The Team

Artistic Director

Dave Mott

Dave is a BFA graduate of University of Victoria, founding member of Upintheair Theatre, lead curator of rEvolver Theatre Festival, an actor, director, performance diviser, playwright and creator. He was born on the unceded and ancestral territory of the Coast Salish People, in the city known as North Vancouver, and is committed to betterment of these lands through generosity, sharing and respect for others. He holds a non-hierarchical world view, values inclusion, loves nature, and reveres Indigenous culture, ceremony, and storytelling. Committed to the creation of new plays and performance, supporting and presenting artists at transitional points of their careers, community building, and training the next generation of theatre makers, Dave’s true passions are exhibited best when he is mentoring artists, presenting their work, and visiting other Canadian cities to view works in development.

Outside of Upintheair Dave is also a Vancouver based business manager, independent artist, event producer, and Artistic Lead of The Fox Queen Collective. He is co-owner of Brandywine Bartending School, and is a highly respected competitive mixologist, corporate trainer and team builder. Dave is a permanent staff member at The William Davis Centre at VanArts instructing in direction, acting, play creation, physical theatre and ensemble building techniques. His early creations and directorial projects challenged theatrical boundaries by generating performance for non-theatre venues, site installations and pop-ups at all-night rave dance parties. Since 2020 Dave has begun co-leadership The Fox Queen, with Tamara McCarthy and Tsatassaya White.

Selected Upintheair credits: The Array: Beyond the Knowledge of Humankind – Termination Shock, The Array: The Shape of the Galaxy – Starman, A Brief History of Human Extinction, The City and The City, Inside the Seed, Guide to Mourning, Borborygmi, Wedgie, Johnny Grant, Pyropornomania, Moxie, Men of the World, & 120bpm. Other Stage and Screen: Ostar: Untrue Stories live: Dead Drone, Messages on Doors: Snuneymux, Messaged on Doors: nuu-chah-nulth, Anywhere But Here, iZombie, Supernatural, Stupid is as Stupid Does, Rearview, Escape From Happiness, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, Glengarry Glen Ross, Hopscotch, Sea of Sand, & King Lear.

General Manager

Andrea Joy Rideout

Andrea is a performance and archive curator with significant background in technical direction and popular education. Born in Red Deer, AB (Treaty 7), she spent 16 years in Montreal (Tiohtià:ke) before relocating to unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories in 2018. Andrea completed her master’s at SFU’s School of Contemporary Art, focusing her research on the economies, ethnographies, and epistemologies of Montreal’s Edgy Women Festival (1994 – 2016), a trans-feminist and queer performance festival where she spent 3 seasons as guest curator (2014 – 2016). Using concepts of care, commoning, refusal and harm-reduction while troubling methods of community generated archives and open source encyclopedias, Andrea examines the barriers to entering the public record for minoritarian performance histories. Her 2017 curation This is How Queers Pray presented performance works of re-appropriating, and surviving religion as LGBTQ+ diaspora. As a Technical Director , Andrea has worked locally with Vancouver Opera, Great Northern Way Scene Shop, Bard on the Beach and Arts Club Theatre Company. Previously having studied Community Economic Development, Andrea holds a BFA in Theatre & Development, a diploma in Theatre Technology and spent 2 summers at the Banff Centre as Practicum TD for Opera. In a past life, Andrea was an Augusto-Boal-trained Theatre of the Oppressed facilitator, a sound engineer touring with NYC’s Circus Amok, a Boston Burlesque Expo debuted dancer and a Bread-&-Puppet-trained puppeteer. She brings a dynamic skill set to the role of General Manager and is eager to support Upintheair’s values of integrity, hospitality, opportunity, relevance, collaboration and fun!

Resident Curator

Sarah Roa

Sarah is a Filipino Canadian; an Actor, Creator, Producer, Teaching Artist and Arts Administrator. She holds an Acting Diploma from Douglas College and a BFA in Acting from UBC. Selected performance credits include: Mary’s Wedding (The Firehall Arts Centre), In Wonderland (Alberta Theatre Projects), Turn of the Screw (Aenigma Theatre), Robinson Crusoe + Friday (Axis Theatre), The Drowning Girls (Theatre North West), and Pride & Prejudice (Arts Club). Upcoming, Sarah will be making her debut on the Bard mainstage in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in the role of Puck. As an Arts Administrator, Sarah has worked with The Granville Island Theatre District as a front of house manager, venue manager, social media coordinator, and event services manager. Sarah is invested in enriching her skills and passions by continuously learning, adapting and being inspired by her community. As a BIPOC Artist, Sarah is committed to uplift new and emerging artists by creating a space where they feel valued and honored. Sarah is thrilled to be joining the Upintheair team as the Resident Curator!

Resident Curator

Sindy Angel

Sindy Angel is an arts administrator and Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner born and raised in Cali, Colombia. She started the first theatre program in the women’s prison in her hometown, and created a theatre company which offered shows and workshops with-for communities facing complex barriers in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Since migrating to Vancouver in 2006, Sindy has collaborated with companies like Electric Company Theatre, Neworld Theatre, Universal Limited, and Urban Ink. Sindy is a founding member of the Canadian Latinx Theatre Artist Coalition (CALTAC) and she was the co-artistic director and production manager for Coyuntura 2020, the first International Latinx Theatre Gathering in Canada. She has over 15 years experience developing, coordinating, and facilitating, creative and educational programs for youth, women, immigrants, and refugees from all over the world. She completed a Residency Program at the Centre of Theatre of the Oppressed in Brazil and has studied and collaborated with internationally acclaimed practitioners such as Bárbara Santos and Julian Boal. Sindy is grateful for the opportunity to bring her voice to the rEvolver Festival.