Stageworthy

#ShakesbeersShowdown is where Toronto’s hottest indie theatre companies face-off in a battle of winner-takes-all, loser-drinks-most, as contestants cold read scenes from Shakespeare’s notoriously-hard-to-read First Folio.The rules are simple: if you screw up, you drink!The winner is crowned the revered Shakesbeers Showdown Heavyweight Champion (complete with championship belt), and the losers…get a lot of beer.All funds raised go towards the 2019 Shakespeare-In-Hospitals Program, set to launch this fall. Twitter: @shakespur Instagram:@shakespur Tickets: https://www.nowtickets.ca/events/92921282/shakesbeers-showdown-revenge-of-the-5thVictoria UrquhartVictoria Urquhart is a Jack of All Trades: She writes, directs, acts, sings, dances, and is eager to learn. As a performer first and foremost, she constantly looks to define and explore the perspectives of performance and audience. She especially enjoys the works of William Shakespeare, and Viewpoints, which is what led her to found many projects in the collective

Ted has acted, directed, written and/or composed for every major theatre in Canada and around the world, including such great cities as New York, London and Tokyo. He is a proud graduate of The National Theatre School Of Canada, and a founding member of Toronto's Soulpepper Theatre. Arguably best known for co-creating one of the most successful plays in Canada's history, "2 Pianos, 4 Hands," Ted also wrote the hit musical Evangeline (Citadel Theatre, Charlottetown Festival). Recent film and TV appearances include Orphan Black, Reign, Carter and Farenheit 451 for HBO. Over the course of his career he has been the recipient of numerous awards including five Doras, a Gemini, a Sterling, a Merritt and a Chalmers.Hand to GodHAND TO GOD, a blasphemous black comedy, with puppets, written by Robert Askins, was the most produced play in the 2016-17 American theatre season with 13 productions staged across the country. (Says a lot about the state of the States!) Mitchell Cushman (The Aliens) returns to the Coal Mine to

Anne is a Toronto based actor, and Artistic Director of Leroy Street Theatre. She received her Bachelor of Drama from Bishop’s University in 2006, and just last year, successfully navigated a year of training with New York’s prestigious Circle in the Square Theatre School. In the interim, Anne has been living and working in Vancouver, BC. Some favourite roles include Connie Dayton in Come Blow Your Horn (OLT), Ann Deever in All My Sons (OLT), Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Beach House Theatre); May in Fool For Love (High Horse Theatre Productions); Constance Ledbelly in Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet (BU) Viola in Twelfth Night (BU).Instagram:annevanelleC'mon AngieIn the pre-dawn hours following a one-night stand, Angie and Reed spend a fraught morning confronting questions related to intimacy, consent, and sexual assault. As the two characters uncover the truth of what happened the night before, a major gap between their understanding of the situation - and the meaning of consent - is reveale

Lucas Penner is a professional actor and songwriter specializing in composition and musical direction for theatre. He holds an Advanced Diploma in Theatre Arts (2017) from the George Brown Theatre School. Within the last three years he has been in charge of musical direction for the Toronto Fringe Festival's "The Miserable Worm" and "Meant" as well as "Cavalcade", "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "As You Like It" while at George Brown. He was also hired by Mike Ross for the Edna St.Vincent Millay workshop at Toronto's Soulpepper Theatre in January 2018, and sang in Tapestry Opera's production of "Oksana G in 2017. Being a multidisciplinary artist, Penner has recorded albums “Passerby” (2012) and “Soul Fire” (2009), performed as a solo acoustic artist and band leader, and has written music for and co-created two shows: "Dead and Lovely: a Cabaret" and "Circles", which was played to sold-out audiences at the Cameron House in October 2017. Lucas is creatively inspired by classical literature, contemporary art, an

Poised to join the ranks of Toronto’s favourite indie theatre spots, Blood Pact Theatre, in association with The Storefront Arts Initiative, announces the Grand Opening of a brand-new venue: GRAND CANYON. Located in the lively Junction neighbourhood, GRAND CANYON will serve as a new vibrant hub for multidisciplinary artists to play, explore and share. GRAND CANYON is owned and operated by Blood Pact Theatre’sBri Proke and Bryce Hodgson, who have been praised as “excellent storytellers bringing unique, fresh voices to the Canadian theatre scene” (NOW Magazine). The Storefront Arts Initiative continues as a collaborating company to several indie productions after being suddenly forced to shutter the doors of its flagship space in 2017. The partnership between Blood Pact and Storefront Arts is a tried-and-tested recipe for success, with the two companies having partnered on such hits as Kill Your Parents in Viking, Alberta(Storefront Theatre, 2016), and After Wrestling (Factory Theatre, 2017). The partnership

