Ottawa-based innovative multidisciplinary artist, Shanice Pereira works to express the complexities of personal experience and connection to community through a variety of art forms. Her work spans playwriting, directing, theatre production, photography, filmmaking, and writing poetry and prose. Influenced by her Afro-Caribbean heritage, multicultural upbringing, and queer identity, her work explores self-expression, social reflection, and the bonds of human experience through the fantastical. Shanice’s artistic style aims to find the quirky and magical in even the most mundane of moments, to create spaces to share art, and positively impact the world around her through a variety of creative avenues. Shanice has been involved in theatre in one way or another since the age of six and constantly seeks opportunities to learn, grow, and expand the bounds of the artforms she explores.
Shanice holds a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University and a range of theatre experience from four years of workshops with renowned theatre artists from Canada and the UK and active work experience in Ottawa’s theatre industry. For the past four years, she has been an active contributor to Ottawa’s theatre community, participating in numerous workshops and projects to expand her expertise and deepen her connections within the industry.
Her notable experiences include being an artist participant in the Fresh Meat 9 Professional Development Program, a playwright for the 2021 Ottawa Youth Infringement Festival, and a Directing/Playwriting mentee in the Black Theatre Workshop Artist Mentorship Program for The Coven (September 2024 – March 2025). Shanice also participated in Why Not Theatre’s Foundations of Directing Theatre Workshop with Dawn Walton OBE in December 2024.
As an artist, Shanice is deeply inspired by emotionally evocative work that address inequities and explore identity and self-discovery. She has explored these themes in her own playwriting and through projects such as production managing TACTICS productions Anansi V Gods and Shorelines (2023), acting in the workshop presentation of Brain v Groceries with Levity Theatre (2024), and most recently, serving as Artistic Director for The Addams Family Musical with Lost Baggage Musical Theatre in Fall 2024.
Shanice Pereira 