Artists

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #38 – Winners and Losers

Marcus Youssef and James Long | Playwrights

In 2011, Marcus Youssef and James Long were making a play – a Kafka-esque thing about two office workers. To warm up they played a game called ‘winners and losers’: name a person, place or thing and debated whether it’s a winner or a loser. They also made long lists of various skills or attributes (parenting, wrestling, cooking, ping pong, etc.) and debated who was better at them. They recorded and transcribed it all, and when they read it back, they realized the games were better and more dangerous than the play they were writing. Because the game was real.

Less than 5 years later, Winners and Losers has had over 100 performances in 17 cities. The play has been published by Talonbooks, filmed live and streamed online by On The Boards TV, and been seen by thousands of theatre-goers around the world. Through it all, we’ve collaborated with our good friends at Theatre Replacement. Which is ironic, in a way. It’s a show about competition and the destructive impact of capitalism and privilege on our most intimate relationships. And we created and produced in the most collaborative, mutually supportive way we can imagine. And yes, they’re still friends. Maybe it doesn’t get any more real than that.

Marcus Youssef | Performer

Marcus is a playwright, performer and educator. His fifteen or so plays include Winners and Losers, Leftovers, King Arthur’s Night, Jabber, How Has My Love Affected You?, Awkward & Embarrassing Conversations, Ali & Ali and the aXes of Evil, Everyone, Adrift, Peter Panties and Thank You for Your Labour. They have been produced at theatres and festivals across North America, Asia, and Europe, from Seattle to New York to London to Hong Kong to Reykjavik, Venice, Berlin, Frankfurt, and Vienna. He is the recipient of one Canada’s largest cultural awards, the Siminovitch Prize for Theatre, as well as the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award, Berlin’s Ikarus Prize, the Seattle Times Footlight Award, and the Alcan Performing Arts Award, among others. Marcus is currently Senior Artist at Vancouver’s Neworld Theatre, International Associate Artist at Farnham Maltings in the UK, and Playwright in Residence at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre. He teaches regularly at the National Theatre School of Canada and Studio 58.

James Long | Performer

James Long has been making new works of performance since 1995 and artistic directs Theatre Replacement with Maiko Yamamoto. T/R’s work, including shows Mine, Town Choir, Winners and Losers, WeeTube and BioBoxes: Artifacting Human Experience have been presented in close to 50 cities, festivals and independent venues across North America and Europe. Recent freelance work for James includes Morko and its partner piece Loch, created with visual artist Cindy Mochizuki; the international touring How to Disappear Completely, with The Chop Theatre; King Arthur’s Night, an experimental retelling of the King Arthur story as told by Niall McNeil and Marcus Youssef of Neworld Theatre; and an adapted screenplay of his Governor General award nominated play Winners and Losers for Canadian director Mina Shum. In addition to creating new work, James continues to write about performance and creation methodology, teach students and established artists across Canada and the US and holds a Masters of Urban Studies through Simon Fraser University. In 2019 James and Maiko Yamamoto were awarded the Siminovitch Prize in direction for their work at Theatre Replacement and as freelance directors.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #37 – Home School

Erin Shields | Playwright

Erin Shields is a Montreal-based playwright. Erin’s adaptation of Paradise Lost premiered at the Stratford Festival of Canada and won the Quebec Writers Federation Prize for Playwriting. Erin won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama in 2011 for her play If We Were Birds. Other theatre credits include Piaf/Dietrich, Mistatim, The Lady from the Sea, The Millennial Malcontent, Soliciting Temptation, and Instant.

Lucinda Davis | Performer

Lucinda Davis found her way into the profession through a weird twist of fate: timid and with virtually no acting background, she was called by mistake to audition for a leading role in a television series, and got the part. Over twenty years later, she has amassed an impressive list of credits for stage, television and film and has lent her voice to numerous cartoons and video games. She is co-founder of Metachroma Theatre, whose mandate is to normalize the presence of performers of colour on Canadian stages. She has been the proud recipient of performance awards from the Montreal English Theatre Awards (METAs), Prix Rideau Award, ACTRA Awards, and was ACTRA Montreal’s Woman of the Year in 2017. Her list of theatre credits include: Adventures of a Black Girl In Search Of God (National Arts Centre, Centaur Theatre and Black Theatre Workshop), How Black Mothers Say I Love You (Great Canadian Theatre Company), Doubt, Intimate Apparel, The 39 Steps (Centaur Theatre), Harlem Duet (Black Theatre Workshop), and random (Imago Theatre and Black Theatre Workshop).

Sarah Dodd | Performer

Sarah is an award winning, Toronto based actress. She recently received a Toronto Theatre Critics Award and a Dora Nomination for her work in Marjorie Prime at the Coal Mine Theatre. A lover of new play development, Sarah has premiered works for Daniel MacIvor, Kat Sandler, Nicolas Billon, Colleen Murphy and Erin Sheilds. She has been with the Stratford Festival for over 10 seasons, appearing in over 25 productions including the world premier of Erin Sheilds acclaimed Paradise Lost.Sarah has two Dora Awards and four nominations. Currently, due to Covid, she is homeschooling her 14 year old son.

Amelia Sargisson | Performer

Amelia loves acting and making up plays as much as she loves her 2.5 year-old niece, Dylan. Which is a lot. Like a lot a lot. Some of her favourite roles thus far include: Eve in Erin Shield’s Paradise Lost (dir. Jackie Maxwell, Stratford Festival/ Centaur Theatre); Diane Orihel in Annabel Soutar’s The Watershed/ Le Partage des eaux (dir. Chris Abraham, Crow’s Theatre/ Porte Parole); the one-woman show, My Name Is Rachel Corrie (dir. Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu, Hart House Theatre); Caliban in The Tempest/ La Tempête (dir. Paul Hopkins/ Arianna Bardesono, Repercussion Theatre); Philomela in If We Were Birds (dir. Micheline Chevrier, Imago Théâtre); and Viola/ Cordelia in Twelfth Night/ King Lear (dir. Tanja Jacobs/ Alistair Newton, Canadian Stage). She’s really honoured that the play she co-wrote with nisha ahuja called 30 People Watching, directed by Mark Cassidy, is published in ReView: an anthology of plays committed to social justice.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #36 – Blue Rare

Kat Sandler | Playwright

Kat Sandler is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, director and is the Artistic Director of Theatre Brouhaha. She has directed and produced fourteen of her original plays in the last six years. In 2018/19 Kat will have plays staged in Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary, Victoria, Vancouver and Thunder Bay. Her play Mustard won the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play (General Division), and her play Bang Bang was nominated for Outstanding New Play. She was the inaugural winner of the Austin Film Fest Award for Best Original Fiction Podcast, and her script, Rock, was chosen for the inaugural eOne/CFC Adaptation Lab. Recently Kat began writing for film and television. She wrote for the second season of Kim’s Convenience, is developing a handful of features and has an original show in development with eOne and an adaptation in development with Shaftesbury.

Karen Robinson | Performer

Karen Robinson is a multi award winning and nominated stage and screen performer, well known for her role “Ronnie Lee” in the smash hit comedy series Schitt’s Creek. Karen will be seen next recurring in the upcoming Netflix series Tiny Pretty Things. Other recent career highlights include: Frankie Drake (CBC), Hallmark’s Morning Show Mysteries, and her 2019 Canadian Screen Award winning performance in Mary Kills People (Lifetime/Global).

Madison Walsh | Performer

Proudly of mixed, non-status, Mi’kmaq/Euro heritage, Madison Walsh is a multi-disciplinary actress and writer based in Toronto. Film/TV: Mrs. America (FX), The Expanse (Amazon), In Contempt (BET), The Toll (feature film) Upcoming: Secret History of the Wild West (APTN), Don’t Say It’s Name (feature film/Super Channel). Theatre: Elinor in Sense and Sensibility (Citadel), Sharla in Killer Joe (Coal Mine), Hunter in A Spirit’s Face (Native Earth). Upcoming: Annie Cook in The Rez Sisters (Stratford) Training: American Academy of Dramatic Arts NY, Banff-Citadel Professional Theatre Program, Write From the Hip (Nightwood), Second City TO. Madison is an accomplished voice talent with several major corporate campaigns. She works regularly with Ubisoft and voiced Ephora in the animation Witches Aint S**t. She is currently in development with CBC for her co-created drama, Something Undone, and is writing a feature film for George Brown College.

Michael Musi | Performer

Michael Musi is an award-winning writer, producer and actor best known for playing Terence on Kim’s Convenience. Michael has appeared in four of Kat Sandler’s plays; Retreat, Liver, Late Night and The Coalition. He has written and produced three original plays in NYC and Toronto. Michael has been a producer and story editor on multiple films which have played at festivals around North America including SXSW, Cinequest, Just For Laughs, Fantasia and Toronto Shorts. He’s currently in development with CBC on his psychological thriller series Something Undone.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #35 – Saving Grace

Rosamund Small | Playwright

Rosamund Small is the playwright of Sisters (Soulpepper 2018), and the Outside the March shows TomorrowLove™ (CBC’s top ten cultural events of 2016), and Vitals (Dora Awards Outstanding New Play/Outstanding Production 2014). She has written in many forms, and loves to experiment with dramatic fiction, verbatim, immersive/site-specific, solo, and anything in between. She collaborates on dance-narrative works with choreographer Robert Binet (Orpheus Becomes Eurydice with the Banff Centre and The National Ballet, and Terra Incognita with Wild Space Ballet). Rosamund is a resident playwright with Outside the March, and a member of the Soulpepper Academy, as well as the Story Co-ordinator of Workin’ Moms Season 3 on CBC.

Nicolas Billon | Playwright

Nic writes for theatre, television, and film. His work has been produced around the world. Nic adapted his first play, The Elephant Song, into a feature film starring Xavier Dolan, Bruce Greenwood, and Catherine Keener. His latest, Butcher, was mounted across Canada and is in development as a feature film. A graduate of the CFC’s Prime Time TV program, Nic wrote for CBC’s WWII spy series X Company and on the reboot of Street Legal. Nic’s work has garnered over a dozen awards, including a Governor-General’s Award for Drama, a Canadian Screen Award, and a Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Award.

Katherine Cullen | Performer

Katherine is an actor and playwright based in Toronto and a founding member of Outside The March, an award winning site-specific theatre company. Recent Theatre credits include: TomorrowLove, Vitals (OtM, Dora Nomination- Outstanding Performance) Mr. Marmalade (OtM- Dora Outstanding Production Winner), The Nether (The Coal Mine Theatre, Dora Nomination for Outstanding Ensemble). Katherine debuted her show Stupidhead! as a part of Theatre Passe Muraille’s 2017 Season. The show earned her and co-creator Britta Johnson a Dora Award Nomination for Outstanding New Play.

Christine Horne | Performer

Christine’s stage credits include Iceland (WhyNot Theatre), The Road to Paradise (Human Cargo/Crow’s), Tom At The Farm (Buddies), The Seagull (Crow’s), Belleville (Company Theatre), Farther West (Soulpepper), Between the Sheets (Nightwood), The Great Gatsby (The Grand), Andromache (Necessary Angel), Romeo and Juliet (Canadian Stage), The Turn of the Screw (DVxT), Miss Julie: Sheh’mah (KICK Theatre), Twelfth Night (Resurgence), Bluebeard (Toronto Fringe), and Gorey Story (Thistle Project). Film and TV credits include Hyena Road, The Captive, Stories We Tell, Sex After Kids, Tru Love, Entangled, We Wanted More, The Stone Angel, Othello, Lost Girl, Murdoch Mysteries, Saving Hope, Remedy, Republic of Doyle, Rookie Blue, King, and Played. Christine has been nominated for three Dora Awards (winning in 2010 for The Turn of the Screw) and two ACTRA Awards. She recently won a Canadian Screen Award for her work on Remedy.

Keith Barker | Performer

Keith Barker is an Algonquin Métis artist from Northwestern Ontario and the Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts. He has been a professional actor, playwright and director for the past eighteen years. He is a Governor General Literary Award Nominee, a recipient of a SAT Award for Excellence in Playwriting, and a Yukon Arts Audience Award for Best Art for Social Change. He served as a theatre program officer at the Canada Council for the Arts and is a graduate of the George Brown Theatre School.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #34 – Liming

Leah-Simone Bowen | Playwright

Leah-Simone Bowen is a Toronto based writer, producer and director. As a playwright, she has been in residence at the Stratford Festival of Canada, Playwright’s Workshop Montreal, Cahoots Theatre and she is the former Artistic Producer at Obsidian Theatre, the largest Black performing arts company in Canada. Her work has been featured in The Canadian Theatre Review, CBC Arts and The National Post. Her plays include, Code Word: Time, The Hallway, and The Flood which was recently published by Playwright’s Canada Press in 2018. She is the creator and co-host of the hit CBC podcast The Secret Life of Canada which looks at the untold and undertold history of the country. Born in Alberta, her family hails from Barbados W.I. She is a graduate of the University of Alberta’s theatre program.

Lisa Codrington | Performer

Lisa Codrington is a Toronto-based actor and writer. Recent film and television acting credits include Letterkenny (Crave); Anne with an E (CBC/Netflix); Bad Blood (CityTV/Netflix). Her stage credits include three seasons at the Shaw Festival and da kink in my hair at the Princess of Wales in Toronto and Hackney Empire in London. As a playwright, she has been nominated for the Governor General’s Award for Drama and is a recipient of the Carol Bolt Award for Playwrights. Recent television writing credits include story editor on Little Dog (CBC), writer on Diggstown (CBC) and Lady Dicks (CBC).

Allison Edwards-Crewe | Performer

After graduating from Sheridan College with a Bachelor of Applied Arts, Allison has traveled across the country performing on stage and screen.
Most recently she starred in the world premier of Serving Elizabeth at Western Canada Theatre. She spent most of Fall 2020 working on The Color Purple with Manitoba Theatre Centre & The Citadel Theatre.
During Quarantine she has been enjoying time spent gardening.

Peter Bailey | Performer

Drayton Entertainment: A Few Good Men, Cahoots Theatre Co. & Obsidian Theatre: Other Side of the Game. Stratford Shakespeare Festival: To Kill a Mockingbird, An Ideal Husband. Black Theatre Workshop: A Raisin in the Sun, Come Good Rain, Canadian Stage: Romeo & Juliet, Sweat. Fairview. The Theatre Centre: We Are the Fragments. The Blyth Festival: The Wilberforce Hotel, A World Without Shadows, Jumbo: New Harlem Productions: Gas Girls. Persephone Theatre: A Man A Fish. The Grand Theatre: Fences. Film & TV: Saving Hope (ICF Films). Killjoys, (Temple Street Prod). The Detail, The Lead One Prod. Designated Survivor (ABC Studios)

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #33 – Mizuko (Water Baby)

Hiro Kanagawa | Playwright

Hiro Kanagawa is a Vancouver-based actor and writer. His distinctions include Jessie Richardson Awards for both acting and writing, an Asians on Film award, and numerous other nominations. Although best known as an actor, he was a story editor on several critically-acclaimed Canadian television series: Da Vinci’s Inquest, Da Vinci’s City Hall, Intelligence, and Blackstone. His plays Tiger of Malaya and The Patron Saint of Stanley Park have been performed across Canada. His most recent play, Indian Arm, received the 2015 Jessie Award for Outstanding Original Script and the 2017 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama.

Mayumi Yoshida | Performer

From Tokyo, Japan. Mayumi Yoshida is a Japanese actor known for her role as Crown Princess (The Man in The High Castle) which got her a nomination for Best Emerging Actor at UBCP Awards. She also plays multiple leading roles in the Netflix Animation series “Hello Ninja” as a Voice Actor. As an award winning writer/director she has been a leading force in emerging Asian-Canadian Cinema. “TOKYO LOVERS” has won Best Performance Award at Vancouver Asian Film Festival, Best short at Japan Film Festival LA. Her directorial debut film “AKASHI” has won Outstanding Writer out of 4500 films at NBC Universal Short Film Festival, Best Female Director at Vancouver Short Film Festival and many more internationally. She recently received 2019’s Newcomer Award at Vancouver Women in Film Festival’s Spotlight awards for her success in multiple fields.

June Fukumura | Performer

June Fukumura is a Japanese-Canadian theatre artist with a BFA in Theatre Performance from Simon Fraser University. Her practice includes acting and performance, clowning, dramaturgy, puppetry, and devised experimental theatre. June is the Co-Founder of New(to)Town Collective an artist collective with a mandate to create new experimental works; provide ongoing accessible physical theatre training; and experimental research workshops in Vancouver. June is also the Co-Artistic Director of Popcorn Galaxies, an experimental theatre company interested in re-enchanting the everyday through unconventional site-responsive works. She is the Assistant Dramaturg at the Playwrights Lab at the Banff Centre for the Arts and was the Emerging Dramaturg for Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre in 2019/20. Recent acting and performance credits include: Akashi by Mayumi Yoshida (Envision, 2019); Otosan by Shizuka Kai (workshop presentation, Little Onion Puppet Co., 2019); My Name is SUMIKO by June Fukumura (Vancouver Fringe Festival, New(to)Town Collective, 2019); and Forgiveness by Hiro Kanagawa (New Play Festival, Arts Club Theatre, 2019).