Scarred Leather is a supernatural Western by Adrianna Prosser that sends you back in time to Canada in 1842 when ghosts walked with you and your gun holster, "You can’t beat Death, and you sure as hell can’t cheat Death, but one day you might see plain what Death truly is…” starring Adrianna Prosser (Theatre by the Bay, Canada: Story of Us) and Caroline Concordia (Paro Caro, Web of Lies), with Jason Martorino (The Handmaid's Tale, Bad Blood), and Phil Rickaby (The Commandment), dramaturgy by Eric Woolfe (Eldritch Theatre).Adrianna Prosserwww.adrianna-prosser.com Twitter: @adriannap Instagram: adriannaprosserJason Martorinowww.jasonmartorino.com Twitter: @jasonmartorino Instagram: jasonmartorinoCaroline Concordiawww.carolineconcordia.com Twitter: @careovision Instagram: careovisionScarred Leather by Adrianna Prosser Costumed staged reading of a supernatural Western. "You can’t beat Death, And you sure as hell can’t cheat Death, But one day you might see plain what Death truly is…" -Red Anna, memoirs dated Nove

Lianna is a second generation Ukrainian Canadian theatre artist. Lianna has enjoyed a diverse career working as an actor, creator, instructor, and artistic producer. Her main artistic ventures have been as an Artistic Associate and Producer with Pyretic Productions. Lianna has managed audience outreach and communications for several Edmonton arts festivals. And she co-founded, manages, and teaches at a children’s summer theatre camp, Spark! Youth Camp, which provides affordable arts education to youth in Edmonton’s Alberta Avenue Community. She is the playwright and principle performer in Blood of Our Soil, which won the ACUA-URDC Award (2018), the inaugural Rena Hanchuk & Yaroslav Kitynskyy Artist Award (2018), and was nominated for four Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Awards (Edmonton's premiere theatre awards), including Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Production. Lianna was recognized as a Top 30 Under 30 Artist by the Alberta Council for Ukrainian Arts. Lianna is a graduate of the BFA Acting Program

Evan is the Co-Founder/Co-Artistic Director of Directors Lab North, a sister program to the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, of which he is an alum and now partnered with Luminato Festival. He is also the Co-Founder of the World Wide Lab, an International Directors collective. With that company, he has co-directed/created festivals in New York, Italy, Greece and Taiwan. In Canada, Evan has directed for Angelwalk, Musical Stage Company, Impact Festival, Theatre Aquarius Studio Series, Summerworks, Fringe, Next Stage, Koogle Theatre and more. His plays include Aftershock and Strange Mary Strange (Best of Summerworks - Now Magazine), The Murmuration of Starlings and Unstuck (Frank Theatre Company). His short film Bagged, aired on the CBC, WIFT, DC Shorts and NSI. He has co-produced Homebody/Kabul (Mercury Theatre, Dora Nomination), Pterodactyls (Shakti Ent.), Talk Sixty To Me and an Ontario Tour of Shirley Valentine. www.evantsitsias.comwww.eclipsetheatre.ca Twitter: @eclipsetheatre3 Instagram: eclipsetheatrecompan

Kristen Da Silva is a playwright and actor living near Toronto, Ontario. Her writing credits include Book Club (August Theatre Co, Port Stanley Festival Theatre); Gibson & Sons; Five Alarm (Port Stanley Festival Theatre, Lighthouse Festival Theatre); Sugar Road (Theatre Orangeville, Rubarb Productions, Globus Theatre); Hurry Hard(Commissioned by Lighthouse Festival Theatre) and Where You Are (Theatre Orangeville). In 2016, she was the recipient of the Stage West Pechet Family Comedy Award for Gibson & Sons, and was shortlisted for the same in 2017 for Sugar Road. She is a graduate of York University, where she was a founding member of the Vanier Improv Company and a company member of Vanier College Productions. As an alumna, she has continued to work with VCP as a director and collaborator. She is currently the playwright-in-residence at Theatre Orangeville. www.kristendasilva.com Twitter: @kristenddasilva

