Stageworthy

Chris Tolley is a writer, director and producer, and the Co-Artistic Director of Expect Theatre. After graduating from York University he teamed up with Laura Mullin, and together they have created award-winning multi-disciplinary productions that have toured across Canada and the US.

Chris’ work has been nominated for five Dora Awards in the General Theatre category, and has been shortlisted twice for the Toronto Arts Foundation Awards. In 2006 both Chis and Laura won Harbourfront Centre’s inaugural FreshGround commissioning award.

His most notable works include Romeo/Juliet REMIXED (Toronto and Philadelphia), STATIC (World Stage Festival) and AWAKE (Next Stage Festival). Other work with Mullin include the CBC Radio drama, The Tunnel Runners, and the short film, AWAKE.

He sits on the Board of the Playwrights Guild of Canada and serves as the Contracts Chair. He is also on a number of other theatre boards.

Outside of theatre, Chris is also very active in national politics. In 2015, Chris ran in the federal election as the Green Party’s candidate in Toronto-Danforth, advocating for the cultural issues he is passionate about. His campaign resulted in the best showing for the Green Party in the GTA and surrounding area, and was recognized as one of the strongest campaigns run nationally.

Twitter: @christolley

Laura Mullin is a playwright, director and producer, and the Co-Artistic Director of Expect Theatre and The Spark Collective. She graduated from York University with a bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre before forming Expect and Spark with Chris Tolley. She has created and produced several highly acclaimed productions with Tolley that have toured nationally and internationally.

Selected writing and directing credits: Romeo/Juliet Remixed (5 Dora award nominations, winner of Outstanding Choreography), EXPECT/ Spark; Tunnel Runners, CBC Radio; STATIC, Harbourfront Centre’s World Stage Festival; AWAKE, Next Stage Festival; AWAKE The Short Film; Rapid Eye Movement & To The Kid That I was, Nuit Blanche; One Sleepless Night, International Festival of Authors; Allowance (in development); Burusera, Watermark Theatre (national 21 city tour & to be published in the Playwright’s Guild Short Play Anthology); History of Visual Sources (short story).

Awards & Commissions: Toronto Arts Foundation Award (short listed 2009 & 2013); Harbourfront Centre’s inaugural Fresh Ground Commissioning Award; Dora Award nomination for Outstanding Production for Romeo / Juliet Remixed (General Theatre category), Ontario Arts Council’s Creator’s Reserve from Nightwood Theatre (2013) and Crow’s Theatre (2015) for Allowance, Watermark Theatre Commission of Burusera for Canada 300’s national tour (2015).

Twitter: @expectlaura

PlayME

Expect Theatre has created an exciting new initiative that celebrates the best of Canadian Indie Theatre on a national and international scale. The project helps raise the profile of Canadian playwrights by highlighting new works through a series of podcasts, making it accessible to audiences worldwide.

PlayME is transforming the way we experience Canadian theatre, by taking a bold and innovative approach to disseminating plays. The podcast features distinguished actors, and focuses on current and relevant scripts geared to the growing “on-demand” audience.

Expect’s Artistic Directors, Laura Mullin and Chris Tolley are spearheading this project, in partnership with organizations such as The Toronto Fringe Festival and the Playwrights Guild of Canada.

http://www.playmepodcast.com/

Rebecca Perry is a Toronto-based playwright, performer and producer. She has written three solo shows which she tours around the English-speaking world. Her most well-known show, Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl has earned her awards and critical acclaim, has sold out in more than 30 cities worldwide, and was taped in front of a live studio audience for Bell Fibe TV’s On Stage On Demand. Her most recent show, From Judy to Bette: The Stars of Old Hollywood recently featured in the Sudbury Theatre Centre’s 19/20 season, debuting all-new scenography, and the grandest production Rebecca has yet put on. Following a hugely successful run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019, a two-month tour of the UK was booked (currently being rescheduled), and the show is in talks with presenters in Australia and New Zealand. Her work has even had celebrity attendees, including Anthony Rapp and Neil Patrick Harris. She also works in film and TV, and her work can be seen on Amazon Prime (Best Friend from Heaven, Forest Fairies and Fast and Furriest), T+E (Haunted Hospitals), Oxygen (Killer Affair) and Superchannel (Baby in a Manger). She also co-stars in the multi-Canadian Comedy Award-winning web-series A Gay Victorian Affair (YouTube).

