Stageworthy

Alia Rasul is a Canadian Comedy Award nominated writer/performer. She received rave reviews for her performance in Generally Hospital whose “outstanding ensemble” won Patron’s Pick and the David Séguin Memorial Award. She understudied for 2 seasons of Second City’s Mainstage hit show, She The People. She is a NBCUniversal Bob Curry Fellowship alumni and holds a BA from McGill University. She made her directorial debut with Kwento, an improvised Filipino folktale. She is currently inclusion director at Bad Dog Theatre.

Alia is also a member of the Tita Collective, who present their Fringe hit Tita Jokes at the 2020 Next Stage Festival.

Also: check out the Tita Collective’s podcast: Chika Chika with the Titas.

www.aliarasul.com

Tita Collective

Chicka Chicka with the Titas: http://thesonarnetwork.com/chikachika/

Helen Knight is a Calgary-based actor and creator, and was last seen in Toronto when she joined Soulpepper theater as Mary Tudor in their remount of The Virgin Trial this past January. As an actor, Helen has worked with Alberta Theater Projects (The Virgin Trial, The Last Wife – Winner of the Betty Mitchellaward for best supporting actress), Lunchbox Theatre, Downstage Theatre, Ghost River Theatre, and many other independent companies. Lindsey is passionate about women’s stories and feats of theatre magic.Recent projects include She Kills Monsters (University of Lethbridge), Legoland (Urban Curvz Theatre), FUGLY (The Janes), and The Hudson Bay Epic and River: A Puppet Myth (Mudfoot Theatre).

Instagram: helenight02

Andrew Joseph Richardson

Victoria Urquhart

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 the G.T.A.

For a financially accessible gala we offer tickets on a sliding scale. Arts Worker and Student Tickets are available for the cost of $18 ($19.89 with processing fee). Folks who wish to donate more with their ticket to help those who cannot afford full cost can do so on our ticketing site: http://shakehospitals2019.bpt.me/

www.spurofthemomentshakespeare.com

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 the G.T.A.

For a financially accessible gala we offer tickets on a sliding scale. Arts Worker and Student Tickets are available for the cost of $18 ($19.89 with processing fee). Folks who wish to donate more with their ticket to help those who cannot afford full cost can do so on our ticketing site: http://shakehospitals2019.bpt.me/

www.spurofthemomentshakespeare.com

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

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

theatregargantua.ca

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 as well as recipient of the Canada council J.B.C. Watkins Award given to outstanding Canadian artists to pursue academic research.

Shakespeare in Action

Shakespeare in Action is a diverse theatre company that aspires to enhance the arts and education through exploring and performing Shakespeare’s plays. We are dedicated to fostering literacy, enhancing creativity and promoting speech arts by making the language and stories of Shakespeare accessible and relevant to young audiences, their families, and the community. Shakespeare in Action seeks to inspire audiences of all ages to discover Shakespeare’s universal truths in our everyday world, showing the influence classical theatre has within our communities.

Shakespeare in Action presents Sound & Fury, At Artscape Weston Common, Nov. 16 – Dec 7. Music, dance, and spoken word collide in this sharp, bold, and accessible world-premiere of Shakespeare’s most haunting play, MACBETH. Inspired by the sounds and poetry of 90s era hip hop music and performed by five diverse and dynamic actors, SOUND AND FURY is Marcel Stewart’s smart and imaginative adaptation that bursts with rhythms and lyrics, putting a contemporary spin on this classic story of bloody ambition.

www.shakespeareinaction.org

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 years as Producer of V-Day Toronto/One Billion Rising Canada — part of the global movement to end violence against women and girls, during which time she directed 11 of its productions. Known by her peers for her fierce commitment to inclusion and racial/cultural representation in the performing arts, she is also an anti-oppression educator and facilitator who has written over 30 essays about race, power and equity both within and outside of the theatre industry.

Twitter: @t_taitt

www.cahoots.ca

Colin Asuncion is an actor, singer and cabaret performer, as well as a Marketing Manager.

Twitter: @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