“Prison Dancer” is an award-winning content property that is poised to be the next “Ms. Saigon meets In the Heights."
The first-ever musical produced, created and performed by Asian Pacific Islanders (APIs), Prison Dancer tells the fictionalized story of how one of the world's first YouTube viral videos -- Thriller uploaded in 2007 -- came to be.
Featuring the most memorable and inspiring LGBTQ+ protagonist, Prison Dancer is ultimately a story of redemption and how a prisoner named Lola brings purpose and joy to a group of inmates through song and dance.
Nina Aquino, an award-winning Filipino-Canadian director and dramaturg, has tirelessly advocated for the representation and flourishing of IBPoC voices in Canadian theatre. Currently serving as the Artistic Director of English Theatre at the National Arts Centre, Aquino was the founding Artistic Director of fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company and former Artistic Director of Cahoots Theatre. She has directed world premieres and revivals at theatres across the country and has won a multitude of awards including the Ken McDougall Award, the Canada Council for the Arts John Hirsch Prize, and the Margo Bindhart and Rita Davies Cultural Leadership Award, along with a Toronto Theatre Critics Award and Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Direction for 'School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play' (Obsidian Theatre). Aquino has also won two Dora Mavor Moore Awards for 'Sultans of the Street' (Young People’s Theatre) and 'Paper Series' (Cahoots Theatre). During her tenure, Factory cemented its reputation as a national leader for the development of new work and emerged as a leading training ground for the next generation of diverse Canadian theatre creators
Episode from webseries - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgdGbzppqew
Photo taken at the 2023 World Premiere at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton