Musical Theatre Radio presents "Be Our Guest"

Joshua Castille is a Deaf performance artist based out of Los Angeles, California. Josh strives to form meaningful collaborations that explore the boundaries of art. He has worked on various projects in different roles including ASL master, director, actor, set designer, and more. His charming ability to communicate and deliver performance art to both hearing and Deaf audiences allows him to connect to people in a way that is unique and entertaining.

Josh began studying at Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. Josh was soon thereafter recruited to work in California with Deaf West Theatre Company, being cast in the revival of Spring Awakening. The run of the show gave Josh the experience of working alongside professional actors and technical artists, expanding his perception of the theatre. The show enjoyed its fruitful run in Beverly Hills, then was moved to Broadway. While in NYC, Josh’s industry network expanded, his intensive labors paid off, and he was able to enjoy the culmination of all his hard work molding into a successful start of a fulfilling professional career. 

Josh has worked in spaces from small community theatres, to Broadway, to the Tony Awards stage. He has starred in commercials, short films, music videos, and cameo appearances on TV shows and network programming. He has worked alongside artists such as BD Wong, Marlee Matlin, Camryn Manheim, Jules Dameron, Russell Harvard, Michael Arden, American Authors, Ingrid Michaelson, and Andrew Keegan-Bolger.

Amidst the adrenaline rushes, Josh has been able to channel his inner Cajun spirit. He makes friends with everyone he meets, remembering the influence others have on him. He harbors the humility of knowing that no matter how you communicate, you have a voice to be heard.

Doctor Bird Productions⁠ is looking to bring something fresh and new to Toronto's performance world.   We want to put on productions that stretch the imagination, that bring smiles to peoples faces and help to make people walk away with new thoughts and new ideas.  We hope to put on new productions in Canada and hope to reimagine shows that have been so important to the makeup of Torontos performance world. 

We are committed to the practice of color-conscious casting. We recognize that considerations of race, including how race and ethnicity shape society and the stories we tell, are vital components to the casting process. Also critical to the casting process are audience perceptions of race on stage and in film. We strive to craft performances in ways that respect, care for, and honor individuals, cultures, and communities of color. Furthermore, we recognize that the practice of white-washing erases culturally and racially specific stories and experiences. White-washing takes away opportunities from people of color and reinforces the dangerous notion of white superiority. Therefore, we reject this practice. In light of this, we seek to be inclusive and color-conscious not only in our casting but also in the material we choose to stage.

Manuele Adrian Mizzi

Jamaican-Italian tenor, Manuele Adrian Mizzi discovered his love for performing at a very young age. Growing up in Markham he attended Unionville High School for the Arts later obtaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Voice Performance from York University under the tutelage of renowned Canadian operatic soprano Stephanie Bogle and having also studied with renowned European soprano Galina Lumkosky.

With a repertoire ranging from pop to musical theatre to opera and classical, he has performed in a wide variety of venues throughout North America. His musical theatre credits include performing the roles of Schroeder in You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Japheth in Two by Two, Thomas in Emmanuel the Musical (New York City), Barnaby in Hello Dolly, Shrek in Shrek Tateh in Ragtime, The Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz, and Dickon in The Secret Garden among many others.Manuele Adrian Mizzi also has a long career of teaching under his belt. As an avid pianist, accompanist, musical director and director, he has been working with all ages from 3-99 for the last 23 years. His directing and musical directing credits include musicals, plays, pantos and recitals.

Is a Mexican dancer, actor singer and photographer living in Toronto. She studied dance perfromance at Centennial College and phtography at Escuela Activa De Fotografia.

Julie Nemitz

With over a decade of experience in senior sales and marketing leadership roles, Julie has a proven track record of driving growth through strategic vision and innovative content marketing. She has partnered with Fortune 500 companies and led teams at award-winning agencies and publishers. In the past six years alone, Julie has developed over 200 successful theatre marketing campaigns and strategic plans, bringing her substantial expertise to help theatres thrive. 

Known for rolling up her sleeves, she combines big-picture strategy with hands-on execution to deliver robust marketing solutions for her clients.
Julie also works with dozens of stellar for-profit arts companies to guide them in making a huge impact on their businesses by creating influential marketing content born from innovative strategies. 

Michael was born in the wagon of a traveling show... At least that's what it says on his website.

He is a graduate of Marymount Manhattan College and has been directing and producing in any and all mediums.  Some recent projects are Broadway's Caroline, or Change revival (co-producer), off-Broadway's long running A Musical About Star Wars (director), and the decadent new soap opera, Mélange, starring Morgan Fairchild (editor).

During the pandemic he produced and directed several high profile streaming benefits to raise money for various neighborhood institutions in need of some help.  Save West Bank Cafe was a 10 hour Christmas Day telethon, followed by Save Birdland, The Musical of Musicals (the York Theatre) and a benefit for The Stonewall Inn to name  few. Ultimately, we raised 1.5M and were honored that so many stars collaborated on these projects with him from President Clinton (both of them) to Sting, Whoopi Goldberg, Pete Townshend, Sean Penn nee Ciccone, Patti LuPone, André De Shields, Ana Gastyre, Demi Lovato and so many more.

Sydney Gauvin was once described (by her best friends ex boyfriend) as "Effortlessly Quirky", Canadian native, Sydney Gauvin, grew up in Brampton Ontario. the same birthplace of Michael Cera! Her passion and love for singing, dancing, acting and all things theatrical ignited when she was 7 years old. When one magical day of kindergarten, her teacher told her mother to put her in theatre. Miss Jones if you're reading this, you changed her life!

Duncan Lang is a Candian performer and graduate of Sheridan College. Past credits include 'The Words and Music of Britta Johnson" and Urinetown.

Shifting Ground Collective was founded in the Spring of 2022, Shifting Ground Collective is Toronto’s newest home for emerging musical theatre voices. Our work spans developmental processes for new Canadian musicals, concert and cabaret programming, and full-scale productions of beloved musical theatre favourites – all with a focus on spotlighting the next-generation of great Canadian musical theatre talent.

WILL REYNOLDS (Music) and ERIC PRICE (Lyrics and Book) are musical theatre writers based in NYC.

Shows currently in development include The Violet Hour and Radioactive, which charts the discovery of radium by Marie and Pierre Curie.

Will and Eric are songwriters on the AppleTV+ animated series “Central Park,” starring Leslie Odom Jr., Josh Gad, and Stanley Tucci. They also wrote the song “When I See You Again,” which can be found on Broadway Records’ benefit album “Artists in Residence.” Their papers for this project have now been permanently housed in a Special Collection of the Music Division at the Library of Congress.

Will and Eric are the winners of the Fred Ebb Award for Musical Theatre Writing, the Kurt Weill Foundation’s Lotte Lenya Award, and the Dramatists Guild Fellowship. 

In 2020, they created the online Musical Theatre Education platform THIS MT SPACE.

If you knew the future, would you try to change it?

The story is set on April 1, 1919, when John Pace Seavering, a young publisher, comes to possess a machine that inexplicably begins printing pages from books. Books from the future.
Page by page, John pieces together a vision of what the next century has in store for himself, his friends, and the world at large.

And once he decides he wants to change the future, the clock is ticking.

Lizzie Bea, living in Brighton and Hove, England, is a professional stage actress. Lizzie trained at the National Youth Theatre And National Youth Music Theatre. She also attended the National Student Drama Festival.

Her extensive work in theatre includes Mrs Wilkinson in Nick Evans’ Billy Elliot at Billy Youth Theatre (2011); Polly Parish in Lotte Wakeham’s The Other School at the National Youth Music Theatre; Mother Pig/Bee in Ewan Jones’ The 3 Little Pigs (Kenny Wax Family Entertainment, 2016); Actress 2 in Malcolm McKee’s The Shakespeare Revue (2016); Ducky Daddles in Samuel Harjanne’s Chicken Little at From Page to Stage (2017); Rose in Samuel Harjanne’s Dino Story at From Page to Stage; onstage swing in Kay Mellor’s Fat Friends The Musical (Rollem Productions, 2018); Abigail Henson in Jerry Mitchell’s Becoming Nancy at the Alliance Theatre (2019); Pat in Jerry Mitchell’s Kinky Boots (Playful Productions, 2019).

Among her workshop credits are Abigail Henson in Jerry Mitchell’s Becoming Nancy (Jammy Productions Inc. 2016); Martha Dunstock in Andy Fickman’s Heathers at The Other Palace (2017); Abigail Henson in the New York cast of Foresight Theatrical, 2017 and 2018; Commentator 2 in Adam Lenson’s The Throwaways (2020).

