In the daytime, you can catch Maddie creating and shaping sound in iconic theatres across the country – from composing original music in the earliest stages of new work development, to tuning systems with live musicians and mid-sized casts.
Her composition work takes herself and listeners across the bounds of genre and form. Her hands are dirty with the creation of new performance work, such as Noche Buena with Jennifer Villaverde — a Filipino-Canadian Christmas musical, and Love You Wrong Time with Deanna H. Choi — a yellow fever cabaret.
After the sun goes down, she moonlights as half of xLq – a queer pop performance duo who tours across the country with their daring, interactive theatre… and bizarre, grungy drag.
Find her at @xLqpopart
Share a time that you had to deal with racism in the course of your career;
A singer in a choir that I was directing pointed to a large tree and we were admiring it together. Then she said: “It’s big enough to hang Viet Cong’s from.”
Share something that you are proud of achieving as an Asian Canadian working in professional performing arts;
Belting a song I wrote about queer Asian love alongside my dear friend Deanna Choi.
What does it mean to you to be an Asian-Canadian working in the performing arts?
Speaking in Tagalog and having the opportunity corrected and humbled by other Filipin artists. Summertime Korean barbecue in between rehearsals. Swapping stories about Asian parents and finding the bravery to invite mine to the theatre.
