Chelsea Dab Hilke is a director and theatre-maker from Montreal, to which she recently returned after a decade of working and studying in Toronto. She aims to lead a supportive yet demanding creative environment which focuses on process and collaboration and values courageous risk-taking, care, compassion and curiosity. Through theatre-making, Chelsea seeks pathways to reach a deeper understanding of herself and the world. She firmly believes that theatre is a moment of witnessing and being witnessed; a space where reality and truth collide with imagination and the uncanny. Chelsea is interested in investigating the collision of gender, medical systems, abortion, mothers, grief, jewish-ness, memory and the precariousness of identity ... in no particular order.

During her time at NTS, Chelsea directed productions of Mother and Child by Jon Fosse and Und by Howard Barker, as well as a production workshop exploration of Leslye Headland’s Assistance.

Artistic and leadership mentors at NTS: Arianna Bardesono, Dian Marie Bridge, Erin Brubacher, Catherine Bourgeois, Naomi Campbell, Jessica Carmichael, Audrey Dwyer, Julie Fox, James Long, Jackie Maxwell, Rose Plotek, Matjash Mrozewski and Maiko Yamamoto.

Chelsea holds a Masters in Theatre and Performance Studies from York University, with a specialization in collaborative creation practices and performance ethnography. She is also a graduate of the Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies program at the University of Toronto.

Select directing credits outside of NTS: Safe and Sorry (Lester Trips Theatre – SummerWorks, 2019); Mr. Truth (Lester Trips Theatre – rEvolver Festival, 2019); Take It, Easy (Cleen Theatre – Nightwood Theatre’s 2019 Fempocalypse, Creme de la Femme Cabaret, 2017, and 2016’s Wrecking Ball #16); ASMRtist (Alma Matters Productions, 2017); This Is For You, Anna (Hart House Theatre, 2015).

cdabhilke@gmail.com