Margruite Krahn – Co-Host
Margruite Krahn is a visual artist, art instructor, lecturer, and curator, living with her husband Paul in Neubergthal, Manitoba, a c. 1876 Mennonite Street Village and National Historic Site.
Since 2001 Margruite has been actively researching, restoring, and documenting the remaining hand painted floors found in early settlement Mennonite housebarns in southern Manitoba. Her current work, Resurfacing: Mennonite Floor Patterns opened at the WAG in 2017/18 and is currently traveling to parts of Canada and the US.
Creating canvas duck floor cloths, Margruite interprets the original floor patterns and colours to tell story. Her research recognizes the women who needed to create beauty in their homes amidst the economic and patriarchal constraints.
In 1998 Margruite and family moved from Winnipeg to Neubergthal with the intent of restoring a 1928 barn into their home. The upper loft of the barn has come to be known as The Krahn Barn and features a 140-seat venue. Also on the property is the Herdsman House in Neubergthal, an artist residence and guest house.
Andrew Braun – Musician
Andrew Braun is a composer, songwriter, producer, and music educator based in Altona, Manitoba. Living in a small community has not stopped him from working across a broad selection of musical fields. He draws from a diverse musical background that has led him around the world to collaborate with and perform alongside world-class jazz musicians, symphony players, rock stars, hip hop producers, and young musicians.
Highlights of the past year include performing at Newport Folk Festival, speaking at an academic conference in Paris, producing a multimedia concert of piano compositions in London, ON, and putting on a “Rock Camp” for kids in Altona.
Andrew will be performing excerpts from a recently released album, Guardians of Sleep Original Soundtrack. This collection of music is based on material from the acclaimed podcast of the same name. The pieces are driven by a tender, inquisitive piano surrounded by a tapestry of electronics and samples. They draw from contemporary musical forms, ripping open sounds, and bending notes to convey the affecting emotional arc of dream life as it is examined in the podcast.
The first season of the podcast investigated how the Covid-19 pandemic affected the dream life of people living in London, England. The show takes its title from Sigmund Freud, who described dreams as the “guardians of sleep and not its disturbers.” Each of the episodes focused on a particular dreamer, exploring how dreaming serves as an integral psychological process that helps us work through the struggles we face in our waking lives. The soundtrack is derived from musical character studies that depict each dreamer and the exploration of their dream life. Each piece was created from a pallet of sounds and compositional elements which become recurring characters in their own right, working to connect the individuals through their shared experience of dreaming during the early days of the pandemic lock down.
The Sixagons – Musician
The Sixagons are a young rock n roll outfit from Altona, Manitoba. The origin of the band traces back to the inaugural SPRKL Studio rock band camp held in the summer of 2021, but the band has existed in its current iteration since February 2023. The band features the charismatic and contrasting vocals of Elliot and Satali, the duelling guitars of Leo and Christoph, the keyboard wizardry of Henry, and the rock solid backbone of Morley on drums. They all study privately on their instruments and write their own music as well as performing covers of well known songs. They also enjoy spirited debates, giving their bass player a hard time, and shouting background vocals.
Armin Wiebe – Playwright
Armin Wiebe is the author of four novels set in the mythical community of Gutenthal: The Salvation of Yasch Siemens, Murder in Gutenthal, The Second Coming of Yeeat Shpanst and Grandmother, Laughing. His stage play, The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz is also set in that community. Tatsea, set in Canada’s subarctic at the time of first contact between the Tłicho people and the fur traders, was awarded the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction. Armin’s Shorts is a collection of short fiction written over more than 30 years. Armin has also written two Oata plays: Wine and Little Breads received an Honourable Mention in the 2019 Herman Voaden National Playwrighting Competition and The Recipe which received an initial workshop with Manitoba Association of Playwright’s Play Lab in October, 2021.
Key Caguioa – Director
Key Caguioa (she/they) is yet another “onstager”-turned-“backstager”, a tale as old as time. Among other things, she is a stage manager and director first and foremost, eagerly making her way through the theatre industry like a sponge (she wants to learn everything).
Key is a proud Black Hole Theatre graduate, a program and company that they owe their career to. During their time at the BHTC, apart from serving as President of the Exec and Student Publicist, they directed Prince Gomolvilas’ The Theory of Everything (April 2022), designed lights for Daniel Arnold and Medina Hahn’s Tuesdays and Sundays, and stage managed a production of Macbeth for ShakespeareFest (January 2020).
