Farewell to our outgoing Associate Artistic Director, liza paul
May 14, 2026
“hello friends. there is some big news in this message and i have big feelings about it so i’m going to leave it to my friend Aislinn to share the details. i will have more to say later, but the things i want you to hold while you read are as follows: i have nothing but love for The Theatre Centre and the people who make it what it is; i wish all my Theatre Centre friends the best as they navigate this very challenging time in the organization’s history; and you will hear more from me soon.”
— liza paul, outgoing Associate Artistic Director
From top r to bottom l: Comedy is Art 2025 (Made You Laugh), Comedy is Art 2023 (Opening night), with publicist Katie Saunoris, Residency Artist Nehal El-Hadi, Gregory Prest, and Comedy is Art 2021 with Audrey Kwan
A message from the Artistic Director
Nine years ago, we were looking for a new café/bar curator & manager for a maternity leave position. We’d done our due diligence and posted the role publicly, shared widely, and had received a number of solid applications. I’m not sure I’m supposed to say this, but I will: there was something missing from each one. That special something that would tell us we’d found our unicorn for one of the most integral roles in our organization… the person who would be most front and centre with our audiences, guests, and neighbours on a daily basis who could personify our goals and values of sharing space, of welcome and generosity, of prioritizing our role as host.
Franco Boni and I had been talking through some names, and our pal Ravi Jain mentioned one liza paul. I’d met liza through an event she and her creative partner bahia watson had held at The Theatre Centre in 2014… an event so lively and boisterous that we had people coming in off the streets to ask, “what’s going on in here?” and “can we join in?” (the answers were “a bashment”, and “yes”.)
liza and I got in touch with one another and I asked her why she hadn’t applied for the role, and she may or may not have said something along the lines of, “I don’t have any of the necessary qualifications you listed.” Okay, fair enough. So I said to her her, “Let’s put that aside for the moment, and can you send me some words about what you *would* do with the café/bar if you *were* to become its curator & manager?”
The next day I received what I can only describe as a hosting manifesto in 800 words. I was hooked, and we had found our unicorn. I remember reading sections out loud to Franco in the office, and we got so excited. A favourite section:
“as i said to you on the phone, i don’t really know the first thing about the ins and outs of cafe management. but i do know people and vibes and taking care of things. and i love to make people feel good.”
2018 Community Meal
The ins and outs of café management can be learned. The ability to make people feel immediately welcomed and wanted is innate. And so liza paul officially became our café/bar curator & manager, and less officially, our director of vibes. The role became permanent, the café/bar was thriving, late night comedy events were being programmed and shared with delighted audiences, and in 2019 when we had a last minute cancellation in the Franco Boni Theatre, I asked her if she wanted to program a festival. Comedy is Art was born.
And then came the pandemic.
So in 2020, while we were *not* operating a café/bar, we created the brand new role of Associate Artistic Director for liza. The role hadn’t existed in the past, but liza’s contribution to the organization and its culture were unmistakable, and I knew there was more we could do together. She joined me in assessing over 100 Residency applications that year and choosing new artists, and she played a crucial role in the organizational adaptive change work that we were doing with the Metcalf Foundation… work that continues to resonate throughout the many branches of our activities.
Over the years liza and I have gotten to work closely together, collaborating on a great many things, not the least of which was the redesign of our café/bar as we planned our re-opening for early 2023.
liza and I often joke about how very different we are… she’s all colour and sunshine, and I’m wearing black and sun-avoidant. Our aesthetics could not be more different. I can tell you most sincerely: this is why we’ve been such a great team. While there is very little overlap in the great venn diagram that is liza & Aislinn… when we do find that overlap, we are correct. You can fight us on this, but you won’t win.
liza and I visited an incredible number of showrooms & warehouses as we reimagined our new bar, each of us not-so-secretly looking at items in stark contrast to what the other was looking for. While searching for our new bartop, neither of us were particularly enamoured with the other’s picks. And then we saw this beautiful slab of pink quartzite. We looked at each other and said “gorgeous… but not what we’re looking for”, and we went on our way. Well apparently we both spent that evening thinking about that slab of rock, because the next day we saw each other and both said “pinky? … pinky!”
Over the last few years we’ve obviously programmed artists and events that were either pure liza, or pure Aislinn, but I think some of the very best things we’ve achieved as partners in crime are those times we found our venn diagram intersection, or “pinky” if you will.
And I’ve been so thrilled over the years to be witness to liza’s many accomplishments and successes. She’s an incredible force. She has mentored artists in our Residency program, curated hugely successful shows in the building, and in 2024, as director of vibes, she led the way on what is undoubtedly the best party we’ve ever hosted, in celebration of 10 years in our forever home.