David Patrick Flemming | Performer

David Patrick Flemming is native to Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia but has called Toronto home for almost 10 years. He has worked in Theatre and Television across the country. Most recently as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet at Canadian Stage Company’s Shakespeare in High Park. Other recent Stage credits include: What a Young Wife ought to Know (2b Theatre/Crow’s Theatre), Orphans (Coal Mine Theatre), A City (Necessary Angel), Bunny (Stratford Festival).
FILM AND TV: Frankie Drake, Suits, Slasher, The Strain, Conviction, Murdoch Mysteries, Reign, The Listener.
UPCOMING: David will be filming The Feature Film EASY LAND. Shot right here in Toronto.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #32 – Raking Light

Jordan Tannahill | Playwright

Jordan Tannahill is a Canadian playwright, director, and novelist.

He has been described by The Toronto Star as being “widely celebrated as one of Canada’s most accomplished young playwrights, filmmakers and all-round multidisciplinary artists”; by CBC Arts as “one of Canada’s most extraordinary artists”; and by Libération as “the enfant terrible of Canadian theatre.” His plays have been translated into ten languages and widely honoured in Canada and abroad. Jordan has twice won a Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama, for Age of Minority: Three Solo Plays in 2014, and for Botticelli in the Fire & Sunday in Sodom in 2018. He was also a finalist for the award in 2016 for Concord Floral.

His plays, performance texts, and productions have been presented at venues including at The Young Vic Theatre (London), Sadler’s Wells (London), The Kitchen (NYC), Festival d’Avignon (Avignon), The Lincoln Centre (NYC), Volkstheater (Vienna), Canadian Stage (Toronto), The Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), The National Arts Centre of Canada (Ottawa), Woolly Mammoth Theatre (Washington DC), The Edinburgh International Festival, and on London’s West End.

His books include the autofiction novel Liminal, and Theatre of the Unimpressed: In Search of Vital Drama. As a filmmaker, Jordan’s work has been presented in festivals and galleries the world over. His virtual reality performance Draw Me Close, produced by the National Theatre (UK) and the National Film Board of Canada, was presented at both the Tribeca Film Festival and Venice Biennale in 2017, and ran at London’s Young Vic Theatre in January 2019. Jordan has also worked in dance, choreographing and performing with Christopher House in Marienbad for the Toronto Dance Theatre in 2016 and 2019, and writing the text for Akram Khan’s celebrated dance pieces Xenos and Outwitting the Devil, both currently touring internationally.

From 2008 – 2016, Jordan wrote and directed plays through his theatre company Suburban Beast. The company’s work was staged in theatres, art galleries, and found spaces, and often with non-traditional collaborators like night-shift workers, frat boys, preteens, and employees of Toronto’s famed Honest Ed’s discount emporium. From 2012 – 2016, in collaboration with William Ellis, Jordan ran the alternative art space Videofag out of their home in Toronto’s Kensington Market neighbourhood. Over the four years of its operation, Videofag became an influential hub for queer and avant-garde work in Canada.

He currently lives in London, UK.

Maggie Huculak | Performer

Maggie Huculak has performed on Canadian stages for 40 years. Cherished artistic collaborations include Necessary Angel (with Canadian writers Michael Ondaatje, Colleen Murphy and John Mighton/directors Richard Rose and Daniel Brooks), the late great Theatre Columbus (Martha Ross/Leah Cherniak), Soulpepper Theatre and Globe Theatre. She’s premiered scores of Canadian plays, and is the co-author of five collectively-created plays produced in Toronto: Mein, Hysterica, The Betrayal, Lonely Nights and Other Stories, and Now You See Her (Coach House Press). She’s worked extensively in film, television and radio, and was the sole narrator of the epic CBC documentary series Canada: A People’s History. Maggie is a seven-time Dora Award nominee and is the recipient of a Dora Award for Mein and a Chalmers Award for The Betrayal.

Diego Matamoros | Performer

Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and lives in Toronto, ON.

FOUNDING MEMBER, DRUMMOND-DORRANCE FELLOW, SOULPEPPER 2019: Little Menace: Pinter Plays, Copenhagen, August: Osage County. FOR SOULPEPPER: Mr. Matamoros has performed in every season since the company’s inception including major roles in plays by Shakespeare, Chekhov, Molière, Ibsen, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, and Tom Stoppard, among others. OTHER THEATRE: Roles in more than 50 productions for various theatres across Canada and the US.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #31 – Don’t Get Me Startered

Mark Crawford | Playwright

Mark Crawford is an actor and playwright. Recent acting credits include: Prairie Nurse (Factory Theatre/Thousand Islands Playhouse), A Christmas Carol (Theatre New Brunswick), Bed and Breakfast (Centaur/Belfry), The Winter’s Tale and Measure for Measure (Groundling Theatre Company). As a writer, Mark’s plays are: Stag and Doe; Bed and Breakfast; The Birds and the Bees; Boys, Girls, and Other Mythological Creatures; The New Canadian Curling Club. His work has been produced by theatres across the country. Up next: Mark appears in Bed and Breakfast at Great Canadian Theatre Company, Globe Theatre, and Arts Club Theatre Company; The New Canadian Curling Club will be produced by Alberta Theatre Projects and Thousand Islands Playhouse in 2019. Mark grew up on his family’s farm near Glencoe, Ontario and now lives in Stratford.

Herbie Barnes | Performer

Herbie has been working over thirty years as an actor, director, writer and teacher. Building up a resume that covers North America. Directing and acting in some of the largest theatres like the National Arts Centre, the Royal Alex Theatre and the Public Theatre in New York. Herbie has also been part of the film and television world as an actor in television shows such as Teepee Tales, Guilt Free Zone, Buffalo Tracks, and The Rez. Herbie also teaches in universities and colleges across Canada.

Maev Beatty | Performer

Maev Beaty is a critically-acclaimed actor, writer and voice-over artist with over 50 theatre performance credits. She has originated roles in 25 Canadian premieres (including Hannah Moscovitch’s Bunny, Michael Healey’s Proud, Kate Hennig’s The Last Wife, Judith Thompson’s Palace of the End and Sharon Pollock’s Angel’s Trumpet); She has co-written and starred in the award-winning Secret Life of a Mother, Montparnasse, and Dance of the Red Skirts); and has interpreted lead classic roles across the country and over five seasons at the Stratford Festival. as well as epic theatre endeavours (Soulpepper August Osage County, Sheep No Wool/Outside the March/Convergence’s Passion Play, Nightwood’s Penelopiad, Volcano’s Another Africa, TheatreFront’sThe Mill). She is a Toronto Theatre Critics’ Award winner, three-time Dora Award winner and thirteen-time Dora nominee in performance, writing and direction, referred to as “the excellent Maev Beaty” by the New York Times. She is also a founding member of Got Your Back, and an Equity Council member, activist and mum.

Christine Horne | Performer

Christine’s stage credits include Iceland (WhyNot Theatre), The Road to Paradise (Human Cargo/Crow’s), Tom At The Farm (Buddies), The Seagull (Crow’s), Belleville (Company Theatre), Farther West (Soulpepper), Between the Sheets (Nightwood), The Great Gatsby (The Grand), Andromache (Necessary Angel), Romeo and Juliet (Canadian Stage), The Turn of the Screw (DVxT), Miss Julie: Sheh’mah (KICK Theatre), Twelfth Night (Resurgence), Bluebeard (Toronto Fringe), and Gorey Story (Thistle Project). Film and TV credits include Hyena Road, The Captive, Stories We Tell, Sex After Kids, Tru Love, Entangled, We Wanted More, The Stone Angel, Othello, Lost Girl, Murdoch Mysteries, Saving Hope, Remedy, Republic of Doyle, Rookie Blue, King, and Played. Christine has been nominated for three Dora Awards (winning in 2010 for The Turn of the Screw) and two ACTRA Awards. She recently won a Canadian Screen Award for her work on Remedy.

Maggie Huculak | Performer

Maggie Huculak has performed on Canadian stages for 40 years. Cherished artistic collaborations include Necessary Angel (with Canadian writers Michael Ondaatje, Colleen Murphy and John Mighton/directors Richard Rose and Daniel Brooks), the late great Theatre Columbus (Martha Ross/Leah Cherniak), Soulpepper Theatre and Globe Theatre. She’s premiered scores of Canadian plays, and is the co-author of five collectively-created plays produced in Toronto: Mein, Hysterica, The Betrayal, Lonely Nights and Other Stories, and Now You See Her (Coach House Press). She’s worked extensively in film, television and radio, and was the sole narrator of the epic CBC documentary series Canada: A People’s History. Maggie is a seven-time Dora Award nominee and is the recipient of a Dora Award for Mein and a Chalmers Award for The Betrayal.

Sabryn Rock | Performer

Selected Film and Television: Carter, The Expanse, Holly Hobbie, Taken, People of Earth, Running With Violet, Black Mirror, The Girlfriend Experience, Saving Hope, The Divide and The Listener. Selected theatre: The Royale for which she received a Toronto Theatre Critics Award last year, Rose (Soulpepper), Fun Home (The Musical Stage Company/Mirvish), The Last Wife (The Globe Theatre), Passing Strange (Dora Nomination; Acting Upstage), Waiting for the Parade (Alberta Theatre Projects), Caught (Theatre Passe Muraille), Once on this Island (Acting Upstage/ Obsidian) as well as Caroline, or Change (Dora nomination); Romeo and Juliet, Three Musketeers, The Merchant of Venice (Stratford), Ruined (Obsidian/Nightwood). She loves to read (especially out loud) and has now narrated seven audiobooks. She is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre at the Stratford Festival and the Actors’ Conservatory at the Canadian Film Centre.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #30 – Sir John A: Acts of A Gentrified Ojibway Rebellion

Drew Hayden Taylor | Playwright

During the last thirty years of his career, Drew Hayden Taylor has done many things, most of which he is proud of. An Ojibway from the Curve Lake First Nations in Ontario, he has worn many hats in his literary career, from performing stand-up comedy at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., to being Artistic Director of Canada’s premiere Native theatre company, Native Earth Performing Arts. He is an award-winning playwright, a journalist/columnist (appearing regularly in several Canadian newspapers and magazines), short-story writer, novelist, television scriptwriter, and continues to create documentaries exploring the Native experience. As a playwright, Drew is proud to be a part of what he refers to as the contemporary Native Literary Renaissance. An author of more than 20 plays (resulting in almost a hundred productions), his popular plays such as Toronto at Dreamer’s Rock, Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth, The Berlin Blues, and Cottagers and Indians have left their mark on the Canadian theatre scene.

Herbie Barnes | Performer

Herbie has been working over thirty years as an actor , Director, writer and teacher. Building up a resume that covers North America. Directing and acting in some of the largest theatres like the National Arts Centre , the Royal Alex Theatre and the Public Theatre in New York. Herbie has also been part of the film and television world as an actor in television shows such as Teepee Tales, Guilt Free Zone, Buffalo Tracks , The Rez. Herbie also teaches in universities and collages across Canada.

Darrell Dennis | Performer

Darrell Dennis is an award winning actor, writer, director and comedian. His one man show, “Tales of an Urban Indian” has toured across Canada and the U.S. including the legendary Public Theater in NYC. His feature film adaptation of “Tales” was among 13 international screenplays accepted into the prestigious Sundance Screenwriters Lab. Another of Darrell’s scripts “Moccasin Flats” was accepted into the Sundance Film Festival and became a television series which Darrell wrote for on the Showcase Network.
Darrell was a member of The Second City National Touring Company and performed stand-up at televised gala performances for the Just For Laughs Festival as well as numerous appearances on CBC radio and CBC Television. Most recently, Darrell was the director, writer and actor on two seasons of the APTN series The Guilt Free Zone. His book Peace Pipe Dreams: The Truth about Lies about Indians is now available in bookstores and online.

Martin Julien | Performer

Martin Julien is a performer and writer with forty years of experience in Canadian theatre. He has received three Dora Mavor Moore nominations for Best Performer. Recent productions include Under the Stairs (YPT), Lysistrata and the Temple of Gaia (Odyssey), Sir John A: Acts of a Gentrified Ojibway Rebellion (NAC), This Is How We Got Here (Summerworks) and The Heart of Robin Hood (Mirvish). Martin is an instructor of acting, play study, and singing in the Sheridan College Honours Bachelor of Music Theatre program. He was awarded a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from the University of Toronto in 2019, where he was a SSHRC Doctoral Fellow. Martin was also the senior co-editor of Playwrights Canada Press’s Theatre Passe Muraille: A Collective History, published in April 2019. Currently, he is acting opposite Bradley Cooper in Gullermo del Toro’s new feature film Nightmare Alley.

Katelyn Ryerson | Performer

Calgary born and Ottawa raised, Katie Ryerson is a Betty Award winning and Rideau Award nominated actor and singer currently based in Toronto, ON. Shifting easily from musicals, to Shakespeare, to everything in between, Katie’s work has taken her across Canada in a variety of roles. She has originated characters in six Canadian Premieres, including Hilda in Tracey Power’s “GLORY” (Western Canada Theatre & Alberta Theatre Projects, Western Canada Theatre National Tour), Lily in Beverley Cooper’s “Janet Wilson Meets the Queen” (Great Canadian Theatre Company), and Anya in Drew Hayden Taylor’s “Sir John A: Acts of A Gentrified Ojibway Rebellion” (National Arts Centre). She is thrilled to revive her role of Anya in this format and so grateful to Native Earth Performing Arts and CBC’s PlayME Podcast for giving this production another life! Enjoy! @katieryebain

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #29 – Three Women of Swatow

Chloé Hung | Playwright

Chloé Hung is a Chinese-Canadian writer/director and graduate of the MFA in Dramatic Writing program at NYU Tisch School of the Art. Her plays include ALL OUR YESTERDAYS (Toronto Fringe, Next Stage Theatre Festival), ISSEI, HE SAY (New Jersey Repertory Company), THREE WOMEN OF SWATOW (Tarragon Theatre world premiere canceled due to pandemic) and MODEL MINORITY (workshopped in LA and Banff). She is part of the Playwrights Writers’ Room for the Geffen Theatre. Chloé has been a Black List screenwriters lab fellow and Women In Film Production program fellow. In TV, Chloé has written for CHERISH THE DAY and QUEEN SUGAR (OWN), and is currently developing a show for a streaming service.

Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster | Director

Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster is a theatre maker and arts educator from Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Her directing credits include the award-winning production of The Wolves (Howland/Crows), Cannibal (Scrap Paper/Next Stage), 52 Pick-Up (Howland), Gray (Inamorata) and Three Women of Swatow (Tarragon). Her acting credits include Cyrano de Bergerac and Man and Superman at the Shaw Festival, seven seasons with Soulpepper Theatre and credits with Public Recordings, Canadian Stage, Citadel Theatre, Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre, Cahoots Theatre, Native Earth, and Tarragon Theatre. Courtney has been a mentor for the Paprika Festival and the Artists Mentoring Youth Project. She is a graduate of the UBC BFA Theatre program, the Banff Citadel Theatre Program and the Soulpepper Academy. Courtney has twice been named a ‘Top Ten Theatre Artist’ by NOW Magazine, and is a grateful alumna of the Loran Award and a recipient of two Dora Awards for Best Ensemble. Courtney is presently the Assistant Artistic Director at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto.

