BOOM YZ 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, FRANKENSTEIN: A Living Comic Book, and HANS: My Life in Fairy Tales. With Robert Lepage, he has collaborated on Geometry of Miracles, Zulu Time, Lipsynch, Dragon’s Trilogy, and on the film Possible Worlds. Current projects in development include MONEY, and The Time Machine. 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. www.rickmiller.ca
Jeff has a lifelong passion and vision for combining art and technology to develop original works. His projects are inspired by a love of storytelling and innovation. Through Kidoons theatrical productions, WYRD theatrical productions, and digital works on the Kidoons Network, Jeff's artist collaborators help organizations to tell their stories onstage and online. He works with Not-for-Profit and corporate clients across Canada and the United States with a vision to inspire and empower all generations. His work on the BOOM trilogy is dedicated to his mother, Evelyn Lord.
Craig Francis (he/him) is a writer, director, illustrator, and multidisciplinary creator. His theatre productions have toured Canada and the US, including Off-Broadway in 2016 and 2019. A founding member of The 20K Collective, Craig co-created the shows Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea, Game of Clones, Jungle Book, and HANS: My Life In Fairy Tales with Rick Miller; and FRANKENSTEIN: A Living Comic Book 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, US, France, and Taiwan. Upcoming projects include the plays CYNIC, The Time Machine, and The Turn of the Screw. Craig is a speaker on LGBTQ2S+ issues and a mentor to emerging artists, including co-authoring Redwood Avenue with Andrea Friesen. He has performed improv and sketch comedy with Just For Laughs, CBC, CTV and Showtime. Craig lives in Montréal, has illustrated books, and voiced animated series. Digital shorts he co-created with Kidoons and not-for-profit organizations are in museums in six provinces.
Aidan Ware is excited to return home to Calgary for the premiere of BOOM YZ! A graduate of the Technician Theatre Production program at the University of Alberta, Aidan’s passion for live production has taken him around the world where he has worn many hats as a technical director, lighting & sound designer. Upon completing an 18-month lighting practicum program at the Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, Aidan moved to Toronto where is currently the Assistant Technical Director at Canadian Stage. He continues to work as a lighting designer turned livestream producer for Solotech, TIFA, and Fall For Dance North. Aidan is looking forward to exploring the music and stories of his generation in BOOM YZ!
Irina is a multidisciplinary artist with expertise in graphic design, video production, and multimedia storytelling. She has been a longstanding collaborator with Rick Miller and Craig Francis, contributing to onscreen media projections for MacHomer, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and Game of Clones. Recent work includes branding and projection/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: A Living Comic Book, and HANS: My Life in Fairy Tales. Upcoming projects include MONEY and The Time Machine. As a web and video production artist, Irina also serves as the designer and 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.
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.