“Pinky” bartop at the café reopening party, photo by Kyle Purcell
But let’s talk Comedy is Art for a second. Starting from “hey liza, wanna program a festival?” to:
- Six years (about to be seven) of this little festival that could
- Welcoming emerging talents and established darlings of the scene
- Creating hundreds of opportunities for comedians, designers, and arts workers involved in the festival (not to mention the musicians, visual artists, and other creators for whom liza has created opportunities at The Theatre Centre)
- Bringing together thousands of community members to laugh and experience joy together as an audience
- Advocating for comedy as an artform by attracting the attention of multiple news sources — generating headlines, radio interviews, and feature articles
- Securing multi-year support from Kingfisher Foundation, building partnerships with Lost Craft and MAC Cosmetics, and supporting successful applications for public funding beyond operating.
- Initiating conversations with funders who now tell us they’re internally having bigger sectoral conversations about the role of comedy & comedians in the arts
- Artists telling us this festival is the highlight of their year (“for a woman of colour, this is the highest dignity festival” – 2024 Comedian)
- And broadly, creating a beautiful, professional space for Canadian comedy (primarily women, female-identifying, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ artists) that honours both its artists and audiences – and has impeccable lighting, cocktails, and vibes.
Comedy is Art is a gamechanger. liza paul is its leader.
Photo by Jae Yang
Last year liza and I had a difficult conversation about the challenging situation we were having financially as an organization.
Like others, we’ve been dealing with significantly increased costs, and no additional money from the funders. This isn’t new for The Theatre Centre, particularly as an organization that continues to be funded provincially and federally as though we are still operating out of the basement of the Great Hall. There has been no significant adjustment to reflect the transformation of this organization since 2014.
Our Managing Director Audrey and I were determined to find a way to balance the needs of the organization with maintaining a role for one of its most beloved team members. The new job description would be a challenge but we were going to make it work.
[note from liza: i understood why the restructure happened in 2025, and i understood that even though the way my job had changed did not play to my strengths, aislinn and audrey were doing what they could to keep me employed. but i will not lie: the responsibilities that landed on my plate in 2025 were of the type that drained the light from my eyes. everyone has something (some things) that makes them glaze over. budgets and contracting are some of mine and they were now firmly in my job description. i can do them, but they are mostly vibeless and i do not love them.]
This year, however, we came to the miserable conclusion that even with the changes we’d made, we could no longer sustain the Associate Artistic Director position (in addition to a number of other big changes we’d need to address). We would need to restructure ourselves into a leaner team, more like the one we had before the pandemic, and before the COVID emergency funds that finally had us feeling we were being funded at a level closer to our venued peers.
This has been, as I said to begin, one of the most difficult decisions we’ve ever had to make, to communicate, to share, and 100% the most difficult time of transition I’ve experienced. But this message is not about that. It’s about celebrating a beautiful human who means so much to so many of us.
Community BBQ 2024, photo by Cassandra Popescu
I want everyone to know how incredible liza is, to shout her accomplishments from the rooftops, to celebrate her wins together as a community, and to tell you that our work together is not done!
liza will continue to program Comedy is Art, and we will continue to find new and different ways of working together. Her programmatic influence is vital, as is her impact on our organization as a whole.
Yesterday we celebrated liza as a team, but as soon as we find a suitable date in the calendar, we’ll throw a proper bashment, one befitting our director of vibes, and you’ll all be invited, so please stay tuned. I have no doubts that we’ll be once again drawing people in from the street.
In the meantime, liza will be focusing on her artistic pursuits, so if you are looking for a writer, or a comic, or are in need of a director of vibes for events of your own, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
And if you aren’t in need of her services but you do want to do something to celebrate her contributions, the one thing I would ask of you all would be to donate to Comedy is Art to help us resource liza and this next edition in October 2026.
Last note from liza
Selfie on liza’s last day
i have said it before and i will say it again: working here has been one of the great privileges of my life. i have had the opportunity to support so much art and community and build so many lasting relationships and i will never, ever take that for granted. i have been welcomed and seen for exactly who i am (deep and abiding technological inabilities and all – if you know, you know). it is rare to work anywhere that centres its team’s humanity and allows its members to bring their full selves to the table, and i want to credit aislinn with creating and upholding this culture.
i am grateful to have worked so closely with the best team and the best partner in crime a girl could ask for and to have had the chance to play a part in making the theatre centre what it is today (and to make sure that there is always some j. wray and nephew overproof white rum stocked at the bar).
sending big big love to everyone who has been a part of this journey with me. i will see you around.
xox
liza