Photo by Dahlia Katz
The Bidding War
by Michael Ross Albert
The city’s last affordable house is for sale. Heads roll and shrimp tails fly when a frantic, 12-hour bidding war erupts during what was supposed to be a routine open house. Agents turn on buyers, buyers turn on agents, and everything spirals into an uproarious dark comedy of desperation and anxiety. This all-star Canadian cast brings everyday homebuyers to life as they grapple with extraordinary circumstances, skyrocketing housing costs, gentrification, and sabotage.
Cast & Creative
Amy Matysio
Lara
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Selected Theatre: It’s a Wonderful Life, the Radio Play (Young People’s Theatre); Bad Blood (Curtain Razors); Importance of Being Earnest, Alice Through the Looking-Glass, Stuff Happens (National Arts Centre); Bedroom Farce (Soulpepper); over 20 productions including The Syringa Tree (Globe Theatre); Venus in Fur (Golden Apple Theatre); Rabbit Hole (Persephone Theatre); Mo and Jess Kill Susie (Northern Light); Antony and Cleopatra (Shakespeare on the SK); The Road to Paradise (Assistant Director, Human Cargo/Crow’s). Film/TV: Die Alone; Sort Of, Cosmic Dawn, Baroness Von Sketch, Save Me, Wolfcop & Another Wolfcop. More: A three-time Canadian Screen Award nominee, Dora Mavor Moore winner (Wizard of Oz, Young People’s Theatre) and in 2020, Amy was honoured by the University of Regina with the Distinguished Alumni Award (Faculty of Media, Art & Performance).
Gregory Prest
Luke
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Selected Theatre: The Seagull (Crow’s Theatre); A Streetcar Named Desire (Soulpepper); The Inheritance (Canadian Stage); Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Mirvish); over 45 shows with Soulpepper including La Bête, Bed & Breakfast, August: Osage County, Of Human Bondage, Angels in America, and shows with Tarragon Theatre, Young People’s Theatre, and the Canadian Opera Company. Film/TV: Pillow Talk (Crave – two Canadian Screen Award Nominations). Upcoming Projects: Casey and Diana (Theatre Aquarius, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre). Education/Training: National Theatre School, Soulpepper Academy. More: Writer/Director: De Profundis: Oscar Wilde in Jail (Soulpepper – Dora Award, Toronto Theatre Critics’ Award); Bremen Town (Next Stage). Director: Rose: A New Musical (Soulpepper – Dora Award); Punk Rock (Howland Company); Hosanna, The Heidi Chronicles (Soulpepper); Fish Eyes (Theatre Passe Muraille, Canadian Tour, The Other Festival – Chennai, India). Social Media: @gregoryprest, gregoryprest.com.
Michael Ross Albert
Playwright
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Selected Theatre: Beautiful Renegades (Peggy Baker Dance Projects); When I’m Gone (Mountain Movers Theatre Company); Good Old Days (Toronto Fringe); Two Minutes to Midnight (The Assembly Theatre); The Huns; Anywhere (both: Best of Toronto Fringe and Patron’s Pick); The Grass is Greenest at the Houston Astrodome (published in Best American Short Plays 2014-2015); Miss (Unit 102); The Huns (USA premiere: Jackalope Theatre, Chicago).Tough Jews (Spadina Avenue Gang/ Storefront Theatre—Dora Award nomination - Outstanding New Play). Upcoming Projects: A Little Closer (The Vault Creation Lab). Education/ Training: Playwriting MFA, Actors Studio Drama School. Thank You: Chris, Paolo, Sam, ciaran, Anna, Beth, Heather, Colin, Marie, Clay, Ed, Pam, everyone at Bloom, all of you, and my mom. Social Media: michaelrossalbert.com.
Aurora Browne
Blayne
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Aurora Browne is a Canadian actress and comedian, best known as one of the creators and stars of the sketch comedy series Baroness von Sketch Show. Selected Theatre: The War of 1812, Trudeau and the FLQ, Trudeau and Levesque, The Cold War Part 1 (VideoCabaret); Hello. . . Hello (Tarragon Theatre); The Darkest Dark (Young People’s Theatre); Family Circus Maximus, Psychedelicatessen, Insanity Fair, The Bush League of Justice (The Second City); Deadwood, Throne of Games, Holiday! An Improvised Musical (Bad Dog Theatre). Film/TV: Baroness Von Sketch Show, Robocop, Nurses, Orphan Black. Upcoming Projects: Remount of Bad Dog Theatre’s Holiday! An Improvised Musical at Factory Theatre in December 2024. Education/Training: BFA in acting from York University’s Theatre Program, 1995. Thank You: Kris and Sebastian, for all the love :) Social Media: @alolabrowne.
Gregory Waters
Charlie
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Selected Theatre: No Big Deal (Roseneath Theatre); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Panoply Collective). Film/TV: Letterkenny, Transplant, Murdoch Mysteries, The Silence, Bella Wild, The Castrationists. Education/Training: Graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s Acting Program. More: Short films with frequent collaborator and brother Nicholas Waters can be found at waterswaters.ca. Thank You: Thank you to my mother and father for their unrelenting love and support. Social Media: @gregorydavidwaters.
Paolo Santalucia
Director
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Paolo is the Associate Artistic Director of Crow’s Theatre. Select credits include; Orphans for the Czar, Prodigal, Casimir and Caroline (In-Association with The Howland Company), Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812 (Co-production with The Musical Stage Company). Other Theatre: 12 seasons at Soulpepper, including The Seagull, Of Human Bondage (Off-Broadway Cast), Spoon River (Off-Broadway Cast), Bed and Breakfast, The Heidi Chronicles, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Crucible; As You Like It (Canadian Stage); Mustard (Tarragon); Hamlet (Driftwood Theatre). Film/ TV: Pillow Talk (Bell Media/Crave); Kim’s Convenience (CBC). Education/Training: Theatre and Drama Studies Program – University of Toronto and Sheridan College; Soulpepper Academy. More: Two Dora Mavor Moore Awards, two Dora nominations; Canadian Screen Award Nomination; John Hirsch Award for Directing Finalist.
