Stageworthy

Eric Petersen is a graduate of the University of Toronto and Northwestern University. He has returned to Toronto after stints in New York, Chicago and Vancouver. While in Chicago, he was a board member of Halcyon Theatre and brought Ninaz Khodaiji's work to Chicago for its premiere performance. His shorter playlets are often performed at Sing-for-Your-Supper (at various locations around Toronto). In addition to writing plays, he occasionally turns his hand to poetry and has been published in White Wall Review, Gyst, xib, and A House Divided.

Eric's play, Final Exam appears as part of the 2018 edition of the Toronto Fringe Festival.

AdamSeelig is the founder and Artistic Director of One Little Goat Theatre Company. He is the author of Every Day in the Morning (slow) (New Star Books, finalist for the 2011 ReLit Award in poetry) and his plays include Ubu Mayor (BookThug 2014), Talking Masks (BookThug 2009), Antigone:Insurgency (2007) and, for children, PLAY: A (Mini) History of Theatre for Kids (Toronto 2016-18).

Adam is the writer, director, and composer of MUSIC MUSIC LIFE DEATH MUSIC: An Absurdical, running May 25 - June 10 at Tarragon Extraspace.

Tickets: http://onelittlegoat.org/music-music-life-death-music

Carlyn Rhamey is an actor, writer and co-founder of Squirrel Suit Productions, a theatre collective passionate about creating new work and making a positive impact on their community. Through Squirrel Suit, Carlyn wrote and performed her very first one-woman show "SAOR (Free)" on the 2016 CAFF Fringe Tour. Carlyn's latest solo play, The ADHD project can be seen in the 2018 editions of the London, Edmonton, Victoria and Vancouver Fringe Festivals.

Carlyn is a Fanshawe College Theatre Arts graduate. Her theatre credits include "Lavinia Andronicus” in Titus Andronicus (Funeral Pyre Theatre),"Ophelia" in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Passionfool Theatre), "Abigail Williams“ in The Crucible (Passionfool Theatre), performer/playwright of In Their Shoes (Squirrel Suit), "Bridget” in Moonshine (Toronto Irish Players), Shakespeare on a Subway (Spur of the Moment Shakespeare Collective). "Ophelia" in Hamlet (Fanshawe Theatre), "Sissy" in Unity (1918) (Fanshawe Theatre).

Web: www.squirrelsuit.ca
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/squirrelsuitproductions
Twitter: @SquirrelSuitT

Stageworthy:
https://www.stageworthypodcast.com
Twitter @stageworthyPod
Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Since Ann Powell and David Powell founded Puppetmongers in 1974, the company has become internationally recognized as a leader and innovator in the field of puppetry. So far we have created a dozen new plays for both young and general audiences, which have earned us and our collaborators a mass of awards.

Puppetmongers continues to develop new work on their own and also in collaboration with others, and hosts an annual conference called Fresh Ideas in Puppetry for established and emerging artists to share their passion and expertise in puppetry. This year, the Fresh Ideas in Puppetry day is May 27th, at Aki Studios.

In 1996, we started The Toronto School of Puppetry to share our creative approach and provide a collaborative learning space for the puppetry community, and for multi-disciplinary artists interested in expanding their theatrical palette. We also work with students from elementary school up to the post-graduate level.

www.puppetmongers.com
www.torontoschoolofpuppetry.com

Belinda Corpuz
Belinda is active in Toronto's professional and independent theatre scene. She has developed new Canadian works with Carlos Bulosan Theatre (CBT), Fu-GEN, Cahoots, Soulpepper Theatre, Pencil Kit Productions, and Expect Theatre (as part of the Beats + Intentions Emerging Artist Program). Selected theatre credits include: Through the Bamboo - Staged Reading (Soulpepper Theatre, as part of the Shen Development Series), Perfect Couples (Pencil Kit Productions, 2017 Toronto and Hamilton Fringe Festivals), Hilot Means Healer - Staged Reading (Cahoots Theatre Projects), ANAK (Carlos Bulosan Theatre), Kaldero (Carlos Bulosan Theatre) In the Shadow of Elephants (Carlos Bulosan Theatre), Shotgun Wedding (Carlos Bulosan Theatre, 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival).

