Hi, we're the Purple Team at Purple Carrots Drama Studio!
Her work spans a variety of settings, supporting individuals through life transitions, grief, emotional regulation, and palliative care, using the arts as a tool for expression and healing. A lifelong performer, Alana has been acting and improvising since she could say "yes, and!"
Previously, she was part of the Expressive Arts facilitation team at Mohawk College, educating students on integrating the arts into treatment for individuals living with PTSD. She later returned to her alma mater, Brock University, as faculty in the Dramatic Arts Department, where she taught Movement: Applications for Education & Theatre.
Alana’s mission is to make Expressive Arts accessible to all—encouraging play, self-expression, and exploration in every space she enters. She is a professional member in good standing with the Ontario Expressive Arts Therapy Association.
In 2021 Georgia received a capital grant from the federal government of Canada as part of the SBCCI (Support Black Canadian Communities Initiative) and will lead an art as therapy project serving ACB (African, Black, Caribbean) folks living with AIDS and HIV. Beginning October 2021, Georgia will be the artist in residence at Station Gallery and develop an expressive arts therapy program into the gallery space. Georgia is a professional member in good standing with The Ontario Expressive Arts Therapy Association (OEATA) and the International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IEATA). She continues to support those who seek to keep living artfully.
care. Michaela compassionately journeys alongside individuals navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, complex grief, burnout, chronic pain, systemic oppression, low self-esteem, and relationship challenges. She is passionate for integrative approaches to health, rooted in community and anchored within a framework of social justice and collective liberation. Michaela strives to create a welcoming space for her clients of all identities to tell their stories and move toward their personal goals/hopes while feeling seen, nourished, and empowered.
Lauren now spends the majority of her time trying to make people laugh around Toronto: performing stand-up comedy all over the city, and teaching/directing improv & sketch comedy to students at York University (Vanier College Productions). After volunteering with Purple Carrots for the first time in winter, Lauren immediately knew that she needed to join this magical community again for the spring, and couldn’t be more grateful for how welcomed she’s been with open arms & open hearts!
Growing up, Eva always participated in the arts- music, dance and visual art. Today, creativity maintains an important part of Eva's life and self care routine.
Eva believes that the arts play an important part in self expression, identity building, community formation, social skill development and much more. Eva takes a strengths based approach in everything that she does. As an occupational therapist, Eva is passionate about supporting others to engage and participate in activities that are meaningful to them. Eva believes that play is an important part of life, at every stage of life.
Eva is so excited to bring together many of her passions at Purple Carrots.
Since graduating in 2016, she has worked with children, teens and adults with developmental disabilities. Growing up with 3 siblings with developmental disabilities and being a neurodivergent clinician herself, she strongly believes we have a social responsibility to provide neurodiversity-affirming care. This means recognizing that every person’s brain is unique. In her practice, she seeks to understand these differences and provide accommodations and supports that affirm the neurodivergent identities of those she works with.
Her love of teaching children was sparked in her teens when she began teaching at her dance studio in Barrie, ON. Alicia deepened her relationship with movement, choreography and pedagogy at York University where she earned her BFA in Dance in 2006. Between 2003 and 2011 she produced/co-produced and choreographed seven multidisciplinary performances in Toronto, including the dance/theatre production of an original feminist fairy tale called “Ella and the Rat” (2011).
After university Alicia coupled her penchant for teaching with her desire to travel, spending two years as an ESL teacher in South Korea, where she infused her lessons with dance, music and play. Her belief in the transformative and healing power of the arts led her to study Drama Therapy at Concordia University and earn her Master’s degree in 2016.
Alicia is thrilled to be a part of the Purple Carrots team, where she continues to witness the power of using the creative arts as a platform for learning, self expression, and human connection.
He is the founder and Artistic Director of The Purple Stage, an initiative which gives Purple Carrots alumni a paid professional theatre experience.
Starlight is a performance creator working in theatre, dance, drag and interactive experiences. He is half of the POP ART performance duo xLq, creating interactive theatrical playgrounds with a queer pop aesthetic. Starlight also creates dance-fashion films, and his latest project, PARTYPEOPLE, brings nightlife performance to public parks in a distanced experience for small audiences.
Some of Eliza’s favourite acting credits include: Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Isabella in The Changeling (Shakespeare BASH’d), Molly in Peter and The Starcatcher (LOT), Hedvig in Wild Duck Project (Re:Current Theatre), Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest (Hart House Theatre), Hellena in The Rover, Mary Warren in The Crucible (Theatre Erindale), u/s Louise in Gypsy (Hangar Theatre), Emily in Bodies, and Patricia in Hiding Like Elephants (Hangar Wedge Series).
In her off-stage life, Eliza works in children's mental health and teaches creative workshops around the city. Her first children's novel Harvey and the Extraordinary (Annick Press) based on her play of the same name, will hit bookshelves November 2021.
Eliza offers creative skill-building and therapeutic services through Purple Carrots Counselling.
She is an enthusiast of theatre, aerial skills, attempting to be musical, laughter, the outside, magic, all things 80's, and making stuff with her hands. She is a camp girl at heart having worked and attended both Camp Gay Venture and Camp Oconto.
A proud Slytherin and believer that, though the world is a big place, it is the stories we share with strangers we meet that make it seem small. When Steph is not working as an actor or educator she is the proud co-producer and host of Girl Gang Cabarets; an unboxed and/or feminist variety show.
