Polyphonic Multilingual Creation program
In partnership with the Vancouver Public Library, Polyphonic prioritizes the translation and creation process of multilingual theatre makers. In it, rice & beans will welcome two multilingual projects in development, one from a local artist and one from out-of-town. Artists are hosted in Vancouver, British Columbia for 12 days, and are provided everything they need for focused, uninterrupted time on their work. Over the two weeks, they have access to writing space at the Vancouver Public Library, where they can workshop with collaborators, participate in a public VPL mid-process table read and feedback session, and then, as a culmination of the program, present a stage reading of an excerpt of their work complete with video design, in a theatre studio. Through the Polyphonic Multilingual Creation Program, artists have the space to reclaim their languages unapologetically through the art they create and foster a space where community members can see their languages legitimized onstage. The residency is an expansion of our existing DBLSPK Program in which the artist and audience members are able to engage in the nuances of language translation on the theatrical stage.
Meet our 2026 Artists!
Local Project:
Mel & Ari’s Immigration Fund
-
Co-Lead Artist / Playwright
Vancouver, BC
Mel (they/them) is a queer, Chinese-Indonesian multidisciplinary artist based on Unceded Coast Salish Territories. Their work is a love letter to colours, finding small joys, community building, and celebrating silliness, channelled primarily through costume design, graphic design, and visual art. Recent theatre collaborations include designing costumes for Playwrights Theatre Centre, Pacific Theatre, ITSAZOO, Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre, among others. In their free time, they love solving crosswords, being surrounded by trees, and sharing hotpot with loved ones.
-
Co-Lead Artist / Playwright
Vancouver, BC
Ariane “Ari” Anindita Anantaputri (they/she) is a writer, stand-up comedian, and actor from Jakarta, Indonesia via London, Sydney, and Kuwait City. Ari has served as Managing Editor of PRISM international, Western Canada’s oldest literary magazine, while completing their MFA in Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia. She has performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, IGNITE! Youth Festival, Brave New Play Rites Festival, and as part of the UBC Players Club. She writes about design and non-alcoholic spirits for MONTECRISTO Magazine and infrequently publishes the newsletter Good in a Storm on Substack. Their piece ‘Empty Barrel’ will be featured in The Parallel Project’s upcoming collection of monologues published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2026.
National Project:
Human Acts
-
Lead Artist / Playwright
Ottawa, Ontario
Irene (Fan) Yi is a bilingual playwright, dramaturg, and performer whose work moves through diaspora, identity, and the quiet fractures between language and belonging. With a background in Theatre Studies (MA, University of Ottawa) and Arts Administration (MA, Indiana University), she creates interdisciplinary works that weave poetic text, projection, and sound, tracing how systemic violence inscribes itself onto the body and into memory.
Her production credits include The Reaper and The Whale (Davis Shakespeare Festival), The Pillowman (Indiana University Bloomington), ’Night, Mother, Twelfth Night, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Her plays include I Have a Dream in Chinese, Human Acts, and Space Unknown.
-
Main Collaborator
Toronto, Ontario
Nick Fangzheng Wang is a Chinese theatre director and playwright based in Toronto. He holds a BAH in Drama from Queen’s University and an MFA in Theatre Directing from the University of Calgary. He is currently an MA candidate in Theatre Studies at the University of Ottawa, where his research focuses on the depoliticization and hyper-politicization of contemporary Chinese theatre.
His directing credits include Salesman in China (Stratford Festival, Assistant Director & NPU), They Must Have Smoked (Calgary Fringe), The Bystander Game and The Storm: Festival (Yu Theatre Society), as well as The Bus Stop and The Zoo Story at the University of Calgary. He was a CanStage RBC Emerging Artist (2021–22) and an Associate Artist at Lunchbox Theatre (2022–23).
Nick is currently co-founding a new professional theatre company in Toronto, Yu Theatre Toronto, which will launch its first season in 2027. His first full-length Chinese-language play, Bedsores (《褥疮》), will be published in 2026. fangzhengwang.com
✨Save the date!✨
You will get a chance to see excerpts of the 2026 Polyphonic projects on March 21st, 2026 in-person in Vancouver, BC or online from anywhere! Tickets will be released in January 2026.
