Debbie Patterson
Describer
Artistic Director, Sick + Twisted Theatre
Debbie Patterson is a Winnipeg playwright, director and actor. Trained at the National Theatre School of Canada, she is a founding member of Shakespeare in the Ruins, served as Artistic Associate at Prairie Theatre Exchange from 2012 to 2018 and was a member of the PTE Playwrights Unit. She is in demand across the country as a consultant on crip aesthetics/accessibility and as a theatremaker working in disability aesthetics. She was honoured with the United Nations Platform for Action Committee’s 2014 Activist Award and the City of Winnipeg’s Winnipeg Making a Mark Award in 2017. She was twice shortlisted for the Gina Wilkinson Prize. She is the matriarch of a family of artists. She is a proud advocate for disability justice through her work as founding and current Artistic Director of Sick + Twisted Theatre.
She lives a wheelchair-enabled life in Winnipeg (Treaty 1) and in a cabin on the shore of Lake Winnipeg (Treaty 2) with her partner and collaborator, Arne MacPherson.
Tyler Sneesby
Services Coordinator
Tyler Sneesby (he/him), a.k.a. DJ Hunnicutt, has been performing on stages in Winnipeg and around the world for over thirty years. As musician for the improv duo Crumbs, Tyler has appeared in theatre festivals in Berlin, Oslo, Zurich, across Canada, and multiple sold-out runs at the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival.
He made his stage acting debut last winter in Sick + Twisted’s 2024 holiday Panto, Hansel & Gretel in Portage Place Mall, and appeared again in S+T’s 2005 original production, Neither Her nor There.
Since his vision loss in 2019, Tyler had been actively advocating for more accessible opportunities for the blind a low-vision community, particularly in live music/theatre venues.
Elena Anciro
Describer
Based in Treaty 1 Territory, Elena Anciro has worked in different facets of the arts as an actor, arts administrator, theatre educator, audio describer and accessible performance consultant. In 2020, Elena completed the British Council of Canada / Tangled Art + Disability’s national relaxed performance facilitator training and recently concluded an access and inclusion professional development project and mentorship through the support of the Manitoba Arts Council Arts Leaders Program in 2023. She is grateful for the opportunity to help provide greater access to the arts in Winnipeg with the VIEW team!
Sara Arenson
Describer
Sara has been a performer and writer since the 2000s, when she earned a BA in Theatre from the University of Winnipeg. Much of her work has focused on the intersection of disability and human rights, including her play The Story of Deborah (about the history and legacy of intelligence testing) and a role as a survivor of institutional abuse in Dialogues on the Edge. She was part of three of Sick + Twisted Theatre’s cabarets, penning and performing in “Professional Mental Patient: A Very Interesting Career”, “My Brain Fog”, and “The Mah Jongg Match (My Useless Son)”. Recently, her articles and poetry have appeared in the Arts AccessAbility Network Manitoba newsletter and Our Voice / Notre Voix magazine. In February 2026, she directed a production of Carol Shields’s Departures and Arrivals for Shoestring Players. Sara has also worked in community journalism and radio drama, as an interviewer, narrator, writer, actor, and producer.
Sercy Ballingall
Describer
Sercy is originally from Winnipeg, where she studied theatre and film which sparked her love for play writing, live description, and other behind-the-scene things. She now lives in Montreal with her fiancé where she practices an ancient spiritual yogic philosophy alongside her community. She enjoys nature, painting, teaching yoga, and spreading spiritual concepts.
Ksenia Broda-Milian
Describer
Ksenia is a set, costume, and lighting designer, theatre educator, and audio describer who is passionate about accessibility. As her theatre work is primarily in a visual medium, she was drawn to audio description as a form of balance in her practice, and is interested in experimenting with multi-sensory environments. Describing also lets this former musical theatre performer revisit her vocal skills, and with an intensive background in contemporary dance, she especially loves working on shows that involve movement! Ksenia is also a Rick Hansen Foundation Accessibility Professional, qualified to assess built environments using their Accessibility Certification criteria. She has designed and taught across Canada and is currently based in Winnipeg.
Vivi Dabee
Description Consultant
Vivi Dabee is a lover of the arts. Her enthusiasm for literature and theatre led her to the world of academia where she studied theatre and completed her English BA (Honours) at the University of Winnipeg, and her Master’s of English at the University of Manitoba. Vivi is a vocalist, playwright, and performer. She is passionate about diversity and inclusion, accessibility, and literacy. She is co-host of the podcast The Lens: Living Diverse and is the audio-description consultant for VIEW. Vivi loves meeting people and hearing their stories. When she is not snuggled up with a good book, Vivi enjoys exploring all that Winnipeg has to offer with her family, friends, and guide-dog companion.
Anika Dowsett
Describer
Anika has been a playwright (Tad and Birdy), drag artist (known as Petty Davis), theatre educator (Manitoba Theatre for Young People), sexual health educator (Sexuality Education Resource Centre), youth drop-in co-ordinator (Rainbow Resource Centre), and audio describer (Vocal Image Ensemble Winnipeg). Since 2024 they have described performances at Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Rainbow Stage, Shakespeare in the Ruins, Theatre Projects Manitoba, and more.
Anika loves homemade food, craft nights with friends, and dancing until they can’t dance
anymore.