Belinda has also worked with Toronto-based theatre company, Carlos Bulosan Theatre, as former Artistic Associate and member of their Collective Creation Ensemble, as a theatre creator and performer. Most recently, she debuted Carlos Bulosan Theatre's original play, ANAK, as co-playwright, actor, and sound designer/music composer.

www.belindacorpuz.com
Twitter: @belindarona
Instagram: belindacorpuz

Isabel Kanaan
Isabel is a Second City graduate and Seneca College Acting for Camera and Voice alumna. She has been awarded the NBC Universal Bob Curry Fellowship. She is a member of CBC’s sketch comedy troupe Air Farce, the Canadian Comedy Award winning sketch troupe The Sketchersons, and Second City’s House Ensemble and Educational Company.

Isabel is a Filipino-Canadian film and theatre actor fluent in Tagalog and English. Aside from her successes in comedy, she is also known for her lead role in the series Haunted or Hoax, which won the NYC Web Fest’s Audience Choice Award.

She regularly performs with the Asian Canadian theatre company fu-GEN Theatre and the Filipino Canadian theatre company Carlos Bulosan Theatre. She even co-wrote and performed in CBT’s production Anak.

www.isabelkanaan.com
Twitter: @isabelkanaan
Instagram: isabelkanaan

Prairie Nurse

It’s winter in the prairies, late 1960s. Two young nurses, just off the plane from the Philippines, arrive at a rural hospital in Arborfield, Saskatchewan – population 300. No one can tell the two nurses apart; including the dim-witted lab technician at the hospital who falls in love with one of them but accidentally courts both. Homesickness, unfamiliar customs, and amorous advances complicate the women’s lives.

A culture-clashing comedy of errors with heart, PRAIRIE NURSE was inspired by the playwright’s mother and the legacy she and others with similar experiences have contributed to the fabric of Canada.

PRAIRIENURSE
Written by Marie Beath Badian | Directed by Sue Miner
Featuring Layne Coleman, Belinda Corpuz, Mark Crawford, Catherine Fitch,
Janelle Hanna, Isabel Kanaan, Matt Shaw
Set Design by Jung-Hye Kim | Costume Design by Anna Treusch
Lighting Design by Jareth Li | Sound Design by Lyon Smith
Factory Mainspace
April 21 – May 13, 2018

For More Info and to Connect with Factory:
factorytheatre.ca
Twitter: @FactoryToronto
Facebook: @FactoryTheatreTO

Stephen Near is a playwright and performer from Ottawa, ON and a graduate of York University. His plays have been performed across Canada in such festivals as the Ottawa Fringe, the Toronto Fringe, the Hamilton Fringe, New Ideas, and Summerworks. He is an alumnus of the Sage Hill Writing Experience and the Banff Centre and has studied playwriting with Linda Griffiths, David Copelin, Daniel MacIvor, Brian Quirt, and Beverley Cooper. In 2015, Stephen established the First Stage Series of new play development at the Players Guild of Hamilton. Stephen is a member of the Playwright’s Guild of Canada and the Theatre Aquarius Playwrights Unit. Recent writing credits include Monstrous Invisible (Theatre Aquarius), Interface (2011 Hamilton Fringe – New Play Contest 1st Prize), Plain Speak (2012 HamilTEN Festival), Test (2013 Hamilton Fringe – New Play Contest 2nd Runner-Up), The Conspiracy of Michael (2014 Hamilton Fringe), and Finding Mr. Right (2015 Hamilton Fringe). He lives in Hamilton with his wife Leanne, daughter Rebecca, and son Brenden.

Twitter: @snear23

Same Boat Theatre:
www.sameboattheatre.com
Twitter: @sameboattheatre

Your Own Sons:
Pauline’s son travels overseas to fight for ISIS while Dan’s son joins the Canadian Forces. Desperate to understand, both parents set out on a journey to confront the fate of their sons. But as their paths draw them closer to each other, will they be ready for the answers that await them? From the creators of Finding Mr. Right and Test, comes this searing and critically-acclaimed drama tackling the politics of faith and fear and the collision between love and loss.

