In it’s 8th year, the New Bad Idea program is hosting the largest cohort its ever had, supporting 10 writers as they develop 5 new works for audiences of all ages.

ABOUT THE WRITERS:

Described by the Toronto Star as “one of Toronto’s most exciting playwrights,” Michael Ross Albert is a writer and indie theatre producer whose work has been staged across Canada, the United States, United Kingdom, and elsewhere. Writing credits include The Midnight Torch: A Detective Murdoch Mystery (upcoming production: Vertigo Theatre), The Bidding War (Crow's Theatre; finalist, Carol Bolt Award), The Village It Takes (finalist, Tom Hendry Drama Award), A Little Closer (The Vault Creation Lab), Beautiful Renegades, (Peggy Baker Dance Projects), Two Minutes to Midnight (The Assembly Theatre), and Tough Jews (Spadina Avenue Gang/Storefront Theatre; Dora Award nomination, Outstanding New Play). Michael’s work has been presented in multiple Fringe festivals, including Edinburgh, Brighton, Halifax, and FringeNYC. Five of his plays were staged in the Toronto Fringe Festival, including The Huns and Anywhere; both plays were named Patron’s Pick and Best of Fringe, and have received several subsequent productions.

Richard Lam is a Toronto-based Actor, Writer, Musician, and Sound Designer. Originally from Vancouver, Richard obtained his B.A. in Political Science at UBC before training in the BFA in Acting program at the University of Alberta. Richard was a company member at Soulpepper Theatre for four years, where he trained at the Soulpepper Academy in a split actor/musician stream under Director of Music Mike Ross. As a theatre artist Richard has appeared in three dozen productions with Canada's largest and most exciting companies, including Bad Hats Theatre, the Stratford Festival, The Shaw Festival, Soulpepper Theatre, Talk Is Free Theatre, Canadian Stage, the Charlottetown Festival, the Citadel Theatre, Buddies In Bad Times, and many others. A few career highlights include playing Laurie Laurence in Little Women at the Stratford Festival, translating, adapting, producing, and performing in The Little Prince: Reimagined (Dora Award nominations for Outstanding Performance and Outstanding New Play), and being part of the core music team for the Soulpepper hit Spoon River. Other sound and music credits include *Dissonant Species* (Theatre Gargantua), *Peter Pan* (Bad Hats Theatre), *What She Burned* (Talk Is Free Theatre), and *That Syncing Feeling* (Outside The March). Richard has been nominated for seven Dora awards and has won twice. He plays Bouzouki for the Irish Traditional Folk band The Night Larks (@thenightlarks), and is a proud co-CEO of Ground Floor (@groundfloorteam), an organization that offers collaborative tools and conflict management to the theatre industry.

ABOUT THE WRITERS:

Marie Beath Badian is an award-winning Filipino-Canadian playwright and writer based in Toronto, Ontario. Her plays include The Waltz, Prairie Nurse, The Making of St. Jerome, Mind Over Matter, and Novena. Prairie Nurse and The Waltz form the first two parts of a multi-generational trilogy spanning fifty years and set in rural Saskatchewan. The third play, The Cottage Guest, is currently in development. A two-time alumna of The Banff Playwrights Lab, Marie Beath joined its faculty as Playwright in Residence in 2024. She has developed work through the playwright units ofCahoots Theatre Company, Tarragon Theatre, Soulpepper Playwrights Circle, and The Factory Theatre, and has served as Playwright-in-Residence at fu-GEN Asian-Canadian Theatre Company, Project:Humanity, and The Blyth Festival.

www.mariebeath.com

Nicky Phillips is an award-winning composer and an alumna of the BMI Lehman Engel Advanced Musical Theatre Workshop, where she received the Jean Banks Award for Outstanding Achievement in Musical Theatre. Nicky’s musical works include: Rey of Light (Interlochen Center for Performing Arts, ASCAP/Stephen Schwartz Workshop), The Last Party (NAMT Recommended, Toronto Fringe), In Between (The Loop Festival, Bravo Academy), Stagefright (Prospect Theatre Musical Lab) and In Flanders Fields (Smile Theatre, Lunchbox Theatre, Betty Mitchell nomination). Nicky has also created original music for plays throughout Canada, including productions at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Alberta Theatre Projects, Theatre New Brunswick and Theatre Direct (Dora Nomination). She is the co-writer of The Tweens ’N Teens Songbook, New Musical Theatre Songs for the Young (ish) Performer published by Full Voice Music. A proud member of ASCAP, she has received multiple ASCAP Plus Awards. Her songs can currently be heard in Seasons 1 and 2 of the animated series Vida The Vet (Spinmaster).