Sergio di Zio
Greg
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Born in Toronto, Sergio Di Zio is Dora Mavor Moore and Gemini award winning stage and screen actor. Theatre credits include Canadian premiere productions of Scorched, The Motherfucker With The Hat, Between Riverside and Crazy and Four Minutes Twelve Seconds. He played Michelangelo Spike Scarlatti in the internationally distributed television series Flashpoint for the series’ five year critically acclaimed run. Other television credits include This is Wonderland, Rogue, the Queen’s Gambit, and Amazon’s soon to be streamed Motorheads. Film credits include Cinderella Man, The Walk, and Georgetown. He produces and stars in the award winning 2024 webseries, I Will Bury You.
Steven Sutcliffe
Ian
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Recent theatre work includes Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Mirvish), Ragtime Reunion Concert(Minskoff Theatre, Broadway). Steven has performed in theatres across Canada (including the Shaw Festival, Stratford, Soulpepper) and the US (including Chicago Shakespeare, Goodman, Al Contemporary Theatre, New York City Center and Broadway).
Fiona Reid
Miriam
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Selected Theatre: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Broadway and Mirvish Toronto); Hedda Gabler (Coal Mine); A Little Night Music (Koerner Hall); The Children (Canadian Stage and Centaur Theatre); The Divine (Shaw Festival); numerous seasons at Shaw and Stratford Festivals, theatres across Canada, in US and UK. Film/TV: My Big Fat Greek Wedding, The Time Traveler’s Wife, One Week. Upcoming Projects: Into the Woods (Koerner Hall, Royal Conservatory of Music); People, Places and Things (Coal Mine Theatre). Education/Training: McGill University. More: Order of Canada, Honorary Doctorate Bishop’s University, Past President of the Actors Fund of Canada.
Izad Etemadi
Donovan
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Izad Etemadi is an Iranian-Canadian actor and writer based in Toronto. He was a resident of the 2021/2022 CBC Actor’s Conservatory at the Canadian Film Centre and received the 2017 Emerging Queer Artist Award from Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. Select on-screen credits include Orphan Black: Echoes (AMC), Ghosts (CBS), and Revenge of the Black Best Friend (CBC). In 2022, Izad originated the role of Samuel in the Canadian musical Grow and played Buddy in Elf the Musical at The Grand Theatre. He recently played Donovan in the world premiere of The Bidding War at Crow’s Theatre and will play Olaf in Frozen at The Citadel in 2025. His critically acclaimed solo show, Izad Etemadi: Let Me Explain, produced by Green Light Arts, has played to sold-out houses and rave reviews across Ontario and will tour Canada later this year. As a screenwriter, he has projects in development and production with Cameron Pictures, Shaftesbury Kids, and Border2Border Entertainment.
Peter Fernandes
Sam
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Peter Fernandes is an award winning performer based in Toronto, Ontario. Born in Awali, Bahrain and raised in Edmonton, Alberta he is a graduate of the University of Alberta's BFA Acting program and the Soulpepper academy. He has been seen on stages across Canada working with companies such as Soulpepper, Canadian Stage, Musical Stage Company, Obsidian, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, National Arts Centre, Citadel Theatre, and Manitoba Theatre for Young People. He has most recently been a company member of the Shaw Festival, where he was the Christopher Newton Intern, and was seen performing in The Russian Play, Brigadoon, A Christmas Carol, and Charley's Aunt.
Sophia Walker
Patricia
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The Shaw Festival: The House That Will Not Stand, Sherlock Holmes and the Mystery of the Human Heart, Just to Get Married, Gem of the Ocean. Elsewhere: 12 seasons at The Stratford Festival: Casey and Diana, Lady Gertrude in An Ideal Husband, Calpurnia in To Kill a Mockingbird, Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Sybil in Private Lives, to name a few; Our Place (Cahoots Theatre); Fairview (Canadian Stage); The Bridge (2b Theatre/Neptune Theatre); Casey and Diana, Blood Wedding, Jitters, The Heidi Chronicles (Soulpepper); Mary in Mary’s Wedding (Blyth Festival); and Salima in Ruined (Obsidian Theatre). Film/TV: Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent, Mayday, Unicorn Academy, The Marsh King’s Daughter, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Mayor of Kingstown, Y: The Last Man, The Handmaid’s Tale, Shadow Hunters: The Mortal Instruments, just to name a few. Education/Training: Toronto Metropolitan University, Canadian Film Centre Actor’s Conservatory, Stratford Festival’s Birmingham Conservatory. Social Media: @sophiathewalker.
Veronica Hortiguela
June
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Veronica Hortiguela (She/Her) is a Scarborough-born and raised actor and writer. Favourite performance credits since graduating from TMU's theatre acting program include: Bremen Town (Gregory Prest, NextStage 2023), Prodigal (Crows Theatre, Howland Co.), Casimir and Caroline (Dora Award - Best Ensemble, Howland Co.), Little Women, Every Little Nookie (The Stratford Festival) and Dry Land (Cue6, Globe and Mail 10 Best Productions 2018). She's had the pleasure of working with Shakespeare in the Ruff, Tarragon, and YPT on the development of new plays and was a recipient of a Canada Council for the Arts Research and Creation Grant for her devised theatre work with The Raccoons. Veronica is a frequent audiobook narrator with Penguin Random House and has had the pleasure of voicing a wide range of characters across several animated productions.