Indigenous Artist

Jessica Carmichael is an artist of mixed Abenaki and European heritage. She is a member of Odanak First Nation. She specializes in directing, dramaturgy, acting and creation. In her primary discipline as a director she has worked recently with such companies as Native Earth Performing Arts and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (There is Violence There is Righteous Violence and There is Death, or, The Born-Again Crow, 2025); Canadian Stage (Hamlet, 2024); The Shaw Festival (The Clearing 2023); the National Theatre School of Canada (Middletown, 2023); Concordia University (Grief, 2023); Native Earth, Nightwood Theatre, New Harlem Productions (Embodying Power and Place- 4 short audio works, 2022); The Stratford Festival of Canada (The Rez Sisters, 2021); as well as three years with Carousel Players as their Artistic Director. Jessica is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada (Acting), the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art/Kings College London (MA Text & Performance Studies), the University of Alberta (MFA Directing) and studied with the Stratford Festival’s Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction (2014, 2016). Jessica is a tenured associate professor in the Theatre Department of Concordia University in Tiohtià:ke/Molian/Montréal where she lives with her daughter.

INDIGENOUS ANCESTRY

First Nations

SELF-IDENTIFICATION

Mixed Abenaki and European Heritage. Jessica is a member of Odanak First Nation.