Stageworthy

Andrew Joseph Richardson Andrew is an Indo-Canadian actor, director, dramaturg, and dad. He is a graduate of both the Theatre Arts Program at Grant MacEwan College in Edmonton (where he is originally from) and the Acting Program at the National Theatre School of Canada in Montreal. He is also the Co-Ordinator of the Guerrilla Ruffian Squad and directed their production, Situation Unknown (a Shakespearean improv performance), at the Shakespeare Lives microfestival in libraries across Toronto. A.J. has lead the adaptations for every Shakespeare in the Ruff production in Withrow Park in collaboration with each show’s director. He has also created short adaptations of Henry VI, Part 3 and Julius Caesar (amongst others) for Original Practices events. His adaptation of The Tempest was directed by Diane D’Aquila for Theatre Calgary’s Shakespeare by the Bow. He directed the Shakespeare-in-Hospitals Program for Spur-of-the-Moment Shakespeare Collective in 2014. Selected Shakespeare Acting Credits: Launce in Two Gents,

Nicole Smieja is a Toronto based actor, and a graduate of the University of Windor’s Acting program. Victoria Urquhart is a Toronto-based actor and director from Caledon, and the artistic director of Spur of the Moment Shakespeare. (and also a graduate of the University of Windsor’s Acting program). Heart In Hand at Shakespeare-In-Hospitals’ Family Reunion Gala! Grab a drink at the bar, enjoy some sweet and savoury eats and put your picture on our family tree as we extend the SOTMSC family with a final performance of the 2019 Program’s show, Heart In Hand: How will you choose your family if your family doesn’t choose you? In the last flashes of a mother’s life, we see the hopeful imaginings of her family’s choices to move forward when she is gone. Brought together by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, Amsterdam Brewery and the Spur of The Moment Shakespeare Collective, this funny and touching piece has toured to rave reviews from patient, staff and family audiences across Toronto and t

Blythe Haynes is a Toronto-based actor and producer. She is a co-founder of Gangway! Theatre Co. with playwright KT Bryski. Together they focus on Canadian, female-based stories. She also works as a voice artist, and has been a part of two PARSEC winning audio-drama podcasts! With KT Byrski, she created and performed in the web series “Blythe Tries” for Black Creek Pioneer Village. Select credits include To A Degree! An Orwellian Musical Comedy (Elia Pasic) Six Stories, Told At Night (Gangway! Theatre Co.) Canticle of Light (Missed Metaphor Productions), The Polar Bear Prince (Gangway! Theatre Co.), Mary’s Wedding (Toronto Fringe Festival), In His Name (Canadian History Project), The Skylar Neese Story (Discovery Channel), various episodes of Campfire Radio Theatre and Six Stories, Told At Night (PARSEC Award winning audio-drama podcast, KT Bryski Productions). Twitter: @haynesblythe Instagram: blythe_haynes Watching Glory Die (the podcast): https://podcas

Michael Spence is Associate Artistic Director of Theatre Gargantua and an award-winning, long-standing member of Theatre Gargantua’s creative team. He has been involved in all of TG’s productions, appearing in all major Cycles and writing or designing for many of the company’s noted works. His script for The Exit Room was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, and he won the award twice for Outstanding Set Designs. He has received a total of ten Dora nominations for his work with the company, winning four. Michael is a recipient of a Harold Award, a distinguished honour for members of the Toronto independent theatre community. He is also an accomplished musician and singer-songwriter. He directed the first SideStream Cycle, Shrapnel, which represented his directorial debut with the company. The Wager Inspired by true events, The Wager is award-winning Theatre Gargantua’s bold and irreverent investigation into the strange things that people believe. Climate change deniers, anti-vaxxer

Michael Kelly is an actor, director, producer, writer, teacher, and arts educator. He is the founder and current artistic director of “Shakespeare In Action” Theatre Company in Toronto. His work has attracted local, national and international media attention for its innovative work with young audiences; with feature presentations on W-5, Canada AM, TVO Imprint and C.B.C.’s “As It Happens.” His credits include directing many Shakespeare and contemporary plays; teaching master classes for the Shakespeare Globe in London, Canada’s Stratford Festival, the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, York University and Shakespeare Globe Centre in New Zealand. Michael is an adjunct professor in the theatre department in the School of Arts, Media, Performance and Design at York University. He has taught acting for such established institutes as George Brown College, Randolph Academy for the Arts, and the National Youth Drama School in New Zealand. Michael is a Paul Harris Fellow appointed by the Rotary international foundation a

