The Team

Managing 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 deviser, 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.

Creative Producer

Jessica Hood

Jessica Hood (she/they) is a queer, disabled theatre and animation artist and white settler based on the unceded, ancestral lands of the Qayqayt First Nation, and the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples, colonially known as New Westminster and Vancouver, BC. Jessica holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from Simon Fraser University and a diploma in 2D Character Animation from VanArts. They are the co-founder and co-artistic producer of unladylike co., an interdisciplinary multimedia production company that creates new femme-focused works in a feminist, collaborative, and inclusive process.

Jessica has worn many hats in her storied career: performer, producer, costume/set/prop designer, playwright, arts administrator, poster designer, marketing coordinator, front of house manager, animator, and filmmaker. She has worked with Rumble Theatre, Pacific Theatre, Arts Club, Ruby Slippers Theatre, Urban Ink, The Vancouver International Children’s Festival, The Troika Collective, rice & beans theatre, the HIVE Performance Collective, and of course, unladylike co.   

Highlights of their work include leading the initiative to revive HIVE, a multi-disciplinary event featuring the work of 12 indie and emerging theatre artists and companies, and adapting their play bad eggs, a darkly comedic, magical, and modern reimagining of the Persephone myth, into a film/theatre hybrid production.

Guided by compassion, collaboration, and creativity, Jessica’s artistic practice is a fluid integration of theatre and animation, telling stories that are femme, queer, and disability focused and climate conscious. She is passionate about creating accessible and inclusive spaces where artists are free and safe to share their stories, where their needs are not only met but anticipated, where artists and audiences alike feel it was designed with them in mind from the start, and not as an afterthought.

Festival Director

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: Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bard), 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). 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.