Lunchbox Theatre

Artistic Associate 2025-26: Cayley Wreggitt

Supported by the CADA Personal Development Grant

Cayley Wreggitt (she/her) is a playwright and director based in Mohkinstsis (Calgary, Alberta.) She had her professional debut with the musical Home for the Holidays, which premiered in 2022 at Lunchbox Theatre, and received the Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical. She is delighted to be working with Lunchbox again this season in the role of Artistic Associate! Cayley is also a director. Most recently, she was the Assistant Director to Valerie Planche on the show Deadly Murder at Vertigo Theatre. Other selected directing credits include; (Taylor’s Version) DIY Theatre/ Baker Miller Pink, The 2022/2023 Betty Mitchell Awards, A Midsummer Night’s Dream Bard in the Yard with The Shakespeare Company.  Cayley is also a creative partner of Baker Miller Pink Art, an interdisciplinary arts collective. She is grateful to the many mentors she has been fortunate to learn from throughout her career, and is thrilled to continue learning at Lunchbox Theatre this season.

Lunchbox Theatre’s Brown Bag Residency Program

This unpaid residency with Lunchbox Theatre offers in-kind support to Calgary-based independent artist collectives with a work currently in progress. Like a brown paper lunch bag, the residency is a light and flexible container in which to develop new works.

Within the theatre community, Lunchbox Theatre has long been recognized as a springboard. We are proud to be a company that frequently works with emerging artists and provides them with opportunities to showcase themselves to the greater community and larger companies. For the 2025-26 Season, we are happy to formalize the various supports we often offer to emerging and indie artists with our new Brown Bag Residency.

ELIGIBILITY

• Calgary locals only

• All collaborating artists must be at least 18 years old and not currently a student enrolled in post-secondary education

• Theatre-makers creating work for public performance

Brown Bag Residents 2025-26

Incendiary Festival - Jack Orion and Rebecca Orion

Incendiary Festival focuses on building community within Calgary’s theatre scene. For six years we have worked with new and emerging artists to create innovative, site specific, immersive theatre that meets audiences exactly where they are. Headed up by Jack and Rebecca Orion, Incendiary Festival has had the honour to work with folks on four “mainstage” productions every year, along with our fledgling playwrights initiative which platformed 11 different writers from across Alberta. We work extensively with new plays, and find stories that get to the heart of what our community needs.

Website: Incendiary Festival - www.incendiaryfestival.com

Instagram: @incendiary_festival  (if you need our personal socials: @jack_g_orion @orions_beck) https://www.instagram.com/incendiary_festival/

Facebook: Facebook https://www.facebook.com/incendiaryFestival/

Reckless Daughter Creative - Madeleine Taylor-Gregg and Zoë Arthur

Reckless Daughter Creative creates courageous spaces for FLINTA+ (Femme, Lesbian, Intersex, Nonbinary, Trans, Agender +) & sapphic voices, and cultivates community through storytelling.

From starting out making plays in each other’s living rooms, Reckless Daughter has centered the story-making process in connecting to each other.

We hope to create a world in which queer art can move, exist, and inspire with reckless abandon.

Instagram - @recklessdaughtercreative

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/recklessdaughtercreative/

Website - https://www.recklessdaughtercreative.com/

Photo credit: Mike Tan

Roommate Theatre - Saeid Asgarian

Saeid Asgarian is a theatre director, playwright, and researcher based in Calgary, Canada. He holds a master’s degree in Theatre Studies from the University of Calgary (2024). Saeid has directed, written, and designed numerous productions across theatre, film, and performance art inside and outside of Canada. His artistic focus lies in participatory and laboratory theatre and film, exploring how art can foster dialogue, social inclusion, and community connection. He often collaborates with multicultural artists to address critical social themes, including colonization, capitalism, identity, and sustainability. Saeid currently leads Roommate Art Company, using performance as a tool for social change.

Emerging Artist Program at Lunchbox Theatre

Associate Artist Company at Lunchbox Theatre

If you're an Emerging Artist who would like to get involved with Lunchbox Theatre, please contact us to introduce yourself. Please note that our budget is limited and we are currently seeking funding to be able to provide paid opportunities to work and train at Lunchbox. Meanwhile, we are committed to mentorship and are happy to talk, even if it's simply to offer advice!

RBC Emerging Directors Program

A History of RBC Emerging Directors

From 2005 - 2019, Lunchbox Theatre was proud to offer the RBC Emerging Director Program, with the support of the RBC Foundation, nurturing the development of many talented Calgary theatre artists.

2018/2019 Season: Kathryn Smith

‘Care Takers’ by Billy Cowan

2015/2016 Season: Jenna Rodgers

'Let The Light of Day Through' by Collin Doyle

2014/2015 Season: Karen Johnson-Diamond

'Time Present' by Ted Atherton

2013/2014 Season: Jacqueline Russell

'One Good Marriage' by Sean Reycraft                                             

2012/2013 Season: Valmai Goggin

'The Lover' by Harold Pinter                                                                                                                       

2011/2012 Season: Alice Nelson

'Mockingbird Close' by Trevor Schmidt

2010/2011 Season: Anton de Groot

'Krapp's Last Tape' by Samuel Beckett

2007/2008 Season: Aaron Coates

'The Way of All Fish' by Elaine May        

2006/2007 Season: Simon Mallett

'This Is A Play' by Daniel MacIvor

2005/2006 Season: Val Planche

'The Duplex' by Yan Kolk