Carolyn Fe | Performer

Carolyn Fe has been wooing Toronto Blues music aficionados as a Blues singer, travelling back and forth from Montreal. For years, she felt Toronto’s artistic scene tug at her heart strings; beckoning her to share more of her artistic endeavours. Her guest appearance as a singer in Raoul Bhaneja’s “Life, Death and The Blues” directed by Eda Holmes (2014) was her first taste of Toronto’s theatre scene and all changed when she stepped onto Toronto’s theatre stage as an actress in Audrey Dwyer’s “Calpurnia” as Precy (Nightwood Theatre and Sulong Theatre 2017-2018 co-production). Toronto’s confirmation of acceptance as an older artist of colour plus receiving Toronto Critics award as the “Best Supporting Actress in a Play” for her role as Precy sealed the deal, and Carolyn Fe made the decision to become a two-city citizen. She continues on with singing and writing the Blues with her 4 stage husbands; preparing for their 6^th album, and if that weren’t enough, Carolyn Fe produces and hosts a weekly Blues radio show called “Unsung and On The Side” on the Blues and Roots Radio network; as she continues to audition as an actress for film, TV and theatre. After all, age is just a number isn’t it? Carolyn Fe claims that she is 27 years old with 31 years’ experience; just perfect for her to be the Grandmother in the Three Women of Swatow. Enjoy the show! www.carolyn-fe.com

Chantria Tram | Performer

Chantria is a Cambodian-born Toronto-based actress, workshop facilitator and producer. She is the recipient of multiple artist-in-residencies for research and creative development including an unprecedented project, ‘Voices of the 1.5 Generation’, a joint University-Community project between Concordia University and the Oral History and Digital Storytelling Centre. Her solo show, ‘Someone Between’, has presented on Montreal, Hamilton and Toronto stages including at the Summerworks Performance Festival 2018 and the Young Centre for Performing Arts as part of the Shen Development Festival, hosted by Soulpepper Theatre Company. The project is currently being adapted into an audiobook to reach more audiences. She has appeared on numerous television shows such as Workin’ Moms, The Expanse and 12 Monkeys. Her most recent role was “Mother” in Three Women of Swatow producer by Tarragon Theatre.

Diana Luong | Performer

Diana is a Toronto based artist and a graduate of The National Theatre School of Canada. She just wants to create and be a part of cool shit. She would also like to give thanks to The Asian Ancestral Nose. Selected Credits: Fearless (fu-Gen), Twelfth Night (Dauntless City Theatre), Orpheus & Eurydice (Theatre TOnight), The Good Story (SummerWorks), Cleave (New Words Festival), Scorched (NTS). Selected Film & Television: Bellwoods (Web Series), It’s Not You (TIFF Shortcuts/Sundance)

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #28 – Cowgirl Up

Anna Chatterton | Playwright

Anna Chatterton is a librettist, playwright and performer. She is a two-time finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama; in 2018 for Gertrude and Alice (co-written with Evalyn Parry, in collaboration with director Karin Randoja, premiered by Buddies in Bad Times Theatre); and in 2017 for her play Within the Glass (premiered by Tarragon Theatre. Anna won the 2016 Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress, was named a top ten Toronto Theatre Artist of 2016 by NOW Magazine, and has been nominated for five Dora Mavor Moore Awards, winning Outstanding Production of an Opera for Rocking Horse Winner. As a librettist Anna’s opera work has been produced across Canada and in the States. Anna wrote the stage adaptation of The Horse and His Boy for the Shaw Festival, premiering in 2019. Anna has her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph and BFA in Theatre Performance from Concordia University.

Christine Brubaker | Director

Christine Brubaker is a director, actor and educator. She splits her time between Calgary where she is on faculty at University of Calgary’s School of Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA), and Toronto where she works in a variety of theatre contexts directing, dramaturging new work and performing. She directed the wold premieres of Severn Thompson’s Elle (Theatre Passe Muraille,), Kate Hennig’s Wilde Tales, and Anna Chatterton’s adaptation The Horse and His Boy for the Shaw Festival. Christine is the creator and co-writer on Henry G20 a large scale outdoor performance that will be performed in Toronto in 2021. She is the winner of two Dora Mavor Awards for performance, the 2014 Gina Wilkinson Prize for Direction and the 2016 Ken MacDougall Prize for Emerging Director.

Anna Cummer | Performer

Anna is a Calgary-based actor and playwright. She has had the good fortune of performing throughout the country with a variety of companies including The Vancouver Playhouse, The Arts Club, Bard on the Beach, Theatre Calgary, Alberta Theatre Projects, Vertigo Theatre, Lunchbox, Persephone, and The National Arts Centre. Anna has been nominated for numerous theatrical awards and has been lucky enough to bring a few home. Her play, “Whispers in the Dark”, received its premiere at Vertigo Theatre in January 2020. Anna also busies herself in the world of film & television as well as a voice-over artist voicing well-known characters such as Strawberry Shortcake and Pepper Potts. This version of “Cow Girl Up!” offers the unique opportunity to utilize her full arsenal of talents. Thank you to Christine and Anna for this amazing and challenging opportunity.

Charlie Gould | Performer

Charlie is a Calgary-bred actor now based in Toronto. Favourite theatre credits: Sherlock Holmes and the American Problem (Vertigo Theatre), Our Town (Caravan Farm Theatre), What I call her (Crow’s Theatre), Little Red (Ghost River Theatre/Major Matt Mason Collective), The Tempest (Theatre Calgary/Shakespeare by the Bow), Control, girls! girls! girls! (Major Matt Mason Collective), Richard III (Shakespeare in the Ruff). Charlie is a graduate of Mount Royal University and George Brown Theatre School. Online @charliejaynegould

Elinor Holt | Performer

Elinor is a working mother of three and is married to musician, Spider Bishop. Together they have raised a family and paid off a mortgage in Calgary, doing what they love. For almost 30 years Elinor has worked extensively in theatres in western Canada and as far east as Hudson, Quebec. Elinor is a huge fan of PlayMe, having listened to almost everything the podcast has to offer. She is also a huge fan of Anna Chatterton.

Sarah Wheeldon | Performer

Sarah has been an Actor, Director, Musical Director and Musician across Alberta for over 18 yrs. She is delighted to be revisiting this delightful story with these amazing people during such a tumultuous time. Selected acting credits:Charlotte’s Web (ATP); Merchant of Venice, Alls Well That Ends Well, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet (The Shakespeare Company/Hit & Myth Productions); Might As Well Be Dead (VertigoTheatre); Boy’s Own Jedi Handbook (Ground Zero/Hit & Myth Productions); The Sound of Music (The Citadel Theatre). Film/TV: TOGO (Disney Productions); Dead Again in Tombstone (Universal Studios); Hell on Wheels (AMC). She lives in Calgary but loves to travel and explore the culinary arts. Much love to all!

Trish Lindström | Performer

Selected theatre: “Girl” in Once (Mirvish, Dora Award, Toronto Critics Award); World Premieres: Life After (Musical Stage Co/Yonge St Theatricals/Canadian Stage), The Wedding Party (Crow’s/TIFT/NAC), Mimi (Tarragon, Dora nom); Stratford: As You Like It, Alice Through the Looking-Glass, A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Chamber Play, The Tempest (with Christopher Plummer), Cabaret, The Miracle Worker; Shaw: The Crucible, The Cassillis Engagement, Gypsy, The Plough and the Stars; Summer (First US National Tour); Mother Night (59E59); If Sand Were Stone (NYMF Award); Assassins (TIFT/Birdland, Dora nom).

Photographer: @lindstromtrish, www.trishlindstrom.org

Eric Wigston | Performer

Born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, Eric now calls Calgary his home. He is a graduate of the Grant MacEwan Theatre Arts program. He has been working professionally all over Alberta for the last 11 years. He has been nominated for Two Betty awards (Calgary), One Sterling Award (Edmonton), and 2 Critter awards (Calgary).

Select theatre credits include: The Secret Garden, Mary and Max, Twelfth Night, One Man, Two Guvnors, A Christmas Carol (Theatre Calgary); In Flanders Fields, Lest We Forget, That Men May Fly, Dads in Bondage (Lunchbox) Touch Me: Songs for a (dis)connected Age (tc UP CLOSE w/Forte Musical Theatre), Jeremy de Bergerac (Forte); Evil Dead: The Musical (Hit and Myth Productions); Romeo and Juliet, A Christmas Carol (Citadel); The Soul Collector, Vigilante (Catalyst); Romeo & Juliet (The Shakespeare Company); Sheer Madness, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Mayfield Dinner Theatre); The Adulteress, Cause and Effect, On the Banks of the Nut (Teatro La Quindicina)

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #27 – The Runner

Christopher Morris | Playwright

Christopher is a playwright, director and actor and the Artistic Director of Toronto’s Human Cargo. Past writing credits include The Runner (Human Cargo/Theatre Passe Muraille – 2019 Dora Awards for Outstanding New Play and Best Production, published by Scirocco Drama in 2020), Our Beautiful Sons, (2016 Blyth Festival and 2012 Playwright in Residence), The Road to Paradise co-playwright with Jonathan Garfinkel (Human Cargo/Crow’s Theatre/Buddies in Bad Times Theatre), Night (Human Cargo/NAC, published by the Canadian Theatre Review/Canada Playwrights Press), Return: The Sarajevo Project (co-playwright, Theatrefront, Dora Mavor Moore Award Nomination, published by Canada Playwrights Press). In development: Le Jardin d’Os, a play chronicling a Montreal nurse’s first mission in Africa with Doctors Without Borders, Annie Pootoogook: Portrait of an Artist about the life and art of Inuk artist Annie Pootoogook, and dramaturg on The China Project, a collaboration with Beijing playwright Zhuang Yi. Christopher is the recipient of the Canada Council’s 2012 John Hirsch Prize for Directing and the KM Hunter Award for Theatre.

Gord Rand | Performer

Gord is an actor, filmmaker, and playwright. living in Toronto. Selected theatre credits include: The Runner, Wide Awake Hearts, Abyss, and the writer of The Trouble with Mr. Adams (Tarragon Theatre), Playboy of the Western World, The Devil’s Disciple, Heartbreak House, The Philanderer, The Cherry Orchard (The Shaw Festival – selected credits), Oedipus Rex (Stratford), Hamlet (Necessary Angel/Worldstage), The Test (Company Theatre), Trout Stanley (Factory Theatre), Translations (Soulpepper), The Invention of Love (American Conservatory Theatre), Goodness (Edinburgh Festival, PS 122, Arts Azimut). Writer of Pond Life and The Trial of Thumbelina. Selected Film and Television include: Combat Hospital, Durham County, Orphan Black, Pure, Cardinal, Man Running, Maps to the Stars, Wynonna Earp, Taken, Ransom, Private Eyes, October Faction, The Handmaid’s Tale, and director of Pond Life, the feature film, and Goodness in Rwanda, a feature documentary. Upcoming: Trickster (CBC), Chapelwaite (Netflix), Stardust (Wilding Pictures).

Awards: Dora Award (Best Male Performance) for his portrayal of Uri, a naked plutonium dealer, in Michael Healey’s criminally underrated play, The Innocent Eye Test.

Other: Thanks to Daniel and Chris for being such fun, thorny bastards. I’m very happy to share this story again.

Daniel Brooks | Director

Daniel Brooks is renowned for his original and significant contribution to the theatre in Canada. He has collaborated with a wide range of artists, as a writer, director and performer. His many works include a series of monologues created with Daniel MacIvor, multi-media work with Rick Miller, direction of work by John Mighton, Beckett, Sophocles, Ibsen, Mamet and Goethe, and the musical The Drowsy Chaperone. Other original works he has created include The Noam Chomsky Lectures, Insomnia, The Eco Show, The Good Life, Bigger Than Jesus, Pokey Jones, Divisadero, The Full Light of Day, and a series of plays created with Don McKellar and Tracy Wright (The Augusta Company). He was co-artistic director of The Augusta Company, and Artistic Director of Necessary Angel from 2003-2012. He teaches regularly. His many awards include the Siminovitch Prize. His work has toured across Canada and around the world.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #26 – Secret Life of a Mother

Maev Beaty | Performer + Co-creator

Maev Beaty is a critically-acclaimed actor, writer and voice-over artist with over 50 theatre performance credits. She has originated roles in 25 Canadian premieres (including Hannah Moscovitch’s Bunny, Michael Healey’s Proud, Kate Hennig’s The Last Wife, Judith Thompson’s Palace of the End and Sharon Pollock’s Angel’s Trumpet); She has co-written and starred in the award-winning Secret Life of a Mother, Montparnasse, and Dance of the Red Skirts); and has interpreted lead classic roles across the country and over five seasons at the Stratford Festival. as well as epic theatre endeavours (Soulpepper August Osage County, Sheep No Wool/Outside the March/Convergence’s Passion Play, Nightwood’s Penelopiad, Volcano’s Another Africa, TheatreFront’sThe Mill). She is a Toronto Theatre Critics’ Award winner, three-time Dora Award winner and thirteen-time Dora nominee in performance, writing and direction, referred to as “the excellent Maev Beaty” by the New York Times. She is also a founding member of Got Your Back, and an Equity Council member, activist and mum.

Hannah Moscovitch | Playwright

Hannah Moscovitch is an acclaimed Canadian playwright, TV writer and librettist whose work has been widely produced in Canada as well as around the world. Past stage work includes Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, East of Berlin, Little One, This is War, The Russian Play, Bunny, What a Young Wife Ought to Know, and Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story (co created with Christian Barry and Ben Caplan). Hannah has been the recipient of numerous awards for her work, including the Trillium Book Award, the Dora Mavor Moore Award, the Toronto Theatre Critics Award, the Nova Scotia Masterworks Award, both The Scotsman Fringe First and The Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh Festival, and the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize administered by Yale University. She has also been nominated for the international Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, New York City’s Drama Desk Award, and Canada’s Siminovitch Prize and Governor General’s Award. She is a Playwright-In-Residence at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto.

Ann-Marie Kerr | Director + Co-creator

Ann-Marie is an award-winning theatre director, actor and teacher. Her work has been presented nationally and internationally. Select directing: Songs of the City (United Way event Spatz Theatre, Halifax); Frequencies (Heist, Halifax workshop); Secret Life of A Mother (Theatre Centre, Crow’s Theatre Toronto); One Discordant Violin (2b theatre company, Halifax, 59E59 St Theatre NYC); Bed and Breakfast (Soulpepper Theatre Company, Toronto); A Christmas Carol (Theatre New Brunswick); Daughter (Theatre Centre; Summerworks, Toronto, Battersea Arts Centre London; Intl tour); Snake in the Grass (Neptune Theatre); I, Claudia (Globe Theatre Regina, Neptune Theatre); Stranger to Hard Work (Cathy Jones Eastern Front Theatre, National tour); The Circle (Alberta Theatre Projects, Calgary); Robert Chafe’s As Ever (Mulgrave Road Theatre, Guysborough, NS); The Debacle (Zuppa Theatre Company, Halifax); Invisible Atom (2b theatre company Halifax, multiple award-winning including Herald Angel Award Edinburgh); Daniel MacIvor’s Confession (Mulgrave Road Theatre). A graduate of Ecole internationale de théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris and York University in Toronto. She has directed and taught at National Theatre School and Fountain School for Performing Arts, among other theatre schools, and is the former Artistic Associate of Magnetic North Theatre Festival.

Marinda de Beer | Co-creator

Recently: LET’S RUN AWAY (ReWork Productions) Other: Marinda has been a stage manager for over 25 years in Toronto. She has worked for Soulpepper, Canadian Stage, Tarragon Theatre, Shaw Festival as well as touring to Ottawa, Montreal, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Calgary. Marinda is also a theatre producer. After over 18 years and a birth and post partum doula, she is currently back at school to pursue work in end of life care.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #24 – Take d Milk, Nah?

Jivesh Parasram | Playwright + Performer

Jivesh Parasram (He/Him/His) is an award winning multidisciplinary artist, community activator, and facilitator of Indo-Caribbean descent(Cairi/Trinidad & Tobago). His work has played across Canada, and Internationally. Jiv grew up in K’jipuktuk (Halifax) and endeavours to split his time between T’karón:to and the Unceded Coast Salish Territories. In 2009 he co-founded the award winning collective Pandemic Theatre, and currently holds the position of Artistic Director for Rumble Theatre. Jiv was a member of the second cohort of the Cultural Leaders Lab with the Toronto Arts Council and the Banff Centre. His current research centres “Dharmic Dramaturgy” in approaching contemporary performance and social design.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #23 – carried away on the crest of a wave

Ash Knight | Performer

Ash moved to London, England at the age of 20 to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art for 3 years on a scholarship. He remained in England acting in various productions before returning to Canada and performing at the Stratford Festival of Canada. He’s worked in the U.K. (Birmingham and London), the U.S.A. (New York), all over Canada, and even Uganda (Kampala). Nominated for a Dora Award as Best Actor (Brothel #9), and a Critic’s Choice Award as Best Director (Tragedie of Lear). He’s participated in numerous new play development workshops and regularly works with the Stratford Festival on directing/teaching Shakespeare in addition to working on new play development in Toronto. Ash is currently working on a translation and modern adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac.

John Ng | Performer

John is a Dora-nominated actor and playwright who received his training at the University of Ottawa. Recent theatre credits include Kuroko (Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre), Antigone (Young People’s Theatre), The Full Light Of Day (Electric Company Theatre), carried away on the crest of a wave (National Arts Centre & Tarragon Theatre), Nine Dragons (Vertigo/Gateway/Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre), Acquiesce (Factory Theatre), The Best Brothers, This Is War (GCTC). His first stage play I. (Joy Geen) was adapted and later produced on CBC Radio and published in Where Is Here? (CBC Radio Anthology, Volume 1). John can also be seen on television as Mr. Chin in CBC’s Kim’s Convenience.

