Studio 58 announces Paul Moniz de Sá as its new artistic director

The former head of Theatre, Music & Film at Arts Umbrella has worked across local stages and screens

LANGARA’S STUDIO 58 has announced one of its own alumni as its new artistic director.

Paul Moniz de Sá, who graduated from the respected theatre school almost three decades ago, will now helm his alma mater.

Moniz de Sá served for more than a dozen years as artistic director of Theatre, Music & Film at Arts Umbrella, overseeing more than 20 touring and in-house productions. He has also worked as a professional actor, director, and sound designer, performing with companies including Bard on the Beach, the National Arts Centre, the Charlottetown Festival, the Arts Club Theatre Company, and Touchstone Theatre. On screen, he has appeared in everything from The BFG and Fire Country to the Shōgun series.

Kathryn Shaw, the long-serving artistic director of Langara College’s Studio 58, retired at the end of 2020. In early 2021, Courtenay Dobbie, former head of Caravan Farm Theatre, stepped into the role, but sadly passed away in 2024 and the company has been run by interim directors ever since.

“Studio 58 shaped me as an artist and a professional,” Moniz de Sá said in today’s announcement. “It taught me not only how to act, but how to work, collaborate and hold myself to the highest standards. To return now as Artistic Director is an extraordinary honour, and I am deeply committed to supporting the next generation of theatre artists as they find their voices and their place in this industry.”

Featured

Janet Smith

Janet Smith is founding partner and editorial director of Stir. She is a Webster Award–winning arts journalist who has spent more than three decades immersed in Vancouver’s performing arts, film, and gallery scenes. She sits on the Vancouver Film Critics’ Circle.

Articles

Nuncrackers brings a zany holiday variety show to Metro Theatre, October 23 to November 14

Sequel to the beloved musical comedy Nunsense sets the sisters in a school basement recording a cable-access Christmas special

Puppet show Epidermis Circus gets weird at Surrey Arts Centre on October 2

In the SNAFU Society of Unexpected Spectacles production, Fraggle Rock puppeteer Ingrid Hansen brings a little stinker named Baby Tyler to adorably sassy life

In Job, The Cultch presents a psychological thriller for the age of social media

Playwright Max Wolf Friedlich’s award-winning drama is a tense intergenerational showdown between a millennial content moderator and her baby boomer therapist

Surrey Civic Theatres launches 2026–27 season, with entertainment for everyone

Offerings in store range from compelling plays care of the Arts Club On Tour to a relaxing matinee Coffee Concert Series

Theatre review: Human and puppet neighbours of Avenue Q take wittily raunchy view of life

With hummable songs and intricate choreography, Metro Theatre opens its season with a Sesame Street parody that delights in poking fun at the absurdity of it all

Bard on the Beach 2027 season to include a ’70s-musical Midsummer Night’s Dream and a classic Romeo and Juliet

Juliet: A Revenge Comedy, Eddie and Will, and Shakespeare’s Will to alternate on the Douglas Campbell Theatre stage

Bury the Hatchet tells the story of Lizzie Borden at the Anvil Theatre, October 17

U.K.–based Out of the Forest Theatre’s production fuses gallows humour and vaudevillian horror

Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival unveils 2026 edition, October 30 to November 7

Offerings range from Indigenous drum and dance performances to videos that spotlight the Overdose Prevention Society

Theatre reviews: LIVE IN HELL and Fashionably Late offer edgy smarts at Vancouver Fringe Festival

Two unique solo shows—one set in the underworld, the other in the dressing room—deliver witty takes on contemporary anxieties

Jordyn Wood's Vascular Necrosis opens Touchstone Theatre's 2026–27 season, October 7 to 18

Queer zombie love story explores mental illness, trauma, and choosing life in turbulent times

Playful show Secret Ingredients comes to Gateway Theatre, October 14 to 17

Keely Rois O’Brien’s intimate experimental work transforms a personal message into a subversive cake

With its technically demanding production of Heist, the Arts Club aims to wow the audience

