Stageworthy

Stefan is a Serbian-born, Toronto-based international director and creative producer. He is best known for his interdisciplinary stage practices merging film, digital and live performance. Stefan’s work has been seen on stages in Europe, Canada, and Off-Broadway. He is a Director and Creative Producer at Toronto’s award-winning BirdLand Theatre. Among other things, Stefan is the founder of a creative StartUp Digital Dream Society. Stefan is alumnae of Directors Lab at The Lincoln Center in New York, and fellowship recipient of International Theatre School at University of Edinburgh, Scotland. His work has been featured in the New York Times, New York Magazine, Globe and Mail, National Post, Toronto Star, and in many online publications. Twitter: @DzeparoskiS Support Stageworthy Patreon: patreon.com/stageworthypod Tip Jar: tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Daniel Levinson has been performing, directing and teaching stage combat professionally since founding Rapier Wit in 1991. Rapier Wit is Canada’s oldest stage combat school and production company. Daniel is proud to be counted among Fight Directors Canada’s Fight Masters. He has had a long history with FDC. He was one of the founding advanced actor combatants at FDC’s inaugural workshop. Daniel has created fights for companies such as The Stratford Festival (5 seasons), Canadian Stage, Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway, Volcano Theatre, Actors Repertory Company, Second City, A.C.T. Productions, Shakespeare In the Square, Factory Theatre, Shakespeare in the Rough, Theatre Aquarius, The Actor’s Repertory Company, Theatre Passe Muraille, The Tarragon Theatre and The Guild Festival Theatre. Daniel is proud of his years teaching at the University of Waterloo, Sheridan, and the University of Toronto Mississauga. www.rapierwit.com Twitter: @RapierWitCombat Instagram: @Rapierwit Support Stageworthy Tip Jar: tips.pin

Launched in 2016, alma matters productions began with a single goal: To amplify underrepresented stories through the power of theatre. Fast forward five years later, and we have now supported thirteen new works that focus on intersectional feminism, cultural identity, and mental health. We proudly label ourselves as a grassroots company, which has built a community of artists eager to be the future voices of Canada’s performing arts industry. Together, we have showcased award-winning plays, built networks, and provided paid training opportunities for emerging talent. To support Fly Away Home, our inaugural 2022 season, visit: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-alma-matters-productions-first-season SELECT CREDITS: Winter of '88, co-producer (Nowadays Theatre, NNNNN); Love at 752, producer (ft. on CBC); Swim Team, producer (Nowadays Theatre, NNNN); Drink of Choice, Producer (Toronto Fringe 2019 Patron's Pick), Cooking for Grief, Producer (Vancouver Fringe Festival) The Artistic Director, Sarah Marchand, is secr

Brendan Healy is the Artistic Director of Canadian Stage, one of the country’s leading not-for-profit contemporary performing arts organizations. The company produces, presents, commissions, and collaborates with multiple partners on cross-disciplinary work with a focus on performance styles that integrate theatre, dance, film, visual arts and more. Originally from Montréal, Brendan began his career as an actor before moving to directing. Brendan attended the National Theatre School’s Directing Program and trained extensively with one of the pioneers of the American avant-garde Anne Bogart and the SITI Company before relocating to Toronto. Since then, Brendan has established himself as a central figure in the city’s theatre scene. His work has been presented across the country and his productions have garnered multiple awards. Between 2009-2015, Brendan was the Artistic Director of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, the world’s longest-running theatre devoted to LGBTQ2S artists and one of Canada’s most significant

A comedy infused with Bollywood elements, An IMM-Permanent Resident is a hilarious take on the mundane and tiresome bureaucracy of the Canadian Immigration process, as experienced by playwrights and real-life couple, Himanshu and Neha. The play explores the irreverent journey to obtain Neha’s PR status, including the couple's trials and tribulations as they put their hopes and dreams on pause (indefinitely). Through wit and creative banter, this fast-paced roller coaster transports us between Mumbai and Toronto, as Neha and Himanshu navigate the immigration system and ask themselves – is love worth it all? www.nautankibazaar.ca Tickets: whynot.theatre/work/immpermanentresident Himanshu Sitlani is a thespian, originally hailing from Mumbai. Foraying his way into theatre as an actor, he progressed on to other creative aspects and worked as a Stage Manager and Producer over the years with QTP and Akvarious. He co-founded Le Chayim Theatre Productions in Mumbai in 2006 where he eventually made his directorial deb