Franco Nguyen is an award-winning-multi-hyphenate-comedian-filmmaker-writer-director. Franco is a graduate of the Second City Conservatory, a member of their HouseCo ensemble, and a Bob Curry Fellow. A proud member of the sketch troupe Tallboyz II Men, a diverse group of comedians being diverse diversely, the troupe sold-out their run of A 6ix NNNNNN Revue at the 2018 Toronto Fringe and won the Best Comedy Award.Twitter:@francowins Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/francocomedyGood Morning, Viet MomGood Morning, Viet Mom is Franco Nguyen's hilarious and heartfelt story about a second-generation Canadian being raised in Toronto by his single mother. Nguyen shares personal stories about his childhood, about his relationship with his mother–a complex and private woman, and about their emotional trip to Vietnam together; his first time ever and her first time since she left 28 years ago. Authentic and irreverent, Good Morning, VietMom is about family, history and love.Cahoots TheatreTwitter:@cahootstheatreInstagr

Daniela Vlaskalic is an award-winning Canadian actor, writer and producer who has worked extensively across Canada including appearing in Theatrefront’s critically-acclaimed production of The Orange Dot by Sean Dixon, last year. Daniela hosts a comedic travel podcast called Every Place is the Same, produced by Drumcast Productions and available on iTunes.MulesMULES is a scathing exploration of the desperation that emerges when people find themselves trapped and powerless with no clear way out.Best friends in high school, Cindy and Crystal haven’t see each other in ten years. They reunite through social media, only to find they are both miserable and desperate to move up in the world. Holed up in the airport arrivals washroom, Crystal with a belly full of cocaine from Colombia and Cindy fearful of her violent boyfriend, the action unfolds in one single night, but changes their lives forever.A dark comedy about poverty, friendship … and drug smuggling, MULES is a tragic journey for the two women, as well as the

Leroy Street Theatre will be kicking off the 2019 winter theatre season with a new production of Gruesome Playground Injuries by Pulitzer Prize finalist, Rajiv Joseph. This highly acclaimed, time-jumping modern masterpiece is a rough-edged and heart-wrenching play from one the most exciting contemporary voices in American theatre. Staged by core members of The Assembly Theatre’s resident company, this new production of the timely and tender dark comedy is sure to be one of the most exciting events in the indie theatre scene this winter.Gruesome Playground Injuries follows Kayleen and Doug over three decades, from their first meeting in a school nurse’s office into an adulthood filled with scars, heartbreaks, and other wounds that never quite heal. The characters share a unique bond of friendship, viscera, blood, scar tissue, and unspoken love. Their often tenuous connection grows stronger through a lifetime of injuries, as they discover the only thing that can really heal them is each other.The new production

Kate was born and raised in Toronto. She began her professional career, at a young age, performing in a number of movies-of-the-week. She is a graduate of both Etobicoke School of the Arts and George Brown Theatre School in Toronto. Since graduating she has exploded onto the TV scene, appearing in Covert Affairs (USA), Rookie Blue (Global), Defiance (SYFY), Lost Girl (Showcase), and has had recurring roles on such shows as, Heartland (CBC), 24 Hr. Rental (Super Channel), Reign (CW), American Gothic (CBS), and Alias Grace (CBC). For the Theatre Kate has appeared in The Big Sleep (Theatre Aquarius) and in a site specific capacity with Mary’s Wedding (P.U.C.). Recently Kate was featured in Killer High (SyFy), and short film Til Death (TLSM). Up next watch for Kate in new series October Faction (Netflix) where she was directed by the fabulous Mina Shum.Mary's WeddingA love story set against the backdrop of World War I, Mary's Wedding is an epic, unforgettable story of love, hope, and survival.When Mary and Charli

For Nightwood:Grace by Jane Doe,Lo (or Dear Mr. Wells) by Rose Napoli - Dora Nominations Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Performance, Quiver by Anna Chatterton - Dora Nomination Outstanding Sound Design, and currently in fifth season as the Program Director for Write From the Hip, Elsewhere:TomorrowLove (UW), A Beautiful View (FPPEC), The Taming of the Shrew (SLSF), Snowman (Soulpepper Academy), Love and Information (RCPA), Sequence (Tarragon), These Peaceable Kingdoms (NTS), Romeo & Juliet (Ruff), Janet Wilson Meets the Queen (GCTC), Soliciting Temptation (Tarragon), Beautiful Man (Summerworks), CLEAVE (NTS), Tyumen Then (Fringe/Revolver), Within the Glass - Governor General Award Nomination (Tarragon), Mistatim (Red Sky – International Tour), The Atomic Weight of Happiness (Theatre Direct), Montparnasse (TPM), Offensive Fouls (Theatre Direct), The Unfortunate Misadventures of Masha Galinski (National tour). Andrea was Tarragon Theatre’s Assistant/Associate Artistic Director for four seasons, and