Richard Zeppieri | Performer

Dora nominated and Gemini Award winning actor Richard Zeppieri has worked extensively in film,television and theatre for over 30 years.

Richard Lee | Performer

Richard Lee is an award winning actor, fight director, sound designer and theatre producer. His work has garnered him multiple Dora Mavor Moore nominations out of which he has received three: One for his Sound Design work on paper SERIES (Cahoots Theatre Company) and Two in performance; Sultans of the Street & Cinderella: A Ratical Retelling (both for Young People’s Theatre). Other selected theatre include: The Humans (Citadel/Canadian Stage), Chimerica (co-production with RMTC), King Lear, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Nights Dream (SiHP 2017, 2017, 2012). Kim’s Convenience (Soulpepper), Acquiesce (Factory Theatre)

Eponine Lee | Performer

Eponine was born and raised in Toronto. Currently she is a local Toronto Elementary school student. She loves to read and hopes to one day be a writer, actor or WNBA Basketball Player. Selected Credits include: The Full Light of Day (Luminato presents Electric Company Theatre 2019), A Christmas Carol (Soulpepper Theatre 2016-2018), Tails from the City (Common Boots Theatre Company); carried away on the crest of a wave (Tarragon Theatre).

Nadeem Philip | Performer

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #23 – CRAWLSPACE

Karen Hines | Playwright + Performer

Karen is the author of seven award-winning plays and two-time finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award (Pochsy Plays; Drama: Pilot Episode), she’s also a Gemini nominee and Dora Award-winning performer and director, wrangling adult horror clowns Mump & Smoot as well as premieres of Linda Griffiths’ Age of Arousal (ATP), Michelle Thrush’s Inner Elder (HPR). Her productions and short films featuring ‘Pochsy’ have been presented internationally. In 2020, Crawlspace will continue touring micro-theatres nationally, and All the Little Animals I Have Eaten will have its Toronto premiere this spring.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #22 – The Boy in the Moon

Emil Sher | Playwright

Emil’s stage work for the young and the once-were-young include Sanctuary, Bluenose, Derailed, Beneath the Banyan Tree and The Book of Ashes. His acclaimed stage adaptations include Hana’s Suitcase by Karen Levine, Ian Brown’s The Boy in the Moon, and the musical theatre adaptation of Roch Carrier’s beloved The Hockey Sweater (librettist and co-lyricist with composer Jonathan Monro). The staging of The Boy in the Moon (Crow’s Theatre) was selected as one of the top ten productions of 2017 by The Globe and Mail and nominated for a 2018 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play.

Works-in-progress include The Boys of Vedem, a play commissioned by Seattle’s ACT Theatre based on the true story of imprisoned Jewish teens who created a secret magazine in the midst of the Holocaust; April, a new play Emil is developing for and with the divine Louise Pitre; and The Piper, a musical that puts a contemporary spin on the folk tale.

David Storch | Performer

David’s recent work as an actor includes The Nether (Studio 180/Coal Mine), Picture This, Noises Off (Soulpepper), Cake/Dirt, In the Next Room (Tarragon) and Arigato, Tokyo (Buddies). He has recently directed Sweat (Studio 180/Canadian Stage) Instructions to Any Future Socialist Wishing to Abolish Christmas (Coal Mine) Road to Mecca, Speed-the-Plow, Glengarry Glen Ross (Soulpepper)The Hours That Remain (Gwaandak, New Harlem, Gordon Tootoosis Theatre) Robin Hood, Metamorphoses (Globe).

Liisa Repo-Martell | Performer

Liisa last appeared in Festival Players production of a Beautiful View. Other theatre credits include: What A Young Wife Ought to Know (2b Theatre), The Boy in the Moon (Crows Theatre), The Watershed and Seeds (Porte Parole), Other Desert Cities (The Citadel Theatre) Creditors (Coalmine Theatre), Happy Place, Uncle Vanya, Antigone, The Lesson, School for Wives, Top Girls (Soulpepper) Eternal Hydra (Crow’s Theatre) Midsummer Night’s Dream (Stratford Festival) King Lear (Stratford Festival).

Kelly McNamee | Performer

Kelly McNamee is a Toronto based performer and filmmaker. She has appeared in television series such as Murdoch Mysteries, 12 Monkeys, Rogue, Sensitive Skin, and The Next Step Aftershow. Theatre credits include Boy In The Moon (Crow’s Theatre) & Domesticated (Company Theatre/CanStage). She is also a founding member of Alright Alice Productions a filmmaking company, with a focus on bridging the gap between emerging artists and established professionals in the Canadian Film & Television industry. They are currently in post-production for “Link:An Anthology” and run networking events that feature expert panellists on a variety of topics about filmmaking called “AAP Panel Night Series”. In addition to her film and acting work she makes up one third of Lunar Bloom, an all female, vocal, folk trio. @lunarbloomband @alrightaliceproductions

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #21 – Butcher

Nicolas Billon | Playwright

Nic writes for theatre, television, and film. His work has been produced around the world. Nic adapted his first play, The Elephant Song, into a feature film starring Xavier Dolan, Bruce Greenwood, and Catherine Keener. His latest, Butcher, was mounted across Canada and is in development as a feature film. A graduate of the CFC’s Prime Time TV program, Nic wrote for CBC’s WWII spy series X Company and on the reboot of Street Legal. Nic’s work has garnered over a dozen awards, including a Governor-General’s Award for Drama, a Canadian Screen Award, and a Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Award.

Michelle Monteith | Performer

Michelle is an award-winning actor based in Toronto. Michelle has worked across much of Canada. She has worked for Coal Mine Theatre, Soulpepper, Modern Times, Why Not Theatre, Tarragon, Harbourfront, 2B Theatre, Neptune Theatre, CanStage, Segal Centre, Nightwood, Buddies, NAC, GCTC, Theatrefront, Stratford, Human Cargo, Resurgence, and Theatre Smith Gilmour.
Michelle also works in tv/ film including audiobooks and animation. Next up, Michelle will begin The Seagull at Soulpepper in early 2020.

Tony Nappo | Performer

Tony Nappo was born and raised in Scarborough, Ontario. He went on to study acting in New York at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He is a theatrical staple in Toronto and has worked on many stages across the country. He as also appeared in many high profile Hollywood films including Born to be Blue, Saw 2, Four brothers, Land of the Dead and Murder at 1600. He has appeared in endless independent films including The Go-Getters, From the Vine, Samanthology, This Beautiful City, Beat Down, Stag , You Might As Well Live, and The Rainbow Kid. He voices the lead character, Jimmy Falcone, on the hit animated series Fugget About It and has appeared in over a hundred episodes of television including HBO’s JETT, Northern Rescue, Bad Blood, In Contempt, Save Me, SchItt’s Creek, Kim”s Convenience, Baroness Von Sketch, Disney’s Zombies, Private Eyes, Carter, Shoot The Messenger, Remedy, Rookie Blue, Flashpoint, Breakout Kings, Killjoys, Saving Hope and DaVinci’s Inquest.he has been nominated for A Canadian Screen Award, a Broadway World Award, and two times for The Actra Award and twice again for The Dora Mavor Moore Award.

John Koensgen | Performer

John originated the role of Josef in the premiere of Butcher and has been in three more productions in the part, most recently in Toronto as part of The Off-Mirvish series. Other recent theatre: Malvolio, Twelfth Night (National Arts Centre); Alexander, No Great Mischief (Thousand Islands Playhouse); and Lestor Pearson, Rexy (Neptune Theatre). Recent film and TV: Frankie Drake (CBC); Best Laid Plans (CBC); The Perfect Stalker (MOW); Precious Things (MOW); The Detectives (CBC); Mindfudge (CBC Gem); and The Truth about Christmas (Freeform). He has done voices for animation, notably in The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin and Dennis The Menace. In 2018 he directed the audio book edition of Trust by former Governor General David Johnston.

Andrew Musselman

Andrew Musselman has performed on stages in New York, London, Dublin, and across Canada. He received a Beinecke Fellowship from Yale School of Drama, and was nominated for Toronto’s Dora Award for his solo performance of Donal O’Kelly’s Catalpa. He was in the original cast of Rolin Jones’ These Paper Bullets (original music by Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong), as well as the original casts of Nicolas Billon’s Butcher and Greenland. Andrew’s extensive list of television credits includes Suits, Orphan Black, Hemlock Grove and Murdoch Mysteries. He was the On-Set Acting Coach for the Disney/Family Channel show Backstage and dialect coach for CBC’s Baronness Von Sketch Show. Andrew is developing an original series concept with the U.S. production company, New Neighborhood, and recently wrapped a role on the Hulu/CBC series Utopia Falls.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #20 – Between Breaths

Robert Chafe | Playwright

Robert Chafe has worked in theatre, dance, opera, radio, fiction and film. His stage plays have been seen in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and in the United States, and include Oil and Water, Tempting Providence, Afterimage, Under Wraps, Between Breaths, and The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (adapted from the novel by Wayne Johnston.) He has been shortlisted twice for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama and he won the award for Afterimage in 2010. He has been twice shortlisted for ArtsNL’s Artist of the Year, as well as being shortlisted for the 2011 Siminovitch Prize in Theatre. He has been guest instructor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, and The National Theatre School of Canada. In 2018 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Memorial University of Newfoundland. He is the playwright and Artistic Director of Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland.

Jillian Keiley | Director

Jillian was the founding Artistic Director of Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland and became the Artistic Director for The National Arts Centre English Theatre in 2012. Her productions at the NAC included Andy Jone’s Tartuffe, Oil and Water, Colony of Unrequited Dreams, A Christmas Carol and Twelfth Night. For The Stratford Festival she directed Alice Through the Looking-Glass, The Diary of Anne Frank, As You Like It, and Bakkhai. She is a frequent collaborator with Robert Chafe and their production for Theatre Newfoundland Labrador, Tempting Providence toured internationally for over a decade. She has directed all but one of Artistic Fraud’s 23 years worth of works. She is the winner of the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre and holds two honorary doctorates, from York University and Memorial University of Newfoundland. Following this production, Jillian will direct The Neverending Story for The Stratford Festival 2019 season.

Steve O’Connell | Performer

Theatre: For Artistic Fraud: Between Breaths –Premiere– (Dr. Jon Lien), The Colony of Unrequited Dreams –Premiere– (Charlie Smallwood), Salvage: A Story of a House (Arthur) and In Your Dreams Freud –Premiere– (Strange Man). For Perchance Theatre: Richard III (King Richard) and Macbeth (Macduff). For Rabbittown Theatre: A Steady Rain (Joey), American Buffalo (Teach), Glengarry Glen Ross (Shelley Levene), Stones in His Pockets (Charlie Conlon) and The Woman in Black (Arthur Kipps). For Team Broken Earth: The Weir (Jack). For Sweetline: Oleanna (John) and The Drawer Boy (Morgan). For Poverty Cove Theatre: Falling Trees —Premiere– (Commissioner WishHeart). TV/Film: The Republic of Doyle (Sgt. Daniel Hood), The Grand Seduction(Joe), Braven (Sheriff Cal Ossler) and A Fire in the Cold Season (Rig). He most recently appeared in The Ennis Sisters’ video California Wine. Steve thanks his wife Michelle for her continued love and support. He also thanks the Lien family, for once again allowing him to share their husband and father with the world.

Berni Stapleton | Performer

Berni Stapleton is a Newfoundland- Labrador writer and performer of unique distinction. She was just listed on the Playwrights Guild of Canada Sure Fire List of top 23 plays from female playwrights in Canada for her play “The Pope and Princess Di.” Her play Woman in a Monkey Cage was also listed. She is the recipient of the 2018 Arts and Letters best dramatic script for her one woman play Dolly. She is the recipient of a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to write her book for young Selkies and other creatures called: Girly Muckle and the Queer Hands. Her new memoir is called Love, Life. To read her blogs and see her available plays visit bernistapleton.com

Darryl Hopkins | Performer

Darryl Hopkins is from Terra Nova. He holds a BFA from Sir Wilfred Grenfell College (MUN), where he received the Tommy Sexton Triple Threat Award. In the past few years, he has been the recipient of two International Best Actor awards for his performance, in Noel Harris’ film Touch. SELECT THEATRE CREDITS: Artistic Fraud-Between Breaths & Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Robert Chafe; Poverty Cove-Falling Trees & The Battery by Meg Coles, Rabbit Rabbit by Amy Lee Lavoie; Perchance Theatre-Henry V & The Merry Wives of Windsor; TNL-Tempting Providence & Isle des Demons by Robert Chafe, Winter by Nell Leyshon, Double Axe Murder by Bernie Stapleton, The Weir by Conor McPherson, The Cripple of Innishmaan by Martin McDonagh; RCAT-The Infinity Plays by Justin Simms; C2C-Pains of Youth; Forest Forge(U.K.)-Newfoundlands; Wonderbolt Circus-The Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni; New Curtain- Taming of the Shrew; Rising Tide-No Man’s Land by Kevin Major & February by Lisa Moore. FILM & TV: A Fire in the Cold Season (Cold Season Films); Rex (Pope/Shaftesbury) Little Dog (CBC/Little Dog); An Audience of Chairs (Wreckhouse Prod/Film Works); Caught (CBC/Roy Patterson Inc.); Crown & Anchor (C&A Inc.) Touch (Telefilm/NIFCO); Frontier (Netflix/Take the Shot); Murdoch Mysteries (Shaftsbury/CBC); Hard Light (NFB); Republic of Doyle (CBC/Take the Shot); Screamers: The Hunting (Reel One). One can find Hopkins’ music online@ www.avalonstanley.com

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #19 – Fish Eyes Trilogy

Anita Majumdar | Playwright + Performer

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #18 – What a Young Wife Ought to Know

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #17 – Prairie Nurse

Marie Beath Badian | Playwright

Marie Beath is a Toronto-based theatre maker. As a playwright, her works include The Making of St. Jerome [Next Stage Theatre Festival, nominated for three Dora Mavor Moore Awards], Mind Over Matter [part of AutoShow, Convergence Theatre], and Novena [UnoFestival Victoria, Toronto Fringe Festival]. Her radio work includes Yellow Rubber Boots [CBC Outfront] and an adaption her show of Novena [CBC Radio – The Drama of Immigration]. She was Playwright-in-Residence for fu-Gen Asian-Canadian Theatre Company [2008-2009] and Project:Humanity [2010-2011]. She was a member of the 2010 HotHouse Playwright Unit at Cahoots Theatre Company, 2011/2013 Tarragon Playwright Unit, 2015 Soulpepper Playwrights’ Circle. She is the 2017/2018 Creator-in-Residence with The Blyth Festival where she is developing two sequels to Prairie Nurse.

Upcoming: Prairie Nurse at Lighthouse Theatre, Port Dover, Ontario in July 2019, and Showboat Theatre in Port Colborne, Ontario August in 2019. www.mariebeath.com

Sue Miner | Director

Sue has been a theatre director and actor since graduating from The National Theatre School of Canada’s Acting Section in 1983. As well as this production of Prairie Nurse she also directed the premier production at the Blyth Festival in 2013. In addition Sue has directed at Young People’s Theatre, Tapestry New Opera, Canadian Stage, Buddies in Bad Times, Theatre Aquarius, Shakespeare in the Rough, Tafelmusik, and many Fringe and Indie productions. As co-artistic director of Pea Green Theatre Group with Mark Brownell, credits include Three Men in a Boat, Clique Claque, and War of the Clowns. She has garnered several Dora Nominations and has taught and directed at Sheridan, Theatre Erindale, and is currently the coordinator of George Brown Theatre School.

