In solitude, thoughts and characters challenge their creator.
Written and Directed by Sunny Mohajer
Vancouver Fringe Festival 2024
Portraits of Solitude is a one act absurdist dramedy about Amara, a writer during COVID-19 lockdown, attempting to finish her novel. The voices in her head and the character from her novel come alive to have a chaotic conversation discussing everything from Amara’s personal fears and existential crisis to the state of the world to what it means to be an artist in the modern world.
Alethea Sholomenko
Amara
Alethea is so excited to be returning to the stage with Luna Creatives and The Vancouver Fringe Festival! Originally trained in New York City at Circle in the Square Theatre School, Alethea has been spending most of her time on-set in film and TV or in the booth lending her voice to a long list of companies and brands. You may have heard her as the voice of Telus or seen her in shows such as Van Helsing, Rogue or The CW’s Frequency. Huge thanks to Sunny and the Creative Team for pulling this all together!!
Reflection
Tanya Jade
Tanya Jade is a Canadian-Australian actor and filmmaker of Singaporean and Dutch descent, originally from Perth, Western Australia.
On stage, in Vancouver, she was part of the first ever female ensemble to perform Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman, then Julie by Polly Stenham – both produced by Untold Wants Theatre Company. Jade’s training spreads across the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, National Institute of Dramatic Arts, Atlantic Theatre School in New York, as well as SITI Company. Leaning into practical aesthetics for her foundational work before drawing on other teachings, Jade believes in a lifetime as a student.
Recent onscreen credits include: Showtime’s Yellowjackets, ABC’s The Good Doctor, Kung Fu on CW and Schmicago! for Apple+ TV.
As a filmmaker Tanya's work is greatly influenced by themes of identity, cultural displacement, love and violence against women. She is excited to bring Portraits of Solitude to life!
Marnie Mahannah
Sienna
Marnie Mahannah is a Kelowna-bred, Vancouver-based actor. At 18, she moved to the West Coast to pursue her love of acting and quickly found herself working behind the scenes. She gained valuable experience as a Production Assistant on big-budget productions such as Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Elysium, and Man of Steel.
This on-set experience, along with her network of film-savvy friends, inspired Marnie to start her own production company with her partner, Matt. She has deeply enjoyed writing, directing, and producing her own films, which has improved her own acting, leading to regular film and TV bookings.
Marnie is currently applying to school with the goal of becoming a counsellor. She’s excited to return to the theatre scene and is immensely proud of her big mutt, Goose.
Ex
James Cowley
James is an australian-canadian who has pursued performance based art for the last 18 years. "Portraits" marks his first step back onto the stage in almost 10 years. He is thrilled to work alongside some of his most treasured humans.
Siobhan Connnors
Therapist/Psychic, Associate Producer
Siobhan Connors is an actor, producer and programmer from New Zealand. She has co-founded two theatre companies and been cast in over 50 theatre, film and television productions including the 2022 Leo Award-winning short film ‘Darkside’ and iconic Australian TV shows 'Romper Stomper' and 'Neighbours'. She is an award-winning theatre producer and festival producer, has coordinated hundreds of interstate tours throughout Australia and sat on various arts and culture advisory and programming panels for city councils, arts, and philanthropic foundations. She has worked with all of the major professional theatre spaces in Melbourne as a creative and in capacities including; developing multiple programs for emerging and underrepresented artists, as a mentor for Melbourne Fringe, arts advisor for City of Port Phillip Council Art and Soul advisory panel and was selected for Melbourne Theatre Company’s Women in Theatre mentorship program (Australia’s most subscribed professional theatre company).
News Anchor
Pat Moonie
Pat Moonie is an Australian actor based in Vancouver. An alumni of the Howard Fine Acting Studio Full Time Program, Pat is now an accomplished actor working between Melbourne, Australia and Vancouver Canada, both in the professional and independent film and theater scene. Some of Pat's film credits include Jack Irish, Cake (Melbourne Queer Film Festivals, Lorne Film Festival - Winner Best Short Film), Winning the Fox Hunt (Best Actor Canberra Film Festival) and Zero. Theater credits include Orphans by Dennis Kelly, Quite Drunk, Very Jesus-y by Grace De Morgan and Navy Pier by John Corwin.