Since starting at TPM last June, Key has worked on some cool projects like: working on a local sitcom (Maria and the Mennos), working on Dry Cold’s The Prom, and being an apprentice stage manager for a new and in-development work, MA-BUHAY! The Musical (and stage managing its Fringe presentation this July!). Her Filipino heritage is a core aspect that she carries with her in every project.
Toby Hughes – Performer
Toby is an actor, improvisor, pyrotechnician, storyteller, producer, untrained but enthusiastic dancer and singer, and is very likely called a number of other things behind his back. He has worked extensively on Winnipeg stages, including seven shows with Shakespeare in the Ruins, and unforgettable experiences with many independent companies and every major acronymin town.
Toby is a member of Outside Joke, an improv company that produces fully made-up full length musicals before your eyes. If Toby were an animal, he would be a tree, who is currently rooted in downtown Winnipeg.
Artie Lorraine – Performer
Artie Lorraine (She/They) is an auspicious actor residing in rural Manitoba on Treaty 1 Territory. They are a current student at NTS, an alumna of the Creative Manitoba Professional Mentorship Program and a graduate of the University of Winnipeg. Artie has had the privilege of working with TPM in their emerging artist cohort and looks forward to working on many future projects together. She is incredibly grateful to her friends and family for their constant support and wise advice. Namely Emma Welham, without whom the world would be a significantly worse place. You can see Artie again this summer at the Winnipeg Fringe in the captivating play ‘Pool No Water’.
Lise Raven – Filmmaker
Lise Raven (she/they) first feature film, LOW, screened in over 30 international film festivals. She is a founding filmmaker of the SLAMDANCE FILM FESTIVAL. In 2000 Raven moved to Berlin, Germany after being awarded the DAAD Berliner Künstlerprogramm Artist Residency in Filmmaking. While living in Europe, Raven’s feature film project, SNIPE, was funded by the Irish Film Board. Her next film, STRIDE, told the story of a female combat veteran returning home to her close-knit Philadelphia neighborhood. Raven also produced, directed, and co-wrote the 2014 award winning feature film KINDERWALD, which is the second part of THE KINDERWALD TRILOGY – a series of films inspired by fairy tales about children lost in the woods. Raven’s newest film SNÆLAND was filmed in Iceland and Berlin in summer 2018, and had a World Premiere in 2020. Raven currently teaches film at University of Winnipeg, programs feature films for SLAMDANCE, and advises screenwriters and directors for the Sundance Institute’s COLLAB initiative. Her dog Carlo Batwolf knows his left from right.”
Daggerss – Musician
Daggerss is the queen of the underdogs. She’s the crystalline sparkle of the day and the haunting siren song of the night. She is an artist and producer transplanted from the West Coast of BC to the small town of Altona, Manitoba. Her love of synthesizers, sonic experimentation, and vocal technique are a heavy influence on her creations. Her past includes; the Canadian indie pop duo Rococode, who toured relentlessly across Canada, charted in the top 50 on Canadian Alt radio and top10 on college radio and had songs featured in major TV programs in Canada and the US, ambient instrumental project Ollorjya (Flood Tide Records). But her present and future is creating devastatingly catchy and emotive new songs with her solo project, Daggerss, songwriting and producing for other artists, playing drums and singing in the upcoming rock band trio Hot Soup.
Zorya Arrow – Dancer
Zorya Arrow is a Winnipeg-born artist of European ancestry, working in dance and theatre as a dancer, choreographer, teacher, actor, director, filmmaker, advocate, social dancer, clown, and storyteller. Zorya is passionate about working in experimental and trans-disciplinary contexts which include elements of collaboration and equitable access. Zorya has created over fifteen original dance works in which she often performs. Recently, she choreographed a mixed ability cast in Antigone with Sick + Twisted Theatre, AA Battery, and The Mariachi Ghost. She also stars in a recently released feature film, Arutinae, by local filmmaker Erin Buelow. Zorya is a movement instructor for the University of Winnipeg’s Department of Theatre and Film, and sits on the board for Young Lungs Dance Exchange. She holds an honours degree in Dance from the University of Winnipeg, in affiliation with The School of Contemporary Dancers Senior Professional Program, and earned an End-of-Life Doula Certificate last fall.