Written by Stephen Near
Directed by Aaron Joel Craig
Stage Managed by Rose Hopkins

Featuring: Terri Brunsting, Adam Lemieux, Stephen Near, Jennifer Walton, Amber Wood, and Ramzey Zourob

VENUE: The Pearl Company Arts Centre, 16 Steven Street, Hamilton, ON
TICKETS: $20 (purchase at Brown Paper Tickets)
OPENING: Thursday, April 19 at 8:00 PM
Friday, April 20 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, April 21 at 8:00 PM
Thursday, April 26 at 8:00 PM
Friday, April 27 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, April 28 at 2 PM
CLOSING: Saturday, April 28 at 8:00 PM

#ShakesbeersShowdown is where Toronto’s hottest indie Shakespeare 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 2018 Shakespeare-In-Hospitals Program, set to launch this fall.

INTRODUCING YOUR 2018 COMPETITORS:
Spur-Of-The-Moment Shakespeare Collective
Shakey-Shake and Friends Theatre Company
Shakespeare in the Ruff
Skipping Stones Theatre
Theatre By Committee
Shakespeare BASH'd
Theatre ARTaud
The Reviewers
The People
And
Stratford Festival
LET'S GET READY TO RRRRUMBLE!

************************************

Spur-Of-The-Moment Shakespeare Collective is proud to present the seventh annual Shakesbeers Showdown: Jurassic Bard April 27th, 2018 at918 Bathurst Centre for Culture, Arts, Media & Education

Doors: 6:00pm
Show: 7:00pm
General: $25
Student/Arts Worker: $22 at the door ($18 online)
Honorary Judge: $100

TICKETS NOW ON SALE: http://www.nowtickets.ca/events/52109998/shakesbeersshowdown-jurassic-bard

Set in and around the Princess Margaret Hospital, the story of Alan and Moira exposes the harsh realities
of the solitude and fears that accompany cancer treatment with brutal honesty and wry humour. Pettle’s writing
comes from a place of awful familiarity, as he explains in his forward, "It’s July 15, 1995, and I’m back in the
hospital - radioactive iodine therapy, cancer treatment’s answer to solitary confinement. Why did I write this play? I wrote it to survive days like this. [...] I wrote it not only for those who have passed on to other journeys, but for all those who remain in Therac corridors everywhere. People that are not just statistics in flimsy pamphlets or black numbers on manila envelopes, but individuals with brilliant minds and raging spirits, with awe-inspiring courage and beautiful children."

It was the personal connection to this story that brought this production into existence and provides the motivation to engage in the realities of the content beyond the story-telling. As well as donating a percentage of both the ticket proceeds and additional fundraising efforts to the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation and Gilda’s Club Greater Toronto , the production is coordinating with several organizations to provide talk-back opportunities and other activities in support of the individuals and families fighting the disease both known and unknown to us.

Cass Van Wyck:
Twitter: @classvanwyck
Instagram: classvanwyck

Jessie Fraser:
Instagram: slackbaby

Christopher Lewis:
http://www.majorcallisto.com/
Instagram: majorcallisto

Tickets: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3373355
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1886254528331793/

These awesome indie theatre creators sat down with host Phil Rickaby as part of the first Indie Theatre Creators Roundtable: Christel Bartelse, Victoria Urquhart, Victoria Velenosi, and Janelle Hanna.

Christel Bartelse is an Actor, Comic, Writer, Teacher, and Solo Show creator living in Toronto. She is a graduate of the Second City Conservatory Program, Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts and has studied Clown extensively with John Turner & Michael Kennard (Mump and Smoot) as well as Sue Morrison, Philippe Gaulier and Francine Cote.She had the pleasure of performing with Mump and Smoot in “Something” at the Westbury Theatre in Edmonton.

She is a member of Faustwork Mask Theatre/Prologue for the Performing Arts and performs the show The Mask Messenger in schools regularly.

