Stageworthy

Alec Toller is a playwright, actor, director, and Artistic Director of Circle Snake Productions. Circlesnake Productions uses collaborative creation to produce new work with a cinematic approach to storytelling. Circlesnake uses genres that are rarely put on stage to explore new approaches to theatre. Circlesnake grounds heightened theatricality through the understated realism of filmic performance. Circlesnake explores the intersection between theatre and film to find powerful new stories.

Circlesnake presents Slip, March 23 - April 2, at the Tarragon Workspace.

Slip follows Detective Lynne Barrett as she tries to piece together a mysterious death: a woman is found dead on the floor of an abandoned apartment with debris strewn everywhere, and a symbol carved into her arm. Her attempts to uncover the truth are disrupted by the overwhelming complexity of the case, and Lynne must untangle a mystery that escapes the simplicity of a single story. A play about crime, memory, and storytelling.

Slip is nominated for 3 My Entertainment World awards: Outstanding Production, Outstanding New Work, and Outstanding Actress - Alex Paxton-Beesley.

Alec Toller
Twitter: @alec_toller

Circlesnake Productions
www.circlesnake.com
Twitter: @circlesnake

Stageworthy:
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Rob Kempson is a theatre artist and educator. A graduate of queen’s university, rob works as a playwright, director, and performer. Writer/director: Mockingbird (Next Stage Theatre Festival); Shannon 10:40 (Timeshare); explicit (Rhubarb Festival); #legacy (Harbourfront Centre); in my own skin (YRDSB); the HV project (Community); intersections (TDSB Arts co-op). Director: Violet’s the pilot, Rose’s Clothes (Thousand Islands Playhouse); Songs for a New World (Claude Watson). As a performer, he was most recently seen starring in his Dora-nominated musical The Way Back to Thursday (Theatre Passe Muraille). He was a member of the 2014 Stratford Festival Playwrights’ Retreat, and is currently a resident artist educator at Young People’s Theatre and the Associate Artistic Director at the Thousand Islands Playhouse.

http://www.robkempson.com
Twitter: @rob_kempson

Trigonometry

Gabriella wants action. Jackson wants a scholarship. Susan wants a family. In this new play by Rob Kempson, three disparate people find themselves bound together by desire, destiny, and a few scandalous photos. Trigonometry is about how far we go to get what we want: what we do to survive.

https://trigonometrytheplay.com/

Stageworthy:
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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

ABOUT Brick and Mortar: Brick and Mortar started independently as The Box and The Attic by Vikki Velenosi and Kasey Dunn. They came together in 2016 to form Brick and Mortar and open a third space, The Commons. Each of their studios is unique and yet they share a common principle: The belief that artists deserve clean, beautiful space to work in.

Each space is well-located, non-traditional, artist run, bright, open, and alive with history and charm. Each unit is private and ready for inspiration and creativity.

Brick and Mortar specializes in the tenants of grassroots theatre: creative use of small spaces; the creative ability to problem-solve with limited resources; the intimate actor–audience dynamic; and the cross trained artist.

http://www.brickandmortartoronto.com/
Twitter: @BAM_Toronto
Instagram: bam_toronto
https://www.facebook.com/brickandmortartoronto/

Stageworthy:
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Rosemary Doyle is the founding Artistic Director of the Red Sandcastle Theatre and the Wilde Festival Foundation for the Performing Arts in Toronto, Ontario Canada. An actor, since the tender age of 8 years, she prefers to think of herself as a Theatre Person, because she acts, directs, writes plays,sings, hangs lights and builds sets or costumes on regular basis. She is a graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in NYC and is the mother of two teenaged boys.

http://redsandcastletheatre.com/
@rosemaryedoyle

Stageworthy:
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D.J. Sylvis has been involved in theatre for over 25 years as an actor, director, technician, playwright, and producer. He is a founding member and playwright-in-residence of Monkeyman Productions, Toronto’s geekiest theatre company. D.J. is inspired by monkeys, robots, cats, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, Bigfoot, that theme song from The Greatest American Hero, Arthur Kopit, 80s-era Justice League comics, various dystopias from his childhood(including Bible School), Lego spacemen, Alfred Hitchcock Presents (just the hosting segments), potato chips, Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, yellowed sci-fi paperbacks, friends, enemies, strangers in the night… and all things strange and wonderful in this world.

http://www.djsylvis.com/

@deejsylvis

Stageworthy:
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Dana Fradkin is an actor, comedian, writer, teacher and stunt performer based in Toronto. Selected theatre credits include; The Things We Do For Love and Smeraldina in The Servant of Two Masters (Odyssey Theatre), Dancock's Dance and Hogtown (the Campbell House/Hogtown Experience), Acrobat/Clown in La Boheme and Atom Egoyan’s Die Walkure (Canadian Opera Company), Arlecchino in Fool’s Gold (Metaphysical Theatre), AutoShow (Convergence Theatre), Macbeth and Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare in the Square), Vanishing Currents (Caravan Tallship Company), Tony N’ Tina’s Wedding (Second City Toronto) and collaborations with Theatre Gargantua, Mysteriously Yours, Against the Grain Theatre, Cirque Sublime and Circus Orange. Dana is co-founder of Keystone Theatre and co-created and performed in their three successful productions; Gold Fever, The Last Man on Earth and The Belle of Winnipeg (Dora Award musical composition). World-wide festivals include; Glastonbury Music Festival, Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad, Calgary Stampede, Antwerp Theatre Festival, Edmonton Folk Festival, Edmonton Street Performing Festival, Nuit Blanche, Luminato, and Toronto BuskerFest. TV and film include; First Light, Reign, Fatal Vows, HapHead, Cold Blood, Crimes of Passion, Little Phoenix and the Reign of Fists and her short film Satisfaction which she wrote, produced and starred in which premiered at the Puerto Rico Horror Film Festival this past October. Currently Dana is assistant directing the Opera, Brundibar, with the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus. Upcoming she will be playing the title role in Candida at the Classic Theatre Festival and will be starring in the short film she co-wrote, The Case of the Massey Bodice Ripping. L'chaim.

http://danafradkin.workbooklive.com/
@danafradkin

Stageworthy:
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Paul Sun-Hyung Lee is an award-winning actor, best known for the lead role of Appa in the CBC series Kim’s Convenience, which is based on the stage play in which he also starred as Appa. Born in Korea, his family immigrated to Canada when he was still a baby. He grew up in London, Ontario then moved to Scarborough, a suburb of Toronto and later to Calgary. After he was accepted to the University of Toronto, his parents moved back to the Greater Toronto Area. He won the 2012 Toronto Theatre Critics’ Association Award for Best Actor for Kim’s Convenience and received Dora Nominations for Outstanding Performance for both Kim’s Convenience and Monster Under the Bed.

While best known for the role of Appa in Kim’s Convenience, Paul has also been seen in such roles as Hong Kong Lee in Ali & Ali: The Deportation Hearings with Factory Theatre and Cahoots Theatre Company, Robert in La Ronde with Soulpepper, and Zhang Lin in Chimerica with Canadian Stage.

Paul is appearing as Appa in Kim’s Convenience at the Young Centre in Toronto, until March 4 2017, and Montreal’s Segal Centre starting March 8 2017. Paul will also be performing as Appa when Kim’s Convenience travels to New York in July.

@bitterasiandude
https://www.facebook.com/IamAppa/

Stageworthy:
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Sandra Shamas is one of Canada's most celebrated artists; she produced her first performance of My Boyfriend's Back and There's Gonna Be Laundry in 1987. Two more Laundry shows followed and the Laundry trilogy was published, shortlisted for the Governor General's Award for English-Language Drama, and nominated for the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour. Next the three-part Wit's End chronicled her divorce, her move from big city to country living and farming life, and climbing menopause mountain.

Looking at life on the other side of 50 with her brilliant wit, candid insights and hilarious physicality, THE BIG ‘WHAT NOW?’ is a personal journey of discovery with universal appeal. Because it‟s . . . 2017 women are finally talking about climbing menopause mountain, living life on their own terms, and asking „just WTF is next?‟ With earnest gratitude Sandra is honest, gutsy, wistful, and very, very funny

THE BIG ‘WHAT NOW?’ runs until February 19 at the Fleck Dance Theatre, in Toronto.

www.sandrashamas.com
@sandyanne57
https://www.facebook.com/Sandra-Shamas-186656534678562/

Stageworthy:
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Eric Woolfe is an actor, playwright, puppeteer and magician, and the Artistic Director of Eldritch Theatre, a Toronto theatre company specializing in horror plays using puppetry, live actors, and parlour magic.

His work for Eldritch Theatre includes The Haunted Medicine Show, Madhouse Variations, The Babysitter, The Strange & Eerie Memoirs of Billy Wuthergloom, Dear, Grendelmaus, and Sideshow of the Damned. Some of his other credits include The Comedy of Errors (Humber River Shakespeare), The Last Christmas Turkey (Touchmark Theatre), Rocket & the Queen of Dreams (Roseneath Theatre), Little Shop of Horrors (Canstage), Timon in Disney's The Lion King.

Eric Woolfe has been nominated for over a dozen Dora Mavor Moore Awards as both an actor and playwright. He is a three time nominee for the prestigious KM Hunter Memorial Award. The World Encyclopaedia of Puppetry lists him as one of Canada’s exciting new wave of notable puppeteers.

His non-creepy writing credits include Step Right Up!, and Twas, for Theatre Orangeville, Pomeranski Rex for The Toronto Fringe and the film scripts Momento Mori, Hungry Dead Things, and Blackwood Hotel.

Twitter: @ericwoolfe

http://www.eldritchtheatre.ca/
Twitter: @eldritchtheatre
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eldritchtheatre

Stageworthy: http://www.stageworthypodcast.com
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Good Old Neon is a theatre and performance company committed to interrogating moral, social, and political paradoxes by integrating avant-garde aesthetics with traditional storytelling. Since its founding in 2013, Good Old Neon has mounted four productions, each of which has received universal critical acclaim, but then of course what do critics know anyway?

Good Old Neon Presents Dennis Potter's Blue Remembered Hills February 13-24th at Artscape Youngplace.

http://goodoldneon.ca/
Twitter: @gontheatre
Instagram: gontheatre
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goodoldneontheatre/

Alexander Offord

Alexander Offord is a writer, director, performer, &c. His written work includes the plays The Hystericon, Potosí, and the upcoming Donald Trump-inspired Willy Loman's America, as well as numerous essays and articles for publications as diverse as #CdnCult Times, BlogTO, The Literary Review of Canada, and his own blog, alexanderofford.com. He is periodically involved with various kinds of political agitation. He was born in Montreal and will most likely die here, in Toronto.

http://alexanderofford.com/
Twitter: @offordwrites

Nicole Wilson

Nicole is a Toronto-based actor, director, and improviser who recently won a People’s Choice My Theatre Award for her portrayal of LeBlanc in the 2014 Toronto Fringe Production Potosí. She holds a diploma in Theatre Performance from George Brown Theatre School and two Honours degrees in Pure and Applied Mathematics from the University of Waterloo. She also teaches acting and improv across the city and runs a math tutoring business which you can find out more about at www.themathroom.ca. Favourite recent credits include: Kim in Mixed Messages (Mixed Company Theatre), Jaquenette in Love’s Labours Lost (Dauntless city Theatre), Pattie in Brimstone and Treacle (Precisely Peter Productions), Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest (Hart House), Nina in The Seagull (Chekhov Collective), Catherine in Waiting for the Parade (Jordan Pettle), and Octavia in All for Love (Jeannette Lambermont-Morey).

http://www.themathroom.ca/
Twitter: @N_M_Wilson

Stageworthy:
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