Our Team

Michelle Urbano

(she/her)

Artistic Director

Michelle Urbano is a Toronto theatre creator, puppeteer, storyteller, and producer, recognized in 2017 by Cahoots Theatre as one of their “30 for 30” – 30 artists shaping the next 30 years of Toronto theatre. Her background is in devised theatre and new play creation, and as such, she feels most at home working with a team on creative projects. Michelle was the Producer for SiA’s otîhêw last summer. She lives just on the other side of the Humber River, and is thrilled to be connecting more deeply with the Weston community through her new position as Artistic Director.

Michelle was the co-Artistic Director and Producer for the award-winning found-object puppetry company, Artichoke Heart and recently Produced the Toronto International Storytelling Festival, leading the project in its 43rd (2022) and 44th (2023) edition. She recently completed a tour of Quest for the Moon, and Old Man and the River with the Wee Festival. She was an artist-in-residence at Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, and completed three tours with the company (Canada, USA, China). She has performed and worked in a variety of capacities with the CBC, Factory Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Theatre by the Bay, Pandemic Theatre, Eldritch Theatre, the Old Trout Puppet Workshop, and more.

Photo by Dahlia Katz

Mandy E. MacLean

(she/her)

Artistic & Access Producer

Mandy E. MacLean is a theatremaker and access & disability arts practitioner currently living in Tkarón:to with her Cocker Spaniel, Mulder. She is a proud Maritimer, a member of the Mad Community, and lives with a non-visible disability. She is currently the Artistic & Access Producer at Cross Roads Theatre, and just completed her role as Dramaturgy & Accessibility Associate (Metcalf Performing Arts Foundation Intern) at Theatre Passe Muraille, where she supported the producing and creation of a variety of work with a priority on access.

She is passionate about challenging traditional approaches to creative meaning-making, and her recent & upcoming theatrical works include; Assistant Director for Neither Here Nor There (Sick & Twisted Theatre), Associate Dramaturg & Access Support for Blind Dates (TPM), Live Line & Producing Support for The Flin Flon Cowboy (TPM), Access Dramaturg for Have Fun Kids (Toronto Next Stage) and Flux in the City (High Performance Rodeo, Major Matt Mason Collective), Access Coordination for Space Mosque by Safiya Randera, and is a TDSB Creates Artist in Residence.

Mandy collaborates in a variety of roles and recently served as Access Coordinator for the 2024 Summer in the Park with Crossroads, coordinated a year-long access-based research project with Prologue Performing Arts and the W. Ross School for the Blind, and served as Arts Activation Coordinator for Frog in Hand’s Art Shelter: a placemaking venture in Port Credit, Ontario. She is currently developing a piece of Sensory Theatre called The Concussion Play; or How I Learned to Wait, supported by the OAC, Why Not Theatre and Tangled Arts.

As Mandy collaborates and interacts with structures and practices, she believes that considering access, in all forms, can lead to exciting work and experiences for everyone.

Aaheli Mukherjee

(she/her)

Production Manager

Born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to Bengali parents from Kolkata, India, and raised in Muscat, Oman, Aaheli Mukherjee (she/her) now calls Tkaronto, Canada, home. As a proud Third Culture Kid and First-Generation Immigrant, her journey has been shaped by a rich blend of South Asian heritage, a Middle Eastern upbringing, and an evolving artistic career in Canada. She is passionate about collaborating with emerging works, telling new stories, and facilitating collaborative spaces that prioritize accessibility and decolonial practices.

Aaheli’s engagement with Toronto’s theatre began as a Production Manager with the Paprika Festival in 2022. Since then she has cultivated a practice as a Production Manager, Producer, and Arts Administrator, working with a wide array of theatre companies to support innovative storytelling and artists. Recent professional highlights include serving as the Production Manager and Technical Director for Crossroads Theatre (formerly Shakespeare in Action) since 2023, Production Manager for the world premiere of Earworm by Nowadays Theatre in association with Crows Theatre (2024), and The Caged Bird Sings by Modern Times Stage Company at the Aga Khan Museum (2024).

Lili Robinson

(she/they)

Marketing & Outreach Coordinator

Lili Robinson (she/they) is a theatre artist, poet, and facilitator with collective healing and transformation towards liberated futures at the centre of their work. Born and raised on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories (colonially known as Vancouver), Lili now calls T’karonto home.

As a creator, Lili draws from lineages of Black Feminism and Afrofuturism to unpack questions of race, gender, and sexuality through their lens as a queer, genderfluid, mixed-race Black femme. Lili’s debut play, Mx, was the winner of the 2019 Vancouver Fringe New Play Prize and the 2019 Cultchivating the Fringe Award, and they are currently developing their sophomore play, Infest. They’ve been recognized nationally for their work bridging art and activism through the Playwrights Guild of Canada’s John Palmer Award, and recently presented at the 2025 Global Artivism Convening in Salvador, Brazil.

As a playwright, Lili’s work has been programmed on stages including the Cultch, Vines Festival, Vancouver Writers Fest, Queer Arts Festival, and Brave New Works Festival, and they’ve participated in playwrights units and residencies across the country, including with the Arts Club, Obsidian Theatre, Diaspora Dialogues and the Banff Playwrights Lab. As a poet, Lili was raised on East Van’s slam poetry and spoken word stages. They have been featured at the Vancouver Writer’s Festival, the Queer Arts Festival, Brick Books’ Brickyard, and published in Room Magazine.

Other hats they’ve worn in recent years include: Outreach Coordinator for Jumblies Theatre; Community Engagement Producer for Playwrights Theatre Centre and the frank theatre; Resident Curator at rEvolver Festival; and dramaturg for the Parallel Project, supporting emerging BIPOC playwrights to develop new work. Lili is passionate about community engagement and outreach work as a means of shifting norms of what theatre can be, and who it is by and for.

Board of Directors