In 2008 she developed her first solo show “CHAOTICA” which went onto to win numerous awards and garnered rave reviews. She developed 2 other solo shows “ONEymoon” & “Significant Me” and all three solo shows have been nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award “Best One Person Show”.Christel continues to tour her work, and has toured across Canada, to the US & the UK. She has been teaching for over 15 years. She has taught Improv at the Second City, teaches Mask, Clown, Dance, Movement, independently to schools all across the GTA and currently teaches Clown/Movement at the Toronto Film School and teaches and directs Clowns at Humber College in the Comedy & Writing Program.

http://christelbartelse.com/
Twitter:@cbartelse

Victoria Urquhart is a Toronto-based actor and director from Caledon. She is also a graduate from the University of Windsor’s 2010 B.F.A. Acting Program. This training has helped her to develop a focus on marrying Physical Theatre Practices with Classical Text. This fascination, combined with her leadership and organizational skills developed through working six consecutive summers at a residential camp have led her to a passion for directing, and the creation of The Spur-Of-The-Moment Shakespeare Collective in Toronto. Through the SOTMSC, she has directed, produced, and sometimes performed in several community projects, including the Shakespeare-On-The-Subway Project, several sessions of Shakespeare-In-Hospitals, and JULIUS CAESAR PROJECT, garnering 4 N’s from NOW magazine at the 2014 Toronto Fringe Festival. Other theatre credits include: Waiting for Alonzo with Empty Box Theatre (2015), Teach Me with Newborn Theatre, and Macbeth with Hart House Theatre.

Twitter: @gnitenet

Victoria Velenosi is a storyteller and tells stories to anyone who will listen. She is half of the partnership that runs Brick and Mortar, home of The Attic, The Box and The Commons. At any given time, she can be found either on stage, behind a computer, or under a pile of cats. Most impressive credits include a list of shows you’ve probably never heard of. ☺

Vikki is a graduate of the University of Windsor Acting Program and Straeon Acting Studios. Vikki believes that every artist has an important voice and, with the right stage, they can change the world. #DREAMBIGGER

@VikkiVelenosi

Janelle Hanna is an actor, educator, and short sassy woman, and is thrilled to be premiering her first full length solo show Bad Baby Presents: Rules Control the Fun at the Toronto Fringe. Other Fringe credits include: Eternal Friendship with a Spotless Smile (Patron’s Pick),Virginia Aldridge, BSc, Sitting in a Tree, and Fantastic Extravagance. Other credits include: Frankenstein Live (The Arts Engine), Knot Tied (Lab Cab Festival), Eligible(BravoFact), Neighbourhood Watch, The Duvet (Film Army), Swell Broad,Commencement (Convection Productions), Last Man Hanged, Ring Round the Moon, Pillar to Port Walkabout (Gairbraid Theatre), Anne of Green Gables (Stirling Festival Theatre). Janelle is a graduate of the Masters in Acting program at York University where she played such roles as Cordelia/Foole in King Lear, the Knight in The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Volumnia in Coriolanus, Alcestis in Alcestis, and Flute/Thisbe in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She is also a graduate of the joint acting program at Sheridan College and the University of Toronto Mississauga (Theatre Erindale)

@janellemhanna

Stageworthy:
https://www.stageworthypodcast.com
Twitter @stageworthyPod
Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Since moving to Toronto in the fall of 2014, Sri Lankan tenor Asitha Tennekoon has firmly established himself as a versatile singer, performing in a wide range of repertoire. He won the Dora Award for Best Male Performance as Paul in Tapestry Opera’s Rocking Horse Winner and earned glowing reviews as Gernando in Haydn’s L’Isola disabitata with Voicebox: Opera in Concert.

Asitha recently starred in Edith Smyth’s The Boatswain’s Mate with Opera 5, and in 2018 debuts as Polidoro in Scarlatti’s Erminia with Opera Lafayette in Washington and New York.

Asitha shared the stage with soprano Erin Wall in Songmasters Recital Series and has appeared as a soloist with Toronto Bach Festival, Theatre of Early Music, Ottawa Bach Choir and Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra.

Twitter: @asithatennekoon
Instagram: asithatennekoon

Stageworthy:
https://www.stageworthypodcast.com
Twitter @stageworthyPod
Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod