{"data":{"id":"2c653a51-a1b5-4aa7-8d08-a8d59390e8a2","originKind":"SYNDICATED","title":"Shadow Theatre kicks off new AD's first season with hot play Yaga by Kat Sandler","summary":"Lana Michelle Hughes is considering having a T-shirt made, emblazoned with the number 30,708.\n\nThat’s because the figure represents the number of jobs, by her comedic calculation, that an artistic director at a small regional theatre such as Shadow has to tackle. For Hughes, the first new artistic director at Shadow in 30 years, the role includes selecting and casting four plays a season, maintaining funds for the theatre’s $480,000 annual budget, and directing two or three shows a season.\n\nWait, we’re not done. Hughes comes up with the marketing plan. She’s your email contact for ticket purchases, keeps in touch with donors and sends out invites for opening night. She also manages the theatre’s social media, which means she stops rehearsals that she’s directing to shoot video for TikTok.\n\n“I come from a long history of being a jack-of-all-trades, so I guess I’m well-suited for it,” says Hughes, the former managing director with Catalyst Theatre, where she spent 14 years before coming to Shadow as associate artistic director in 2024.\n\nStill, there are rewards. As Shadow opens its first production on Oct. 15, Hughes finds herself in the enviable position of having inadvertently programmed one of the most blistering literary properties in Canada. Yaga, by celebrated Toronto playwright Kat Sandler, kicks off just a week before Crave debuts its much-heralded TV adaptation of the award-winning supernatural-mystery-thriller starring no less than Canada’s own Hudson Williams (Heated Rivalry) and Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix franchise).\n\nThe Crave production has been picked up by numerous international distributors. All the buzz has boosted the profile of the Shadow season opener, and hopefully its ticket sales.\n\n“I feel tremendously lucky with this,” says Hughes.\n\nYaga marks a step onto the cutting edge of contemporary Canadian theatre for Shadow. Under the direction of the esteemed and recently retired John Hudson, the theatre programmed — and commissioned — a host of Canadian plays. But many were in the arguably safe territory occupied by popular and bankable local playwrights such as Neil Grahn (The Comedy Company, The Two Battles of Francis Pegahmagabow) or reliable ticket-sellers including comedies for older audiences (including Christopher Varang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike or Sexy Laundry by Michele Riml).\n\nYaga is edgy, quirky and dark.\n\n“There’s a fine line I’m trying to cultivate, where I’m trying to honour the legacy of what was programmed before and what I know our incredible and enthusiastic audiences know and love,” says Hughes. “….and then trying to find something that they’ll still love but that might be a little bit more surprising and that will hopefully inspire new and younger audience members to check out the theatre.”\n\nTo that end, Hughes has slotted three quite different plays to round out the season after Yaga. The Waltz, by Toronto playwright Marie Beath Badian, opens Jan. 20, 2027. Set on the Prairies and directed by local Filipino-Canadian theatre artist Gina Puntil, it features two young Filipino actors.\n\n“It’s a look at what it means to be a first-generation Canadian and a Filipino. It’s very ‘90s and I love that,” says Hughes. “It’s charming and will warm people up during a frigid winter.”\n\nUndressed, by Alberta playwright Louise Casemore, arrives on March 17. It’s a “gently interactive” solo show that explores what to do with a wedding dress after your wedding.\n\n“It’s universal, it doesn’t play to a particular kind of bride. It explores memory and loss and the way we build memory around milestones.”\n\nJohn Hudson returns to direct the last play of the season in April, titled The Golden Anniversaries. Written by Mark Crawford, the comedy stars Shadow stalwarts Coralie Cairns and Glenn Nelson.\n\n“It’s a really funny, charming piece about a couple who is going through a bit of a difficult time and they own a cottage on a lake that they have owned throughout their relationship.\n\n“It’s funny, fast-moving with two wonderful parts for older actors and our audience will see themselves in it.”\n\nIn order to help create programming that will attract audiences — young and old — for years to come, Hughes is soliciting funds for a new playwright development program at Shadow. She started work on the effort several years ago with Hudson to “take the good work he was doing with new programming and just formalize it.”\n\nSecuring funding for that program and everything else at Shadow (through ticket sales, corporate and private donations and public grants) is one of the most important of the 30,708 tasks on Hughes’ proposed T-shirt. She’s gearing up to take a crack at the hard nut of the Canada Council for the Arts, which funds a significant portion of the budgets of Theatre Network, Northern Light Theatre, Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre and The Citadel. Though it meets all the criteria, Shadow is one of the few theatres in town that doesn’t receive a sizeable chunk of its budget from the oversubscribed federal funder.\n\n“We are, more than most, reliant on ticket sales and on our subscribers,” says Hughes. “And yet we probably have the most affordable ticket for what you’ll see in the city. Our premium subscription for all four shows, which includes a bonus ticket to bring a friend, is $135.\n\n“We try to be as accessible as we possibly can.”\n\nRelated Jon Pardi, Alabama and Luke Bryan headline Big Valley Jamboree 2027\n\nHow Alberta-shot drama Heartland bucked the trends and lasted 20 seasons\n\nYaga, by Kat Sandler Theatre Shadow Theatre\n\nDirector Lana Michelle Hughes\n\nFeaturing Emily Howard, Maxwell Vesely and N. Girgis\n\nWhere The Varscona, 10329 83 Ave.\n\nWhen Oct. 14 to Nov. 1, 2026\n\nTickets Starting at $26 and available at shadowtheatre.org or by calling 780-434-5564","url":"https://edmontonjournal.com/entertainment/yaga-shadow-theatre-kat-sandler","imageUrl":"https://smartcdn.gprod.postmedia.digital/edmontonjournal/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/lana-michelle-hughes-4498.ej_305396491.jpg","publishedAt":"2026-10-06T11:00:22.000Z","sourceLabel":"Edmonton Journal Music","tags":["Entertainment","Local Arts","Theatre"],"authorName":"Liane Faulder","contentHtml":"\"Lana

Lana Michelle Hughes is considering having a T-shirt made, emblazoned with the number 30,708.

