Masuma Khan (she/her)
Executive Director
Masuma is a local community organizer and artist, born and raised in Kjipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki (Halifax, Nova Scotia). She has worked in housing support and has years of experience in union governance. She is known for her overwhelming passion and commitment to dismantling systems of oppression. Those closest to her know her for her big smile and an even bigger heart. Many will also know her as local hip hop artist General Khan. Masuma has been breaking barriers in the local rap scene since the release of her first album Wrath of Khan in 2021. Poetry is an expression that is tied to her cultural practice as a Pashtun and her art style is influenced by her lived experiences facing white supremacy, colonialism, islamophobia and ableism.
Lara Lewis (she/her)
Interim General Manager
Lara is a queer mixed Mi’kmaw/settler theatre artist. Her artistic practice is based mainly in performing, dramaturgy, and writing. As a performer, past credits include work with Villains Theatre, Solo Chicken Productions, Heist, Atlantic Repertory Company, Theatre New Brunswick, Halifax Theatre for Young People, and Zuppa. As a dramaturge, she has worked independently and as a resident dramaturge at festivals and retreats with writers from all four Atlantic provinces, Ontario, Quebec, and New York. An emerging writer, Lara is a member of Nightwood Theatre’s 2022/23 Write From the Hip cohort. A former chair of the Bus Stop Theatre Co-op’s board, she was awarded a Theatre Nova Scotia Merritt Award for Outstanding Volunteer for her work. She has previously been nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor. Lara is a founding member of the Glitter Bean Café Co-op, and a member of Glooscap First Nation. In her spare time, Lara like long walks in the woods, cross stitch, and programming screenings of horror movies. She lives in a big gay house with some big gays and her cat. @thisislaralewis
(Photo: James MacLean)
Audrey Eastwood (she/her)
(On Parental Leave) General Manager
Audrey Eastwood has been the General Manager of the Bus Stop Theatre Co-op since 2017 and a volunteer since 2016. Hailing from the tiny community of Central Hampstead, NB, Audrey is a multi-disciplinary artist and Co-Founder and Artistic Producer of Terra Novella Theatre. She has worked as an actor, designer, musician, technician, fight choreographer, and makeup artist for a number of Halifax/Kjipuktuk based companies including Villain’s Theatre, Kick at the Dark Theatre Co-op, Halifax Summer Opera, Halifax Fringe, Votive Dance and Whale Song Theatre. In her spare time she loves cooking and sharing huge meals, spending time messing about in gardens and seeing as many shows at the Bus Stop as possible.
(Photo:MJ Photographics)
Amelia George (she/her)
Technical Director
Amelia graduated from Acadia University’s Theatre Production program in 2019 with a concentration in projection/video design. That being said, she can often be found doing a little bit of everything from lighting, to set and prop construction, costumes, stage management, painting, and whatever needs doing in-between. Since graduating, she has worked with several local companies across Nova Scotia/Mi’kma’ki, including The Villains Theatre, Ship’s Company Theatre, The Bus Stop Theatre, Valley Summer Theatre, and Quick as a Wink Theatre Society. Incapable of sitting still, Amelia is constantly in pursuit of new ways to create and present theatre that pushes boundaries.
Alexa Kirste (he/she/they)
Technician
Alexa (he/she/they) is a theatre artist and technical theatre worker based in Kjipuktuk. She is very keen on honing her skills on the productions she’s a part of, and is always in pursuit of learning new and challenging things. Selected credits include The Spring Tide Circle (Ship’s Company Theatre, 2021), Dayboil (Ship’s Company Theatre, 2022), The Outside Inn (FAST, 2022), In Lieu of Flowers (Highland Arts Theatre and Neptune Theatre, 2023) and The Crevice (Bus Stop Writer’s Circle, 2023).
Kiana Josette (she/her)
Communications & Outreach Coordinator
African-Nova Scotian actor Kiana Josette discovered a passion for performing at a young age. Kiana spent most of her summers traveling with a dance troupe, and her winters singing in a choir. Community, art, and compassion have always been the most important things to Kiana, and it shows through the work she does with her engagement and participation in various boards, and by advocating for other disabled, neurodivergent, BIPOC artists and young adults like herself. Starting in social media and marketing with small theatres after finishing her education at NSCC, Kiana has now stepped into the world of administration and producing with Halifax Theatre For Young People, while still continuing to help local theatres with marketing and communications. When not in the office, Kiana can be found still loving to act. Recently, she has been seen as “Mary” in Two Planks and a Passion Theatre’s production of “Unity 1918”, “Gertie” in Mary-Colin Chisholm’s original play “Shadows in the Cove” produced by Mulgrave Road Theatre, and a Nova Scotian Women’s health documentary “I See You” directed and produced by Interwoven Films’s Amy Trefry.
(Photo: Stevey Hunter)
Jordan Farmer (he/him)
StART Producer
Known professionally as Tempo, Jordan is a multifaceted creative entrepreneur with roots both in Ontario and Nova Scotia. Starting as a dancer, Jordan worked with Concrete Roots and Unity Charity, developing a strong sense of community. Equipped with a thorough understanding and connection to music, this fuelled the need to take control of the very language that influenced his movement, ultimately resulting in the transition to production. Making the jump to music, the 2019 HopScotch All Styles winner has since dedicated his craft to becoming more involved in projects advocating for racial equality and artistic freedom throughout the Province.
Meg Hubley (they/she)
Writers Circle Producer
Meg Hubley is a writer/producer/director and mother from Kjipuktuk. Their plays and collaborations include EcoSystemEchoChamber co-written with Delilah Saunders (Halifax Theatre for Young People), Honey&Jupiter (H&J Collective/EDNS), and TreeGirl (Forerunner/Eastern Front), shortlisted for best theatre production by readers of The Coast. Meg received the 2017 Theatre Nova Scotia Emerging Artist Award, and their theatre reviews have been published locally and nationally, including The Globe & Mail. Meg is co-founder of The Bus Stop Theatre Writers’ Circle and Phyllis Rising Productions. In 2020 with Phyllis Rising co-founders Rebecca Falvey, Kat Shubaly and Nicole Cecile Holland, Meg produced their first short film “The Agnostics,” through the AFCOOP Film Five program.
Andre Fenton (he/him)
Writers Circle Coordinator
Andre Fenton is an award-winning African Nova Scotian writer, author, spoken-word artist, and arts educator who has represented Halifax at seven national poetry festivals across Canada. He was the 2015 recipient of The Spirit of The Slam Award. Andre is an author of two YA novels, Worthy of Love, which won bronze in The Coast Best of, and was selected for In The Margins annual Fiction Recommendation List to highlight best fiction and non-fiction titles focused on youth populations living in marginalized existences. He is also the author of ANNAKA that was shortlisted for the Ann Connor Brimer Award for Atlantic Canadian Children’s Literature in the 2021 Atlantic Book Awards. Through the lens of fiction and poetry, Andre has facilitated workshops at over 30 schools across Nova Scotia helping young writers and performers develop their craft. His forthcoming novel, The Summer Between Us, will be released this spring, and he is working on a feature screenplay. Andre is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
