Stageworthy

Cate (aka Cathy) McKim studied visual arts at York University and acting at George Brown Theatre School. By day, she works as a consultant at words with cowbell (website to come), providing copy editing, writing and voice-over services. After hours, she writes, acts, sings, and works on visual arts projects and stand-up comedy.

A published short story and creative non-fiction writer, Cate has also contributed theatre and arts posts to Lipstik Indie Reviews, appears (credited as Cathy) in DJ Paul V’s Born This Way Blog and is a featured contributer in a Glamour Magazine piece about the 2012 launch of the book version Born This Way: Real Stories of Growing Up Gay.

Prior to starting life with more cowbell, she worked (volunteer) with Toronto’s Alumnae Theatre Company as an actor, singer, playwright, scenic artist, bartender, newsletter columnist, company blogger and general go-to gal.

www.lifewithmorecowbell.com
Twitter: @lifemorecowbell
Instagram: lifewithmorecowbell
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cowbellcate/

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

Phil is an actor and playwright, and a founding a member of Keystone Theatre, a Toronto company that creates plays inspired by silent film. You may have seen him as Gormless Joe in Keystone Theatre’s The Belle of Winnipeg, The Last Man on Earth, and Gold Fever, as well as in the films Abolition, The Dragon and the Unicorn and So You’ve Decided to be Attacked by Zombies. Phil is also the host of the Canadian theatre podcast, Stageworthy.

www.philrickaby.com
Twitter: @philrickaby
Instagram: philrickaby
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhiRickaby/

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

A boxing day message.

Sara Meurling is the Executive Director of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres and has had a thirty year career in theatre with management roles at the Theatre Centre, the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, and Managing Director of Factory Theatre (as well as independent producing). Her community work has included: juror, advisor and committee member, and as Member of the Board of a number of organizations including STAF, Theatre Gargantua, the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (and it predecessor, the TTA), and as a member of the Toronto Arts Council Theatre Committee. Sara has been PACT’s Executive Director since September 2014.

@smeurling231

http://www.pact.ca
Twitter: @PACTtweets
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pactpage

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

Filipina-Canadian playwright, director, dramaturge, actor, and Artistic Director of Factory Theatre. Nina Lee Aquino completed a Bachelor of Arts in drama at the University of Guelph and a Master of Arts in theatre at the Drama Centre, University of Toronto. She was a founding member and Artistic Director of fu-GEN Asian-Canadian Theatre Company (2002-10), and Associate Artistic Director of Factory Theatre, as well as the Artistic Producer of the CrossCurrents Festival at Factory Theatre. She has also worked for Native Earth Performing Arts. From 2009 to 2013 she was Artistic Director of Cahoots Theatre Projects. In September 2012, she was appointed a member of an interim artistic team with Nigel Shawn Williams at Factory Theatre.

With Nadine Villasin, she co-wrote Miss Orient(ed) ( Carlos Bulosan Theatre 2003, directed by Guillermo Verdecchia) a comedy about a beauty pageant set in the Philippines, which satirizes the idealization of Western standards of attractiveness. In January 2013, her examination of her own family history and the violent politics of the Philippines, Every Letter Counts opened at Factory Theatre (dir. Nigel Shawn Williams).

@nininsky

www.factorytheatre.ca
Twitter: @factorytoronto
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FactoryTheatreTO/

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

Starting December 9, Toronto’s Soulpepper presents the cherished holiday classic It’s a Wonderful Life, reimagined as a 1940s live-radio broadcast. Directed by Soulpepper Artistic Director Albert Schultz and designed by Lorenzo Sovoini.

Albert Schultz

Albert Schultz was born 1963 in Port Hope, Ontario and was drawn to acting through his mother's community theatre work. He trained at York University and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art before joining the Stratford Festival Young Company under Robin Phillips where he played several leading roles including a lauded turn as Romeo.

Beginning in 1992, Albert spent three years on CBC's hit television series Street Legal, followed by two seasons as the lead in the series Side Effects. His feature film work includes Beautiful Dreamers, I Love a Man in Uniform, Maximum Risk, Balls Up, Under My Skin, and most recently the lead in CTV's made for TV film Shades of Black (a biography of Conrad Black) which aired in December 2006.

