WHO WE ARE
The Ontario Review for Disabled Arts (ORDA) is a Neurodiverse/Disabled-led & focused review where Artists with disabilities review fellow Artists with disabilities.
Our History
The idea for ORDA all started in the UK by Simon Jay, who is the creator and Editor of the Neurodiverse Review (NDS Review). In 2022, Simon began the first year of the NDS Review at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, as he believed that “our community's work deserves to be reviewed by our own peers, not through an ableist lens”. After Shaharah Gaznabbi took part in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2023 and met Simon, they were surprised that it was something that didn't already exist back home in Toronto. Therefore Shaharah and Simon are working together to create a Canadian Neurodiverse Review, bringing on and collaborating with Canadian Neurodiverse/Disabled Artists that are reshaping how we look at accessible Theatre practices in Ontario!
MEET THE TEAM
Dylan Carter is a butch theatre artist, aspiring clown, and sandwich enthusiast based in Tkaronto. He is currently pursuing a BFA in Playwriting & Devised Theatre at York University, where he was a 2022 recipient of the Norma Sue Fisher-Stitt Grant for the development of Riot Baby, his adaptation of Euripides’ The Bakkhai. Recent credits include The Evolutionary and Inescapable Rotting of Girlhood (PlayGround Festival 2024 & upcoming at Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2024), Weird Science (Objecto Festival 2023) and Erased (Open Heart Surgery Theatre). His current work-in-progress, How to Make the Perfect Grilled Cheese, is a synth-puppet tribute to sandwiches, sex changes, and God, or whatever it is out there that’s running things.
ARTIST/REVIEWER
DYLAN CARTER
(ZE/HIR, HE/HIM)
Lorna Craig is a disabled theatre creator who works in community engaged art spaces. She spent three years on the White Rabbit Arts board where she facilitated arts residencies at Red Clay Farm in Nova Scotia. While studying Theatre and Development in Montreal, she directed On Life and Living, a documentary theatre piece based on personal stories from AIDS Community Care Montreal, an HIV/AIDS support network. Back in Toronto she directed Living with Olivia Cadence Donovan, an original production about the experience of living with OCD. She has spent the last three years working with AccessART to improve the accessibility of public art throughout Toronto. In June of 2023 Lorna assistant directed Alex Bulmer’s new play, Perceptual Archaeology (or How to Travel Blind) and Associate Produced Access Me with The Boys in Chairs Collective. She is currently working on a sick skills audio project called pain pals.
ARTIST/REVIEWER
LORNA CRAIG
(SHE/HER)
Guyanese-Canadian ACTRA actor, writer, comedian with Tourette’s Syndrome. They are pursuing a BFA in Playwriting & Devised Theatre in York University’s Theatre program. Shaharah is part of this year's cohort for Nightwood Theatre’s Innovators Program, as well as Tarragon Theatre’s Young Playwrights Unit. They’ve also graduated from Second City Training Centre’s Conservatory Program. Shaharah recently finished a full run of their solo-show “What Can Indian Look Like? Can It Look Caribbean?” at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and received The Neurodiverse Review’s Birds of Paradise Theatre Emerging Artist Award. They have also made their television debut playing the character of Noor in season 3 of CBC’s Run the Burbs!
EDITOR
Shaharah Gaznabbi
(they/them)
Simon Jay is an autistic writer and performer who, in 2022, created Neurodiverse Review as a platform to champion disabled-led work, its ethos being that our community's work deserves to be reviewed by our own peers, not through an ableist lens.
They have created the one-person shows Trumpageddon, and John Lewis: Never Knowingly Undertweeted, and in 2023 wrote and performed their first stand-up show Permacrisis.
They live in Edinburgh with their husband Ben and dog Floyd.
NDS REVIEW/CONSULTANT
Simon Jay
(he/they)
ARTIST/REVIEWER
HEATHER LUNDRIGAN
(She/her)
Heather Lundrigan (she/her) is a Toronto based playwright, director, and accessibility nerd. She holds a BAH (Drama) from Queen’s University, where she led efforts to implement relaxed performances in the Dan School of Drama and Music. Most recently she has had the pleasure of directing with Hamilton Fringe and being a 2022/2023 Nightwood Innovator. When Heather is not scribbling in a notebook, she’s making crafts with her friends.
ARTIST/REVIEWER
ZOE MAGIRIAS
(ANY PRONOUNS)
Zoe Magirias is a queer theatre artist based in Tkaronto who just finished up their third year at York University, where she was one of the assistant directors for Theatre@York’s fall production of BAKKHAI. They are in the process of receiving their BFA with a focus in devised theatre and playwriting, and are currently working on an untitled piece about daughters, rocket science, and boogeymen. Some more of Zoe’s theatre credits include The Evolutionary and Inescapable Rotting of Girlhood, which debuted at York’s Playground Festival and is making its way to Edinburgh Fringe this summer, Erased, which was part of TPM’s BUZZ program, and whatever that noise was under your bed last night.
Jayna Mees is an artist-scholar who specializes in dramaturgy and devised theatre. Situated at the intersections between performance studies and critical disability studies, Jayna’s current doctoral research at York University examines access aesthetics, practices, and politics within digital and virtual forms of immersive and site-specific performance. Jayna holds an MA from the Centre for Drama, Theatre, & Performance Studies at the University of Toronto and a BA in Theatre from York University. Some recent projects include: accessibility coordinator for the SummerWorks Performance Festival (2021 -22), and assistant dramaturg for SpiderWebShow’s VR production of You Should Have Stayed Home (2022).
ARTIST/REVIEWER
Jayna Mees
(She/Her)
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER
Mallerly Mejias
(She/her)
Mallerly Mejias is a Chilean baker, photographer, and Social Media and Website designer. After graduating from a marketing program, she enjoys designing graphics and running social media for fun and exciting things, like theatre. Mallerly has a new found interest for theatre and is excited to learn more about it through ORDA. She enjoys taking pictures and decorating cakes in her spare time.
WEB DESIGNER
Eric Trudell
(he/him)
Originally from London, Ontario, Eric is a Toronto-based theatre artist, currently pursuing a BFA in Theatre at York University. He specializes in playwriting, devised theatre, and whatever odd jobs people are willing to let him do. His most recent project, a midwest emo musical titled Funeral for the James Street Taco Bell, premiered at the playGround Festival, where it won Best New Musical, Audience Choice for Favourite Show, and was awarded the President’s Award for Stage Play at York University. Currently, you can find Eric terrorizing his local Little Caesars under his alter-ego, Tony Pizza.
ACCESS CONSULTING AND DISABILITY DRAMATURGY
Jessica Watkin is a PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto's Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies with research focusing on Disabled artists in Canada and their creation processes, dramaturgies, and support systems. She is a Blind and Disabled scholar, interdisciplinary artist, dramaturg, consultant, educator, and reader. She has been published in the Canadian Theatre Review, The Drama Review, and Theatre Research in Canada. Jessica is working to co-create definitions of what Accessibility Design and Disability Dramaturgy mean in a Canadian context.
Jessica Watkin
(She/they)
OUR GOAL
The Ontario Review for Disabled Arts is incredibly interested in reviewing work created and/or led by the Neurodiverse/Disabled community. Their shows also don’t need to centre around disability in the slightest! If it does, that’s fantastic! But it doesn’t need to.
At this point, and especially for this season of Fringe, we are not interested in reviewing work that is made by non-disabled creators, even if their work centres around themes of disability.