ABOUT THE WRITERS:

Saleema Nawaz is an accomplished TV writer, novelist, playwright and librettist, whose most recent novel, Songs for the End of the World, was an instant national bestseller. She is also the author of the novel Bone and Bread (a finalist for Canada Reads), the short-story collection Mother Superior, and she is a winner of the prestigious Writers’ Trust of Canada/McClelland & Stewart Journey Prize. A former columnist for the Montreal Gazette, Saleema has held creative residencies at Yaddo and the Banff Centre and is currently a writer on CBC’s Murdoch Mysteries.

Scott Christian is an award-winning musical director, composer and pianist. Selected MD credits include Carmen (Opera, Loose Tea Theatre Toronto), Ring Of Fire (Thousand Islands Playhouse), A Misfortune, Glenda's Kitchen, The Dream Catchers, and The Voices of Canada (Charlottetown Festival), Once, Shrek and The Addams Family (Neptune Theatre), Snow White (Drayton Entertainment), Company (Theatre 20), Rocky Horror (Sudbury Theatre Centre), Marry Me A Little (assistant MD, Tarragon Theatre), The Way Back To Thursday (orchestrator/MD, Theatre Passe Muraille), and Second City Toronto. His musical A Misfortune, based on Anton Chekhov's short story, premiered at the 2017 Charlottetown Theatre Festival. Since then, he has composed a number of TYA musicals which were premiered by Yellow Door Theatre in Niagara; Nobody's Children, Sticky Fingers, and Red Letter Day. Scott received his masters degree in composition from York University, and has taught musical theatre at a number of Ontario Colleges. In his other life, Scott writes and designs video games with his company Hilltop Studios, and enjoys making music with his wife Tringa Rexhepi.

Last year we commissioned 4 short stories from Canadian writers and composers for our first annual concert: New Bad Ideas Live! Two of these short stories have gone on to further development and will be supported through the New Bad Ideas program this year in addition to our main cohort.

ABOUT THE WRITERS:


One of Canada’s most popular playwrights, Mark’s work has been produced across the country and internationally. He is the author of nine plays: Stag and Doe; Bed and Breakfast; The Birds and the Bees; Boys, Girls, and Other Mythological Creatures; The New Canadian Curling Club; Chase the Ace; The Gig; The Golden Anniversaries; and Ruby and the Reindeer. Many of Mark’s plays are published by Scirocco Drama. He has been nominated for the Playwrights Guild of Canada Comedy Award and long-listed for the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour. Also an actor, Mark has performed on stages from coast to coast. He grew up on his family’s farm in Southwestern Ontario, studied at the University of Toronto and Sheridan College, and now lives in Stratford. www.markcrawfordplays.com

Kevin Wong is a composer-lyricist, singer/musician, and dramaturg. His musicals include: Recurring John: A Song Cycle; STAR!(ving): A Collection of Songs; Polly Peel (with Julie Tepperman); Out of Stock; Drama 101 (with Steven Gallagher); In Real Life (with Nick Green); Believers (with Ali Joy Richardson), Take Me Back (with Amir Haidar); Soft Magical Tofu Boy(s), and A Moment for Frayed Nerves (upcoming, Toronto Fringe 2026). Kevin streams online concerts weekly on the streaming service Twitch (twitch.tv/kevinywong). He is the only three-time winner of the Playwrights Guild of Canada’s Tom Hendry Dan School of Drama & Music Award for New Musical. He is the current Creative Lead for the Musical Stage Company’s UnCovered concert series, and was the third Crescendo artist at the company. Most recently, he can be heard on his albums Small Ways to Move and Covers (on streaming services everywhere).

ABOUT THE WRITERS:


Margot Greve is a three-time Dora-nominated director, book writer and performer. She is the co-leader of Mixtape Projects, a music and movement theatre company that creates unapologetically fun works of award winning musical theatre in the city of Toronto. She has written and directed projects for the New Voices Festival, the Next Stage Festival, the Next Stage Audio Series, the Watershed Festival, the Hamilton Fringe and the Toronto Fringe, as well as productions through Mixtape Projects, Capitol Theatre Port Hope, Fever International, Sheridan College, St-Lawrence College, Tweed and Company, the Uncommon Folk Collective, Send Noods Productions, Panoply Collective and Hungover Cabaret. While writing and directing are her primary practices, she also works as a movement director and lift coordinator for projects in the Greater Toronto Area.

Ben Kopp selected credits: Iris (says goodbye) (Music and Lyrics, Winner of the Adam’s Prize for Musical Theatre/Best of Fringe); Bright Star (Mirvish/GTP, Assistant MD); Alice in Wonderland (Bad Hats Theatre); Alligator Pie (Soulpepper Theatre, Dora Award); Killing Time: A Game Show Musical (Music and Lyrics, Dora Nomination)

Other: CAMP! (Music and lyrics, new musical at the 2026 Toronto Fringe Festival). 2019 Graduate of TMU’s Performance-Acting Program. Member of the 2024 Soulpepper Academy.