Lizzie is in the 2015 demo recording of Half A Sixpence (Cameron Mackintosh Ltd). In concert and cabaret, she was an ensemble in Thom Southerland’s State Fair (London Musical Theatre Orchestra, 2016); soloist in Shaun McCourt’s Christmas Goes…Pop! At Giggin4Good (2016); Joanne in Shaun Kerrison’s Honeymoon In Vegas (London Musical Theatre Orchestra, 2017); soloist in The Mousetrap Awards (Mousetrap Theatre Projects, 2017); soloist in Scott Alan’s Scott Alan With Mystery Guests (Live at Zedel, 2018); guest performer in Broadway Star Jessica Vosk In Concert (2019); herself in Leave A Light On at the Lambert Jackson/Theatre Café.

Alfie Parker comes from Worthing, West Sussex and graduated from The Royal Academy of Music in 2015.

Alfie made his West End debut as swing in the original West End production of School of Rock. Other credits include Tackaberry in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (City of London Festival), Nick in Aladdin (Buxton Opera House), Genie in Aladdin (Beck Theatre Hayes), Fat Friends (UK Tour), Samuel Byck in Assassins (Pleasance Theatre), Mutt in Kinky Boots (UK Tour), The Baker in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (UK Tour) and Eddie in Sister Act (Frankfurt).

Around the World in 80 Plays

A Broadway veteran, best known for her roles in CATS and Amneris in Aida. Prior to her Broadway Debut, Hendy was featured on the national tour of Jospeh and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat as Napthali’s Wife and the Narrator. She then made her Broadway Debut in 1999 in the ensemble of CATS and understudying Grizabella. She went on to star on the national tour of Cats in the role. Her next Broadway show was Aida, playing the outlandish, opulent Amneris. Hendy was also featured in the Original Broadway Cast of the musical Amour. Coming around full circle, Hendy most recently starred as Grizabella in the Andy Blankenbuehler helmed Broadway Revival of CATS.

AN ACCOMPLISHED ACTRESS, COMPOSER/LYRICIST, AND PLAYWRIGHT, BRIANNA BELIEVES IN USING EVERY TOOL IN HER BELT TO TELL STORIES THAT INSPIRE TRANSFORMATION. SHE IS A MULTI-HYPHENATE FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH.

BRIANNA MAKES NO APOLOGIES FOR THE AMOUNT OF IRONS IN HER FIRE. HER CREATE-YOUR-OWN-WORK PHILOSOPHY HAS SERVED HER WELL IN HER 7 YEARS BASED IN NYC.

A GRADUATE OF THE ESTEEMED MUSICAL THEATER PROGRAM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI-COLLEGE CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC (CCM), BRIANNA HAS PERFORMED AS A PRINCIPAL, ENSEMBLE MEMBER, AND UNDERSTUDY/SWING IN MUSICAL PRODUCTIONS ALL OVER THE COUNTRY (FLORIDA STUDIO THEATRE, THEATRE ASPEN, THE WICK THEATRE, CAPITAL REPERTORY THEATER, JOHN W. ENGEMAN THEATER) AS WELL AS STARRED AS LUCY IN THE NATIONAL TOUR OF A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS.

BUT IT’S BRIANNA’S WRITING THAT HAS GIVEN HER AN EDGE AS A RISING COMPOSER/LYRICIST IN THE NEW YORK THEATER COMMUNITY.

Meet Jessica - 

A Broadway actress and single mother.

As she and her young son ‘Bubbles’ wait for their playdate in Central Park they are approached by a homeless man -

Meet Bubbles’ father. 

From the lights of Broadway to the depths of her husband’s mental illness, Walking With Bubbles explores how far a mother will go to protect her son, her loved ones, and ultimately, herself.

Antony is a musician and mythical storyteller who loves creating worlds. He is based in Los Angeles.

Mr. Juillet’s new oratorio, “The Selah Prophesies” recently garnered a Bronze Medal at the 2018 Global Music Awards. He gave his life to Jesus at the age of 12 and never looked back. Tim says: “God is good all the time, and we can always choose to see His goodness”. Proverbs 3: 5-6 is his favorite life verse. Tim and his wife of 23 years have lived in Surprise Arizona for 16 years, and have two daughters.

Nazareth Man is a rock opera about the life and death of Jesus.