“Stories are the foundation of everything, including what we think is possible for ourselves and our planet. I aim to unmask the stories that keep us small and create new ones to call us into a different future”
BRIEF BIO:
Sunny's inventive and award-winning theatre works have been presented in over 60 cities across the world and translated into 6 languages. His wide range of audiences have spanned international arts festivals goers, queers in underground warehouses and seniors in regional theatres. As a prominent theatre leader, Sunny was selected to write the 2019 World Theatre Day message for Canada. He was awarded the inaugural Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize 2019 for having a significant impact on performing arts in Ontario, a national Canadian Tom Hendry award in 2022 (The Chris Tolley & Dharini Woollcombe Comedy Award), and a national PACT Award in 2024 (The Green Award).
Sunny has held Fellowships and residencies with Yaddo, Ucross, Djerassi, the Stratford Festival, Why Not Theatre, the National Arts Centre, The Arctic Circle onboard a tall ship in the high arctic, and many others.
This year, the live production of CHILD-ish premiered with Pacific Theatre (Vancouver) to critical acclaim. The previous digital adaptation was presented by some of Canada's most prominent theatres including Soulpepper, Stratford Festival, Oakville Center for the Arts, the Shadbolt, and Prairie Theatre Exchange. The National Arts Center was the promotional partner for the web series adaptation, viewed over 240,000 times.
In 2023, Sunny launched his theatrical podcast, CLIMATE CHANGE AND OTHER SMALL TALK, for which he brought together over 100 artists in 9 cities across the world to create audio dramas. The work won Best Comedy Podcast of the Year with the American Writing Awards, two Signal Awards and PACT's Green Award.
In 2022, his comedy, EVERY LITTLE NOOKIE, premiered at the Stratford Festival, Canada’s largest theatre. He won a national Canadian Tom Hendry comedy playwriting award for it.
Downstage Theatre premiered his comedy, MEN EXPRESS THEIR FEELINGS, in 2020. It was described by the Calgary Herald as “an instant Canadian classic”. He adapted it into a 3-episode audio series in 2021 and it had a second production in 2022 with Zee Zee Theatre in Vancouver, and a third production in Saskatoon and Regina with 25th Street Theatre in 2024.
Prior to this, Sunny wrote and performed in numerous one person shows, which toured across the world.
Sunny is also a proud trans artist.
MORE ABOUT SUNNY
Sunny had an unconventional pathway into theatre, developing a unique approach by using skills learnt from a lifetime of defying conventions. At the time he was beginning his theatre practice, there was little place for trans people in normatively gendered theatre training, so he taught himself through making theatre, then making more – initially putting on shows in living rooms, backyards and warehouses. To afford the rent while he was establishing his practice, at one point he lived in a bathroom with a mattress on top of the bath-tub, careful not to bump the taps!
Later he brought his work and audiences into mainstream spaces, paving the way for other trans voices. Even after he could access cultural institutions, frequently he still chose to take theatre to the people: touring with lighting equipment to rural town halls, youth centres and the like.
He recently completed 3 years of Canada Council multi-project funding – the first individual artist to receive this grant, previously only awarded to companies.
Sunny has over 20 years of producing experience in the arts. He was also the Director of the Emerging Creators Unit from 2015-2018 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre – the world's largest and longest running queer theatre.
Born and grown in Australia on Jaggera and Turrabul land, Sunny moved to Tkaronto (Toronto) in 2011. He currently lives between Los Angeles, New York and Toronto.
Photos: Luis Mora. Thanks to the Metcalf Foundation.
