BOOM X Creative Team
Rick Miller (he/him) is a Dora and Gemini award-winning writer / director / actor / musician / educator who has performed in five languages on five continents, and who Entertainment Weekly called “one of the 100 most creative people alive today”. He has created and toured solo shows such as the BOOM Trilogy (BOOM, BOOM X, and BOOM YZ), MacHomer, Bigger Than Jesus and HARDSELL; and family shows with Craig Francis and Kidoons, such as Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Jungle Book, and Frankenstein. With Robert Lepage, he has collaborated on Geometry of Miracles, Zulu Time, Lipsynch, and on the film Possible Worlds. Current projects in development include MONEY, Andersen Fairy Tales and Rose Red - a new musical. Rick hosts an intergenerational podcast called Xing The Gap, and sometimes teaches an interdisciplinary class at the University of Toronto called The Architecture of Creativity. He lives in Toronto with his partner Stephanie Baptist and their two daughters. www.rickmiller.ca
Jeff has a lifelong passion and vision for combining art and technology to develop original works, including 7 world premieres, 6 Canada / US tours, 4 French-language world premieres, and 2 Off-Broadway runs over the past decade. His projects are inspired by a love of storytelling and innovation. Through Kidoons theatrical productions, and the many digital works on the Kidoons network, Jeff's artist collaborators help organizations to tell their stories onstage and online. Jeff works with Not-for-Profits, governmental, Non-governmental organizations, and corporate clients across Canada and the United States with a vision to inspire and empower all generations. He dedicates his work on this play to his mother, Evelyn Lord.
Craig Francis (he/him) is a writer, director, illustrator, and multidisciplinary creator. His shows have toured Canada and the US, including Off-Broadway in 2016 and 2019. A founding member of The 20K Collective, Craig co-created Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Game of Clones, and Jungle Book and with Rick Miller; and Frankenstein with Miller and Paul Van Dyck. He's a producer, dramaturg, and stage manager for Miller's solo trilogy (BOOM, BOOM X, and BOOM YZ) in Canada, the US, France, and Taiwan. Craig co-directed a workshop of the musical Blocked (TheaterWorksUSA), and is a mentor of emerging artists, including co-authoring Redwood Avenue with Andrea Friesen. New projects include CYNIC, Andersen Fairy Tales, and Rose Red. Craig is a speaker on LGBTQA2S+ issues. He performed improv comedy with Just For Laughs, CBC, CTV and Showtime, and his animated videos with Kidoons and not-for-profits are installed in museums in six provinces. Craig lives in Montréal, has illustrated several books, and voiced animated series.
Aidan Ware hails from Calgary, Alberta. His passion for live production has taken him around the world where he has worn many hats as a technical director, lighting & sound designer. He recently completed an 18-month practicum program at the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity as a lighting technician and now lives in Toronto where he is Assistant Technical Director at Canadian Stage.
Irina is a creative artist, graphic designer for print and web, and video production artist. She has worked on multimedia campaigns for Performing Arts Centers across Canada and the U.S. and managed event marketing campaigns ranging from The Joy of Dance Studio Toronto to TELUS Skins. Irina has been a longstanding multimedia collaborator with Rick Miller and Craig Francis, including assisting on onscreen media projections for MacHomer, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, and Game of Clones. Recent work includes branding and projections media design for BOOM X and BOOM YZ, for which she was nominated alongside Rick Miller and Nicolas Dostie for the Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding Projection or Video Design. Irina is the multimedia designer for Jungle Book, Frankenstein, and upcoming projects Andersen Fairy Tales and Rose Red. As a web and video production artist, Irina is the designer and production editor of the Kidoons Network animated series.
An accomplished director, editor and visual artist, Nicolas Dostie studied Media Arts and Technology with a focus on television. With the arrival of the digital era in 2002, he became interested in large-scale architectural projection, and helped design the multimedia for the highly visual spectacle Cavalia. His design career then pushed him more and more into the worlds of theatre and circus. He worked for Ex Machina and Robert Lepage, on Le projet Andersen, the Jeux de Cartes series, 887 and Kodō, and with BOOM X, his work as co-designer has garnered several award nominations across Canada. Considered one of the pioneers in architectural projection, Nicolas has worked on the 2014 Sochi Olympics (with Pixmob), and the Cirque du Soleil productions Delirium, the Michael Jackson world tour, and Varekai. He currently teaches at CEGEP La Pocatière, passing on his knowledge to a younger generation.
Bruno Matte was born in Quebec City and graduated from Cegep Limoilou in 2005 in audiovisual design. A music enthusiast, he began his professional career as a lighting designer for concerts. He began working with local artists, then moved to international acts ranging from Richard Séguin to Charlotte Cardin to Cypress Hill to Daniel Lanois. In an effort to expand his creative research, Bruno began working on several bold theatre productions. Whether with Ex Machina or Kidoons, he found ways to seamlessly integrate lighting with video, under very rigorous technical constraints. His spatial design exploration continued in the world of dance, where he has worked with several La Rotonde choreographers on productions such as Alan Lake and Le fils d'Adrien dance. Bruno regularly designs for the circus, which seems a natural fulfilment of his experience in music, theatre and movement. In productions ranging from Flip Fabrique or Machine de Cirque, the complexity of the work allows him to keep refining his craft. He now works as a production manager.
After a Bachelor’s degree in theatre and cinema from Université Laval, Virginie went on to study scenic design at Conservatoire d’Art Dramatique de Québec. She was the first recipient of the design scholarship Théâtre Blanc-Desjardins. She received Quebec’s Prix d’excellence des arts et de la culture for costume designs on L’asile de la pureté (2009) and Fin de Partie (2012), and was nominated for Cyrano de Bergerac (2008) and Dans la République du Bonheur (2015). For Ex Machina, she toured with La Celestina (2004), designed props for La Tempête (2011), Jeux de Cartes : Pique (2012), Coeur (2013) and Lipsynch (2007), and costumes for Seven Streams of the River Ota (2019), Courville (2021 - nominated for best costume design) and Le Projet Riopelle (2023). She is also a frequent designer with other renowned Quebec-based companies, including Théâtre de la Bordée, Théâtre Périscope, Théâtre du Trident, and Carrefour international de théâtre de Québec. Virginie’s work on BOOM X has won Prix de Théâtre in 2021 for best costume design and she’s delighted to be working with Kidoons/WYRD.
Music producer / composer / sound designer/ songwriter / musician Creighton has worked with some of Canada’s best-known recording artists, and written and produced music for TV, jingles, theatre and film. Composition and sound design for theatre include The Importance of Being Earnest (NAC), Scott Thompson's The Lowest Show On Earth, The 39 Steps and A Few Good Men (Theatre Aquarius), Frost/Nixon (Canadian Stage), Tuesdays with Morrie (Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company), Salt-Water Moon, Jitters, The Norman Conquests (Soulpepper) and Rick Miller’s BOOM. Music producer/writer and post audio supervisor for CBC Kids TV show UKULELE U. Writer/producer of songs and themes for animated TV series (Beyblade, Barbie, Bakugan & Care Bears)