Fight With a Stick Performance is a transdisciplinary company of artists and associates with an interest in space, perception, and in collaborating with other-than-human materialities. The company is led by Artistic Director Alex Lazaridis and features the work of many of Vancouver’s most innovative performing artists, installation and video artists, and sound and light creators. We are privileged to perform for a curious and adventurous public. We promote and embody inclusivity and deeply consider our relationship to the territories we share with Indigenous nations.
Fight With a Stick Performance was formerly known as Leaky Heaven Theatre. It was incorporated in 2000. The company was run by Steven Hill from 2000 to 2014. From 2014 to 2018 the company was co-directed by Alex Lazaridis and Hill. In 2019 Hill left to form a new company under the old name Leaky Heaven. Lazaridis has been sole artistic director of Fight With a Stick from 2019 to the present. As co-director, and then sole director, Lazaridis has moved the company to a less hierarchical model and deepend the transdisciplinary collaborative nature of the work, featuring projects with visual artist, video artists, installation artists, dance artists and animators. During his tenure the company has also become committed to learning to collaborate more consciously with the other-than-human world around us.
about
new associate artists
flory huang
Flory Huang is a designer and creator of Studio Protea. Traditionally trained in drawing and oil painting in childhood, she completed her post-secondary education at Simon Fraser University’s SIAT (School of Interactive Arts & Technology), graduating with a user-centric design major and communications minor. Her 10+ year career has spanned technology, parks and recreation, health and wellness and holistic healthcare industries through different organizational sizes and freelancing in both production and strategic roles.
shehzar abro
Shehzar Abro is a Pakistani painter and new-media artist based in Vancouver and Karachi. His work employs painting, animation, film, and design to create surreal 2D artworks and 3D virtual spaces to address issues of representation, graffiti, and building communities.
In his curatorial practice, he mixes digital and physical realities to enhance exhibition experiences through immersion and interactivity. Shehzar is also interested in the manipulation of the Aura of an artwork across digital, traditional, and hybrid media.
associate artists
Delia Brett - Choreographer, performer, contemporary dancer
Hayley Gawthrop - Performer, contemporary dancer
Logan Hallwas - Performer, actor
Hin Hilary Leung - Performer, actor
Parjad Sharifi - Light and projection design
Sean Marshall Jr. - Performer, actor
James Maxwell - Sound design and composition
Makailla Pallyaguru - Performer, actor
Diego Romero - Performer, contemporary dancer
Nancy Tam - Sound design and composition, performer
Paula Viitanen - Technical direction, set design
Jay White - Visual art design
company history
We acknowledge the financial assistance of the province of British Columbia.
The Canada Council for the Arts.
City of Vancouver, Department of Cultural Affairs.
Metro Vancouver.
The BC Arts Council.
The Hamber Foundation.