Justine Christensen is a Toronto-born actor-writer-producer. She is a co-founder of LET ME IN, a platform through which she seeks to produce audience-engaging, socially-conscious theatre. Her past favourite acting credits include Hamlet (Hamlet & Ophelia, LMI), Rosalind (As You Like It, GBTS Theatre), and Kayleen (Gruesome Playground Injuries, Theatre at Eastminster). She has worked with Convergence Theatre, Pat The Dog Theatre Creation, and Nightwood Theatre to her hone and develop her skills as a producer. She is currently working as a writer on a number of new works, one of which is the final installation of her Chekhov adaptations trilogy, produced through LMI. Cannibal When you survive the unsurvivable, who do you become? Bridget Walker has written a play about the abduction of her son and it's a smash hit. Critics are raving, but those closest to her are sent reeling. ‘Cannibal’ explores grief, the cost of sharing your story, and what it means to be indebted to someone you love. Twitter: @scrappa

Dr. Cynthia Ashperger was born in Zagreb, Croatia where she had extensive experience in the theatre, film and television industry as an actor. She holds a PhD from University of Toronto’s Graduate Centre for Studies in Drama. She has taught acting at Ryerson School of Performance since 1994 where she also served as Director of the Acting Program. At Ryerson she has directed some twenty productions of the world classics, most recently Tales from Vienna Woods, Martin Chuzzlewit, The Chaste Maid of Cheapside, The Country Wife, All for Love, The Three Sisters and The Girl from Maxim’s.In Toronto she has worked as a director, writer, actor and producer for the last twenty five years. For her own play inc. company she directed, acted and produced the critically acclaimed production of A Summer’s Day by Jon Fosse. For Phantasmagoria Collective she has directed Tender Napalm by Philip Ridley at Toronto’s Summerworks 2013 also to great critical acclaim. In 2015 she was invited by Croatian Play Drama Theatre to direct

David S. Craig David S. Craig is a Toronto based theatre artist who has written over thirty professionally produced dramatic works, garnering many awards and award nominations. Recent premiere productions include “BOMBERS: Reaping the Whirlwind” at 4 th Line Theatre (2017)and “Lysistrata and the Temple of Gaia” at Odyssey Theatre (2018). His adaptation of “The Neverending Story” will be produced by the Stratford Festival in June of 2019. As an actor, he has performed across North America. In 2014, The City of Toronto awarded Mr. Craig with the Barbara Hamilton Award for Artistic Excellence. He is currently Past- President of the Playwrights Guild of Canada.Richard Greenblatt Richard Greenblatt is an actor, director, writer, and musician who was born in Montréal and received his acting training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in England. He has performed in theatres across Canada and abroad, as well as in feature films, television and radio. He has directed well over 130 productions for theatres across t

On this holiday episode, host Phil Rickaby reflects on the year that was.

Adrianna is sometimes an actor, sometimes a playwright, but a full time geeky social media addict who supports mental health advocacy. She is the Host for the mental health storytelling podcast Stories Like Crazy. Adrianna was the Arts & History Host for the IAWTV award winning educational webshow Cranium Cookie, about all things edu-tastic in Canada, and the Geeky Host for Geektropolis, an online community talking about all things geek-chic in Toronto. Adrianna is also the Marketing Monster for Eldritch Theatre. http://www.adrianna-prosser.com Twitter: @adriannap Instagram: @adriannaprosser http://www.eldritchtheatre.ca/ Twitter: @eldritchtheatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eldritchtheatre

Thomas Gough was first on stage at the age of five, but clearly remembers acting before that. He works frequently in the Independent Theatre in Toronto, having appeared in the last few years with the Alumnæ Theatre, Safeword, Single Thread, the Storefront, Thought For Food, Theatre Lab, Plain Stage, and Unspoken Theatre, as well as Theatre By The Bay (Barrie) and the Kick And Push Festival (Kingston). Most recently he appeared in the Toronto Fringe Festival (2018) as Lionel Percy in Bakersfield Mist, and as The Reporter in Teatron Toronto Jewish Theatre's production of The Story of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.Thomas appears in The Three Ships Collective and Soup Can Theatre's new and immersive adaptation of Dickens’ timeless holiday classic set in the historic Campbell House Museum! Soup Can Theatre: www.soupcantheatre.com Twitter: @soupcantheatre Instagram: soupcantheatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/soupcantheatre/ Tickets: https://christmascarolto.brownpapertickets.com/