Sunny Mohajer
Writer, Director, Producer, Stage Designer
Completing her first novel at the age of 9, Sunny has always been passionate about storytelling. She pursued film in university, receiving a Bachelor’s Degree at Capilano University in Vancouver and a Master’s Degree in International Studies in Media, Power, and Diversity in Barcelona, Spain.
She has written and directed six short films that have screened at various festivals and broadcast internationally. Her short film The Yellow Wallpaper was the recipient of the Experimental Visions Audience Award at NFFTY. Ataraxia, funded by BC Arts Council, premiered at the Oscar-qualifying festival Hollyshorts 2022. Millie Did It is on CBC Reflections. Her latest short Hope is the Thing with Feathers, funded by BC Arts Council, screened at Reelworld Festival 2023. Sunny was selected for Women in Director's Chair 2023 Story and Leadership program, where she workshopped her feature film Becoming Odella. She is excited to debut her first play on the Fringe stage.
Producer
Amira Anderson
Amira Anderson is a Vancouver-based actress, writer, and show creator originally from Niagara Falls, Ontario. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Performance and International Studies before studying acting for film and television at Vancouver Film School. She was also a participant in Obsidian Theatre Company's Mentor Apprenticeship Program. She has written, produced, casted and acted in many short films over the years, two of which are proofs of concept for TV series. While Amira has appeared on stage in How the Deed is Done (Tomosuru Players) and Intimate Apparel (Belfry Theatre), she is honoured to be producing a stage play for the first time.
Sherine Menes
Marketing Producer
Sherine Menes is a first-generation immigrant from the Philippines and is honoured to practice their artistic work on the unceded ancestral lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. They trained under the Intensive Acting Program at Vancouver Institute of Media Arts in 2021. They’ve since been cast in shows such as buto/buto: bones are seeds and Hurricane Mona. Sherine was a part of a residency at the James Black Gallery and exhibited their multimedia work alongside other queer Filipinx artists at ‘bahay na babalik-balikan (a home to always return to)’.
Stage Manager
Emma Graveson
Emma is an emerging director and stage manager based on the unceded lands of the Coast Salish peoples. She has previously stage managed When We Were Singing (UP/Touchstone), A Christmas in Wales, Wittenberg (UP), and directed Send Me No Flowers (Metro), and Shakespeare in Love (TIC). Upcoming she will be stage managing The Last Resort (Dreamqueen Collective) and The Height of the Storm (UP). Emma holds a BA in Classics and History of Science & Technology, an MA in Western Esotericism, and has trained as a funeral director, but theatre is her favourite!
Jack Goodison
Lighting Designer
Jack (He/Him) is a Sound and Lighting Designer originating from the UK, living on the ancestral, stolen lands of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh nations. He works to create an atmosphere that immerses the audience into the world of the show, letting them escape reality and lose themselves in theatre.
In Canada, Jack has designed for Axis Theatre (Where Have All the Buffalo Gone), As and When It Happens (Willilish’d), Rumble Theatre (Las Pasiones de Don Pasquale) (Douglas College (Orlando; Mad Forest), Vancouver Opera (The Pearl Fishers), Massey Theatre/UBC (We Deserve to Work), Jeb Beach Productions (Terminus).
Production Consultant
Derek Chan
Derek Chan (陳嘉昊) grew up in colonial Hong Kong, studied in Norway, and currently lives and works on the stolen and ancestral lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, colonially known as Vancouver. Derek received his BFA in theatre performance from Simon Fraser University. A playwright, director, performer, translator, and producer, Derek has been co-artistic director of rice & beans theatre since 2010. He has also worked with Playwrights Theatre Centre (artistic director apprentice), Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre (associate artistic producer), and the rEvolver Festival (guest curator). Derek has been a National Arts Centre English Theatre Artist in Residence (19/20) with yellow objects, a new installation-exhibition in support of the ongoing pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong. His play, Chicken Girl(2019/20), won the Sydney Risk Award for Outstanding Original Play by an Emerging Playwright, and was nominated for Outstanding Original Script at the Jessies.
