Stageworthy

Audrey Dwyer has been a theatre artist, teacher and mentor for over fifteen years. She was a mentor for the Summerworks Leadership Program and led the program in 2012 and 2013. She was the Assistant Coordinator and Educator for Nightwood Theatre’s Write from the Hip program from 2008 to 2010. She has taught improvisation with TIFF and leads screenplay courses for young women. Her theatre credits include: Blue Planet (YPT), One Thing Leads to Another (YPT – Dora Awards for Outstanding Ensemble and Outstanding New Play), Patty’s Cake (Carousel Players – Dora Award Outstanding Play), Danny, King of the Basement (Roseneath Theatre). She won The Cayle Chernin Award for Theatre (Playwriting) in 2015. Audrey was the Associate Artistic Director of Nightwood Theatre and was the Artistic Director of Cow Over Moon Children’s Theatre. Audrey graduated from The National Theatre School.

Calpurnia
A hilarious and provocative look at class, race, and appropriation, Calpurnia invites us into an outrageous and unexpected evening at the home of a wealthy Jamaican-Canadian family. As Justice Lawrence Gordon (Andrew Moodie) prepares for an important dinner to introduce his son Mark (Matthew G. Brown) to a Senior Partner at a prominent law firm (Don Allison), his daughter Julie (Meghan Swaby) grapples with her new screenplay. Seeking to redress To Kill a Mockingbird through the perspective of Calpurnia – the Finch family maid – Julie, privileged and disconnected from domestic work, turns to her long-term Filipina caregiver Precy (Carolyn Fe) for research on servitude. But as Julie examines mammy culture from the inside out, her tactics are met with explosive results.

A Nightwood Theatre and Sulong Theatre Co-production
Written and directed by Audrey Dwyer
January 14 – February 4, 2018
Tickets: buddiesinbadtimes.com/show/calpurnia/

Stageworthy:
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EmmaClaire Brightlyn is an actor arrived in Toronto. With an MA in Classical and Contemporary Text Performance from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, EmmaClaire has spent the last 8 years performing and making work in the UK. She has been a company member with Ipdip Theatre, creating engaging work for under 4 year olds and the big people who come with them, as well as an actor with Playwright’s Studio Scotland, workshopping new pieces of theatre. In 2012, EmmaClaire was part of the multi-award winning short film, Notes and has been involved with the production company Worrying Drake and director John McPhail ever since. Most recently she was seen as Apemantus in Timon of Athens, and Goneril in Queen Lear with Bard in the Botanics, Scotland’s largest Shakespeare Festival.

EmmaClaire also works internationally as a Fight Director and Instructor.

http://www.emmaclairebrightlyn.com/
Instagram: emcbrightlyn

Originating from Niagara, Jess McAuley is a Brock University graduate (theatre studies, honours) with a passion for devised theatre, writing, and pushing the bounds of adventure on stage.

Her recent credits with New Twist include Peter Panhandler (co-creator/producer, 2017), Guilty Pleasures (writer/director, 2016). Previously, Jess has worked with Something-Something Productions for the 2013 production of The Rocky Horror Show (Usherette/Janet), Fragmentos (Maria Chambers, Brock University, 2013), and collaborated with NeXt Theatre Company in The Arab Spring Monologues (2013).

Jess is taking the next steps with New Twist in touring the company with her first ever solo show - to premiere in the London Fringe Festival (2018). Currently untitled, the show is a true coming of age story, beginning in high school and all the way to graduation; it’s a story of finding love and closure while navigating through her depression and melancholy. Though she is a lover of fiction and adventure, Jess has morphed the show into a “confessional”, and invites the audience to peak inside her life through her old journals, letters and photos. You may laugh, you may cry, but Jess hopes that above all she inspires survivors to find courage in standing up for themselves against their own demons and vices.

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.

Do not miss Spur of the Moment Shakespeare-in-Hospitals La Maschera Gala on December 14, 2017.

Twitter: @gnitenet

Twitter: @shakespur
Instagram:@shakespur

https://shakehospitals2017.brownpapertickets.com/

Stageworthy:
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Lucy Eveleigh is the Executive Director of the Toronto Fringe Festival, and has been the Managing Director of the Toronto Fringe for the last five years, after two years as the General Manager for the SummerWorks Performance Festival and three years as the General Manager of the Pleasance Theatre in London, England. Her extensive knowledge of theatre administration and company management, and her passion for the mandate of the Fringe movement, make her the ideal candidate to lead this organization into its 30th year and beyond.

@eveleigh_lucy

Toronto Fringe
https://fringetoronto.com/
@Toronto_Fringe

Stageworthy:
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Twitter @stageworthyPod
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Grace fell in love with the theatre at a tender age playing Goldilocks in nursery school. In high school she toured Macbeth and The Two Gentlemen of Verona with Montreal Shakespeare Theatre Company. Grace spent her summers exploring and cultivating her passion for classical theatre with the Stratford Festival’s Shakespeare School and Theatre Performance Intensive under the direction of Edward Darayni. In summer of 2011, she appeared in Ottawa parks and the National Arts Centre’s 4th stage playing Desdemona in Salamander Shakespeare Co.'s Othello.

Graduating in 2012 from Dawson College’s Dome Theatre Program, Grace’s hunger for challenging material was always satisfied during her time there, where she played an interesting range of leading and supporting roles - including Portia in The Merchant of Venice, Masha in Three Sisters and Alma in Tennessee William’s Summer and Smoke. She was honored to be chosen as the recipient of the Beryl and Willie Moser Award for Theatre in recognition of 'outstanding acting ability.’ In her second year, she wrote the play The Art of Arousal, based on the life of modernist artist, Henri Matisse. The play premiered at the Mainline Theatre and The Factory Line’s 1st Gala for Student Drama - Grace was awarded ‘Best Actor’ for her role as Olga Meerson, and her dedicated team took home the grand prize of ‘Best Production.’

