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Our Team

Meet our staff

Tarragon Theatre is proud of our team of loyal, dedicated, theatre professionals, they work tirelessly to ensure your experience of our theatres is second to none.

Leadership

Artistic Director

Mike Payette

Theatre has the power to move, to inspire, to change, and to teach us about ourselves and about each other. It also opens the possibility to find hope during challenging times and pause when we need to look deeper within us.

Theatre has the power to move, to inspire, to change, and to teach us about ourselves and about each other. It also opens the possibility to find hope during challenging times and pause when we need to look deeper within us. From a young age, Mike discovered how the arts can impact both an individual and a community in profound ways, and he is grateful to have learned from and grown with that philosophy since. Born and raised in Tiotià:ke (Montréal), Quebec, that journey has taken him to this role of Artistic Director with Tarragon Theatre, as we collectively enter a new chapter of empowering passionate storytellers and their work and building meaningful bridges with communities near and far.

How distant are the days of playing Winnie the Pooh in Grade 2!

Somewhere between then and now, Mike is proud to have worked with and appeared on some of Canada’s finest theatres
as an actor and director. As an artist who believes in development and mentorship as part of his practice, he is also
an educator, as well as a frequent guest artist at the National Theatre School of Canada. He has served on several boards
including the Quebec Drama Federation, la Maison Théâtre, MAI (Montréal, arts interculturels), and on the Executive of PACT (Professional Association of Canadian Theatres).

Prior to joining Tarragon, he was the Artistic and Executive Director of Geordie Theatre – Quebec’s largest English-language Theatre for Young Audiences company and was earlier the co-founding Artistic Director of Tableau D’Hôte Theatre and past Assistant Artistic Director for Black Theatre Workshop. A two-time Montreal English Theatre Award (META) recipient, some of his favourite moments have been working on shows that uplift and challenge the imagination while embracing the magnitude of the human spirit. Some of those productions include the Quebec premieres of Harlem Duet (Black Theatre Workshop), A Line in the Sand (Tableau D’Hôte Theatre), Hosanna (English premiere) and Choir Boy (Centaur), Reaching for Starlight and Virginia Wolf (Geordie), the French-language premiere of Héritage – A Raisin in the Sun (Théâtre Jean-Duceppe) along with the national tours of The Tashme Project (Tashme Prods/Centaur/Factory/Firehall) and Lorena Gale’s Angélique (Black Theatre Workshop/Tableau D’Hôte/National Arts Centre/Factory/Obsidian).

Managing Director

Andrea Vagianos

Andrea joined Tarragon Theatre as Managing Director in April of 2018 after more than eight years at the helm of Toronto Dance Theatre. Over the past twenty-five years, she has held many positions in the cultural sector on both the producing and funding sides of the industry.

Andrea joined Tarragon Theatre as Managing Director in April of 2018 after more than eight years at the helm of Toronto Dance Theatre. Over the past twenty-five years, she has held a variety of positions in the cultural sector on both the producing and funding sides of the industry. In the early ‘90s, Andrea spent several years creating and running arts education programs for The Shaw Festival and the Canadian Opera Company. She moved to the Laidlaw Foundation in the late ‘90s, where she was Arts Programme Coordinator and facilitated its province-wide funding of new works in the performing arts.

Andrea spent six years as Managing Director of Dancemakers (2000-2005), during which time she negotiated and managed the company’s move to and leasehold improvements of the Centre for Creation in Toronto’s Distillery District. She worked in the public sector as Acting Arts Education Officer at the Ontario Arts Council (2006-07), and was General Manager of The School of Toronto Dance Theatre (2007-09) before moving on to Toronto Dance Theatre (2010-2018). Andrea has volunteered on numerous arts boards over the years including seven years on the board of the Toronto Alliance of the Performing Arts (TAPA), the last three of which she served as President.

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Artistic

Jeff Ho

Associate Artistic Director

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Justin Miller

Artistic Producer & Greenhouse Festival Director

Administration

Courtney Fiddis

Director of Development

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Cameron Johnston

Director, Marketing Communications

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Natasha Parsons

Director of Patron Services

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Heather Caplap

Education and Community Engagement Manager

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Micaela Molina Morales

Manager of Patron Services

Anita Sountendam

Assistant Manager of
Patron Services

Monica Bradford-Lea

Communications and Development Assistant

Caleigh Adams

Patron Services Representative

Dhanish Kumar Chinniah

Patron Services Representative

Jonnie Lombard

Patron Services Representative

Amin Shirazi

Patron Services Representative

Alyssa Obrigewitsch

Patron Services Representative

Jackson Nair

Patron Services Representative &
Sally Stavro Family Series Coordinator

Danielle Morgan

Publicist

Production

Gerry Egan

Director of
Production

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Leslie Hernandez

Technical
Director

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Carley Melvin

Assistant Technical Director

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Shara-Lee Miller

Head Scenic Painter

Ashley MacDonald

Head of Props

Acadia Walsh

Head of Wardrobe

Karen Elizabeth

Mainspace Technician

David Mallette

Extraspace Technician

Andrew Chute

Head Carpenter

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