Welfarewell marks Liza Balkan's third show with UP. She had the privilege of directing the students in last season's Crimes of the Heart and Smash in 2010. She is a Dora Award winning theatre professional who has been working variously as an actor, director, teacher, writer, dancer, librettist, choreographer and singer since 1981. Since 2001, her freelance theatre directing experience has included opera, the development of new work, musical theatre, classical and contemporary text, and productions with young artists and students at the university level. She has also assistant directed productions at the Stratford Festival, National Arts Centre, Shaw Festival and Soulpepper Theatre Company. This past Spring, she co produced and directed her documentary project Out The Window, which played to sold out houses in Toronto and which also formed the core of a Works in Progress class with the 3rd year theatre students here at UWindsor last year.