Staff
Jenna Rodgers
Artistic Director
Jenna is a mixed-race Dramaturg and Director of Chinese and Welsh descent. She was born and raised in Treaty 6 Territory and is a passionate advocate for equity in the arts, a fierce supporter of new play development, and is actively learning to raise small responsible humans while maintaining a career in the arts.
Jenna was the founding Artistic Director of Chromatic Theatre, a company dedicated to developing and producing work by and for artists of colour. She served as the Dramaturg for the Playwrights Lab at the Banff Centre for a decade, and is currently the Director of Theatre Alberta’s Artstrek program. Jenna is also the Board Co-Chair for the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA), and currently sits on the Editorial Committee for Playwrights Canada Press. She is a graduate of the NTS Artistic Leadership Residency (2020), the Banff Centre’s Cultural Leadership Program (2019), and a member of the artEquity National Facilitator Training cohort (2018). Jenna received Canada Council’s prestigious John Hirsch Prize for Directors in 2022, and the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Award for Emerging Artists in 2018. She holds an MA in International Performance Research from the universities of Amsterdam and Tampere, and is a proud graduate of the BA (Honours) program at the U of A.
Patrick Beagan
General Manager
Patrick (he/him) is a proud halfbreed of Nlaka’pamux and Irish Canadian heritage. He started with Concrete Theatre as a designer, having designed the full production of The Antyssey, the set/projections for I Am For You, the production design for Bello, and lighting Songs My Mother Never Sung Me, among others. He worked as Concrete’s Bookings Coordinator for 3 years before moving into the GM position in 2019. He still freelances as a lighting designer and will be working with Shadow Theatre this season on The Two Battles of Francis Pegahmagabow.
Heather Cornick
Bookings Coordinator
For over two decades Heather has worked in theatre, film, television, circus, concerts, corporate events, cruise ships, dance, and opera as a designer, technician, instructor, stage manager, event planner, props builder, puppeteer, carpenter, and clown. She was born in Northern Ontario on the traditional territory of the anishinaabeg peoples and has generations of cultural roots in ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland). In 2019, Heather stage managed CTRL-ALT-DEL and The Antyssey for Concrete Theatre then joined the team full-time later that year.
Caroline Howarth
Artistic Associate
Caroline is a director, educator and dramaturg born and raised in Alberta. She is a co-founder of Concrete Theatre and served as Artistic co-director for many years. Over the past 30 years she has directed and facilitated many productions and projects for young people and families including most recently Songs My Mother Never Sung Me by Dave Clarke – a chamber opera in American Sign Language and sung English. She has worked on Concrete’s Sprouts Festival of New Plays for Kids for many years as a coordinator, dramaturg and director. Over the years, Caroline has worked with the University of Alberta, The Citadel Theatre, Edmonton Opera, Opera Nuova and Fringe Theatre Adventures. She is now an Associate Professor of Drama at Concordia University of Edmonton where she teaches improvisation, theatre for young audiences, directing, and acting. She has directed many productions at Concordia including Haroun and the Sea of Stories, The Dada Play and Everyman. Caroline is passionate about creating theatre for young people that is engaging and helps them to navigate their place in the world. Caroline lives near the river valley in Edmonton with her family John, Xavier, Sarah and two energetic dogs.
Mieko Ouchi
Artistic Associate
Mieko is proud to be one of the founding members of Concrete and to see the company evolve, flourish and grow. She has written, translated, dramaturged, performed in and directed over 35 shows for the company since 1989 and was in an artistic leadership role with the company for 31 years. In 2020 she stepped down to her new role as Artistic Associate here at CT, in order to become Associate Artistic Director at the Citadel, where she works as a creative artist and helps to lead new play development and programs for emerging artists. As a freelance artist she also continues to work as an award-winning actor, writer, director and dramaturge in theatre, film and TV and teach at the post-secondary level. Recent projects include directing Pride and Prejudice at the Citadel, as well as the world premiere production of her own new play Burning Mom at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, and a staged reading at the Arcola Theatre in England last season. Burning Mom was published by Playwrights Canada Press in May of 2023. Mieko received the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award in 2023 from her Honour Selma Lakhani. Mieko lives in Edmonton with her husband Kim and her dog Nara.