Theatre

Linz Kenyon

Lindsay ‘Linz’ Kenyon is a writer, composer, actor, and musician. He has released four albums, published poems and stories, acted in film, theatre, and radio, and written many plays. Kenyon grew up on a cattle ranch in British Columbia, and has used his wrangling skills in a few theatre productions. He has written, performed, and […]

Sally Nakamura

Satoshi (Sally) Nakamura was born on Powell Street in Vancouver. He enjoyed a varied artistic life as a singer, actor and entertainer. In Vancouver, he took voice training with Gideon Hicks, a well-known baritone, conductor, and music teacher. He also loved to sing popular songs and would entertain at the Japanese language school. He could […]

Harry Kumano

Harry Kumano was a Nisei singer and actor. An active member of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto, he is well known as the founder, director, and conductor of the Sansei Choir. He also did film work, appearing in several commercials. He once had an ambition to ‘play all the Buddhist churches up and […]

Kunio Suyama

Kunio Suyama is an actor, singer, and emcee who has been highly active in the Toronto Buddhist Church. He is especially well-known for his role as emcee at the annual Obon Festival in Toronto. Suyama put on and performed in many shibai plays at the Toronto Buddhist Church over the years. He was also a […]

Sansei North Productions

Sansei North Productions, a theatre production house, was established by Terry Watada and operated out of the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto. Its primary purpose was to present Japanese American playwright Lane Nishikawa’s one-man show about Sansei identity, Life in the Fast Lane. It did so in 1983 and 1984. In 1987, Watada teamed […]

Carolyn Nakagawa

Carolyn Nakagawa is a poet and playwright whose work has appeared in theatres around Greater Vancouver and in various literary journals across Canada, including Ricepaper, Room, EVENT, and CV2. She was a finalist for the Malahat Review’s 2017 Open Season contest in the poetry category. Born and raised in the suburbs of Vancouver, Carolyn studied […]

Lorne Hawryluk

Lorne Hawryluk is a Toronto-based actor who was active in the 1980s and 1990s. His theatre credits include Song for a Nisei Fisherman (Sansei North, 1987); film credits include Breaking All the Rules (CBC-TV, 1987) and Kung Fu, The Legend Continues (Warner Bros, 1993). He also performed in a Musical Theatre showcase at the Banff […]

Yoshimaru Abe

Yoshimaru Abe was an entertainer, artist, haiku poet, garden designer. Born in 1914 in Fukuoka, Japan, Abe immigrated to Canada in 1927 to join his parents in Port Hammond, BC. There he worked for the local lumber mill while also working on the family strawberry farm. With other Japanese community members, he engaged in shibai […]

Brenda Kamino

Brenda Kamino is an actress who has performed on many of Canada’s best known stages for 40 years creating many roles in new plays for Cahoots Theatre Projects, Theatre Passe Muraille, Factory Theatre, YPT, Alberta Theatre Projects, the Prairie Theatre Exchange, fu-Gen Theatre, Nightwood Theatre; Kamino has also spent a season at the Shaw Festival […]

Ruby Truly

Ruby Truly is a Hawaii-born Nikkei actor and filmmaker. Born in Maui, she grew up dancing the hula, which she credits as a lifelong artistic influence. She studied theatre at the University of Hawaii, and immigrated to Canada in the 1960s. As a performer, she has numerous film, television, and theatre credits, including The War […]

Susan Dunstan

Susan Dunstan is a singer, voice teacher and musical theatre performer. She has spent the past 20 years on some of the most prestigious stages, playing lead roles in Tony Award winning musicals across Canada and the USA. Currently she is appearing in Come From Away on Broadway. Other select credits include Kinky Boots, Disney’s […]

Denis Akiyama

Denis Akiyama is an actor and voice actor with extensive credits in theatre, film, and television. Born and raised in Toronto, Akiyama received a BA in Psychology from York University and began working in child care before deciding to pursue his dream of acting. He studied at George Brown College, and began a decades-long career […]

Peter Kosaka

Peter Kosaka is a Japanese-born actor who built a film and theatre career primarily in Toronto, all while working a day job in finance. He came to Canada to study acting at the University of Windsor, receiving his BFA in 1985. After graduating, he worked as a dancer in a modern dance company, and later […]

Tsuneko Kokubo

Tsuneko Kokubo was born in Steveston BC in 1937, and raised in Japan. Returning to Canada in her late teens, she studied Fine Arts for four years at Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University), focussing on drawing and painting. She has worked extensively in theatre as a performer (physical theatre and dance) and […]

Nobuo Kubota

Nobuo Kubota was born on June 27, 1932 in Vancouver BC. He has degree in architecture from the University of Toronto. He practiced architecture for 10 years before becoming an artist. He is also a musician, sound artist and sound singer. As an artist, he has a tendency to work in isolation and remains outside […]