In Spite Productions
Formed in 2024 and based in so-called "Vancouver", BC, we're a queer, interdisciplinary arts collective that makes collaborative live performance with handmade and multimedia elements, through design-led, experimental and playful process.
The Right Thing To Be Doing
The Right Thing To Be Doing is a lecture performance, fungal-fantasy, and love story. Set an ecology-conference that keeps derailing— Finn shapeshifts between a cargo ship, a clown-academic, a mushroom & herself. Using wearable sculpture, immersive live sound, and storytelling, this solo performance invites audiences to grapple with climate doom, complicity, and interconnection (2025).
55 minutes full-length performance and 20 minute excerpt available for touring.
Photos by Chelsey Stuyt.
Upcoming
The Right Thing to Be Doing is headlining the Risk/Reward Festival of New Work in Portland, Oregon!
Dates: June 11-14th
Our Collective
In Spite Productions is an interdisciplinary queer collective composed of sound designer and musician Samira Banihashemi, lighting designer and theatre artist Alexandra Caprara, and writer, and performer Sarah K. Finn, based in so-called Vancouver, BC on the traditional, unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Founded in 2024, we met at the School for the Contemporary Arts as graduate and undergraduate students. Each working as professional artists since 2018, we have worked individually and collaboratively with internationally touring dance and theatre companies including Corpus Dance Projects (Toronto), Advanced Beginner Group (NYC), Electric Company Theatre (Vancouver), and Theatre Replacement (Vancouver). Our collaborative work as a collective on three Vancouver productions has appeared at festivals including PuSh International Performing Arts Festival Industry Series (Tara Cheyenne Performance (TCP)’s ‘Carry the One’;, IndieFest (As and When It Happens’ ‘Willilish’d’;, Expanse Festival, and the Edmonton International Fringe (Alexandra Caprara’s ‘Ultra Violets’)
Samira Banihashemi
Samira Banihashemi is an Iranian-Canadian electronics-based musician, installation artist, and sound designer. Working with found and archival sound, sampling, and modular synthesis, they craft narratives that exist in the space between vague truth and imaginative fiction. Since 2020, Samira has designed sound for numerous theatre productions, creating immersive sonic environments that deepen narrative and emotional resonance on stage. Their theatre work spans experimental and mainstream productions, reflecting a versatile approach to live performance storytelling. As an active Audio Engineer, Samira is currently the Technical Director and Stage Manager for Corpus Dance Projects’ touring show La Bulle, having toured extensively across Canada and internationally with over 100 performances in the past three years. Their work was also featured at the Prague Quadrennial 2023 as part of the Canadian National Exhibition presented by the Associated Designers of Canada.
Alexandra Caprera
Alexandra Caprara is a Canadian queer interdisciplinary artist, whose practice is grounded in performance making and design. She has worked internationally as a director, performer, and designer for lighting and video projection, and has presented her work across Canada alongside companies such as WorkMan Arts, High Performance Rodeo, Arts Club, New Works Dance, Theatre Replacement, and GoodWoman Dance. With a focus on lighting design, her research has been presented at the Prague Quadrennial “Technologies” Symposium (2024), with other select credits including lighting design for “Song from the Uproar" (City Opera Vancouver), lighting and projection design for “A Silent Howl” (Dancing on The Edge), lighting design for “The Golden Anniversaries” (Arts Club), and the direction and creation of “Ultra Violets” (re:Naissance Opera 2024). She is also the current artist in residence with Plastic Orchid Factory for their 2025/26 season. Alexandra holds an MFA in interdisciplinary arts from Simon Fraser University, and resides in Vancouver. alexandracaprara.com
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Sarah K. Finn
Sarah K. Finn (she/they) is an American multidisciplinary writer, performer and director based in so-called Vancouver, BC. She creates live performance, video and film using handmade and multimedia modalities. Working with physical theatre, puppetry, video and humor, their work explores how performance can trouble human-centric narratives; and be a means to practice mischievous relationality amid uncertainty. Finn’s performances & films have been presented in Canada, Czech Republic and Japan, and in the US, at Portland Institute of Contemporary Art (Risk/Reward Festival 2024; Headliner 2026)), and in New York, with select presentations at La MaMa ETC, Anthology Film Archives, Mabou Mines and The Brick, where they received a Brooklyn Arts Council Grant, MAP Fund Microgrant, and was a resident-artist at Mabou Mines and Object Movement Residency & Festival. Finn trained at Ecole Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq (2015-2017) and has an MFA from School for the Contemporary Arts at School for the Contemporary Arts. Finn also collaborates as a dramaturg, director, performer and designer, and has guest lectured at Simon Fraser University and Sarah Lawrence College.
Past
Projects
'Willilish'd' by As and When, a hybrid theatre and musical performance, featuring sound design, lighting design, puppetry/dramaturgy by ISP's members Samira Banihashemi, Alexandra Caprara, and Sarah K. Finn. Presented at What Lab (Feb 2026) and IndieFest (2025).
'Carry The One' a performance-lecture towards rewilding the self by Tara Cheyenne Performance, featuring sound design and dramaturgy by ISP's members Samira Banihashemi and Sarah K. Finn. Presented as part of PuSh Industry Series 2026.
'Ultra Violets' interdisciplinary dance performance by ISP Collective Member, Alexandra Caprara, featuring performance by Sarah K. Finn. Presented at Indie Fest (2024), Expanse (2026) and Ultra Festival (2026).
