A new world with new rules. Vibrant visions. Big possibilities.
A Downstage production with Immigrant Council for Arts Innovation
Conceived and Facilitated by Evan Medd
With new short plays by Cristhian Poblete Hernández, Miranda Martini, Camille Pavlenko, Ashay Vaidya
Dreaming Climate Consciousness is an experiment in hope, resilience and collective dreaming.
During a two-month process led by Evan, four playwrights will collaboratively imagine and inhabit a co-created speculative world. Immerse yourself in an evening of four original short plays that each offer a unique window into this collectively imagined universe.
Dive into a reimagined future with some of Calgary’s most vibrant artists!
Evan Medd (he/they) is a dramaturg, producer, performer, facilitator, and puppeteer who works across Turtle Island, primarily based in Mohkinstsis/Calgary on Treaty 7 territory, but who also sometimes works on Treaty 6 territory in amiskwaciywaskahikan/Edmonton, and out east in Prince Edward Island on Mi’kmaq territory.
Evan’s practice primarily focuses on dramaturgical strategizing of process design, mostly in collaboration with younger artists, community engaged art that intersects with environmental issues, and collaborative new play development and production with the Alberta-based Major Matt Mason Collective, for which they are a Co-Artistic Producer. A graduate of Simon Fraser University’s Performance Creation program, Evan is passionate about how dramaturgical practice can help artists discover themselves more deeply within the pursuit of artistic excellence, and how interdisciplinary performance practices can meaningfully engage communities in environmental and climate focused dialogues.
Evan spends his summers working in PEI at The River Clyde Pageant, a creative, community integrated outdoor spectacle that celebrates a social ecology while drawing attention to the impact of climate change on PEI’s waterways and ecosystems, and is currently researching and developing a similar project on the Bow River through Mudfoot Theatre with his collaborator Geneviève Pare, currently titled the Bow River Boat Pageant.
Evan has also spearheaded and facilitates an initiative called Dreaming Climate Consciousness, a collaborative process where participants work together to imagine eco-conscious futures through the lens of speculative/science fiction. Evan is passionate about utilizing creative practice as a means to stimulate both imagination and artistry while interrogating and examining the tensions that define our world.
Evan would like to thank the International Centre of Art for Social Change’s FUTURES/forward Mentorship Program for supporting them in building the DCC pilot project.
Also, Evan has endless gratitude for Dr. David Diamond, without whom this initiative would not exist.
Cristhian is a multidisciplinary creative professional based in Calgary, Canada, working across music composition, production, sound design, and arrangement, with influences spanning gospel, soul, and Latin genres.
His theatrical credits include sound design for Downstage Theatre and original music for stage productions in Lima, including La Nave de las Emociones (2022), his first project for musical theatre exploring emotional intelligence and the process of learning it, and La Magia de Ser Diferente (Psicoarte, 2026), centered on neurodivergent experience. His work also extends into interactive media, having contributed sound design and music to the award-winning video game El Tunche.
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Miranda Martini is a multidisciplinary artist with a sound-forward practice. Recent sound design credits include “Static: A Party Girl’s Memoirs” (Inside Out and Chromatic Theatre), “Beyond the Sea” (Lunchbox Theatre), and “The Verdict” (Vertigo Theatre). Her music direction and dramaturgy credits include “I Don’t Even Miss You” (multiple productions), “Countries Shaped Like Stars” (Lunchbox Theatre), and “John Ware Reimagined” (multiple productions). You can find her 2025 folk/R&B album, The Historian, on Bandcamp and all major streaming platforms, as well as on CD and vinyl at fine record stores across Calgary. Miranda is happiest when she’s creating and thinking about art in community with artists, particularly other queer artists of colour.
Camille (she/her) is a theatre and literary artist who is passionate about contributing to the arts ecology of Alberta—which should definitely stay in Canada. Her plays for children and adults have been produced across the province and her short fiction is forthcoming from ROOM, FreeFall Magazine, and Alberta Views, where she recently won the 2026 Short Fiction prize. Camille is a recent graduate of the University of British Columbia’s Creative Writing MFA program and the current Playwright in Residence at Quest Theatre. She is also the artistic associate at Verb Theatre, where she is especially honoured to lift up the voices of local Queer and Trans playwrights.
Ashay (ashêllheld) Vaidya, MA, MBA, is a first-generation lone migrant Canadian, an award-winning literary artist, and an experiential experimentalist from Moh’kins’tsis (Calgary). As a development specialist and peer supporter, he connects with community members to deconstruct the contemporary meaning of self-regard. As an artist, he explores the quiet complexities of belonging and empathy bleeding into social responsibility. And as an individual, he unravels emotionally nuanced perspectives that hope to enlighten the lives of instinctive healers.