Kathryn Smith

Artistic Director

Kathryn has been the Artistic Director of Verb Theatre since 2022.

Outside of Verb, Kathryn has a long history of creation work with a variety of companies across Western Canada. They have worked on award winning clown, puppetry, and new Canadian works since 2012. Kathryn focuses on ecology of ensemble and high quality indie theatre.

Directing credits include: Murder In the Studio, The American/The Hitchhiker (Vertigo Theatre); inVISIBLE too, A Chitenge Story (Handsome Alice Theatre); Safe Site Sessions, Bottle Picker Monologues (Downstage Theatre); Brave Girl, Care Takers, Countries Shaped Like Stars (Lunchbox Theatre); USS Artemis (Boathaus Studios); Undressed (Alberta Theatre Projects)

Design Credits include: Million Dollar Quartet, Hit Parade (New West Theatre); Amahl & the Night Visitors (Calgary Opera); Secret Garden (mentee), Merry Wives of Windsor (Theatre Calgary); The Democratic Set (Inside Out Theatre); The F Word (Downstage Theatre).

In addition to their work at Verb, Kathryn is also a member of the Mudfoot Theatre Collective which is dedicated to creating environmentally driven folk style work. Kathryn is also an award winning singer songwriter under the name KP Smith.

Camille Pavlenko

Artistic Associate

Camille (she/her) is an award-winning playwright, actor, and theatre artist. As a writer, her previous work has won and been short-listed for awards from, amongst others, the Playwrights Guild of Canada, Theatre BC, Ottawa Little Theatre, the University of New Hampshire, and the Herman Voaden Prize.

Currently, she teaches playwriting for teens through the Student Writers Group at Alberta Theatre Projects, where she was recently the Playwright in Residence, as well as a member of the 2020-2021 playwrights unit. 

Other recent writing projects include “The Hitchhiker” (Vertigo Theatre), “Go for Gold, Audrey Pham” (Lunchbox Theatre, Alberta Theatre Projects), and “Vasilisa & Baba Yaga” (with composer KP Smith, Alberta Musical Theatre Company). Upcoming is the world premiere of her brand new adaptation of Pinocchio, “real boi” (Calgary Young People’s Theatre, Dec 2022).

Camille is the recipient of the Allied Arts Council’s Young Artist Award and is a Betty Mitchell Award nominee. See more of her work at www.camillepavlenko.com