Our Team

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Passionately pursuing her dream, Monice has performed across Canada in major festivals, with esteemed theatre companies and directors, and worked with major network television companies. Monice completed her studies from Mount Royal University in 2008 and that summer played Ariel in The Tempest in Calgary's Shakespeare in the Park. From there, she performed all across Alberta with TYA touring companies. She performed in Are We There Yet, a sexual education show for grade 9 students and Work Plays|Working it Out, two plays that deal with workplace safety and the rights of young people in the workplace. Monice has worked with Ground Zero Theatre, Sage Theatre, Downstage Theatre, Verb Theatre and Alberta Theatre Projects. She is a founding member of Western Canada's Afro-Centric theatre company Ellipsis Tree Collective, which produced the Canadian Premiere of Ruined. In 2015, Monice was accepted into the Stratford Festival's Birmingham Conservatory, a classical theatre training program. She spent 3 seasons with The Stratford Festival. Selected credits includeThe Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe; The Aeneid; School for Scandal; and Julius Caesar. She also spent a summer in Niagara-On-The-Lake at The Shaw Festival in Mae West's Sex and George Bernard Shaw's Getting Married. She also performed with Order of Canada's Seana McKenna, in Margret Atwood's (also A Companion of the Order of Canada) The Penelopiad, directed by Canadian sweetheart Megan Follows. Monice moved to Vancouver on an impulse and started working in the TV/Film industry (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3695549/). Monice would have been spending her time flying in the air and casting spells as a cast member of Harry Potter And The Cursed Child, however, she is enjoying much welcomed family time with her sister Maryke and nephew Mattius.

Based out of Vancouver, Lili works regularly as an actor, improvisor and voice artist and has performed on stage all around Canada. Some of her notable credits include Mimi/scenographer in Blind Date, Brigid Blake in The Humans at Theatre Calgary, Gracie in Gracie at ATP & Belfry and Miranda in the Tempest at Bard on the Beach. Lili’s voice can be heard in several animated shows such as Beat Bugs, Littlest Pet Shop, Rainbow Ruby, Max Steel and My Little Pony. She is the honoured recipient of the Anthony Holland Scholarship for Outstanding Ability and Dedication as well as the Betty Mitchell award for Outstanding Performance by a lead Actress in a Drama. In her spare time Lili loves to make art, play music and laugh as hard as she possibly can. 

Aidan Parker is a Vancouver-based writer, improvisor, actor, and teacher. He holds a BFA in playwriting, screenwriting, and creative non-fiction from the University of British Columbia’s Creative Writing Program. He’s performed with various shows and companies, including the Canadian Improv Games, UBC improv, and Instant Theatre. He is currently a cast member of Fistful of Kicks, an Asian Canadian improv troupe. He teaches improv to students from a variety of backgrounds aged 6-45 for many institutions, including Instant Theatre, UBC Improv, The Canadian Improv Games, the East End Boys Club and Girls Group, the Vancouver School Board, and Improvcamp. Aidan Parker is the co-founder and director of Instant Theatre’s diversity initiative Colour Commentary, which aims to bring more people of colour into the improv theatre community. He is currently lead instructor for The Arts Club Theatre Company’s devised theatre programs, where he directs and builds shows with students from equity-seeking communities in the lower mainland. Recent theatre credits include a production of Macbeth (Carnegie Centre / The Honest Fishmongers), the semi-improvised The Tragic Comedy of Macbeth (Jericho Arts Centre), and SIB CITY which he created and directed with The Arts Club Theatre Company. Recent festival credits include: the Stumptown Improv Festival in Portland, the Improvised Play Festival in Austin, the Montreal Improv Summit, and the Vancouver Improv Festival. 

Brent Hirose is an actor, writer, director, voice over artist and improvisor based in Vancouver, B.C. A graduate of the University of Winnipeg, Brent spent the first decade of his career in the prairies where he co founded Theatre by the River and the improv troupe The Horrible Friends. He has toured all across North America with his hit one-man plays including The Suckerpunch and Lost and Left Behind, before relocating to Vancouver and serving as co-artistic director of Instant Theatre from 2016-2019. As an improvisor he has performed a variety of styles, as a cast member of Shakespeare After Dark, A Fistful of Kicks and Hype! An Improvised Hip-Hopera. He has taught improv for The Young Actors Project, UBC Improv, The South Vancouver Youth Centre, Instant Theatre and now Tightrope Impro.  He is thrilled to be working with the team at Tightrope and sharing his love of narrative and character creation with new and seasoned improvisors alike!

