Discipline Category: Live Performing Arts

One of two Wiebes featured in The Encyclopedia of Manitoba, Armin Wiebe is the author of four novels set in the fictional Mennonite community of Gutenthal: The Salvation of Yasch Siemens, Murder in Gutenthal, The Second Coming of Yeeat Shpanst, and Grandmother, Laughing.

His novel Tatsea, set in the Canadian subarctic of the 1760s, won the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and the Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction.

He has also published Armin's Shorts: Little Fictions, a selection of short stories written over more than thirty years.

Armin's stage play, The Moonlight Sonata of Beethoven Blatz, was produced by Theatre Projects Manitoba in 2011, and received enthusiastic reviews and sold out houses. A second production was mounted by Station Arts Centre in Rosthern, Saskatchewan in the summer of 2016.

His one act play, Wine and Little Breads, placed first in the Rhubarb Magazine-Winnipeg Mennonite Theatre One Act Play contest and was produced by Winnipeg Mennonite Theatre in November 2014. An expanded version of Wine and Little Breads was presented as a staged-reading at the 2018 Carol Shields Festival of New Works  and received an Honourable Mention in the 2019 Herman Voaden National Playwrighting Competition.

Wiebe's most recent play, The Recipe, premiered at Tom Hendry Warehouse Theatre in November 2024 in a co-production between Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre and Theatre Projects Manitoba.

Wiebe’s work is renowned for the musicality of its dialect and dialogue.

Armin’s readings have been enjoyed in many venues across Canada as well as CBC radio. He has shared stages with W.O. Mitchell, Carol Shields, David Bergen, Lorna Crozier, Miriam Toews, Sandra Birdsell, Di Brandt, Vicki Gabereau, Louise Penny, Rudy Wiebe and others.

Miles S. Crossman is a Brandon, Manitoba based producer, director, and writer who has spent the past several years building film production capacity in rural Canada. He financed and produced two Manitoba-made features, The Farm Hand (2022) and Homesick (2026), and co-produced Heartland Homicide, a 26-episode docuseries, alongside Winnipeg's Farpoint Films, a partnership that grew into writing and story editing credits across more than 250 hours of broadcast true-crime and documentary television. His directorial debut, The Princess & The Dragon (2026), won Best Horror Film at the Liverpool Indie Awards and Best Feature Film at the Bloody Horror International Film Festival. Crossman holds a Master of Arts in Film Studies from Staffordshire University and got his start directing short films and stage productions in Manitoba before moving into series television. He will release his first novel, The Remnant, in 2027, which has already sparked interest in a film adaptation. Miles continues to pursue opportunities that keep production dollars and crews working in rural Canada.