ABOUT US

DIA FRID, Artistic Director

She was born in Mumbai , India and grew up in Calcutta, and came to Canada to study with Anton Turzanski , a student of Max Reinhardt’s. While her first love is still acting , she has spent most of her career in the more executive capacities of producer and director.

For seven years, her company, Fanfare Productions in Oakville, ran the successful seasonal musical, MR SCROOGE (cast alumni of which are members of the Shaw and Stratford ensembles). In addition to directing these adaptations, Ms. Frid has directed over 100 plays, including such classics as William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Jean Anouilh’s The Lark, Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, Brian Friel’s Faith Healer and the controversial My Name is Rachel Corrie.

Dia has been acting since the age of 10, and she has had the opportunity and the privilege of working with some exceptional artists, to whom she is greatly indebted. She is grateful to have received several awards in this capacity and even some good reviews (!)

Her 25 years of personal coaching and teaching include stints at the University of Toronto’s Erindale campus, Sheridan University, Ryerson University, Canadian Indigenous Theatre, Mayfield School of the Arts, The Creative Theatre Company, First Light Theatre Company .as well as various schools in Oakville, Burlington and Hamilton. She currently teaches drama at the Grace Academy of Performing Arts in Oakville.

Her favourite production remains the original FridKIDS: Natasha and Julian.

Brian Hill, Artistic Producer

Brian works globally as a quality system consultant helping pharmaceutical manufacturing sites so that they can deliver quality products to their customers on time. The beauty of this kind of work is that it has given him the opportunity to experience various cultures as he worked alongside clients in countries such as France, Germany, the Netherlands, China and Japan .

Brian originally comes from the North East of England and now lives in Central Florida along with his wife, a pack of Irish Wolfhounds, horses and a very noisy moluccan cockatoo. Prior to that he lived for many years in Canada and Puerto Rico.

It was while he was living in Canada that he became fully immersed in all aspects of theatre. For several years he was a board member for Dundas Little Theatre (DLT) and The Players’ Guild of Hamilton. It was during this time Brian first met Dia. Both found that they were aligned in their approach and vision to the artistic creativity process. Particularly on those productions where Dia created and directed some of her most visionary productions and Brian acted as artistic producer.

But as happens in life, Brian had a career change which moved him away from Canada to explore new ventures in Puerto Rico. 10 years later he found himself living in Florida.

It was during the Covid pandemic pause, that after many years Brian and Dia reconnected. Despite the distance between them they found a way they could work together again, as a team, exploring new possibilities in presenting theatre. Brian is overjoyed to take on the role of Artistic Producer at FridKIDS.