Arne MacPherson
Describer
Arne MacPherson is a Winnipeg-based theatre maker who has dedicated his 35-years as an artist to creating live performance, starting out as an actor, then moving into theatre direction, and then into collaborative, experimental work. He has also, through his association with sick + twisted theatre, worked extensively with the Deaf and disability performance community. In 2022, he co-produced and directed Antigone, a new musical adapted from Anne Carson’s translation of Sophocles, which featured a cast of deaf, blind, disabled, and able-bodied performers. Devised theatre/contemporary dance: EGAD!, petites danses (Marie- Josee Chartier/Gearshifting), Much Too Much to Say (Zorya Arrow/Company Link), Moving In, Moving Out, I Trace You, You Trace Me (Weather Parade), Embargo (One Trunk Theatre), A Short History of Crazy Bone (Theatre `Projects Manitoba).
Jack Maier
Describer
Jack Maier is an actor, translator, writer, and audio describer living on Treaty 1 territory in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Since VIEW’s inception in 2019, Jack has described theatre, video, and dance in French and English for the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Rainbow Stage, Shakespeare in the Ruins, Theatre Projects Manitoba, Sick + Twisted Theatre, and more. Jack is also a theatre translator and runs the English subtitles at Théâtre Cercle Molière. As a theatre artist who loves linguistics, Jack is grateful to be in a position to deeply engage with theatre and language to improve the accessibility of Winnipeg’s theatre and arts scene, and to connect with other lovers of theatre.
Sarah Michaelson
Describer
Winnipeg’s Sarah Michaelson—often better known by their DJ name, Mama Cutsworth—has worked professionally in improvised theatre as a sound designer and musician since 2009. In 2013, she began collaborating with two Colombian circus performers on a wordless improvised theatre project called Speechless, which toured across Europe, North and South America, and the Middle East. Sarah also co-created and directed Midnight Radio, which debuted in Amsterdam (Compagnietheater, 2017) and was later remounted in Edmonton (Citadel Theatre, 2019). In 2023, she did sound design for her first scripted play, Palucheur, presented by Winnipeg’s Théâtre Cercle Molière. Currently, she is improvising the soundtrack for Outside Joke’s A Christmas Miracle: An Improvised Holiday Rom Com at Prairie Theatre Exchange in December 2024. Off stage, her career has spanned many years of radio broadcasting, writing, editing, and teaching. Many of her work projects focus on gender equity, 2SLGBTQIA+ community, harm reduction and disability.
Eva Miranda
Describer
Eva is a theatre artist, accessibility advocate, and PhD candidate in Theatre, Film & Media at the University of Manitoba. Her doctoral research analyzes 60 years of Canadian drama, investigating how the playwright’s lugar de fala—their lived experience and epistemological position—shapes and informs the representation of disabled characters on stage. Beyond her research, Eva actively puts these values into practice. She is an Audio Describer for VIEW Winnipeg, an Access Support Worker with Sick + Twisted Theatre and University of Winnipeg, and the Audio Description Liaison at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. Holding an EDIA Certificate from the University of Manitoba, she is committed to building a theatre landscape where inclusion is a natural part of the show, not treated as an afterthought.
melannie patchwork monoceros
Describer
melannie patchwork monoceros is a poet and interdisciplinary artist exploring polysensory production and somatic grief through text/ile. Their work considers the collective qrip (queer+crip) consciousness by connecting to marvelous bodies living with complexity as sick or disabled. A Black creator of Jamaican heritage, they live in Treaty 1/Winnipeg, MB. monoceros has been awarded the JRG Emerging Artist Award for their continued pursuit, integrating technology and accessibility through film via their series “ancestoradio”. In 2021 they were awarded the Manitoba Arts Council Emerging Excellence Prize and the Arts Leader Award in 2022. monoceros’ work has been hosted by Tangled Art + Disability (Toronto), Thunder Bay Art Gallery (Thunder Bay), Gallery 1C03, Window Gallery, and the C2 Centre for Craft, Manitoba Craft Council The School of Art Gallery at the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg) as well as the Dunlop Art Gallery (Regina, SK) and Paved Arts in Treaty 6/Saskatoon, SK. In 2023, monoceros published their first book, a collection of poems titled Remedies for Chiron (Radiant Press) and is currently working on their next book and a new textile series funded through the Canada Council for The Arts.
Gislina Patterson
Describer
Gislina Patterson is a writer, performer, director, and dramaturg. He makes work with his collaborator Dasha Plett under the name We Quit Theatre. His work has been presented and developed at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, SummerWorks, OFFTA, Hold On Let Go, Common Ground Arts, the London Ontario Media Arts Association, Theatre Catapulte, Rainbow Trout Music Festival, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Theatre Projects Manitoba, the Stratford Festival Lab, Manitoba Theatre for Young People, Manitoba Association of Playwrights, and Playwright’s Workshop Montreal. In the interconnected fields of direction, dramaturgy, and cultural criticism, Gislina has worked in theatre, music, and dance with Buddies in Bad Times, Sick + Twisted Theatre, Young Lungs Dance Exchange, The Mariachi Ghost, and Sawa Theatre, among others, and has been published in the Canadian Theatre Review.
Dasha Plett
Describer
Dasha is a Winnipeg-based transsexual and artist working with performance, writing, and music. As a sound design888888888888er and composer she has worked with the Stratford Festival, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Cercle Molière, Theatre Projects Manitoba, Mammalian Diving Reflex, OneTrunk Theatre, Frances Koncan, Waawaate Fobister, Debbie Patterson, and Alexandra Elliot. She is a member of IATSE local ADC659. Dasha is also one half of We Quit Theatre, a performance collective with Gislina Patterson. She loves describing for VIEW!
Eric Rae
Describer
Eric is a non-binary actor, director, writer, describer and activist. They have a few degrees in theatre, but the important thing they want you to know is this: we need a fundamental change in how we do things, both in theatre and the greater world. Art has always been a driver of such things. Our world is built to work for money, not people. Eric strives to help people see this and recognize the power they have to change it. They work at this through theatre and every other avenue they can.