Arun Lakra’s play is like a caper movie crossed with a whodunit, and director Andrew Kushnir says pulling it off requires the combined forces of an A team of designers and actors

Hideki Noda's Red Demon opens the Firehall Arts Centre’s 2026–27 season, October 8 to 18

Darkly funny play examines whether coexistence is possible in a society fraught with prejudice and discrimination

Chutzpah! Festival unveils 2026 programming, with actor Ari’el Stachel, comedian Jacob Samuel, dance artist Meghann Michalsky, and more

The 26th annual edition spans theatre, dance, comedy, and music from November 3 to 15

Dragons, drama, and tour-de-force monologues highlight Théâtre la Seizième’s 2026–27 season

The local French-language theatre company will present everything from a live video game to an emotionally intense two-hander based on a Virginia Woolf masterpiece

Western Gold Theatre's Have A Senior Moment Festival opens with Anniversary, September 25 to 27

A staged reading of Carol Shields and Dave Williamson‘s comedy takes a sharp look at life and love in middle-class suburbia

Theatre review: Postcards to my Younger Transexual Self captures the soft ache of reaching for somebody across distance

In playwright-performer Christina Cook’s new show, reality-bending correspondence plays out across a stage loosely divided between the three generations of women

To Love or Not to Love puts a modern spin on a medieval Persian epic, August 27 to 30

Majid Tafreshi’s play intertwines Nezami Ganjavi’s 12th-century poetry with the lives of contemporary theatre actors

At Metro Theatre, puppets navigate the realities of adulthood in Avenue Q, September 18 to October 10

Christopher King directs the Tony Award–winning musical comedy about a college grad finding his way in the world

Where the Blood Mixes, Bordertown Café, Benevolence as Firehall Arts Centre announces 2026–27 season

A new dance work by Kirsten Wicklund and Peter Smida, the world premiere of a musical, and more round out the lineup

Glitch Theatre's new podcast series Arc One debuts August 27

Short works by D/disability-identified artists offer compelling stories, from a literally spirited cabaret to the time-spanning medical office of Anton Chekhov

A History of Motown explores the soulful sounds that shaped popular music, August 19 to 29

Singer Krystle Dos Santos and her band celebrate the record label that brought us legendary performers including Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye

The Cultch says visa delays threaten The Horse of Jenin’s Canadian premiere

One-man show by Amsterdam-based Palestinian artist Alaa Shehada had already been postponed from last spring due to processing holdups

With Ionesco’s Cabaret, Rumble Theatre brings the Theatre of the Absurd into the modern age

The show, produced by Theatre Conspiracy in association with Pi Theatre, finds contemporary resonances in Eugène Ionesco’s 20th-century works

Theatre review: Gleefully chaotic Goblins dismantle Oedipus at Bard on the Beach

Wug, Kravga, and Moog deliver a take on Sophocles’ Greek tragedy that, in addition to copious amounts of crude humour, has its share of chillingly effective moments

Theatre review: A Streetcar Named Desire unsettles with mix of charm, fragility, and violence

Ensemble Theatre Company taps into the humid haze of a Tennessee Williams classic where love and self-deception mingle

Theatre review: The Little Mermaid dives into glittering storybook setting at Theatre Under the Stars

Standout performances and design bring infectious energy to Disney’s tale of love and self-discovery

Theatre review: Bard on the Beach’s adaptation of Antigone opens new paths through timeless tragedy

Bold update by Kate Besworth brings mythic figures closer to us while continuing to ask the ancient questions posed by Sophocles

Theatre review: Theatre Under the Stars’ Sister Act soars on joyous sounds and heartfelt story

Fierce company transforms characters by committing to the popular musical’s blend of disco, soul, and gospel

Anita Majumdar’s Why We Work Out is an exercise in understanding, at Indian Summer Festival

Presented by the fest and Boca del Lupo, the multifaceted one-woman show carries long-standing reflections on workout culture and the life-altering effects of a pandemic