Johnny Wideman is a playwright and actor, a member of Playwrights Guild of Canada, and a recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award for his work in theatre from Conrad Grebel University College, University of Waterloo. He received an Honours Bachelor of Arts in drama from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, where he studied playwriting under Guillermo Verdecchia, and at the University of Sussex, U.K., where he focused his research on politically oriented theatre and practitioners. His screenplay GODART was awarded “Best Low-Budget Feature Film” at the Toronto Independent Film Festival and “Official Selection” at the Polish Independent Film Festival. In June of 2011, Wideman started Theatre of the Beat which has since performed his work over 220 times across the U.S. and Canada, including: This Prison Or: He Came Through the Floor, Gadfly: Sam Steiner Dodges the Draft, Forgiven/Forgotten, A Bicycle Built for Two, This Will Lead to Dancing, and Yellow Bellies. As an artist and activist, Wideman strives to use theatre to create an environment for dialogue where the audience is left feeling the need to digest together.