Chelsea, Alex, and Jake

Matchstick Theatre is a professional, Kjipuktuk/Halifax-based theatre company with three core members:
Managing Director Chelsea Dickie,
Financial Director Alex Mills,
and Artistic Director Jake Planinc.

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We revitalize classic Canadian plays and produce challenging contemporary theatre, striving to ignite, affect, and ultimately transform our audience with every performance.

Artistic Director   Jake Planinc

Jake (he/him) is the founding Artistic Director of Matchstick Theatre, Assistant Festival Director with the Mayworks Kjipuktuk/Halifax Festival of Working People & the Arts, Education Outreach and DramaFest Coordinator for Theatre Nova Scotia, and a part-time lecturer in Drama Studies at Mount Allison University. With Matchstick, he has directed Daniel MacIvor’s In On It, Catherine Banks’ Bitter Rose and Bone Cage, Don Hannah’s The Woodcutter, John Mighton’s The Little Years, Michael Melski’s Joyride and Henricus Gielis’ King of the Goats. In 2021, he directed Matchstick’s readings of David French’s Leaving Home and Joan MacLeod’s Toronto, Mississippi. In 2022, he directed a site-specific production of Annie Baker’s play The Aliens behind Propeller Brewing with Theatre in Space. In 2023, he assistant directed and produced the world premiere of Catherine Banks’ Downed Hearts. Jake holds an MFA in Directing from the University of Alberta.

Managing Director   Chelsea Dickie

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Chelsea Dickie is an award-winning theatre maker rooted in community and education in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. She is committed to engaging and expanding connection, and in her work with the Bus Stop Theatre and 2b theatre has created intersections and collaborations between artists of all stripes. This passion extends to emerging generations of creators, through her years as a high school teacher and the past coordinator of DramaFest, Nova Scotia’s annual festival for high school theatre students. Chelsea is a dependable and supportive mentor, consistently fostering young talent into the city’s professional scene.

In 2017, Chelsea helped found Matchstick Theatre, which since then has staged over 10 classic Canadian plays and contemporary theatre productions, and collaborated with over 55 local performance artists in their work. When not independently producing shows, Chelsea is a go-to stage manager in town and has worked with some of Halifax’s leading companies, including Neptune, 2b, Nestuita’si Storytelling, and The Villains Theatre.

Financial Director    Alex Mills

Alex Mills (he/him) is an indie theatre producer, musician, and treasurer working in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting from Dalhousie, and obtained his Chartered Professional Accountant designation in 2021. Alex uses his financial acumen to serve on a number of arts organizations’ board of directors. He is proud to sit as the current Treasurer for Theatre Nova Scotia, the Halifax Fringe Festival, and Zuppa Theatre, and he was previously the Treasurer of the Bus Stop Theatre Co-op during their recent capital campaign to purchase their building in 2020. He was incredibly grateful when his work with all of these vital organizations earned him the Outstanding Volunteer award at the 2019 Nova Scotia Merritt Awards.

Alex is one of the founding members and the Financial Director of Matchstick Theatre, and he has produced all of their shows to date, including: In On It, Bitter Rose and Bone Cage in 2017; Peter Fechter: 59 Minutes, The Woodcutter, and The Little Years in 2018; Joyride and King of the Goats in 2019; and their series ‘Footnotes’ an Evening of 3 Short Plays by Hannah Moscovitch (Essay, USSR, and Mexico City) in September 2021. Musically, Alex has played in pit bands for various theatrical productions such as Spring Awakening and Godspell, and he also plays bass guitar for a collection of local rock and dance bands. Including his funk cover band Elektrik Boogaloo from 2013-2019, the Fleetwood Mac tribute band The Profit Shares in 2018, and now currently plays with Dolly and the Deadlines, a drag rock cover band, playing in venues all over Kjipuktuk.

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