• Age: 11 to 14
• Grade: 6 to 9

An immersive experience, Eraser delves into the memories and fantasies of a classroom of students as they figure out who they want to be. Six students guide readers through their different journeys, taking them along to the cafeteria, change rooms, and playground, to the places where they feel safest and the most brave, vulnerable, and afraid.

Afroze just moved to Canada from Pakistan and is struggling to fit in as a white-skinned gender-questioning convert to Islam. All Jihad wants is to be cool, but he struggles with the appearance of this new student who doesn’t look like any of the Muslims he knows. Noah’s brother just died, and he’s been avoiding processing his grief, which makes him lash out at his best friend, Eli. Eli doesn’t know how to support Noah, who he also harbours questioning feelings for. Whitney wants to live by her own rules in her own imaginary world, but she’s forced to deal with annoying kids like Tara. Tara loves school and getting straight As, but all the pressure she feels eventually adds up and she crumbles.

Finding a balance between tough realities and honest fantasies, Eraser is an energetic and sentimental look at what it’s like to navigate differences and connections as a kid.

Bilal Baig (they/them) is a queer, trans-feminine, Muslim playwright, performer, and workshop facilitator. Bilal’s first play, Acha Bacha, had its world premiere in 2018 and has been published by Playwrights Canada Press. Other written work in development includes Kainchee Lagaa, Kitne Saare Laloo Yahan Pey Hain, and I want that free mind! Bilal is a core team member at non-profits such as Story Planet and Rivers of Hope, where they develop and facilitate workshops for youth in under-resourced neighbourhoods in Toronto focused on creative writing and literacy (Story Planet) and combatting Islamophobia through the arts (Rivers of Hope). Bilal has been the Playwrights Unit Facilitator for the Paprika Festival since 2019. Bilal is the lead and co-creator of the CBC/HBO Max/Sienna Films series Sort Of.

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Sadie Epstein-Fine (they/them) loves telling stories, being in nature, working with young people, and being surrounded by community. They take on many artistic roles including directing, writing, and choreography. They are passionate about watching and creating musicals, immersive theatre, and theatre for young audiences. They are driven to work in queer, trans, and queerspawn communities, and in 2018 they edited a book called Spawning Generations about the experience of having queer and trans parents. Spawning Generations was a top ten book of 2018 in NOW Magazine and was nominated for Lambda Literary and Foreword INDIES awards. Theatre credits include The Last Five Years (Director, Langham Directors Workshop), Eraser (Director/Choreographer/Creator, the Riser Project/Why Not Theatre), Mamma Mia! (Director, Nightwood Theatre). Sadie is currently developing Sugar Plum about the experience of growing up as a queer ballet dancer.

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Christol Bryan is a first-generation Canadian artist of Afro-Caribbean descent. Her work uses the experiences of her life and family to tell meaningful stories that resonate in a continued effort to bring people from all walks of life closer to a common understanding. Christol is a performer who has training in clown, contemporary vocal, and physical theatre techniques.

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Born in Toronto, Marina Gomes is a graduate of the University of Windsor, B.F.A. acting program. As an actor/creator, Marina has trained with members of the SITI Company, Festival Players Academy, and was a Young Innovator at Nightwood Theatre. Marina shares her passion for theatre and learning as an Artist Educator with various companies throughout the GTA. Selected acting credits include Lexi in Lexi and the Flying B’s (Toronto Fringe), Tara in Eraser (Eraser Theatre), and Tara in Eraser: A New Normal (Theatre Direct).

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Yousef Kadoura was born in the midwestern United States and raised in Ottawa, Ontario. He is a Lebanese Canadian actor, writer, and producer, as well as a right leg below knee amputee. Yousef is a graduate of the 2017 acting program at the National Theatre School of Canada. Yousef is also a founding company member of Other HeArts, a new performance collective. As an artist Yousef seeks to draw from a plurality of experiences and disciplines to expand the boundaries of performance in pursuit of accessibility, presence, and shared experience.

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Tijiki Morris was raised in Pakistan and came to Canada at eighteen. They co-created and led the puppetry collective Artichoke Heart, where they directed and devised pieces including We Walk Among You and Cirqular (Les Trois Jours de Casteliers, Montreal Fringe, Best of Fringe Toronto and Beyond the Mountain). Their play Rootless was presented at the SummerWorks Performance Festival and Theatre Passe Muraille’s Buzz Series. They were a selected artist for the inaugural Loughborough Lake Writer’s Retreat with Crow’s Theatre and Mongrel Media. Tijiki has been an artist-in-residence at Theatre Passe Muraille, Mermaid Theatre, Cahoots Playwrights’ Hot House, and was named as one of “30 Cahoots theatre makers who will shape the next 30 years of Canadian Theatre.”

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Anthony Perpuse mostly goes by Tony and uses he/him pronouns. He is a Toronto-based Filipino Canadian actor who received his B.F.A. in Performance Acting from the (then called) Ryerson Theatre School in 2016 and was awarded the Perry Schneiderman Comedy Award. Some of his theatre credits include Theory (Tarragon Theatre), Eraser (Eraser Theatre), Through the Bamboo (Uwi Collective), and Orestes (Tarragon Theatre), while film credits include Workin’ Moms, Save Me, The 5th Estate, and Run The Burbs (CBC); VHS ’94 (Hangar 18); and The Handmaid’s Tale (HBO). He received a Dora Mavor Moore Award nomination in 2019 in the Theatre for Young Audiences Division for Outstanding Production, Outstanding New Play, and Outstanding Ensemble with Eraser Theatre (for this play!).

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Nathan Redburn is a multidisciplinary actor and creator from the small farm town of Arthur, Ontario, with an affinity for devised theatre, performance creation, improv, sketch comedy, and writing. Nathan takes inspiration for characters he creates and in his writing from his hometown and his own lived experiences. Nathan left Arthur in 2012 to pursue acting at York University, where he received his B.F.A. from York’s Acting Conservatory. Since graduating in 2017 he has gone on to perform in several shows across the city, which have garnered him several Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations. Nathan has also found his stride in writing, acting for film and television, and further creating in the realm of performance art.

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Cleopatria Peterson (they/them) has a multi-disciplinary arts practice that explores the intersectionality of their identities as a Black, non-binary transgender crip artist through the mediums of narrative, printmaking, illustration, and education. They are a member of the Crip Arts Collective, have had their work shown at the Canadian Textile Museum, and are one of the co-founders of Old Growth Press. They graduated from the Cross Disciplinary Art: Publications program at OCAD U as the medal winner for their class (2020) and also hold a Bachelor’s of Design from TMU’s Fashion Communication program. Their first solo show Bestie Mart will be debuting at Tangled Art + Disability this May.

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