Claren Grosz is the chic-est multidisciplinary artist I know. And yes, I’m biased! The first thing that comes to mind is Claren’s incredible taste, from incredibly fun outfits to her physical and visually striking theatre, making practice. Claren is the perfect blend of right brain and left brain. She’s a math genius, which is why she’s such an incredible producer. This much talent should be illegal because she’s also a visual artist, y’all! And a poet!!!! And now she’s a film director! She graduated from theatre school, and while all of us were having an existential crisis entering this industry, she said nope, that menty b is a waste of my time, so she created Pencil Kit Productions and became unstoppable! What I admire most about Claren is that in whatever role she has in a project, her main focus is that artists feel supported so that their best work can blossom. She also rivals Marie Kondo in her ability to help you clean out your closet, and the best person to help you pick an outfit for any occasion.
If you’d like to learn more about Claren’s work, including how she wrote, performed and co-directed I love the smell of gasoline (Expanse Festival 2025, PKP/Nightwood Theatre 2023, RUTAS Festival 2022) and produced the sold-out run of WHITE MUSCLE DADDY (PKP/Buddies in Bad Times), then you can go to pencilkitproductions.com.
-Written by Margarita Valderrama
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What ‘hood are you in?
I recently departed Dovercourt Park for Regent Park, trading in my sweet front porch, beloved garden and my favourite tennis courts for a 16th-floor condo amidst many other condos. It was a difficult move, but what I will say is that I’m a ten-minute walk or less from every East-West streetcar line and that is pretty incredible.
What do you do?
I’m blessed to be fully self-employed. I run a theatre company, Pencil Kit Productions, through which I create, direct and produce new plays and films and host events. I also work as a math tutor. I also help Factory Theatre out with their marketing. When I’m not working, I’m coveting things on Pinterest, playing tennis, drawing, reading, and blundering my way toward learning French.
What are you currently working on?
I’m currently in rehearsals, directing Reina alongside creator Augusto Bitter at Buddies in Bad Times (May 21-31!). A movement-centric hybrid between theatre, dance, and performance art that resists categorization, the project envisions the many lives of the anonymous woman depicted on a bag of Harina P.A.N. corn flour. It invokes and celebrates femininity through a collection of poems, sculptures, and choreographies in conversation with music by Y Josephine.
Where can we find your work?
In addition to catching Reina on stage this May, you can also catch the premiere of my directorial film debut Cat Sitters at Inside Out Film Festival on Thursday, May 29 at 7 PM as part of the Local Heroes shorts program! Cat Sitters is a short film written by Margarita Valderrama in collaboration with Liz Der. Margarita is the one who wrote my bio, which I think gives you a sense of how much fun her brain is. The short comedy-horror follows a group of friends who are cat-sitting at a mysterious and reclusive rich lady’s home when a sudden power outage and the nagging sensation that they might not be alone in the house threaten to totally kill the vibe. It was an absolute pleasure to shoot, and I’m SO excited to finally get to share it with people. And I can’t wait to figure out what I’m wearing to the screening.