Janelle Hanna | Actor

Janelle is an actor, educator, and short sassy woman. This past summer Janelle was one of Now Magazine’s 15 Artists to Watch at the Toronto Fringe with her appearance in Briana Brown’s Robert, a role which required her to learn how to play the bagpipes in only 2 months time. Janelle is planning a cross-Canada tour of her first self-written solo show Bad Baby Presents: Rules Control the Fun for the summer of 2019. Favourite credits include: Virginia Aldridge, BSc, Fantastic Extravagance (Toronto Fringe), Knot Tied(Lab Cab Festival), Eligible (BravoFact), Neighbourhood Watch, The Duvet (Film Army), Out With Dad (www.outwithdad.com), Swell Broad, Commencement (Convection Productions), Clutch(www.clutchtheseries.com), Last Man Hanged, Ring Round the Moon (Gairbraid Theatre), Anne of Green Gables (Stirling Festival Theatre). Janelle is a graduate of the Masters in Acting program at York University, and the joint acting program at Sheridan College and the University of Toronto Mississauga (Theatre Erindale). @janellemhanna

Isabel Kanaan | Actor

Isabel is a Second City and Seneca College Acting for Camera and Voice alumna. She was awarded the NBC Universal Bob Curry Fellowship and NOW Toronto’s breakthrough stage artist of 2017. Best known for CBC’s “Air Farce”, Canadian Comedy Award winning troupe “The Sketchersons”, and Second City’s EdCo. She received rave reviews for her performance in “Ponytail” during the Reel Asian International Film Festival and for her lead role in the “Haunted or Hoax” series, which won the NYC Web Fest’s Audience Choice Award. She toured the sketch revue “Hey ‘90s Kids, You’re Old” which won awards in Toronto and New York festivals and has worked with the CFC (“The Housekeeper” and “Philip”). She also writes and performs regularly with the Tita Collective.

Matt Shaw | Actor

Matt Shaw is an actor/writer living in Toronto. He is also one half of the musical sketch comedy duo The Diddlin’ Bibbles who won Patron’s Pick at the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival. They also performed in the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival in March 2018. He is thrilled to be making his Equity Theatre debut in Marie Beath Badian’s Prairie Nurse at Factory Theatre. Past credits include The Diddlin’ Bibbles Live at Comedy Bar (Toronto Sketchfest 2018), The Diddlin’ Bibbles, Live, In Concert (Toronto Fringe 2017), King John (Shakespeare Bash’d), Twelfe Night (Ale House Theatre) 9 Mile Portage (Theatre By The Bay).

Belinda Corpuz | Actor

Belinda Corpuz is a Filipinx-Canadian, Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist: actor, singer-songwriter, musician, and composer. Selected theatre credits: Prairie Nurse (Factory Theatre/Thousand Islands Playhouse), Lighters in the Air (Toronto Fringe Festival 2018), Through the Bamboo – Staged Reading (Soulpepper, Shen Development Series); Hilot Mean Healer – Staged Reading (Cahoots); Perfect Couples (Pencil Kit Productions, Toronto and Hamilton Fringe Festival 2017); Anak (as actor, co-playwright, sound designer), Kaldero, In the Shadow of Elephants (Carlos Bulosan Theatre); #LOOP (Expect Theatre, Nuit Blanche Toronto 2016). Music credits: 2017 release of her all-original debut EP, All I Am (featured on CBC Radio’s Fresh Air program); soundtrack for award-winning film The Witch; multiple albums with jazz/new music ensemble Collective Order; performances with Christine Duncan’s Element Choir and Polaris Award winner and indigenous vocalist, Tanya Tagaq; artist residency at the Art Gallery of Ontario with all-female vocal ensemble, New Lineage. Belinda is a graduate of the University of Toronto – Faculty of Music, Jazz Studies, and currently studies acting with Cindy Tanas. www.belindacorpuz.com

Catherine Fitch | Actor

Catherine graduated from The National Theatre School in 1990 and has been working on stage and on screens both big and small ever since. Stage credits include 8 seasons at The Blyth Festival working on new plays by such playwrights as Michael Healy, Gary Kirkham, Beverly Cooper, Kate Lynch and Marcia Johnson. Most recently, she appeared in Prairie Nurse at Factory Theatre and Thousand Islands Playhouse and Harvest also at Thousand Islands Playhouse. TV and Film credits include Cardinals, Slings and Arrows, This is Wonderland, Living in Your Car, Picture Day, and South of Wawa. She has been nominated for 2 Gemini Awards and a Canadian Screen Award and has won one Gemini Award.

Layne Coleman | Actor

Layne Coleman is a former Artistic Director of Theatre Passe Muraille. He has been awarded The Silver Ticket Award for Life Time Achievement by TAPA, and The Rita Davies Award by the TAC for Contributions to the Arts in Toronto, as well as the George Luscombe Award for mentoring by TAPA. He is a filmmaker, actor, writer, and director.

Mark Crawford | Actor

Mark Crawford is an actor and playwright. Recent acting credits include: Prairie Nurse (Factory Theatre/Thousand Islands Playhouse), A Christmas Carol (Theatre New Brunswick), Bed and Breakfast (Centaur/Belfry), The Winter’s Tale and Measure for Measure (Groundling Theatre Company). As a writer, Mark’s plays are: Stag and Doe; Bed and Breakfast; The Birds and the Bees; Boys, Girls, and Other Mythological Creatures; The New Canadian Curling Club. His work has been produced by theatres across the country. Up next: Mark appears in Bed and Breakfast at Great Canadian Theatre Company, Globe Theatre, and Arts Club Theatre Company; The New Canadian Curling Club will be produced by Alberta Theatre Projects and Thousand Islands Playhouse in 2019. Mark grew up on his family’s farm near Glencoe, Ontario and now lives in Stratford.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #16 – The Philosopher’s Wife

Susanna Fournier | Playwright

Susanna Fournier is an award-winning Canadian theatre-maker, actor, and the artistic producer of PARADIGM productions. She works in various performance mediums, primarily constructing new texts for theatre. Her work is feminist, expressionist, and anti-imperial. Her writing interrogates socio-economic-gender power relations and their perversions. She has presented work in Toronto, Berlin, London, UK, and was the first North American playwright to be invited to premiere a new work at Residenztheatre’s World/Stage festival. PARADIGM is currently launching its most ambitious project yet, THE EMPIRE, a trilogy of modern epics for stage, podcast, and online. The Empire abstracts over 500 years of modern history, tracing the ramifications of Imperialism as it pervades into every aspect of life from global empire building to the colonization of the body and psyche. PARADIGM is building a team of over 50 Canadian artists to produce these three world premieres as a complete season of epic theatre throughout 2018-19 at three Toronto theatres.

Keith Barker | Actor

Keith Barker is a Métis artist from Northwestern Ontario. A graduate of the George Brown Theatre School, he has worked professionally as an actor, playwright, and a director for the past seventeen years. He is a recipient of the SATAward for Excellence in Playwriting and the received the Yukon Arts Audience Award for Best Art for Social Change for his play The Hours That Remain. He served as a theatre program officer at the Canada Council for the Arts, and is currently the artistic director of Native Earth Performing Arts in Toronto.

Chala Hunter | Actor

Chala is a actor, producer and director. She is a graduate of the Acting program at the National Theatre School of Canada and also studied at the University of Toronto (BA in Drama and French). Select performance credits include Noises Off (Segal Centre, Jacob Tierney), Lulu, v.4 (redlightdistrict, Buddies In Bad Times), Wormwood, (Tarragon, Richard Rose), Travesties, (Segal Centre, Jacob Tierney) Susanna Fournier’s, All the Ways You Scare Me, The Stronger Variations, with Theatre Rusticle/Buddies in Bad Times and Canadian Stage’s As You Like it and Titus Andronicus, (Celia, Lavinia), The iShow, Summerworks, Tout Comme Elle (Luminato), Macbeth (Repercussion Theatre), the role of Nuna in RedSkyPerformance’s North American tours of The Great Mountain. She recently produced, designed and starred in Claudia Dey’s inaugural play, Beaver, which had a sold out run at The Storefront Theatre. Her directing debut was as the associate director of Salvatore Antonio’s Sheets, at the Theatre Centre this spring.

Ishan Daveé | Actor

Ishan is a Canadian performer & filmmaker. He is based in Toronto and in an associate artist with the collective It Could Still Happen, and co-founder of their film extension. He is also a frequent collaborator with Public Recordings Performance Projects. Recent credits include: Give Me Space (The Darling Foundry), What We Are Saying (Public Recordings), Leisure Palace (in/Future), The Supine Cobbler (It Could Still Happen), Other Jesus (Public Recordings). He has been nominated for two Gemini (now Canadian Screen) Awards, and is a graduate of The National Theatre School of Canada’s Acting program.

Aviva Armour-Ostroff | Actor

Aviva works in Toronto as an actor, director, writer and producer. Most recently, Aviva appeared as Her in ARC’s production of Dissidents. Prior to that, Aviva played The Preacher in Divine at the SummerWorks Theatre Festival and was in ARC’s production of Pomona, where the cast was nominated for a Dora Award for Best Ensemble. Aviva appeared in VideoCabaret’s The Great War (Dora Award for Best Ensemble), as Berta in Hedda Gabler (Necessary Angel/Canadian Stage) and as Virginia in Age of Arousal (Factory Theatre). She is a company member of ARC (Actor’s Repertory Company) where she was nominated for a Dora Award for her performance in Moment. Other acting credits include He Left Quietly, winner of the SummerWorks Best Production Award, Annie Sullivan in Western Canada Theatre’s The Miracle Worker, and Layne Coleman’s film, The Shape of Rex. Aviva was the founder and Artistic Director of The Lab Cab Festival for thirteen years. Aviva is the producer and co-director of the film adaptation of Michael Healey’s The Drawer Boy. She is continuing to work on her screenplay Lune.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #15 – Agnes Benoit

“Agnes Benoit” was the fifth edition of a performance program, “Short Waves, Short Stories,” presented annually as part of “The Writers at Woody Point” literary festival, situated in the historic Newfoundland village of Woody Point. The program was devised in 2013 by actor/director/dramaturge/writer David Ferry, and is “broadcast” live from a “studio” to an audience sitting and listening in a different, remote space each year. The original audience for “Agnes Benoit” sat in a decommissioned United Church, and the text was created by six different writers who were given the bare bones historical facts about the murder of a crew of British sailors in the 1800’s in Woody Point and the subsequent trial of one Emile Benoit and his sons. Each of the writers of “Agnes Benoit” was asked to write, “Rashomon” style, the story from a different character’s POV.

David Ferry | Director, Writer, Actor

David Ferry is an award winning director. He won a best director DORA Award for “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot” in Toronto. He directed the world premiere of Brendan Gall’s “Alias Godot” for Teatro Della Limonaia in Florence. Recently his Toronto productions of “The Postman” (which he co-wrote) “Breathing Corpses”; “Blackbird” and “BULL” received unanimous rave reviews. His production of David Hare’s “Stuff Happens” at the National Arts Centre won the Ottawa Critics ‘Best Production’ Award and ‘Best Director’ nomination. He has recently had his short story “April’s Fool” published in the literary magazine “Riddle Fences.”

Lisa Moore | Writer

Lisa Moore has written three novels, Alligator, February and Caught, as well as a stage play, based on her novel February. She is also the author of three collections of short stories, Degrees of Nakedness, Open, and Something for Everyone (forthcoming). Lisa’s most recent publication is a young adult novel called Flannery. Alligator and Caught, and her short story collection Open were nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Her novel February was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and won CBC Canada Reads in 2013. She is also the winner of the Writer’s Trust Engel /Findley Award for Fiction and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for the Canada/Caribbean region. Lisa teaches Creative Writing at Memorial University.

Ed Riche | Writer

Edward Riche writes for the page, stage and screen. His most recent books are the collection of humour pieces “Bag of Hammers” and the novel “Today I Learned It Was You”. His play “Rebel Time” is featured at Rising Tide’s Summer in the Bight in Trinity this season. He lives in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador.

Jeanie MacFarlane | Writer

Jeanie MacFarlane is currently at work on a novel, having completed a program in creative writing at the Humber School for Writers. As a book reviewer she appeared regularly on radio and television and wrote for newspapers, magazines and websites. She has also written about research, teaching and student life for university publications, including those of McMaster University. She is a former newspaper reporter, feature writer and editor and lives in Hamilton, Ont.

Robert Chafe | Writer

Robert Chafe has worked in theatre, dance, opera, radio, fiction and film. His stage plays have been seen in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and in the United States, and include Oil and Water, Tempting Providence, Afterimage, Under Wraps, Between Breaths, and The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (adapted from the novel by Wayne Johnston.) He has also been shortlisted three times for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama (Canada’s highest honour for playwriting) and he won the award for Afterimage in 2010. He has been guest instructor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, and The National Theatre School of Canada. He is the playwright and Artistic Director of Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland.

Meghan Greeley | Writer

Meghan Greeley is originally from Newfoundland. She was a 2016 nominee for the RBC Tarragon Emerging Playwrights Prize, and was later a resident of the Tarragon Playwrights Unit. Past playwriting credits include Hunger (2015) and Kingdom (2012), which were both produced by White Rooster Theatre and premiered at the LSPU Hall in St. John’s, NL. Kingdom toured to the Stages Festival in 2013 and was later published in The Breakwater Book Of Contemporary Newfoundland Drama, Vol. 1. Her short play Brother, Brother, a winner of the InspiraTO Playwriting Competition, premiered at the Alumnae Theatre in 2015 and was published in the Playwrights Canada Press anthology Long Story Short.

Jody Richardson | Actor

A self-styled “creative engineer”, Jody is highly regarded in Newfoundland as a songwriter/composer/actor who builds projects locally which are recognized nationally and internationally for their cultural significance and contribution to the performing disciplines.

Des Walsh | Actor

Des Walsh’s fourth and most recent collection of poetry is The Singer’s Broken Throat (Talonbooks). He has written a dozen produced stage plays including The Moon Shone Bright (Breakwater Books). Walsh’s screenwriting credits include the international hit miniseries’ The Boys of St. Vincent and Random Passage. Love and Savagery, his first feature film, was released November 13, 2009. His work has won many prestigious international awards including a Gemini Award and the Gold Medal at the Banff Television Festival in Canada, the UmbriaFiction Award in Italy, the Grand FIPA d’Or Cannes in France, and The New York Festivals Award and the 1995 Peabody Award in the United States. He was the recipient of the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council Arts Achievement Award for 2009.

Kyra Harper | Actor

Kyra Harper is a three time DORA award nominee. She has acted on stage and in Film and TV across Canada. Recent stage work includes performances in “A Delicate Balance” and “Idomeneus” and she will be appearing in the upcoming production of Carol Churchill’s “Escaped Alone” (all for Soulpepper theatre.) Recent TV/Film work include a regular role in two seasons of “Orphan Black” and four seasons of “Hard Rock Medical.” She recently played Linda in “Death of a Salesman” and Mary Tyrone in “A Long day’s Journey Into Night.” She also is a successful theatre director.

Ruth Lawrence | Actor

Ruth Lawrence is a theatre and film maker based in St. John’s, NL. As an actor, she has performed over 100 roles, most in their premiere production. In film, she is best known for her roles in Clipper Gold, Sweet Pickle, Hard Light, and Random Passage. She is Artistic Director of White Rooster Theatre. Ruth’s work has earned the Joan Orenstein Best Actress Award at the Atlantic Film Festival, the RBC Michelle Jackson Emerging Filmmaker Award, the Rhonda Payne Award for women in theatre, the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council’s Artist of the Year Award, the Queen’s Jubilee Medal, and the 2016 YWCA Women of Distinction Award.

Barry Flatman | Actor

Barry Flatman has appeared in over 30 movies, countless TV series, performed featured roles in several dozen movies for television and has produced, written, directed, and taught for stage, TV, film, and radio. He has has a Gold Record, and has been nominated for both JUNO and Gemini Awards. Flatman’s most recent recurring roles include Private Eyes, Taken, Hell On Wheels, Fargo, The Strain, The Kennedys, Guns and Defiance, and guest star appearances on Hannibal, Marilyn, Good Witch and Gangland Undercover. Recent films include Amber Alert,, No Stranger Than Love, Saw 3, Dr. Cabbie, Apple Mortgage Cake, Patch Town and Just Friends. On stage Flatman starred as “Ken Lay” in Enron (Theatre Calgary), “George “W” Bush” in Stuff Happens (Studio 180), “General Waverly” in the U.S. touring production of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas and “Old Man” in Fool For Love (Red One Theatre Collective). His performance as “Big Daddy” in the Segal Centre Production of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof garnered him a nomination for Best Actor.