Tanisha Taitt is a director, actor, playwright, educator, activist and accidental essayist who has worked with companies including Obsidian, Nightwood, NAC, Workman Arts, Buddies in Bad Times, and Soulpepper, and spent three seasons as a Resident Artist-Educator with Young People’s Theatre. She was Artistic Mentor for the Paprika Festival Creators’ Unit and Program Director for The Musical Stage Company’s youth training initiative One Song Glory, and since 2013 has been a Dramatic Arts mentor with the Toronto District School Board. Also a singer/songsmith for over 30 years, Tanisha is a recipient of the Canadian Music Publishers Association Songwriters Award for outstanding achievement in songwriting, and is currently writing two musical theatrical works. For a decade, Tanisha was an artist and director with the award-winning Children’s Peace Theatre, an organization that uses the arts to teach children and youth about the creation of peace through justice. As a longtime anti-VAW activist, Tanisha spent seven

Colin Asuncion is an actor, singer and cabaret performer, as well as a Marketing Manager. Twitter: @colinasuncion Instagram: colinasuncion Uncovered: Stevie Wonder & Prince Prince credited Stevie Wonder as a “role model.” Wonder said that Prince “took music to a whole other place.” These friends, sometimes collaborators, and groundbreaking icons inspired each other and the world. The Musical Stage Company’s 13th annual signature concert spotlights hit songs from two hugely influential artists with wildly imaginative arrangements by music director Reza Jacobs. Featuring Canada’s most celebrated performers, UnCovered is a one-of-a-kind ‘unmissable’ event. www.musicalstagecompany.com Twitter: @MusicalStageCo Instagram: musicalstageco Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/musicalstageco Tickets: https://musicalstagecompany.com/production/uncovered2019/

Holly Wyder is an actor, producer, writer and comedian, living in Toronto. Her solo show, Drink of Choice was a hit of the 2019 Toronto Fringe. www.hollywyder.com Twitter: @hollyiswyder Instagram: hollyiswyder Drink of Choice Winner of the 2019 Toronto Fringe Patron’s Pick, Drink of Choice returns at Factory’s Studio Theatre. You play the Customer. The drink you choose will decide the Bartender’s story. A create-your-own-adventure semi autobiographical piece, Drink of Choice examines sexual identity, especially the often overlooked and misunderstood conceptions of being asexual. Twitter: @choicedrink Instagram: choicedrink Tickets: https://www.factorytheatre.ca/what-s-on/drink-of-choice/

Shakura Dickson Shakura is a Toronto based actor and playwright. Most Recently, she appeared in Mirvish Productions’ presentation of Dear Evan Hansen, and appears in Factory Theatre’s Trout Stanley. Twitter: @shakooks Trout Stanley It’s the eve of twins Sugar and Grace Ducharme’s 30th birthday and the 10th anniversary of their parents’ deaths, the local Scrabble Champ Stripper has gone missing, and mysterious drifter Trout Stanley arrives looking for love…and a lake. Experience the wild, touching, and hysterically funny play that took New York by storm from Governor General’s Award-nominated playwright and novelist, Claudia Dey, returning to Factory’s Mainspace 14 years after its Toronto premiere at Factory. A story of Northern Proportions, Trout Stanley is about the secrets that bind us and finding love wherever you can. And snails. www.factorytheatre.ca Twitter: @factorytoronto Tickets: https://www.factorytheatre.ca/2019-20-season/trout-stanley/

A graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, Natasha Greenblatt is an actor, director and writer. Natasha has played Anne Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank (Segal Centre, Theatre Aquarius), Brigid in A Boy Called Newfoundland (Theatre Smash), and Roberta in The Railway Children (Mirvish/Marquis). She was nominated for a Dora Award for her portrayal of Bastian in The Neverending Story (Roseneath Theatre) and won a Dora Award for Get Yourself Home Skyler James (Roseneath Theatre), a solo show that toured high schools in the Greater Toronto Area. Natasha had a recurring role on the Canadian television show Bomb Girls. Most recently, Natasha was part of the 2014-2015 National Arts Centre’s English Theatre Ensemble, where she played Alice, in Alice Through the Looking Glass and Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest. As a director, Natasha facilitated and directed This Is Your Script, a collective creation for Paprika Festival for youth between the ages of 17 and 21. She directed Cowboy Mouth, by Sam She

SOMETHING FOR THE BUOYS is the latest effort from writer/director Eli Pasic. A graduate of the prestigious Berklee School of Music, Pasic recently wrote the book and lyrics to a new musical comedy, I’ll Take It!, with Broadway composer Henry Krieger (Dreamgirls, Side Show): the show has been published by Broadway Licensing. Set in the spring of 1934, SOMETHING FOR THE BUOYS follows a starry-eyed sailor named Jimmy (Roberto Sapienza) who wants nothing more than to find his true love. Accompanied by Larry (Thomas Finn), his womanizing best pal, he sneaks ashore and enters the wonderful world of New York City. Of course, Jimmy immediately stumbles upon his true love. But between a big-time Broadway offer and a cranky captain with an Alka-Seltzer addiction, will Jimmy sail into the sun and live happily ever after before the final curtain? Who Knows! SOMETHING FOR THE BUOYS takes its cue from past classics such as Anything Goes and On The Town, saluting Golden Era theatre giants such as Cole Porter and Irving Ber

Episode Notes Jennifer Walls Jennifer is a performer producer, and voice-over actor. As a musical theatre performer she has played leading roles in a wide variety of musicals including RENT, Beauty And The Beast, The Wizard of Oz and number of Canadian premiers as well as the Dora Award nominated original musical review Off-Broadway, On Stage. She was also a finalist in the CBC hit show How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? As a voice actor she has voiced recurring characters on a number of animated series’ including PBS’ Peg+ Cat and Amazon’s Creative Galaxy and is currently the voice of Family Jr. Jennifer is also the director of Hart House Theatre’s production of The Rocky Horror Show. www.jenniferwalls.com Twitter: @jeni_walls Instagram: jeniwallsto Chris Tsujiuchi Chris is a graduate of Sheridan College's Musical Theatre Performance program. Performance credits include Fulgens and Lucres (PLS), Recurring John, Paradises Lost (SummerWorks Festival), and Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors (Lower Ossingto

DopoLavoro Teatrale (DLT) is pleased to announce their critically acclaimed walkabout performance The Stranger, returns to Toronto with a brand-new version – The Stranger 2.0. Designed for the first time to include two audience members at a time and featuring an exciting new virtual reality component developed by mixed reality content specialists toasterlab, The Stranger 2.0 will unfold on the streets of Toronto September 18 – 29, 2019 with a new cast, new scenes, new locations, and a choice between two independent journeys: above & below. above: A cross-city adventure with a retro Italian flavour that takes participants from a midtown area to locations they have likely never explored before. below: A downtown adventure in the underground areas of Toronto where performers emerge from the crowds. In 2014, DLT presented the first, award-winning version of The Stranger at the SummerWorks Performance Festival. Sold out editions have run around the world including in India and Europe and DLT brought two new

Episode Notes Amber (Claire Renaud) and Tom (Tony Ofori), finding their way as freshmen at Princeton, spend a night together that alters the course of their lives. They agree on the drinking, they agree on the attraction, but consent is foggy, and if unspoken, can it be called consent? Anna Ziegler investigates gender and race politics, our crippling desire to fit in and the three sides to every story. Playwright ANNA ZIEGLER is an award-winning playwright whose widely produced play PHOTOGRAPH 51 (starring Nicole Kidman) won London’s 2016 WhatsOnStage award for Best New Play. It was selected as a “Best of the Year” by The Washington Post and the Telegraph. In 2017, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, The Manhattan Theatre Club and The Geffen Playhouse premiered her play ACTUALLY, and The Roundabout Theatre Company produced THE LAST MARCH. Her play THE WANDERERS won the 2018 San Diego Critic’s Circle Award for Outstanding New Play and BOY was nominated for the 2016 John Gassner Award by the Outer Critics Circ

Kendra Jones is a Winnipeg-born, Toronto-based artist whose work mingles between theatrical performance and performance art; her interest lies in pushing the boundaries of what is possible in the theatre, and the kinds of discussions that can stem from encounters with theatrical creation. She graduated with Distinction from the MA Text & Performance at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, and also holds a BA(Hons) in Theatre Performance from the University of Winnipeg. Favourite directing credits include the Canadian premiere of Sea Wall by Simon Stephens and Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis (Theatre By the River), and most recently, Tim Crouch’s I, Malvolio (Impel theatre). www.kendrajones.net Twitter: @impeltheatre Instagram: impeltheatre

Episode Notes Emily Dix is a Toronto based theatre artist and photographer. She has been directing, producing and designing for theatre for over 10 years, and is the Artistic Executive Director of Bygone Theatre. Recently, she launched a new initiative, the Toronto Independent Theatre Coalition (TITC) which she runs as Founder and Executive Director. She also works as a freelance photographer, specializing in theatre and live events. www.emilydix.com Instagram: emilydixphotography Bygone Theatre www.bygonetheatre.com Twitter: @bygonetheatre Instagram: bygonetheatre Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bygonetheatre The Toronto Independent Theatre Coalition The Toronto Independent Theatre Coalition is a place for small local theatre companies to connect and support each other's work. By connecting, sharing resources and helping to promote each other's shows, we can all grow together. The primary objective of the TITC is to assist Toronto's independent theatres in growing their network and audience bases. www.the

Episode Notes In this episode, host Phil Rickaby sits down with two solo performers, Janelle Hanna & Laura Anne Harris to talk about performing solo shows and touring Fringe Festivals. Bad Baby Presents: Rules Control the Fun Lark & Whimsy’s second production, Bad Baby Presents: Rules Control the Fun, written and performed by Janelle Hanna, directed by Briana Brown and stage managed by Erin Vandenberg, premiered at the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival. The play features Hanna’s clown character, Bad Baby, and beautifully explores failure and vulnerability. www.larkandwhimsytheatre.com Twitter: @Lark_and_Whimsy Instagram: lark_and_whimsy Edmonton Fringe Tickets: https://tickets.fringetheatre.ca/performances.php?eventId=601:3056 Destiny USA When Laura moves from Toronto to Syracuse, New York, she wasn’t expecting to be residing in Trump’s America. Gaining her first job as a relay operator for the deaf and hard of hearing reveals the hidden humanity of the American people. www.lauraanneharris.com Twitter: @l

Episode Notes After last summer’s NNNN Much Ado About Nothing, Dauntless City Theatre returns to Berczy Park to delight city audiences with All’s Well That Ends Well, starring Chanakya Mukherjee (The Men in White, Much Ado About Nothing) and Liz Der (Crave) as the unlikely lovers Bertram and Helena. Ranging over walks, hills, gardens, and the famous dog fountain, All’s Well is an intriguing societal and political comedy. One of Shakespeare’s “problem plays”, All’s Well tackles passionate desire, consent, trickery, and toxic masculinity. This play asks: how well do we really know the people in our lives? What are each of us capable in pursuit of our deepest desires? As our relationships deepen, the passions we discover can drive us apart as well as bond us together. Through a comedic lens, All’s Well asks us to sit in the discomfort and problematic spaces that open up. All’s Well builds on Dauntless’ legacy of queering, subverting, and transforming the Bard, featuring a cast reflective of the city of Toronto.

Dylan is an award-winning actor, director, playwright and a founding member of Toronto's Theatrefront. He has performed with The Stratford And Shaw Festivals, Mirvish Productions and in London’s West End. Dylan considers Theatrefront his creative home, and is deeply committed to our roots in the independent theatre community. For Theatrefront Dylan has appeared in eight productions, including fforward, Mojo and Tribes. He also co-wrote and acted in Return, which received a Dora Nomination for Best New Play. Recently Dylan directed acclaimed productions of Space Opera Zero and The Harrowing OF Brimstone McReedy for Toronto’s Eldritch Theatre. He is also the director of Festival Player's of Prince Edward County's Every Brilliant Thing.Twitter:@dylantrowbridgeInstagram:dylantrowbridgeyyzEvery Brilliant Thing is a one-of-a-kind, interactive theatrical event, starring renowned actor and comedian, Gavin Crawford, that engages its audience in thrilling and original ways. At once profoundly funny and deeply moving, E

From the gut-busting pen of Eli Pasic and the producing/acting talents of Isaiah Kolundzic, comes this fast-paced, knockabout, zany comedic bauble! False Claims traces the despicable schemes of Dennis—a devious, layabout nephew who poses as his late aunt’s husband in order to collect her life insurance money! DATES: Limited run of only 9 performances. Friday August 2nd, 8pm - Opening Night! Saturday August 3rd, 8pm Sunday August 4th, 2pm Tuesday August 6th, 8pm - PWYC Charity Fundraiser Wednesday August 7th, 8pm Thursday August 8th, 8pm Friday August 9th, 8pm Saturday August 10th, 8pm Sunday August 11th, 2pm - Closing TICKETS:https://falseclaims.simpletix.com/ CAST & CREW: WRITTEN BY Eli Pasic DIRECTED BY Blair Haynes FEATURING Isaiah Thomas Kolundzic, Kevin Forster, Heather Dick, Kevin Hare, Melissa Taylor, Zachary Groombridge, Kathleen Welch and Judith Fiore DESIGNED BY Emily Dix PRODUCED BY Isaiah Thomas Kolundzic, Emily Dix ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS Blythe Haynes, Eli Pasic STAGE MANAGED BY Jeremy Pearson I