrus.
Nicola Wanless
Associate Producer
Nicola Wanless is a non-binary Vancouver-based writer, and is currently pursuing an MFA at UBC. Previous writing credits include, Dynamis Lost (Calgary Fringe Festival), Haunted FM (Calgary Fringe Festival), Submerged (Brave New Play Rites), and Signal (Art Out Loud Festival). Outside of writing they’ve participated in a variety of other roles, including directing, stage management, costume design, and graphic design for theatre. They write and co-produce the narrative fiction podcast The Rest is Electric, two seasons of which are available online
Frances Koncan
Faculty Advisor
Frances Koncan (she/they) is an Anishinaabe and Slovene playwright from Couchiching First Nation and Assistant Professor of Playwriting at UBC. They hold a BA in Psychology from the University of Manitoba and an MFA in Playwriting from the City University of New York Brooklyn College. Their work as a playwright includes Women of the Fur Trade, Space Girl, and zahgidiwin/love. Instagram/TikTok: @franceskoncan