Max Simms | Sound Technician

Max is a native of Corner Brook, NL. He has been involved in the arts and entertainment industry both as a musician and a sound technician, for 20 plus years. He has travelled abroad as a Front of House Technician for the likes of Ron Hynes, Alan Doyle, Joel Plaskett and countless others including NL VINYL’S Musical Director Allison Crowe. Max has been the long-time audio technician for The March Hare and the Writers at Woody Point Festival. He has done sound for “Short Waves, Short Stories” since its inception.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #14 – PlayME MONO

PlayME Mono is a series produced with the Playwright’s Guild of Canada which features monologues and interviews with Canada’s most celebrated playwrights. Each episode includes a monologue sample of one of the playwrights works, alongside an live-recoded interview delving into their inspiration and creative process.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #13 – REFRAMED

Kevin Wong | Composer

Kevin Wong is a composer-lyricist, dramaturg, singer/musician, and Associate Artistic Director at the Musical Stage Company in Toronto, Canada. Training: Royal Conservatory of Music (Violin/Harmony/Music History); NoteWorthy (The Musical Stage Company, 2014); Composium (Theatre20, 2015). Selected past musical theatre writing: Recurring John: A Song Cycle (Toronto SummerWorks Festival 2014 / Chicago Musical Theatre Festival 2015); STAR!(ving): A Collection of Songs; Misprint (with bookwriter Lauren Toffan, Women of Musical Theatre Festival 2016); Drama 101 (with bookwriter & co-lyricist Steven Gallagher, Bravo Academy 2017 / Etobicoke School of the Arts 2018 / Stage Door Academy 2018). Upcoming: In addition to the upcoming Fringe workshop production of The Preposterous Predicament of Polly Peel (with bookwriter Julie Tepperman), Kevin is beginning a new musical theatre piece with bookwriter & co-lyricist Nick Green entitled In Real Life.

Sara Farb | Playwright

 

Andrew Scanlon | Actor A Toronto-based actor and singer, Andrew was a member of the Original Canadian company, First US National Tour and Japanese engagement of the Tony-winning Kinky Boots, directed by Jerry Mitchell. Other credits include Aldolpho in The Drowsy Chaperone, Les Miserables, Footloose (Drayton), I Love You, You’re Perfect… (Stage West) V.P. Panch The 25thAnnual… Spelling Bee (The Grand) The Beadle in Sweeney Todd, Legally Blonde, Comedy of Errors and the Canadian premiere of Elf: The Musical(Neptune), The Full Monty(Aquarius), Over the River and Through the Woods (The Globe)

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #12 – BUNNY

Hannah Moscovitch – Playwright

Tarragon past productions: East of Berlin, The Children’s Republic, This is War, Little One/Other People’s Children, Infinity. Hannah Moscovitch is an internationally acclaimed playwright whose work have been produced across Canada as well as in the United States, Britain, Ireland, Greece, Japan, Germany, Austria and Australia. Hannah has been the recipient of numerous awards for her work, including the Trillium Book Award, the Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, the SummerWorks Prize for Production, both The Scotsman Fringe First and The Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh Festival, and the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize administered by Yale University. She is one of Tarragon Theatre’s Playwrights-In-Residence. Upcoming Projects: Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story created with Christian Barry and Ben Caplan (Off-Broadway New York 59E59 Theatres), What a Young Wife Ought to Know (2b theatre/Crow’s Theatre).

Sarah Garton Stanley – Director

For the Tarragon: Director of Spring Training for 3 years and performer and creator for several Spring Festivals. Other Theatre: Awkward and Embarrassing Conversations About Difference (Neworld) Kill Me Now (RMTC/NAC) Bunny (Stratford) December Man (L’homme de décembre) (NAC), Caught (TPM) Helen Lawrence (Arts Club, CanStage, BAM, Kammerspiele etc.,) We Keep Coming Back (Polish tour + Asheknaz, Winnipeg Jewish Theatre, Chutzpah) Associate Artistic Director of English Theatre, Co-creator and Creative Catalyst SpiderWebShow Performance Sarah is presently a PhD student in Cultural Studies at Queen’s. Upcoming: Liza Balkan’s Out the Window (Luminato/Theatre Centre) and foldA (SpiderWebShow)

Maev Beaty – Actor

Maev was last seen at Tarragon in Wide Awake Hearts. In her 18-year professional career she has gathered 50 stage credits from across the country, ranging from new plays (Maev has appeared in 25 Canadian Premieres, including Palace of the End, Proud,Terminus, Passion Play, Parfumerie, Montparnasse and Goblin Market) to the classics (Goneril, Viola, Titania, Rosaline, Hamlet, Helena and Portia, among others). She originated Bunny in her third of four recent seasons at the Stratford Festival. She is a Toronto Theatre Critics’ Award winner, three-time Dora winner and nine-time nominee in both performance and writing. She’s been a proud member of huge theatre ensemble endeavours such as Theatrefront’s The Mill series, Volcano Theatre’s Another Africa (LuminaTO/Canadian Stage) and Nightwood’s The Penelopiad. Next winter she’ll be playing “Hannah Moscovitch” in their play (also created with Ann-Marie Kerr) Secret Life of a Mother at the Theatre Centre.

Jesse LaVercombe – Actor

At Tarragon: Bunny, Hamlet, Sequence. Other theatre credits include: The Bakkhai (Marigny Opera House, New Orleans), Our Beautiful Sons (Blyth), S h e e t s (Videofag), A Presence of Monster (PuSh Festival), The Ark: Ibsen on Fogo Island (NAC), Mistatim (Red Sky, Canadian Tour), Hacked (Caravan Stage Company, U.S. Tour). TV: American Gods (STARZ), The Detail (CTV), Salvation (CBS), Mayday (Discovery), Save Me (CBC); Films: Mary Goes Round, The Telephone Game, In Clamatore. Writing credits include: Love Me Forever Billy H. Tender (Videofag, NYC Fringe, Kick & Push), Preacher Man (NTS, Festival of Clowns, United Solo Festival [New York]); Short Films: “Philip” and “Tony” (CFC), “The Things You Think I’m Thinking” (Festivals include: SXSW, Slamdance, Whistler, BFI, CFF); writer and contributing editor for Intermission Magazine; 2017 Writer-in-Residence for Driftwood Theatre; commission for a new musical from YES Theatre. Training: National Theatre School, Canadian Film Centre Actors’ Conservatory. www.jesselavercombe.com

Cyrus Lane – Actor

Cyrus is proud to be working at the Tarragon for the first time in Bunny. This winter, he played Scrooge in Ross Petty’s A Christmas Carol: The Family Musical with a Scrooge Loose at the Elgin Theatre. Selected shows from his 6 seasons at the Stratford Festival include The Changeling, Macbeth, As You Like It, Bunny (original production), The Taming of the Shrew, Possible Worlds, Cymbeline, Peter Pan, Titus Andronicus, Richard III and Wanderlust. Happy moving between musicals and dramas, some favourite credits are Twelve Angry Men (Soulpepper – Dora Award, Ensemble), Kiss of the Spider Woman (Talk is Free), Passion Play (Convergence/Outside the March/Sheep No Wool – Dora Award, Ensemble), You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (YPT), The Tin Drum (UnSpun Theatre) and An Inconvenient Musical (Factory). After two seasons at the Shaw Festival, Cyrus acted in several shows for Canadian Stage including Rock N Roll, Habeas Corpus, and Take Me Out. TV credits include Reign, The Border, The Summit, Anne of Green Gables: a New Beginning, and on the Murdoch Mysteries playing Roger Newsome, and now that Roger is dead, his identical twin brother, Rupert. He trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. He sends his love to his wife, writer-comedian Joanne O’Sullivan. They have an 8 year old daughter named Eliza.

Matthew Edison – Actor

At Tarragon: Bunny, Marine Life, An Enemy of the People, Sextet, The Real World?, Forests, Midnight Sun. As playwright: The Domino Heart. Other theatre: Killer Joe, Noises Off, Venus in Fur, Race, Amadeus, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Proof, A Christmas Carol, Loot, Awake and Sing!, The Caretaker, The Real Thing, The School for Wives, The Importance of Being Ernest, The 39 Steps, Lawrence and Holloman, Pride and Prejudice, The Man Who Came to Dinner, The Real Thing. Film and TV: The Detail, Save me, The Girlfriend Experience, Dirty Singles, Rookie Blue, Reign, Saving Hope, The LA Complex, Republic of Doyle, Harriet the Spy, Princess, Flash of Genius, The Wild Girl, Murdoch Mysteries, House Party, Are You Afraid of the Dark?. Other: Matthew received two Dora nominations for his play The Domino Heart and for his performance as Hal in Proof, as well as a My Entertainment World award for Killer Joe.

Rachel Cairns – Actor

Rachel trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Theatre credits include The Summoned, Hamlet (Tarragon), Stupid F*cking Bird (Bird Collective), Seeds, Fury (Blythe Festival), Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Cymbeline, Equivocation (Bard on the Beach), Peter and the Starcatcher (Arts Club), Romeo and Juliet (Pilot Theatre, UK). TV credits include: Anne (Netflix), Save Me (CBC), Saving Hope (CTV). She is the creator of three award winning web series, check them out at http://www.rachelcairns.ca/ Up next Rachel will be appearing as Juliet in R&J and Helena in Dream in High Park this summer.

Tony Ofori – Actor

Born and raised in Toronto, Tony Ofori is a graduate of both Humber’s Theatre Performance program and York University’s BFA program, later training with Second city to round off his theatrical studies. Some of his latest works include, Best of fringe Kids winner Tick, Harold Green’s production of The Model Apartment (Toronto Centre for the Performing arts), Shakespeare in Action a touring show, and Let’s Go (Theatre Passé Muraille Backspace). Aside from theatre, Tony is also a recording hip hop musician, opening for the likes of Asap Rocky, Massari and Scratch from the roots. Tony is absolutely honoured to be working with Tarragon and is excited to work with such an amazing team to tell this amazing story.

Gabriella Albino – Actor

At Tarragon: Debut. Other theatre credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Festival Players), The Penelopiad, As You Like It, Cavalcade (GBTS), In the Heights, Beauty and the Beast, American Idiot, Jesus Christ Superstar (Yes Theatre), Emotional Creature (Nightwood/V-Day). She has worked as an actor developing new Canadian work with Studio 180, Soulpepper, Fu-GEN, Factory Theatre, and Festival Players. Gabriella is currently a member of the Factory Mechanicals, Factory Theatre’s company of emerging actors. She is a recent graduate of the George Brown Theatre School. Upcoming: Mary in Merrily We Roll Along, directed by Mitchell Cushman (Yes Theatre).

PlayME PODCAST SERIES #11 – BANG BANG

Kat Sandler – Playwright & Director

Kat Sandler is a writer, director and the Artistic Director of Theatre Brouhaha. She has directed twelve of her original plays in the last six years, including Toronto Best of Fringe hits Bright Lights, Punch Up and Help Yourself (winner of the New Play Contest), Delicacy (Summerworks Spotlight Award), and Liver, Cockfight and Retreat (Storefront Theatre). Other directing credits include Big Plans, 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, Cabaret, and The Goat, or Who is Sylvia. She was a member of the Tarragon Playwrights Unit, where she developed Mustard (Dora Mavor Moore Award, Outstanding New Play) and is currently the Canada Council Playwright in Residence at Tarragon. She was the 2015 recipient of NOW Magazine’s Audience Choice Award for Best Director and Best Playwright. Kat is a graduate of the Queen’s University Drama Program.

Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah – Actor

Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah is a Dora-nominated, actor, writer, and producer. Since completing the Humber Theatre Performance Program, she has made a point of aligning herself with artists that share her desire to create and tell stories that push our societal boundaries. Notable credits include; Laertes in Ravi Jain’s Prince Hamlet, Claudette in How Black Mothers Say I Love You, Queen Elizabeth I in The Queen’s Conjuror, Black Woman in We Are Proud to Present…, St. Monica in Unit 102’s The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Othello in Go Play Producing’s Othello, and Jessica in Scapegoat Collective’s Cloud.

Karen Robinson – Actor

Recent: Prince Hamlet (WhyNot); Measure For Measure & The Winter’s Tale (Groundling). Six seasons at Stratford include Harlem Duet and Shakespeare In Love. Other: The Importance of Being Earnest & Stuff Happens (NAC); The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble (Obsidian); Intimate Apparel (ATP); Doubt (Citadel); da KINK in my hair (San Diego; UK). TV: Schitt’s Creek, Frankie Drake, Shoot The Messenger (CBC); The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu); Mary Kills People (Lifetime); Salvation (CBS); Morning Show Murders (Hallmark); Slings and Arrows (Showcase). Awards: a Dora, an ensemble NAACP Award, a Sterling, and the Best Actress Award at the Salento International Film Festival in Italy.

Sébastien Heins – Actor

Sébastien Heins is an acclaimed actor and playwright. After two seasons in Stratford (The School for Scandal, Timon of Athens, Breath of Kings: Rebellion & Redemption), he is thrilled to be making his Factory Theatre debut in BANG BANG, alongside such a dynamic team, lead by Kat Sandler. He is a founding company member of Outside the March (Mr. Burns, Vitals, Mr. Marmalade), the creator of the one-man show Brotherhood: The Hip Hopera (Toured Canada, NYC, and India), and will return to Stratford this year in The Tempest, as Ferdinand. He thanks his family, friends, and amazing partner Dasha for their love, support, and dedication.

Jeff Lillico – Actor

For Theatre: Factory debut. Soulpepper (including Signature Theatre, NYC), Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Shaw Festival, Stratford Festival, Canadian Stage, Mirvish, Buddies in Bad Times, Tarragon, Studio180, Theatre Panik, Musical Stage Company, Theatre20, National Arts Centre, Alberta Theatre Projects, Theatre Calgary, GEVA Theater & Charlottetown Festival. Jeff received a Dora award for his work in The Light in The Piazza, and four Dora nominations for Tom at the Farm, Grey Gardens, Our Town & The Glass Menagerie. For Screen: On the Basis of Sex, Designated Survivor, Rocky Horror Picture Show (2016), Copper, Flashpoint, Murdoch Mysteries, Separation, The Ticket.

Richard Zeppieri – Actor

For Factory Theatre: River Lady, The Leisure Society, Beyond Mozambique, and 6 Essential Questions. Other theatre credits include: Laurence and Holloman, Girl in the Goldfish Bowl and Carried Away on the Crest of a Wave for Tarragon Theatre. Lady in the Red Dress for Fu- GEN. Zadie’s Shoes at the Wintergarden theatre. Filumena for Stratford. Mr. Zeppieri is a Gemini Award recipient and can next be seen in the feature film Little Italy.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES # 10 – Orange Dot

Sean Dixon – Playwright

Sean Dixon’s Governor General nominated play, ‘A God in Need of Help’ (produced by Tarragon Theatre and published by Coach House Books), serves as a companion piece to ‘The Orange Dot’ even though the former is set in Venice in 1605 and the latter in Toronto in 2017. He has written extensively for BC’s Caravan Farm Theatre, Ontario’s Blyth Festival, Toronto’s Summerworks Festival and Victoria’s Theatre SKAM. His novels and short stories include ‘The Girls Who Saw Everything’, ‘The Many Revenges of Kip Flynn’, and ‘Sic Transit Gloria at the Humber Loop’. Currently he is writing a play for the Tarragon about adoption among Neanderthals and Early Modern Humans, as well as a novel set in Toronto’s Roncesvalles neighbourhood about a kidnapping gone awry.

Vikki Shaw – Director

As the previous Artistic Director and founder of DVxT Theatre, Vikki’s work included a multi award-winning production of Ibsen’s The Doll House adapted by John Murrell, the acclaimed Soulpepper production of Happy Days starring Martha Burns and a site-specific production of The Turn of the Screw at the Campbell House Museum. DVxT received 19 Dora Nominations and 12 Dora Awards for their work. Recently, Vikki directed The Orange Dot (Theatrefront), Top Girls (The Shaw Festival), Good People (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre), Tainted (Moyo Theatre), 4.48 Psychosis (Necessary Angel), The Misanthrope (Associate, Stratford Shakespeare Festival), The Mill Part 4 : Ash (Theatrefront/Young Centre), Romeo & Juliet (Canadian Stage); The Last Five Years (The Grand Theatre); Creon(Theatreworks). Vikki has collaborated with Buddies in Bad Times, Crow’s Theatre, Factory Theatre, Great Canadian Theatre Company, The National Arts Centre, Nightwood Theatre, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Theatre Smith-Gilmour, Soulpepper, Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Calgary, Theatre Direct and the Urge Collective.

Daniela Vlaskalic – Actor

Daniela is an award winning actor and writer and has worked extensively across Canada. Selected credits include: The Orange Dot (Theatre Front); Disgraced (Magnus Theatre); Cockroach (Alberta Theatre Projects); Pith! The Exquisite Hour, The Bull the Moon and the Coronet of Stars (Theatre Department); The Money Shot (Ground Zero Theatre); Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet (Belfry Theatre); Drama (Alberta Theatre Projects; playRites ’12; Betty Nomination); Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure (Theatre Aquarius); Doubt (Canadian Stage); The Drowning Girls (Tarragon Theatre, Gateway Theatre, Belfry Theatre, Persephone Theatre, Citadel Theatre, MTC); All’s Well That Ends Well, Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew (Stratford Shakespeare Festival). As a playwright, Daniela co-wrote the multiple award-winning play; The Drowning Girls, which has received multiple productions nationally and internationally and is published by Canada Playwrights Press. @danivlaskalic

Shawn Doyle – Actor

Shawn is a multiple award-winning actor who works extensively in Film and Television. The Orange Dot marks his first time back on stage in ten years. Past theatre credits include the original production of Problem Child (Factory Theatre); A Number (Canstage, Dora Award); Gagarin Way (Crows Theatre/World Stage Festival); A Christmas Carol (YPT); Where Is Kabuki (Factory); Four Lives Of Marie (Tarragon Theatre); Safe Haven (Neptune Theatre); Digging For Fire (Factory); The House Of Martin Guerre/ Fabulous Party (Livent).

