“An artist must push the boundaries, worry authorities, question existing notions of morality, question what is handed down to them by the status-quo, media enterprise and the governments, and bring to the fore the voiceless, raise the voice that needs to be raised, and do so with artistic beauty and imagination.”

Rahul Varma is a playwright, essayist, and community activist and artistic director of the Teesri Duniya Theatre which he co-founded in 1981. He writes both in Hindi and English which is the language of his adulthood. He is one of only a few culturally diverse playwrights whose works have been translated and produced in French, Hindi and other languages. His recent works include Counter Offence and Bhopal, which was translated in Hindi as Zahreeli Hawa by India’s preeminent director Habib Tanvir. More information on Rahul Varma can be found at the Literary Encyclopedia.

Ted Little is a Professor in the Department of Theatre at Concordia University where he teaches courses in Current Canadian Theatre and various aspects of Theatre and Social Change. He has directed and served as consultant on projects across Canada, and his publications include articles, reviews, and chapters in Canadian Theatre Review, Modern Drama, Contemporary Issues in Canadian Drama, The Theatre of Form and the Production of Meaning, and Critical Perspectives on Canadian Theatre in English. Ted’s current project in association with Teesri Duniya is the Life Stories of Montrealers Displaced by War, Genocide, and Other Human Rights Violations www.histoiresdeviemontreal.ca

Linda Levesque, a graduate of University of Regina, began her career as a broadcaster at CBC Radio. She has been a strong supporter of independent original Canadian theatre in her role as General Manager for intercultural companies such as Theatre Beyond Words, St. Catharines, ON., The Multicultural Theatre Space (The MT Space), Kitchener-Waterloo, ON and now for two years at Teesri Duniya. In another galaxy, far far away she was the Managing Director of MusikBarock Ensemble in Winnipeg.

Emilee Veluz is very excited to be part of the Teesri Duniya team.  A graduate of Dawson College's Professional Theatre Program (Dome Theatre), she has worked with Teesri on many different projects.  She is best known for her role as Twinkle in Teesri's production of Miss Orient(ed) where she was voted 2nd Best Local Actress and the play voted Best Play in the Montreal Mirror's Best of 2005.  Other selected credits include touring eastern Canada and the USA with Geordie in A Promise is a Promise and The Paper Bag Princess and other stories by Robert Munsch, Pixcom's production of L'Odyssée de l'espace (A Species' Odyssey), and Into the Waves for Toronto's Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.  She is hoping that with the RAPT troupe they will be able to create some theatre like you have never seen before!

A professional actress of both French and East Indian heritage, Maya participated in Teesri Duniya Theatre’s bi-national project Rights Here! in India and Canada in 2006/07 and led the third phase of the project in the community of Park Extension, Montreal in 2008. In the past year she has been working on Teesri Duniya’s latest community-engaged project Untold Histories - a performance-based exploration of the life experiences of survivors of genocide, war and other human rights abuses who are currently living in Montreal. And presently, she holds the role of assistant director in Teesri’s current mainstage production Truth and Treason.