Valerie Sing Turner | Founding Co-Artistic Producer

Valerie is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist who performs, writes, directs, dramaturges, and produces. A recipient of the Enbridge playRites Award for Emerging Canadian Playwright, Gordon Armstrong Playwrights Rent Award, and John Moffat + Larry Lillo Prize, she was artist-in-residence with the National Arts Centre (Ottawa) for In the Shadow of the Mountains, her 10-actor play in development. Her writings have appeared in Canadian Theatre Review, alt.theatre, Ricepaper Magazine, various online publications, and operatic libretti. She has been artist-in-residence with the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, associate artist with Urban Ink Productions, and guest artist with Canada’s National Voice Intensive. In 2019, she was the recipient of the UBCP/ACTRA International Women's Day Award in recognition of her "outstanding contributions to the Union, the industry, and causes of social justice"; in 2022, she was one of 11 individual artists to be honoured with the Lieutenant Governor's Platinum Jubilee Arts and Music Award, in recognition of "exceptional contributions to the arts in their community in BC." She performs onstage and onscreen, and has voiced animation as well as CBC radio dramas and short-story narrations. In 2014, Valerie was one of two Canadians invited to train with the Suzuki Company of Toga (Japan) as a member of their International Training Group. She is currently co-directing the animated film adaptation of the operetta, Did I Just Say That?, for which she wrote the libretto.

Valerie started her producing career in 2000 as co-producer of the Dora-nominated premiere of Jean Yoon’s The Yoko Ono Project (Toronto), going on to produce premieres by Laurie Fyffe, Marie Clements, and her own playwriting debut, the interdisciplinary Confessions of the Other Woman, which was co-produced by Vancouver Playhouse Theatre Company, Urban Ink, and Visceral Visions. She also produced the 2016 Redefining Normal, a 2-day retreat for Indigenous and racialized BC-based theatre artists. In 2018, she designed and delivered “Decolonizing through Theatre”, a series of 8 workshops and associated activities for students 5 - 15; and she was honoured to be a guest artist with the Primary Colours/couleurs primaire Initiative for a 2-week residency in Banff Centre for the Arts – one of 40 Indigenous and racialized artists selected from across the country across disciplines. She is an alumnus of the Banff Centre's Cultural Leadership Program, and a member of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association, UBCP/ACTRA, SOCAN, and the Playwrights Guild of Canada.

In 2003, Valerie founded Visceral Visions. As Co-Artistic Producer, she works to ensure that Visceral Visions consciously addresses systemic inequality in its artistic practice, using art to build awareness and empathy; the company’s largest initiative is CultureBrew.Art, a digital platform for Indigenous and racialized artists who work in the literary, performing, and media arts, for which Valerie is Co-Director and Creative Lead.

Anju Singh | Co-Artistic Producer

Anju is an active, multi-disciplinary artist who has worked in the non-profit and arts sector for over 15 years. Alongside her passion for the arts, Anju is excited about the ways in which she can apply technology in her work in arts and the non-profit sector. Anju's degree in Philosophy from Simon Fraser University trained her for critical and analytic thinking, as well as a love for problem solving. Following her studies, her training was nicely rounded out by her experience working in arts and non-profit organizations where she developed values that prioritize people, relationships, and more equitable practices.

In addition to her Co-Artistic Producer role, Anju is also Co-Director and Technical Lead for CultureBrew.Art, employing a breadth of skills including experience from the tech sector, non-profit management, human resources training, and a strong history of operations experience. As an artist and musician, Anju’s contributions and interests cross several artistic disciplines, an important element of CultureBrew.Art, and she brings extensive experience creating, producing, and showing artistic work.