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Peter Mannering (1925-2000) was born in Vancouver, BC. Mannering (spelling changed from Mainwaring in 1952) was an actor, director, and producer and, in the 1960s and 1970s, he was the leading theatre figure in Victoria, BC. He first became involved in theatre at North Vancouver High School and Mannering advanced his skills in the Pasadena Playhouse (Calif.) from 1945-1947. As a freelance actor and director in Canada and England from 1940s to1961, Mannering was involved in hundreds of television and radio plays, stage plays and musical comedies. He worked with the CBC, the National Film board, the BBC, ITV, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet and the Winnipeg Symphony Theatre. In Vancouver, his venues included: The Little Theatre, North Vancouver Community Players, Everyman Theatre, Theatre Under the Stars, the Canadian Players National Tour, and the Totem Theatre (Vancouver and Victoria). From 1961-1963 he was at the Manitoba Theatre Centre and Rainbow Stage in Winnipeg. In Victoria, he started the Victoria Theatre Studio as a theatre school in 1963. In 1964 the name was changed to the Bastion Theatre Studio to harmonize with the Bastion Theatre which he founded that same year. The Bastion Theatre became the presiding company for the new McPherson Theatre building which opened in 1965. He remained Artistic Director until 1971. The Bastion did not renew Mannering’s contract in 1976 and ended his Bastion Studio Theatre and Children’s Theatre that year. He returned to freelance work in 1976 as actor, director and teacher. He continued his work in the Four Seasons Musical Theatre and other Victoria and Vancouver venues.

Hugo Manning was a poet, journalist and occasional artist. He was born In London of Jewish/Polish parents and in 1943 changed his name from Lazarus Perkoff. He was a journalist in places as diverse as Vienna and Buenos Aires. Manning was in the British intelligence corps during WWII and later was an editor and writer for Reuters. In 1948 he became the poetry editor for the New Statesman. From 1968 until his death, he produced much of his poetry and literary works. He made a number of literary friends in his life including Henry Miller, Alfred Perles, Lawrence Durrell and Jorge Luis Borges.

Mr. Frederick S. Manor was a foreign correspondent (Prague) for the Times of London.

Aiyyana Maracle (1950-2016) was a transgender Haudenosaunee artist and educator, born on Six Nations territory near Grand River, Ont., to Leonard and Kitty Maracle. She was one of six children, and was assigned male at birth. After her family was evicted from the reservation—due to her father’s lack of official Indian status—they moved to Rochester, N.Y. then Buffalo, N.Y. Maracle later became estranged from her family, and spent time in Vancouver, Toronto, Chippewa territory, and Montreal. She married and had four sons before beginning her gender transition at age 40. She underwent gender reassignment surgery in Brussels in 2010, and ultimately returned to Six Nations territory with her son. She was diagnosed with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, which she treated with medication and therapy.

Maracle was a multi-disciplinary artist, whose art explored her experience as a First Nations person and created and directed performance art, theatre pieces, and art installations. Her performance art includes “Gender Möbius” at grunt gallery (1995) and an untitled piece at “LIVE at the End of the Century” festival (1999). In 1992 she began curating queer and Indigenous arts festivals, including The Queer Series/Two Spirit Festival (grunt gallery, 1993) and women @ the front 30th anniversary exhibition (Western Front, 2003). She won Canada Council’s 1997 John Hirsch Prize for “the most artistically exciting new director of promise in Canadian Theatre.” She was also a seamstress, filmmaker, and painter, and created her garments and sets for her performance work.

As writer, Maracle wrote an unpublished autobiography, Chronicle of a Transformed Woman, as well as plays, exhibition anthologies, and essays, such as “Journey in Gender” published in torquere (2001). She took her MFA at Goddard College (2003-2005). From 2002 to 2007, Maracle taught courses and delivered guest lectures at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Concordia University, and other Canadian and international universities. She returned to Six Nations territory in 2010 and from 2012, she co-facilitated Gender Journey, a peer support group in Brantford, Ont. She passed away at her home on April 24th, 2016.