Rina Shimomura is an improviser and educator from Tokyo, Japan. She has studied improvisation and drama education abroad, in Canada (Loose Moose Theatre and Young People’s Theatre) and the United States (BATS Improv). In Japan, She started Impro at Takao Takashi’s seminar and has learned about Keith Johnstone and Viola Spolin. She has appeared in numerous Impro shows in Japan; many formats of Keith Johnstone, the Bechdel test, and full mask theatre.

She has been working with children since graduating from Tsukuba Graduate School in Japan in 2015.  She is a specialist in children with learning disabilities and is licensed to teach English in Japan. She studied improvisation and drama education abroad, in Canada and the United States.

In 2018, she founded IMPRO KIDS TOKYO, an impro education company with a focus to help children develop both communication skills and the idea of “accepting others”.  Not only for children, but this company also empowers parents and schools. In 2021, She became a co-founder of  Fearless Inc, a company for business persons to approach the culture of business companies and the mindset of business persons.  

In 2021, she moved to Vancouver to get her project spread and bring unknown things to Japan. She loves using Simple English and body movement to inspire the players in the shows. 

Sarah Dawn Pledge is an actress, producer & instructor. She is of mixed descent born & raised in W(‘honnock)BC. She has been fortunate enough to carve a path acting and improvising for the last two decades, and is grateful to acknowledge she creates, works & plays as a guest on the traditional, ancestral & unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples–Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. She raises her hands to the stewards of these lands. She is a long-time member & former Education Director of Queerprov and a co-producer of Momentous Comedy including such improv delights as Dirty Little Secrets, ‘Random Acts of Comedy’ & ‘Puff the Magic Improv show’. She fell in love with teaching improv and has taught, facilitated & enjoyed workshops all over turtle island. She also works extensively in film & television, most recently she contributed to a series & a film slated to be released this year and is currently producing two documentaries highlighting important & necessary stories. Sarah Dawn feels very fortunate to be an artist & to spread joy and inspiration through laughter. She is grateful for everyone she has ever worked with and is thrilled to have the opportunity to create & collaborate with such talented & creative folks.

Peter is a relative newcomer to Tightrope Theatre and improv, having taken up improv in 2018 to help him deal with the cognitive impacts of Parkinson’s Disease. It’s working so far and Peter can be found supporting Improv programs focused on cognitive wellness and serving the PD community. Prior life experience includes an Economics degree from the Royal Military College, a law degree from University of Victoria and 30 years in the traces as a commercial lawyer. All quite conventional aside from a habit of tending towards the sardonic and wordplay. Peter lives in Vancouver and enjoys a broad range of outdoors activities.

Chloe Payne is an actor, comedienne, theatre creator and arts educator. As a graduate of the prestigious physical theatre school École Philippe Gaulier, she uses physical comedy, improvisation, devising along with text-based creation styles to produce theatre that is funny, relevant and poignant. She has won multiple grants and awards, including the Mark Purvis bursary for emerging physical theatre artists. She teaches physical theatre and clown for various institutions, including: the Vancouver Film School, Tightrope Theatre, Rumble Theatre, The University of Toronto, Havergal College, The Storefront Theatre, The County of Simcoe and Sweet Action Theatre Company.

www.chloealicepayne.com

Megan Dunlop is an award winning and nominated actor, writer and

improviser. Born in Toronto, she has made NYC her home for the last

decade, acting in theatre, television and films. She is currently writing a

television series with her writing partner about her Camerican adventures.

She has been a part of the renowned Dirty Little Secrets Improv NYC team

since its inception in 2015, and is taking over producing the show as it

starts up again in NYC. Megan has been playing with Tightrope Theatre

since 2021 and is thrilled to be teaching Improv for Parkinson’s alongside

the wonderful teachers and PD Troupe.  

 Rick Horner is an improviser in suburban Philadelphia. Rick founded the improv incubator, a weekly evening of improv for improvisers and actors in the area to meet up, get connected, and play. Rick is an Advisory Board member for The Collective Success Network, and on the Workshop Development Team for the Global Play Brigade. He is currently the Ensemble Director for Bright Invention and has taught many classes and workshops in and around Philadelphia. Rick studied at The Second City Training Center in Chicago and has also studied in Philly with such teachers as Keith Johnstone, Joe Bill, Ali Farahnakian, Ari Voukydis and Matt Besser of the Upright Citizens Brigade, among many others. He has studied online with David Razowsky, Michael Gellman, Deana Creiss and Liz Allen, among many others. Rick is an Army veteran who really likes Planet of the Apes.