PlayME PODCAST SERIES # 9 – Iceland

Nicolas Billon – Playwright

Nic’s stage work has been produced around the world. His triptych Fault Lines garnered the 2013 Governor-General’s Award for Drama. In 2014, his play The Elephant Song was released as a feature film and garnered Nic a Canadian Screen Award and a Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Award for his adaptation.His latest play, Butcher, premiered at Alberta Theatre Projects in 2014. It has since been produced across the country and is being made into a feature film by Rhombus Media. A graduate of the CFC TV Writing Program, Nic recently wrote for CBC’s TV series X Company. nicolasbillon.com

Claire Calnan – Performer

Claire is an actor, producer, and theatre maker. Acting credits include: Iceland (Why Not Theatre, Factory Theatre, International tour), Tribes (Theatre Aquarius), Small Room at the Top of the Stairs, After Akhmatova, The Clockmaker, Past Perfect (Tarragon Theatre), Antigone (Soulpepper), Duel at Dawn and New Canadian Kid (YPT), Katherine Mansfield and Chekhov’s Heartache (Theatre Smith-Gilmour), and Appetite (Exchange Rate/Volcano) She was the co-founder and co-Artistic Director of The AMY Project (Artists Mentoring Youth) from 2005-2014 and is currently the Executive Director of the Hamilton Fringe Festival. Claire was a recipient of a 2014 Harold Award, 2008 Crow’s Theatre Emerging Director Award, and a 2010 Chalmers Professional Development grant to support her studies of traditional theatre in Japan. She was twice nominated for the KM Hunter Award and was voted Top Theatre Artist of 2009 by NOW Magazine. Claire is a graduate of Studio 58.

Christine Horne – Performer

Christine’s stage credits include Iceland (WhyNot Theatre), The Road to Paradise (Human Cargo/Crow’s), Tom At The Farm (Buddies), The Seagull (Crow’s), Belleville (Company Theatre), Farther West (Soulpepper), Between the Sheets (Nightwood), The Great Gatsby (The Grand), Andromache (Necessary Angel), Romeo and Juliet (Canadian Stage), The Turn of the Screw (DVxT), Miss Julie: Sheh’mah (KICK Theatre), Twelfth Night (Resurgence), Bluebeard (Toronto Fringe), and Gorey Story (Thistle Project). Film and TV credits include Hyena Road, The Captive, Stories We Tell, Sex After Kids, Tru Love, Entangled, We Wanted More, The Stone Angel, Othello, Lost Girl, Murdoch Mysteries, Saving Hope, Remedy, Republic of Doyle, Rookie Blue, King, and Played. Christine has been nominated for three Dora Awards (winning in 2010 for The Turn of the Screw) and two ACTRA Awards. She recently won a Canadian Screen Award for her work on Remedy.

Kawa Ada – Performer

A graduate of The Boston Conservatory, Kawa has played leading roles at Factory, Tarragon, Canadian Stage, the Belfry, the Grand, Cahoots, several seasons at The Shaw Festival, and on Broadway. He is a member of the acting company at Soulpepper, having received a Dora Award for his debut performance in Accidental Death of an Anarchist. His play, The Wanderers, was recently released by Playwrights Canada Press, making him the first Afghan-Canadian published playwright.

*Director of Stage production: Ravi Jan

PlayME PODCAST SERIES # 8 – Vitals

Rosamund Small – Playwright

Rosamund Small is a playwright interested in all forms of theatre, including musicals, documentary, traditional, sketch and immersive works. Her new show TomorrowLove opens in Toronto this November (Outside the March). In January 2017 Rosedale Heights School of the Arts premieres Rosamund’s large-scale, one hundred character immersive experience Maven Academy, a piece created for a cast of 100 teenage performers. She also collaborates regularly with choreographer Robert Binet on multidisciplinary and dance works (Orpheus Becomes Eurydice with the Banf Centre and The National Ballet, and Terra Incognita with Wild Space Ballet). Rosamund is a member of the Soulpepper Academy.

Katherine Cullen – Performer

Katherine is an actor and playwright based in Toronto. She is an associate artist with Outside The March and has appeared in various productions including, Mr. Marmalade (Sookie / Emily the Babysitter), Sarah Ruhl’s Passion Play (Outside The March / Convergence Theatre / Sheep No Wool), Vitals (Dora Nomination), and most recently, Mr.Burns, A Post-Electric Play. She is currently working alongside Britta Johnson to create Stupidhead!: A Musical Comedy, debuting at Theatre Passe Muraille in 2017. Stupid head! also appeared at last years’ Summerworks Festival and won Best New Performance Text.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES # 7 – Short Stories

Eric Peterson – Actor, Timekeeper & Chemo Sabe

Eric Peterson is one of Canada’s most accomplished actors, and a winner of four Gemini Awards and a Dora Award. He is best known for his roles in Street Legal (1987), Corner Gas (2004) and Earth (1998). He is married to Annie Kidder.

Roy L. Rabideau – Writer, Timekeeper

Roy L. Rabideau holds degrees in Visual Arts and Education from the University of Windsor. He is a multidisciplinary artist who has exhibited both here at home and abroad. He is the author of two novels, “The Long Short Summer” and his soon to be published second novel, “The Timekeeper, a Dale Evans mystery”. You can find him on his Facebook page, “We’ll Fly Press”.

John Mullin – Writer, Chemo Sabe

John Mullin is a retired high school history teacher. He is married and lives in Brighton Ontario with his wife Susan. His interests are reading (mostly history), travel and his two granddaughters.

Barbara Budd – Actor, The Fall of Andrew Allen & House

is a Canadian actress, narrator and radio announcer. She is known for 3 Men and a Baby (1987), Screening (2006) and Turning to Stone (1985). Between 1993 and April 30, 2010, she was the co-host of CBC Radio One’s As It Happens.

Eric Koch – Writer, The Fall of Andrew Allen

Bio coming soon!

Chris Nash – Writer, House

Chris Nash is a retired psychologist, short fiction write and poet from Sudbury Ontario. She published her novel “Temperance Lloyd: Hanged for Witchcraft in 1682″, on the 330th anniversary of that execution. Her novel, “Priest Hole” awaits publication. She is married to Canadian poet, Roger Nash.

Tony Nappo – Actor, Betting on Death

Tony was born and raised in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. He attended the University of Toronto for two years before transferring to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City where he graduated in 1991. He has appeared in numerous films and television shows and many independent Canadian films.

Vera Constantineau- Writer, Betting on Death

Vera Constantineau is an internationally published poet and short fiction writer. Her work has appeared in online journals, print journals and anthologies. She is a member of the Sudbury Writers’ Guild, the Manitoulin Writers’ Circle and the Writers Community of Durham Region.

Lisa Ryder Cohen – Actor, A Classified Heart

Sophie Holdstock – Writer, A Classified Heart

Christine Horne – Actor, The Double Down

Christine’s stage credits include Iceland (WhyNot Theatre), The Road to Paradise (Human Cargo/Crow’s), Tom At The Farm (Buddies), The Seagull (Crow’s), Belleville (Company Theatre), Farther West (Soulpepper), Between the Sheets (Nightwood), The Great Gatsby (The Grand), Andromache (Necessary Angel), Romeo and Juliet (Canadian Stage), The Turn of the Screw (DVxT), Miss Julie: Sheh’mah (KICK Theatre), Twelfth Night (Resurgence), Bluebeard (Toronto Fringe), and Gorey Story (Thistle Project). Film and TV credits include Hyena Road, The Captive, Stories We Tell, Sex After Kids, Tru Love, Entangled, We Wanted More, The Stone Angel, Othello, Lost Girl, Murdoch Mysteries, Saving Hope, Remedy, Republic of Doyle, Rookie Blue, King, and Played. Christine has been nominated for three Dora Awards (winning in 2010 for The Turn of the Screw) and two ACTRA Awards. She recently won a Canadian Screen Award for her work on Remedy.

Gail Packwood – Writer, The Double Down

Gail Packwood is a Toronto based arts administrator. Currently she is the Managing Director at the School of Toronto Dance Theatre. Previous positions include Director of Project Management and Creative Logistics at Catalyst TCM, Executive Director of the Artists’ Health Centre Foundation (now Artists’ Health Alliance) and seven years with Mirvish Productions in various positions in company management and production. Gail was a 2010 Arts Management Fellow at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. Prior to her time in Washington, Gail was the Associate Producer at the Canadian Stage Company. From 2005-12, she was President of the Board of Directors for the Theatre Centre, a highly regarded interdisciplinary arts incubator. In 2011, Gail was the recipient of a Harold Award from the Toronto theatre community. Gail holds an MA (Drama) from the University of Toronto and a BFA in Theatre from York University.

Raoul Bhaneja – Actor, Benji Hayward

Raoul Bhaneja- A graduate of The National Theatre School, since moving to Toronto twenty years ago, Raoul has performed extensively in television, film and theatre. Last year he was nominated for a Dora Award for his musical Life, Death and The Blues and most recently appeared on stage (and co produced) the box office breaking play Disgraced as part of the Off Mirvish season.

Jennifer McKinley – Writer, Benji Hayward

Jennifer is a writer, producer and performer from Toronto. Select productions include The Underpants, New Ideas Festival (Alumnae Theatre); Jacqueries, Part 1 (Jacob Niedzwiecki/SummerWorks), recipient of the Buddies In Bad Times Award For Risk And Innovation. Jennifer has performed clown, sketch and stand-up comedy and she has presented stories at storytelling nights and competitive literary readings. Jennifer performed excerpts from her upcoming solo show, Operation SUNshine, at CRAPSHOOT! (Theatre Passe Muraille) and the 2016 Feminist Art Conference Residency (Artscape Gibraltar Point).

Pamela Sinha – Clutched by The Hair (Actor)

Pamela Mala Sinha is an award winning actress and playwright working in theatre, film and television. Her first solo play, Crash, which she also performed, garnered six Dora award nominations and 4 wins, including Outstanding New Play. Her second play, Happy Place, premiered at Soulpepper Theatre in 2015. Pamela is writing the screenplay for Happy Place for Sienna Films Toronto, and is currently at work on a new play commission for Soulpepper Theatre Company. She will be touring CRASH with them internationally in 2017.

Cynthia Matthews – Writer, Clutched by the Hair

Cynthia has worked as a chamber maid, potato peeler, data entry operator, teacher, and vice-principal of special education programs. She writes, paints, and instructs online courses for teachers in Bruce County, Ontario. Her fiction and non-fiction have appeared in literary journals in USA, UK, Canada, South Africa, and Australia. Find out more at https://www.facebook.com/CindyIsabelMatthews, @Matthec1957or cindymatthews.ca.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES # 6 – Theory

Norman Yeung – Playwright

Norman works in theatre, film, and visual arts.

His play “Theory” won First Place in the Herman Voaden National Playwriting Competition in 2015. “Deirdre Dear” premiered at the Neil LaBute New Theater Festival in St. Louis. “Pu-Erh” premiered at Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto and was nominated for four Dora Mavor Moore Awards, including Outstanding New Play. “Pu-Erh” was a Herman Voaden finalist in 2009. He was a member of Canadian Stage’s BASH! artist development program, fu-GEN’s Kitchen Playwrights Unit, and Tapestry New Opera’s Composer-Librettist Laboratory. He is featured in the book “Voices Rising: Asian Canadian Cultural Activism” by Xiaoping Li. As an actor, Norman’s film and television credits include a supporting role in “Resident Evil: Afterlife” (Sony/Screen Gems), a series regular role in “Todd and the Book of Pure Evil” (SPACE/CTV), and roles in “Rookie Blue” (ABC/Global), “Murdoch Mysteries” (CBC), and “King” (Showcase). He recently performed in the Canadian Premiere of “Chimerica” at Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre and Canadian Stage. He holds a BFA in Acting/Theatre from the University of British Columbia and a BFA (Honours) in Film from Ryerson University. Norman grew up in East Vancouver and lives in Toronto and Los Angeles.

Sascha Cole – Isabelle

Audrey Dwyer – Lee

Audrey Dwyer has been working in theatre and film for nearly twenty years as an actor, writer, director and dramaturge. Her directing credits include The Aftermath by Lisa Codrington (FemFest) and The Apology by Darrah Teitel (Next Stage) for which she was nominated for a Dora Award for Outstanding Direction. Audrey has also directed many staged readings and has led many workshops for new Canadian plays. Audrey’s first screenplay, The Cupcake, won Best Story at Ottawa’s Digi60 Festival. She was a member of the Obsidian Theatre Writer’s Unit (2012), then Obsidian’s Development Unit (2013) and then became their Playwright in Residence (2014). She was awarded the Cayle Chernin Award for Theatre in 2015. Her first full-length play called Calpurnia – a satirical comedy on race, class and politics set in Toronto – was well received at Nightwood Theatre’s New Groundswell Festival in 2014. Her theatre work includes a co-production with Mirvish Productions and The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, RMTC’s Good People, thirsty at The National Arts Centre, Nightwood Theatre’s The Penelopiad, Mirvish/Studio 180’s Clybourne Park and Studio 180’s The Overwhelming. She was also in Canadian Stage’s Dream in High Park – The Tempest, she was in Obsidian Theatre’s Black Medea, and Mirvish/RMTC’s Medea. She played Hulda in Blue Planet at Toronto’s Young People’s Theatre and Penelope in Danny, King of the Basement with Roseneath Theatre. She starred in Carousel Player’s Patty’s Cake, which won a Dora Award for Outstanding Children’s Production. She was also in Second City’s Touring Company. Her television and film credits include Da Kink in My Hair, Man of the Year with Robin Williams and Atom Egoyan’s Where The Truth Lies. She was the Associate Artistic Director of Nightwood Theatre from 2008 – 2009. She has led workshops, taught classes and is a mentor to numerous theatre artists. She is the Artistic Director of Cow Over Moon Theatre, a theatre company for children. She graduated from The National Theatre School of Canada in 2001.

Qasim Khan – Davinder

Qasim is a Dora Award nominated actor whose recent work includes: Das Ding (Canadian Stage/ Theatre Smash); Alice Through The Looking Glass, Anne of Green Gables – The Musical, A Misfortune(Charlottetown Festival); Alligator Pie, The Crucible, The Royal Comedians, Dirt (Soulpepper); A Craigslist Cantata (Acting Up/ National Arts Centre/ Alberta Theatre Projects/ Citadel Theatre); Beneath the Banyan Tree (Theatre Direct); and and Shannon 10:40 (Videofag). He has played roles on The Riftworld Chronicles, Saving Hope, Nikita, Dan For Mayor, and Little Mosque on the Prairie. Qasim is a graduate of the Soulpepper Academy, holds his degree from the University of Toronto/ Sheridan College, and is an International Actor Fellow of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Upcoming: Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well(Canadian Stage); Das Ding (1000 Islands Playhouse); Alligator Pie (Soulpepper National Tour); and The Millennial Malcontent (Tarragon Theatre).

Darrel Gamotin – Jorge

Darrel Gamotin is an actor and playwright. His most notable acting credits include BANANA BOYS (Factory Theatre), WAITING FOR GODOT (Modern Times Theatre), TOUGH! (Factory Theatre), and BLUE PLANET (Young People’s Theatre). He was also a performer, creator, and producer of the Dora Award nominated MONDAY NIGHTS co-produced and presented by the Theatre Centre.

Starr Domingue – Safina
Selected Credits: Alice In Wonderland (Aletheia Cameron), Sweeney Todd (Ensemble), Sweet Charity (Frenchie), Pygmalion (Londoner) / Shaw Festival; Oil And Water (Originated the role of Vonzia) / NAC; Porgy & Bess (Choreographer) / Szeged Festival; Dreamgirls (Lorrell) / ArtsClub; Binti’s Journey (Binti) / YPT; Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Resident Director/Dance Captain/US Charlaine – performed) / European/Broadway National Tour; All Shook Up (Lorraine) / MSMT; Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Charlaine), Little Shop of Horrors (Crystal) / CanStage; Cookin’ At The Cookery (Young Alberta) / ASF / Citadel; Hairspray (Dynamite/US Lil Inez) Mirvish Productions / Charlottetown Festival / ArtsClub; Adventures of a Black Girl… / du Maurier Theatre. Film/TV: Odd Squad (Puppy Master) / PBS Kids; Lost Girl / Prodigy Pictures; Psyche / USA; Hairspray (Pearl) / New Line Cinema; 4Square (4Tone) / Corus; Cheetah Girls / Disney. Thanks to SG, Mumma and God, without whom I am nothing.