Albert is the Founding Artistic Director of Soulpepper Theatre Company and General Director of the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. Albert regularly directs and appears on stage with Soulpepper. As an actor, recent highlights include Hamlet (2004 & 2005), Uncle Vanya (2001, 2002 & 2008), Our Town (1999, 2006 & 2007), The Real Thing (2006) and The Odd Couple (2008 & 2016). He also leads the Soulpepper Academy and the company's youth outreach and access initiatives.

Albert's many honours include The City of Toronto Barbara Hamilton Memorial Award, the DareArts Foundation Cultural Award, The Toronto Arts Council William Kilbourn Award, the Salute to the City Award and the Joan Chalmers National Award for Artistic Direction. For his work on behalf of UNICEF, Albert received the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal.

Albert has received Honorary Degrees from Queen's and Bishop's Universities in recognition of his contributions to Canadian Theatre. In 2013 Albert Schultz was appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada, and in 2014 he received the National Arts Centre Award for Artistic Achievement by the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Foundation.

Lorenzo Sovoini

Born in Thornhill, Ontario.

YOUNG FAMILY DIRECTOR OF DESIGN, RESIDENT ARTIST, SOULPEPPER 2016: Set & Lighting Designer: Incident at Vichy, The Testament of Mary. Set Designer: A Doll’s House, Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts I, II, III), The Odd Couple.

FOR SOULPEPPER: Set Designer: Marat/Sade, Happy Place, The Dybbuk. Set and Costume Designer: Eurydice. Set and Lighting Designer: Of Human Bondage (Dora Award).

OTHER THEATRE: Stratford Festival, Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Calgary, Belfry Theatre, Neptune Theatre, COC, Canadian Stage and many theatres across the country.

OTHER: Graduate of the Soulpepper Academy.

www.soulpepper.ca
Twitter: @soulpepper
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SoulpepperTheatre
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/soulpeppertheatre
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/soulpeppertheatre

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

Risha Nanda is a graduate from the Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts in Toronto, Ontario. Recent credits include; Skin (Magnus Theatre), Rocky Horror Picture Show (Lower Ossington Theatre), Hair (Randolph Theatre), Giovanni D’Arco (Carnegie Hall).

Twitter: @rishneee
Instagram: rishneee

http://herstorycounts.com
Twitter: @herstorycounts
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HERstoryCounts/

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

Diana Tso graduated from the University of Toronto with Honors BA in English Literature & from Ecole Internationale de Théâtre de Jacques Lecoq, in Paris, France. She has worked with diverse theatres internationally for over 18 years. Her favorite theatre co-creations/ performances include: Dante’s Inferno and Chekhov Shorts, both with Theatre Smith-Gilmour, and by the way, Miss… with Urge/Theatre Direct, for which she shares the Dora Mavor Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance. Her Monkey Queen, Journey to the East, a one-woman performance creation inspired by the Monkey King stories in Wu Cheng-En’s 16th century Chinese novel, Journey to the West premiered at the 2010 Toronto Festival of Storytelling & continues to tour it.

http://redsnowcollective.ca
Twitter: @diana_tso

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

Allec Toller and Joshua Browne are the playwrights of The Queen’s Conjurer from Cirnclesnake productions, playing now until November 20th, 2016.

John Dee was a 16th century adviser to Queen Elizabeth, and a scientist and magician when those two professions were indistinguishable. The Queen's Conjuror follows John Dee as he tries to decipher an enticing but ominous vision which he hopes will provide critical information that will impress the QueenElizabeth enough to gain her patronage. To do this, Dee enlists the help of Edward Kelley, a scryer, medium, and possible charlatan. Kelley proves to be as brilliant as he is disturbed, and Dee must work through the wretchedness of Kelley's soul and his erratic behaviour to access his revelatory visions and gain the Queen's support. The show explores the complexity of intimacy, the dangers of vulnerability, and the necessities of both for the alchemical transformation of the soul.

Joshua Browne
Twitter: @joshu_ashua

Alec Toller
Twitter: @alec_toller

Circlesnake Productions
www.circlesnake.com
Twitter: @circlesnake

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

Victoria Laberge is an arts administrator with her fingers in many pies. Originally from Montreal, she worked with the St-Ambroise Montreal FRINGE Festival and Centaur Theatre for several years in addition to running the arts and culture blog Bloody Underrated. Since moving to Toronto in 2015, she has taken on the roles of Director of Development for Nightwood Theatre, Canada’s flagship feminist theatre; Co-Producer for the monthly storytelling series Confabulation; and Publicist for the award-winning comedy troupe Sex T-Rex.

Twitter: @victorialaberge

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