That’s because the figure represents the number of jobs, by her comedic calculation, that an artistic director at a small regional theatre such as Shadow has to tackle. For Hughes, the first new artistic director at Shadow in 30 years, the role includes selecting and casting four plays a season, maintaining funds for the theatre’s $480,000 annual budget, and directing two or three shows a season.

Wait, we’re not done. Hughes comes up with the marketing plan. She’s your email contact for ticket purchases, keeps in touch with donors and sends out invites for opening night. She also manages the theatre’s social media, which means she stops rehearsals that she’s directing to shoot video for TikTok.

“I come from a long history of being a jack-of-all-trades, so I guess I’m well-suited for it,” says Hughes, the former managing director with Catalyst Theatre, where she spent 14 years before coming to Shadow as associate artistic director in 2024.

Still, there are rewards. As Shadow opens its first production on Oct. 15, Hughes finds herself in the enviable position of having inadvertently programmed one of the most blistering literary properties in Canada. Yaga, by celebrated Toronto playwright Kat Sandler, kicks off just a week before Crave debuts its much-heralded TV adaptation of the award-winning supernatural-mystery-thriller starring no less than Canada’s own Hudson Williams (Heated Rivalry) and Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix franchise).

The Crave production has been picked up by numerous international distributors. All the buzz has boosted the profile of the Shadow season opener, and hopefully its ticket sales.

“I feel tremendously lucky with this,” says Hughes.

\"

Yaga marks a step onto the cutting edge of contemporary Canadian theatre for Shadow. Under the direction of the esteemed and recently retired John Hudson, the theatre programmed — and commissioned — a host of Canadian plays. But many were in the arguably safe territory occupied by popular and bankable local playwrights such as Neil Grahn (The Comedy Company, The Two Battles of Francis Pegahmagabow) or reliable ticket-sellers including comedies for older audiences (including Christopher Varang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike or Sexy Laundry by Michele Riml).

Yaga is edgy, quirky and dark.

“There’s a fine line I’m trying to cultivate, where I’m trying to honour the legacy of what was programmed before and what I know our incredible and enthusiastic audiences know and love,” says Hughes. “….and then trying to find something that they’ll still love but that might be a little bit more surprising and that will hopefully inspire new and younger audience members to check out the theatre.”

To that end, Hughes has slotted three quite different plays to round out the season after Yaga. The Waltz, by Toronto playwright Marie Beath Badian, opens Jan. 20, 2027. Set on the Prairies and directed by local Filipino-Canadian theatre artist Gina Puntil, it features two young Filipino actors.

“It’s a look at what it means to be a first-generation Canadian and a Filipino. It’s very ‘90s and I love that,” says Hughes. “It’s charming and will warm people up during a frigid winter.”

Undressed, by Alberta playwright Louise Casemore, arrives on March 17. It’s a “gently interactive” solo show that explores what to do with a wedding dress after your wedding.

“It’s universal, it doesn’t play to a particular kind of bride. It explores memory and loss and the way we build memory around milestones.”

John Hudson returns to direct the last play of the season in April, titled The Golden Anniversaries. Written by Mark Crawford, the comedy stars Shadow stalwarts Coralie Cairns and Glenn Nelson.

“It’s a really funny, charming piece about a couple who is going through a bit of a difficult time and they own a cottage on a lake that they have owned throughout their relationship.

“It’s funny, fast-moving with two wonderful parts for older actors and our audience will see themselves in it.”

In order to help create programming that will attract audiences — young and old — for years to come, Hughes is soliciting funds for a new playwright development program at Shadow. She started work on the effort several years ago with Hudson to “take the good work he was doing with new programming and just formalize it.”

Securing funding for that program and everything else at Shadow (through ticket sales, corporate and private donations and public grants) is one of the most important of the 30,708 tasks on Hughes’ proposed T-shirt. She’s gearing up to take a crack at the hard nut of the Canada Council for the Arts, which funds a significant portion of the budgets of Theatre Network, Northern Light Theatre, Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre and The Citadel. Though it meets all the criteria, Shadow is one of the few theatres in town that doesn’t receive a sizeable chunk of its budget from the oversubscribed federal funder.

“We are, more than most, reliant on ticket sales and on our subscribers,” says Hughes. “And yet we probably have the most affordable ticket for what you’ll see in the city. Our premium subscription for all four shows, which includes a bonus ticket to bring a friend, is $135.

“We try to be as accessible as we possibly can.”

Related

Yaga, by Kat Sandler

Theatre Shadow Theatre

Director Lana Michelle Hughes

Featuring Emily Howard, Maxwell Vesely and N. Girgis

Where The Varscona, 10329 83 Ave.

When Oct. 14 to Nov. 1, 2026

Tickets Starting at $26 and available at shadowtheatre.org or by calling 780-434-5564

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