Kyle – Orzech – Richard

If I Were You (Theatre Aquarius), The Divine: A Play for Sarah Bernhardt (Shaw Festival), Beneath the Banyan Tree (Theatre Direct), Arcadia (Shaw Festival, Mirvish), In the Heights, Jesus Christ Superstar (YES Theatre), Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth (Classical Theatre Project), Scooter Thomas Makes It To The Top Of The World, The Velveteen Rabbit (Theatre New Brunswick), Wife Begins at Forty (Upper Canada Playhouse), Far From the Heart (Sheatre), It’s Munsch Time! (George Brown Theatre School). Film, TV and Animation: Storming Juno (History), Wendy (Red Kite Animation), Fuzzy Tales (CBC).

Ash Knight – Omar

Ash graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramtic Art in England. He’s worked around the world:
England (“Romeo and Juliet” Birmingham Stage Company, “Hamlet”, “The Tempest” in London); U.S.A. (“Same Time Next Year” Blue Heron Arts Center in New York City);
Canada (“a Midsummer Night’s Dream”, “The Count Of Monte Cristo” the stratford festival,”Carried Away On The Crest Of A Wave” Tarragon Theatre, “Wise Woman Of Abyssinia” Theatre Centre, “Free As Injuns” Buddies In Bad Times,”Paperseries”, “Fear and Misery of the 3rd Reich” Summerworks, “Beneath the Banyan Tree” N.A.C.); Uganda (“Cake” Ugandan National Theatre in Kampala). Ash is a Dora award nominated actor (“Brothel #9” Factory Theatre), and is expanding into writing and directing. His first play “’enkidu and Gilgamesh” was workshopped in London, England and New York City. He regularly works on new play development workshops and with the Stratford Festival on directing/teaching Shakespeare.

ESTHER JUN – Director of Original Workshop Production

Esther was originally trained as an actor in NYC and then completed her directing degree at Drama Centre London in 2006. She is the Co-Artistic Director of Directors Lab North and most recently was a 2015 Neil Munro Intern Director at the Shaw Festival. She also originated the role of Janet in Soulpepper’s Kim’s Convenience.Upcoming: Assistant director of John Gabriel Borkman (Stratford); Director: The Last Wife (The Belfry & GCTC) Elsewhere:Director: Rococo (Shaw Festival); And Now, The End (Ante Up Productions); Bremen Rock City (Song Trolley Productions); Cowboy Mouth, Trout Stanley (Heart In Hand); Yellow Face (Hart House); Fear and Misery of the Third Reich (DeusXM); First Hand Woman (Fire Up Productions). Co-director: Hiding Words (Eventual Ashes); Strange Mary Strange (Theatre on the Verge). Assistant director: You Never Can Tell, Light up the Sky (Shaw Festival); The Crucible (Soulpepper). Et cetera:Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Directors Lab North. www.directorslabnorth.com.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES # 5 – Grade 8

Dwayne Morgan – Playwright

Dwayne Morgan began his career as a performer in 1993. A year later, he founded Up From The Roots entertainment, to promote the positive artistic contributions of African Canadian and urban influenced artists. Morgan is host and producer of his own TV show, Poetically Speaking, on the AfroGlobal Television Network. In 2014, he received the Renaissance Planet Africa Award for Career Achievement, and was acknowledged by the Ontario Black History Society as a Community Trailblazer, following up on his 2013 Scarborough Walk of Fame Induction. Morgan is a member of the Writers’ Union of Canada, a 2012 National Team Poetry Slam Champion, and four-time runner up. He has received both the African Canadian Achievement Award, and the Harry Jerome Award for Excellence in the Arts, and is the winner of 3 Canadian Urban Music Awards (2001, 2003, 2005). In 2005 he was recognized as Poet of Honour at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word in Vancouver. In 2008, Morgan’s contribution to the Arts and Canadian society were recognized on the Legacy Black History Month poster. Morgan has published 8 books, and has collaborated with Driftwood Studios to film Three Knocks, a ten-minute film based on his domestic violence poem of the same name, which premiered in Toronto’s Reel World Film Festival.

PlayME PODCAST SERIES # 4 – LO (or DEAR MR. WELLS)

Rose Napoli – Playwright

Rose is a Toronto-based playwright, actress, and producer. Her first play, Oregano, was shortlisted for the Tarragon Emerging Playwright’s Competition and premiered at the Storefront Theatre enjoying sold-out houses and critical acclaim. Her plays include: Ten Creative Ways to Dispose of your Cremains, Lo (Or Dear Mr Wells), and SHREW (A Big Fat Italian Comedy Inspired by William Shakespeare). She has taken part in Nightwood Theatre’s Write from the Hipprogram and the Playwright’s Unit with the Thousand Islands Playhouse. Coming up, Rose will be developing her short play, A Death and the Marias, into a full-length piece with the Playwright’s Unit at the Tarragon Theatre. As an actress, Rose is a two-time participant in the Banff/Citadel Professional Theatre Program and has worked in theatres across the country. Currently, she is playing the title role in The Incredible Speediness of Jamie Cavanaugh at Roseneath Theatre.

Vivien Endicott-Douglas – Actor

PlayME PODCAST SERIES # 3 – QUIVER

Anna Chatterton – Playwright

Anna Chatterton is a playwright, librettist and performer. Her play Within the Glass was recently produced at Tarragon Theatre where she is a playwright in residence. Anna co-writes and performs with the Independent Aunties (Breakfast-Theatre Centre, Frances, Mathilda and Tea– Theatre Passe Muraille, Clean Irene & Dirty Maxine-Buddies). Their play Gertrude and Alice will be produced with Buddies in Bad Times Theatre March 10-27th. As a librettist her work has been produced by Canadian Opera Company (Swoon), World Stage/Harbourfront Centre(/Urbanvessel (Voice Box) The Banff Centre (Crush) and Theatre Centre/Urbanvessel (Stitch–Dora nomination for Best New Opera). Upcoming is Rocking Horse Winner in May (Tapestry Opera) Anna is also the Playwright-in-Residence at Nightwood Theatre this season and was recently invited to be a playwright in residence at the National Theatre School of Canada.

PODCAST SERIES # 2 – BETTER ANGELS: A PARABLE

Andrea Scott – Playwright

Andrea is a professional writer, producer and actor with a Masters’ degree in Theatre from the University of Toronto who made the transition to writing theatre in 2010 with the one person play, Damaged, about the life of a transgender woman. Since then she has written several plays including Eating Pomegranates Naked, Frenemies, Swings & Roundabouts, and Better Angels: A Parable which won the award for production at the 2015 SummerWorks Theatre Festival in August. Upcoming projects include her Theatre for Young Audiences play, Princesses Don’t Grow on Trees and Don’t Talk to Me Like I’m Your Wife in August 2016.

Sascha Cole

Nicolas Billon – Playwright

Nicolas Billon is a Canadian writer, best known for his plays The Elephant Song, Iceland, and Butcher. His work has been produced in Toronto, Stratford, New York, and Paris. His triptych Fault Lines garnered the 2013 Governor-General’s Award for Drama. In 2015, Nicolas garnered a number of awards, including the 2015 Canadian Screen Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (Elephant Song), the 2015 Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Award — Movies & Mini-Series (Elephant Song), and the 2015 Calgary Theatre Critics Award for Best New Script (Butcher). For full biography click here.

Sarah Kitz – Director

A Toronto director, actor and writer, Sarah is co-director of The AMY Project 2015 and assistant director on the world premiere of Daniel MacIvor’s Cake and Dirt at Tarragon Theatre. Recent directing credits include Part 1 of Pandemic Theatre’s BIRTH: A Trilogy, The Nice Guy (Wrecking Ball #16), Three More Sleepless Nights (Bad Joe/Playwright Project), Savage in Limbo (Bob Kills Theatre). Sarah was director in residence at SoulO Theatre Festival and a participant of Directors Lab North 2014. She has worked with Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, as an Assistant Director with Soulpepper Theatre Company, and has been a member of the Playwrights Unit at Theatre Passe Muraille. In Spring 2015 she directs Antony & Cleopatra (Shakespeare in the Ruins) in Winnipeg. Sarah has been a member of the Stratford Festival Company, a graduate of the Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre, and has acted across Canada. Recently Sarah played Edna St. Vincent Millay in a workshop production of With Individual Desire by Susanna Fournier, developed by Lady Parts Theatre, in the New Groundswell Festival at Nightwood Theatre.

Andy Trithardt – Sound Designer

As sound designer: Late Company (Why Not/Theatre Centre), Dive (The Mermaid Collective), Liver and Sucker (Theatre Brouhaha), All the Ways You Scare Me (Paradigm Productions/ Rhubarb), The Skriker (Red One), Piece By Piece (The McGuffin Company/NSTF). He has released three solo albums (An Understated Elegance, The Sixteen Most Surprising Things, and Secret Fun), one with his band The Furious (7pm, We Are All Yawning), and is currently finishing up his newest album Grand Mal. As actor: Big Plans (The Storefront Theatre) and Brantwood (The Canadian Musical Theatre Project). Upcoming: Dalton and Company (Cart/Horse) at the Theatre Centre.

Amy Keating – ELECTRA

Amy is a Dora-nominated actor, and founding member and company manager of Outside the March. Acting credits with OtM include Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play, Passion Play, and the Dora-award winning Mr. Marmalade. Other favourite credits include Wormwood (Tarragon Theatre), I, Claudia (TiFT), The Amish Project (GreenLight Arts), New Jerusalem (HGJT), After Miss Julie (RedOne Theatre), Pacamambo (Canadian Rep), Loyal Ronin: The Working Girls’ Version (Spotlight Japan, Canadian Stage), Water Under the Bridge, The Forest in My Room (Carousel Players), Inside (Appledor Productions), and The Importance of Being Earnest (Capitol Theatre). Amy is delighted to be playing video games with these talented humans!

Brigit Wilson – CLYTEMNESTRA

Returning for her 11th season at The Stratford Festival as Duchess Senior in As you Like It, a witch in Macbeth and Toinette in The Hypochondriac. Previously for Stratford: Pericles, as the Bawd, and The Alchemist as Dol Common, King John, Christina, the Girl King, Mother Courage and Her Children, The Swanne: George III, All’s Well That Ends Well, Quiet in The Land, Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Count of Monte Christo, Triumph of Love, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Orpheus Descending, The Merchant of Venice, The Comedy of Errors, An Ideal Husband, Three Sisters, Bartholomew Fair, Peter Pan, The Grapes of Wrath. Elsewhere: The Passion of Narcisse Mondoux (Grand Theatre), Enron (Theatre Calgary), The Merry Wives of Windsor, Glorious, Man of La Mancha (TBTB), The Ballad of Stompin’ Tom Conners, Another Seasons Harvest (Blyth Festival), The Odd Couple (Segal Centre), Orpheus Descending (MTC& Mirvish Productions), Come Back to the Five and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (Five & Dime Productions) (Dora Nomination) For TV: 4 seasons as Harriet Sims on The Campbells, The Hitchhiker, Street Legal, Parole Board, Verdict, and various commercials. For film: Beyond Innocence, Anne of Avonlea, The Marriage Bed, Echoes in the Darkness, and Lustre.

Earl Pastko – OLD MAN

Originally from Chicago where he began his theatrical career, came to Toronto in 1984 and has worked extensively in theatre, film and tv in Toronto and elsewhere in Canada. Most recent performance as Rosario La Chiura in The Mermaid Collective production of DIVE this past summer at Arraymusic Space. Many thanks to all involved in the creation of Agamemnon.

Marcel Stewart – HALAESUS

Marcel Stewart is an actor, emerging playwright, and arts-educator. As an actor, Marcel has performed in the critically acclaimed Wilberforce Hotel (The Blyth Festival). Selected credits include: Small Axe (Theatre Centre), Theatre of the Film Noir (Atlas Stage Canada), Macbeth (Classical Theatre Project), Toronto the Good (Factory Theatre), A History of Breathing (Persephone Theatre), Who Knew Grannie (Factory Theatre), and Romeo & Juliet (Shakespeare in Action). As an educator/mentor for youth, Marcel has conducted workshops in Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton, and Saskatoon. Marcel co-founded Shakespeare in the Ruff. The company has received praise for their inventive staging methods and community involvement, which Marcel spearheaded as the creator of the Young Ruffian Apprenticeship Program. Currently, Marcel is exploring the relationship between Shakespearean language and hip-hop music, as he is in the midst of developing a hip-hop adaptation of Macbeth. Upcoming Projects: Dalton’s Company (The Theatre Centre), Richard Pierpoint in Up The Garden Path (Obsidian Theatre).

Nigel Shawn Williams – AGAMEMNON

Nigel Shawn Williams is the Associate Artistic Director at Factory Theatre. He is a four time Dora Mavor Moore Award winner as an actor and director. His theatre credits include four seasons each at the Stratford and Shaw Festivals, as well as performing in most of the major centres in Canada. His theatre career includes credits of over 25 years as an artist. Selected credits include: Saint Joan, Race, Topdog/Underdog, The Odyssey, Harlem Duet, Belle, Stuff Happens, Six Degrees of Separation and Angels in America. Nigel is also heavily active in new play development and has helped develop over 30 new plays either working as an actor, director or dramaturge.

Ron Kennell – AEGISTHUS

Ron first appeared in Agamemnon as part of the Chorus in the Josephine LeGrice directed production of The Oresteia (Equity Showcase). He was also a part of the chorus in the Ted Hughes version of the David Latham directed Agamemnon (Stratford Festival). He is thrilled to appear as Aegisthus in Nicolas Billon’s exciting new production and to work with this incredible company of friends, new and old. Ron will appear in Modern Times’ production of Death of the King at the Theatre Centre in April, before it transfers for a short run to the Stanford Persian Studies Department. Ron is grateful to be back on stage after a considerable time exploring other creative pursuits, including writing and acting for film and TV. The writer of the award winning short film Reveille and feature film Dr. Cabbie, he also appears in Ubisoft Far Cry Primal, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, the feature film Pompeii, TV’s Reign and Netflick’s Hemlock Grove.

Samantha Brown – CASSANDRA

Samantha Brown is a Toronto based actor and a recent graduate of York University’s conservatory program. She is thrilled to be working on this piece with an amazing cast and crew who have made her feel so welcome. This is her first time being in the Next Stage Theatre and she could not be more excited. Most recently Samantha has worked with Native Earth in the Wasageechuk Festival this past month. She would like to thank those who never doubted her and believed in her throughout this incredible journey, one which is still unfolding each day.

Susanna Fournier – CHRYSOTHEMIS

Acting credits: The Supine Cobbler (It Could Still Happen), Twisted (Factory Theatre), lulu v.1, v.3 (the red light district), The Fun Palace Variety Show (Small Wooden Shoe), Pride and Prejudice (The Grand Theatre), Geometry In Venice (Crow’s Theatre), TV and Film: X-Men: Days of Future Past, Bomb Girls: Facing the Enemy, I’ll Follow You Down, Still Life: A Three Pines Mystery, Being Human, 12 Monkeys, Reign. Upcoming: ShadowHunters. Writing Credits: Stencilboy and Other Portraits, ALL THE WAYS YOU SCARE ME, The Empire Trilogy, There Is a Woman Here, MEDEA, Vincent, Take Rimbaud (Paradigm Productions), LOVE ME, No Bodies Home, and a core collaborator on the Red Light District’s adaptations of the lulu plays. www.susannafournier.com

Zita Nyarady – IPHIGENIA

Zita Nyarady is a dance-theatre-circus artist. Her interdisciplinary performances have been presented at Rhubarb, Toronto Festival of Clowns, Guelph Contemporary Dance Festival, NBacts Theatre Festival and Theatre Passe Muraile. Internationally she has worked with the National Gallery in Jamaica, Dance House in Scotland, Pilobolus in Connecticut, Odin Teatret in Denmark and Klintkalaset in Sweden. Recent projects include Susannah Bird (Bike Circus), Circus Sessions (Harbourfront Centre), Young Innovators Lab (Nightwood Theatre) and The Global Stilt Congress (Carpetbag Brigade). Zita is co-artistic director of The Grand Salto Theatre and will be touring their acrobatic-comedy-kazoo duo Philip & Lucinda on the 2016 Western Canadian Fringe circuit. Zita graduated from Dell’atre International School of Physical Theatre and is currently a PhD candidate in Performance Studies at York University.