Constantly striving to further expand her talent, Grace is excited to explore every artistic possibility from stage to screen and looks forward to a long and fruitful career in the performing arts.

Check out Grace in theatre penumbra's production of David Mamet's Oleana, at the Red Sandcastle in Toronto, November 21 - December 3.

Twitter: @gracegordon1564
Instagram: gracegordon1

theatre penumbra
Twitter:@TheatrePenumbra
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theatrepenumbra/
Oleana Tickets: https://mametoleanna.bpt.me/

Stageworthy:
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Factory Theatre, in association with b current performing arts, is proud to present the world premiere of trace, a one-man-two-piano-play written, composed and performed by former Factory Artistic Associate Jeff Ho (Ophelia, Prince Hamlet/Why Not Theatre), and directed by Factory Artistic Director Nina LeeAquino.

A painfully personal story of family and genealogy, trace follows the footprints taken by Jeff’s great grandmother who fled the Japanese in WWII by escaping to Hong Kong, losing one of her two sons during the trek; his mother’s similar pilgrimage to Canada, also with two sons in tow; and by Jeff himself, when he too embarked on a journey, moving from Markham to Montreal to pursue an uncharacteristically Chinese life.

Spanning 100 years and three generations, and featuring virtuosic original piano compositions composed by Jeff, traceis a chamber play structured as a piano sonata with a prelude, three movements and a coda. A convergence of theatrical and symphonic storytelling, trace celebrates the courage and strength of his matriarchal forebears while acknowledging the lasting implications of familial sacrifice.

trace marks the playwriting debut from Jeff Ho, referred to as a “discreet revelation” by the Montreal Gazette. Select acting credits include: Hana’s Suitcase (Tour: Toronto/Montreal/Seattle/YPT), Unknown Soldier (lemontree/Architect Theatre), Murderers Confess at Christmastime (Outside the March), Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet (Repercussion Theatre), Incorporated (SyFy/CBS), and Orphan Black (BBC America). As a playwright, Jeff has held residencies with the Stratford Playwright’s Retreat 2016, Nightswimming, Cahoots Hot House Unit, Banff Centre Playwrights Lab, and Factory Theatre. Jeff began playing piano at age five, graduated from the National Theatre School in 2013, and won a Harold award in 2017.

Twitter: @kjeffho

Factory Theatre:
https://www.factorytheatre.ca/2017-18-season/trace/
Twitter: @factorytoronto
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FactoryTheatreTO/

Stageworthy:
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Twitter @stageworthyPod
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This year Jacquie P. Thomas celebrates her 25th Season as the Artistic Director of Theatre Gargantua, which she founded in 1992. In addition to her role as founder and Artistic Director, Jacquie has served Gargantua as an actor, director, producer, composer, choreographer, dramaturge and writer, earning 10 Dora Mavor Moore Award nominations for her artistic contributions to the company. Her most recent directorial projects include the upcoming November 2017 presentation of Reflector as well as Avaricious, The Sacrifice Zone and Imprints, among others. Other selected credits include the Ossetynski Actors Lab in Los Angeles, Roy Hart Theatre in France, The National Theatre of Greece and the Gardzienice Theatre Association of Poland.

Under her leadership, Theatre Gargantua has earned over 30 Dora nominations and awards for categories including Outstanding New Play, Direction, Sound Design, Set Design and Lighting Design. She has also directed and led an 11-city tour of Phantom Limb across the UK, a headlining tour of Raging Dreams: into the Visceral to the Portland Oregon Performance Festival, and the transfer of e-Dentity to the Royal Alexandra Theatre as part of the Mirvish Theatre subscription season.

Jacquie was awarded a Harold Award for contributions to Toronto’s independent theatre community, and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013 for contributions to Canadian culture and community.

http://theatregargantua.ca/
Twitter: @TGargantua
Instagram: TheatreGargantua
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheatreGargantua

Stageworthy:
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Sarah Lynn Strange is stoked to be Phil’s 100th podcast! 2017 marks a banner year, with 8 of 12 months working on stage, classics like Singin’ In The Rain and My Fair Lady, to a Disney dream role in Beauty & The Beast, and capping off the year with A Christmas Story… which pssst she has never even seen the movie of, don’t tell anyone!! A Sheridan Graduate, previous credits include evil queen’s and lots of mothers, not a character actress in any way https://static.xx.fbcdn.net/images/emoji.php/v9/z4c/1/16/1f642.png" alt="

Cathy Huang is an Asian-Canadian multidisciplinary theatre and film artist, and a classically trained singer and pianist. She aims to redefine what it means to be Canadian, and eventually start her own company to create art for and support young people that feel caught between their Asian and Canadian identities. Cathy is one of Nightwood Theatre’s 2017/18 Young Innovators, and is the recipient of Theatre Ontario’s first Summer Intensive Youth Scholarship, having recently returned from Donna-Michelle St. Bernard’s playwriting course in Stratford. Past credits include The Headless Hipster (Adrian - Sixteen F ilms Limited), Go Home (playwright / director / actor / deviser), lady in the red dress (Sylvia), IRIS (Madison), The Three Ladies of London (Lucre / Love), and BUST (Alex). Cathy is playing Agnes in Filament Incubator / Epigraph Collective’s Imp from November 15-26, and co-writing / acting in HERstory Counts Theatre Company’s production from December 14-17.

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