An introverted actors roundtable discussion featuring actor and playwright, Stephen Near; actor & Singer-Songwriter Carolyn Fe; writer, composer & and performer, Kristen Zaza; playwright & performer, Genevieve Adam; writer & actor Michael Ripley, and writer & theatre maker, Jess McAuley. Stephen Near is an actor & writer working in Hamilton. His plays have been performed across Canada at various theatres and festivals including the Ottawa Fringe, the Toronto Fringe, the Hamilton Fringe, New Ideas, and Summerworks. He is a graduate of York University (BFA), the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (B. Ed) and the MFA Creative Writing program at the University of Guelph. He is a member of the Playwright’s Guild of Canada, the Theatre Aquarius Creator’s Junction and Playwright’s Unit and an alumnus of the Sage Hill Writing Experience and the Banff Centre. Stephen is co-founder and playwright-in-residence of Same Boat Theatre in Hamilton. Stephen was named one of the inaugural Writer

Born in Seattle, WA, and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Bruce Dow is an American/Canadian actor, director, composer/librettist, cabaret artist, and theatre educator, best known for his 5 featured roles on Broadway; his 12 seasons in leading roles at the Stratford Festival; and his Dora Award Winning performances at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre — the world’s largest and longest running LGBTQ2IA+ theatre — and his Helen Hayes Award nominated work with the Shakespeare Theatre Company and Studio Theatre in Washington, DC. brucedow.com Twitter: @DowBruce Instagram: @dowbruce Support Stageworthy Patreon: patreon.com/stageworthypod Tip Jar: tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Mateo is a young singer, songwriter, actor and pianist currently working on the lands traditionally known as Tkaronto. In 2020, he wrote and produced "Quarantine Songs," a song cycle about different characters dealing with the pandemic, which had its digital premiere on YouTube, featuring performers from Stratford, Mirvish and Charlottetown Festival stages. He is currently preparing to appear in Forever Plaid with Starvox Entertainment, and running a YouTube channel where he uploads weekly analysis videos of the greatest songs from the musical theatre canon. In the meantime, he continues to perform regularly alongside cabaret and comedy legend Mandy Goodhandy in their act, "Lady and the Rambler." www.mateochavezlewis.com Twitter: @MChavezLewis Instagram: @mateochavezlewis Support Stageworthy Patreon: patreon.com/stageworthypod Tip Jar: tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Lisa Alves is a queer artist, theatre producer, educator, and human resource practitioner based in Tkaron:to near the Wonscontach. They grew up in a two-parent household, both Portuguese immigrants and from working-class families. Currently, they are the Managing Producer at Cahoots Theatre with their amazing co-leader, Artistic Director, Tanisha Taitt. Lisa is a graduate Humber’s Theatre Performance Program, Humber's Entrepreneurial Studies Program, and is currently completing her Human Resource Management Certificate. Working as a freelance producer for over 10 years, some of Lisa's favourite productions they've produced include manidoons collective’s bug by Yolanda Bonnell, Soulo Theatre Summer Festivals and Cahoots Theatre’s Supermodel. In their spare time Lisa practices yoga, plays video games, reads way too much, and hangs out with their hamster, Eleanor Waffles. Twitter: @lisa_a_alves Instagram: @lisa_a_alves Support Stageworthy Patreon: patreon.com/stageworthypod Tip Jar: tips.pinecast.com/jar/stagewo

The Red Sandcastle is a 50 seat storefront theatre, where Anything is Possible! In May of 2011, Rosemary Doyle opened the RED Sandcastle Theatre, with the intent of giving theatre artists a canvas. That feeling that Anything is Possible! has become a reality with 922 Queen Street East acting as an artistic hub to rent for creators in theatre, dance, visual art, and music. The Red Sandcastle is managed by the Eldritch Theatre team of Eric Woolfe and Adrianna Prosser. redsandcastletheatre.com Instagram: @redsandcastletheatre The Assembly Theatre provides independent and emerging artists with affordable performance space, and is always actively seeking new modes of outreach in order to better prioritize its use by under-represented and marginalized artistic communities. Co-artistic Directors Luis Fernandes and Cass Van Wyck keep the vision clear and the community thriving. www.theassemblytheatre.com Twitter: @assemblytheatr_ Instagram: @assemblytheatre Support Stageworthy Patreon: patreon.com/stageworthypod Tip

Jackie Latendresse is an alumnus of the University of Waterloo where she obtained her H.B.A. in Dance with a minor in Fine Arts. She founded Free Flow Dance Theatre in 1995 and has been the artistic director ever since. The Company relocated to Toronto in the winter of 1996 and has since found a home base in Saskatoon. (17 years) Jackie has been choreographing and producing her own shows since 1993 when she presented her first full evening of dance works at Abstract Machines that Recognise Certain Languages. She has since created a large volume of work and her repertoire includes 20 full-length works (20 min+) and numerous shorter works, Her work has been presented all over Canada at many venues ranging from traditional theatres to schools to parks and back alleys. The company has toured extensively with the Canadian Fringe Festival Circuit and is invited to present work regularly throughout Saskatchewan. She has received various awards including the Special Merit award for outreach with the LGBTQ community f

Lauren Allen is a theatre and film artist originally from Saskatoon now living in Toronto. She is a lover of puzzles and a foster mother of cats. She is currently working in communications for the Future Prairie Theatre Project. www.lauren-allen.net Twitter: @lesmis456 Instagram: @lesmis456 Support Stageworthy Patreon: patreon.com/stageworthypod Tip Jar: tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Phil Rickaby, host of Stageworthy, announces that after over 300 episodes, he's taking a brief break from the podcast, but he'll be back in a couple of months. www.philrickaby.com Twitter: @philrickaby Instagram: @philrickaby Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philrickaby Transcript: https://stageworthypodcast.com/308-phil-rickaby-an-announcement/ Stageworthy Survey: https://philrickaby.typeform.com/to/gZOjh8lk Support Stageworthy Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy Merch: https://shop.stageworthyproductions.com/

Scott Emerson Moyle is an intimacy director, educator, visual artist, director, producer, actor, and ship’s captain based in Toronto. He does lots of things for The Boundless Library, mostly involving audio drama and making weird physical objects. He probably has one cat, but there may be more hiding in his beard. His favourite accolade is having been Harolded into the House of Don McKellar. Instagram: @moylesmeticulousminis The Boundless Library The Boundless Library is a groundbreaking way to experience stories. Told across multiple formats and from varied perspectives, each of our transmedia experiences stretch what stories can be. Through complex and interactive narrative forms, our stories might span multiple timelines — or even multiple realities! One fragment of a story might come to you in an exquisitely crafted package filled with unusual relics; another might come as an unnerving audio recording; and a third may come as a digital research dossier. www.theboundlesslibrary.com Instagram: @boundlesslib

An award nominee for the Prix Rideau award and Capital Critics, Jacqui Du Toit is an international theatrical performer and storyteller from South Africa. She has a B.A in Theatre and Performance from the University of Cape Town and has been working extensively as a professional actress, storyteller and arts educator. Her experience covers a wide range of fields including: writing, directing, acting, movement and puppetry. Jacqui immigrated to Canada in 2011 and now resides in Ottawa, where she is the Co-creator of The Origin Arts and community centre and the Creator of 8th Generation Performance. With both of her companies, Jacqui has created numerous community engaged theatrical storytelling productions, including IT IS GOOD - 2018, VALLEY OF STONE - 2017, THE HOTTENTOT VENUS - UNTOLD - 2016 Her most recent theatre performance was in THE OMNIBUS BILL by DARRAH TEITAL, Tactics Theatre festival 2019, directed by Esther Jun and THE DROWNING GIRLS at the GCTC 2018, directed by Bronwyn Steinberg. Twitter: @gen

Keshia Palm (she/they) is a Toronto-based Filipinx-Canadian settler from Treaty 6 Territory who seeks to expose, challenge and dismantle systems of oppression by creating thoughtful and inclusive art/spaces. Her creative practice includes dramaturgy, direction, performance, writing and producing. Keshia has developed and performed new works with theatre companies across Canada and is the dramaturge for a number of works in development by IBPOC, queer, women and trans artists. Her digital community arts project Make Me An Alleycat (created with wheels from Claren Grosz) invites people to connect over stories and destinations while social distancing by going for a bike ride. Keshia is a playwright in the 20/21 Hot House Lab at Cahoots Theatre, and a former Factory Foreman. She has been the Online Content Producer for ArtistProducerResource.com at Generator since 2018. Julia Dickson (she/her) is an arts manager, educator, and producer currently based in Toronto. She currently works as the General Manager of the

Sunny Drake’s inventive theatre works have been presented in over 60 cities across the world and translated into 4 languages. His wide range of audiences have spanned international arts festivals, queers in underground warehouses, elderly ladies in regional theatres and young people in drop-in centres. ‍ Sunny was commissioned by the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres, Playwrights Guild of Canada and ATFC to write the 2019 World Theatre Day message for Canada. He was awarded the inaugural Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize 2019 ($25,000) for having a significant impact on performing arts in Ontario, and was a finalist for the K. M. Hunter Theatre Award (2018). www.sunnydrake.com Twitter: @sunny_drake Instagram: @sunny_drake About CHILD-ish Following sold-out showings at SummerWorks in 2019 as a theatre play, Sunny Drake brings you the CHILD-ISH web series, shot at Toronto playgrounds. The virtual event will also digitally tour around the world. Virtual Tour Dates and more: https://www.sunnydrake

Maev Beaty and Debashis Sinha joined Stageworthy host, Phil Rickaby to talk about Necessary Angel's upcoming audio production of Roland Schimmelpfennig's play The Great Fire. Maev Beaty is a critically-acclaimed actor, writer and voice-over artist. She has originated roles in 23 Canadian premieres (Hannah Bunny, Kate Hennig’s The Last Wife, Michael Healey’s Proud and The Front Page, Judith Thompson’s Palace of the End, Sharon Pollock’s Angel’s Trumpet); co-writing and starring in award-winning theatre (Secret Life of a Mother, Montparnasse, Dance of the Red Skirts); performing in ensembles of epic theatre endeavours (Sheep No Wool/Outside the March/Convergence’s Passion Play, Nightwood’s Penelopiad, Volcano’s Another Africa, TheatreFront’sThe Mill); and interpreting lead classic roles across the country and over five seasons at the Stratford Festival (The Front Page, King Lear, She Stoops to Conquer, School for Scandal). She is a Toronto Theatre Critics’ Award winner, three-time Dora Award winner and twelve

The Red Sandcastle is a 50 seat storefront theatre, in which_ Anything is Possible!_ In May of 2011, Rosemary Doyle opened the Red Sandcastle Theatre, with the intent of giving theatre artists a canvas. The Red Sandcastle acts as an Artistic Hub to rent for creators in theatre, dance, visual art, and music. 2021 marks the 10th anniversary of Red Sandcastle, and brings a new look and new management: long time renter with Red Sandcastle, Eldritch Theatre‘s production and artistic team, Eric Woolfe and Adrianna Prosser, join the Red Sandcastle team as Managing Director and General Manager and will act as Caretakers of the Castle. Adrianna Prosser Adrianna is a Theatre Erindale + Sheridan College Alumnus and award winning storyteller. She joined Eldritch Theatre as their Marketing Monster and Artistic Producer in 2016, marketing and producing Dora award winning shows such as The Harrowing of Brimstone McReedy and Space Opera Zero! _as well as adding new programming such as children and adult Dungeons and Dragons

Mark Crawford is an actor and playwright. His plays are: The New Canadian Curling Club; Boys, Girls, and Other Mythological Creatures; The Birds and the Bees; Bed and Breakfast; and Stag and Doe. Mark's first play, Stag and Doe, premiered at the Blyth Festival in the summer of 2014. The play has received several other professional productions: Neptune Theatre, Port Stanley Festival Theatre, Lighthouse Festival Theatre, Upper Canada Playhouse, Festival Players of Prince Edward County, Theatre Orangeville, and others. Stag and Doe made its international premiere at Teatr Powszechny, Lodz, Poland in 2019 where it continues to run in rep. As an actor, Mark has performed on stages across the country. Mark grew up on his family's farm near Glencoe, Ontario. A graduate of the University of Toronto and Sheridan College, he now lives in Stratford. Twitter: @markjdcrawford Chase the Ace at Festival Players of Prince Edward County: https://www.festivalplayers.ca/chase-the-ace Support Stageworthy Tip Jar: https://tips.pi