Theatre Network

Today’s Artist Feature: Mika Boutin!

Mika Boutin is a q***r and Métis playwright, intimacy coordinator, and director born, raised, and based in amiskwaciwâskahikan, colonially known as Edmonton. She directed her first full-length play, Morning by Simon Stephens in 2023, and later went on to direct Dog Bite Theatre Company’s inaugural production of Your Heart Is Gushing Lavender as a part of the mainstage series for Nextfest 2024.

In September 2023, she began developing TELEVANGELISTS, her first original full-length play. The piece was shaped through Ellen Chorely’s My First Play workshop and shared through public readings at Nextfest’s Playwrights’ Weekend and Workshop West’s Springboards Cabaret in 2024. Later that year, Mika was invited to bring the play to Nextfest 2025 as a mainstage production, completing a full workshop-to-production journey!

Mika’s second full-length play, bunny guts, a tonal 180 that emboldened their interest in coming-of-age stories and the myths we inherit as we grow up. Collaboration is the backbone of their practice, rooted in a creative partnership with Tori Kibblewhite, and a community of curious, generous artists who continue to uplift Mika’s voice as a playwright. bunny guts will be receiving its first full reading at this year’s NextFest!

Select Intimacy Coordination credits include The Prom for Nuova Vocal Arts, Practically Perfect Pitch for Top Bunk Theatre, Ryde Like Hell for NextFest, ABBEDAM’s production of One Man, Two Guvnors, The Bin for Screecher’s Theatre, Fool’s Gold & The Spotlight’s Shadow for Light in the Attic Productions, and buanderie/boulangerie for L'UniThéâtre.

You can catch the Nexftest reading of bunny guts on Saturday, June 13, at 2:00pm in the Bradley Moss Rehearsal Hall.

Get your Nextfest festival pass here ⬇
www.theatrenetwork.ca/nextfest/