Twitter: @rebeccaperry21

David Kingsmill hails from London, England, but now lives and works in Toronto. He is a writer, musician and online media producer who has worked on a wide variety of shows and productions. He has travelled all over Canada, England and Scotland with Rebecca Perry Productions, as musician and stage manager. He has composed music for various Shakespeare productions by Dauntless City Theatre in Toronto, and his two-man musical, Out of the Lens, co-written with Nicholas Cave, was featured in Musical Works in Toronto. He created his own superhero for the musical cabaret Mr Millennium: Issue #1 – and even had the character’s origin story drawn up as an 11-page comic! He is established in the board gaming industry, and worked for Snakes & Lattes for over 4.5 years, mainly teaching games. He runs the solo board gaming Twitch stream and podcast Once Upon a Die.

Twitter: @uponadiepodcast

Carly Heffernan is an award winning writer, director, actor, show runner and Capricorn. She is an alumna of the Second City Toronto where she wrote and performed in four main stage revues. She became the youngest resident director in Second City Toronto history when she directed the critically acclaimed, main stage hit, Come What Mayhem! She co-wrote, Second City’s Guide to the Symphony, which played such historic venues as Roy Thomson Hall and the John F. Kennedy Center. She also directed the critically acclaimed Second City main stage revue, “The Best is Yet to Come Undone” which was named one of NOW Magazine’s TOP 5 Comedy shows of 2018 and the smash-hit, first ever, all-female Second City sketch revue, SHE THE PEOPLE which has played for three years in Second City Chicago’s UP Theatre as well as enjoyed runs in Boston, Nebraska, Washington D.C. and Toronto.

www.carlyheffernan.ca

Lucy Eveleigh is the Executive Director of the Toronto Fringe Festival, and the President of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals. She has been the Managing Director of the Toronto Fringe, the General Manager for the SummerWorks Performance Festival, and the General Manager of the Pleasance Theatre in London, England.

Twitter: @eveleigh_lucy

Toronto Fringe

Franny is an actor and playwright based in the GTA. She has performed her award-winning original work in Toronto, Hamilton, Oakville, Stratford, Winnipeg MB, Saint John NB and New York City. Franny is also Associate Producer at the Hamilton Fringe,

www.frannymcb.com

Recorded via live stream: April 7 2020.

Michael Ross Albert

http://michaelrossalbert.com/

Cass Van Wyck

Twitter: @classvanwyck

Please consider supporting The Assembly Theatre. Due to the current mandated closure and the multiple cancellations of shows and events, The Assembly Theatre is taking a significant financial loss and is struggling to stay afloat. This is a very difficult time for all of us societally, and in the arts community, independent theatre is uniquely vulnerable.

Teiya Kasahara 笠原貞野 (they/them) is a queer, gender non-binary multidisciplinary performer/creator, and first-generation Nikkei-Canadian of Japanese and German roots. Recently heralded as “a force of a nature” (Toronto Star) Teiya comes from a background of over 12 years of singing operatic roles across North America and Europe and has recently begun a career in multi-disciplinary theatre creation, acting and artistic leadership. Equally comfortable on the operatic, concert hall or cabaret stage, you can find them singing and making music with or without a microphone, sometimes even with a taiko drum or looping machine.

www.teiyakasahara.com

Maria Wodzinska (“she/her”)

www.mariawodzinska.com

Oliver Jane (“they/them”)

www.oliverjane.com

www.goathowl.com

Featured Theatre

Red Sandcastle Theatre

Karen is an award-winning writer, director and performer and the artistic director of Keep Frozen: Pochsy Productions, which develops Hines’ dark comedies for stage and screen. She is the author of Drama: Pilot Episode, Citizen Pochsy, Hello…Hello (A Romantic Satire),Oh, baby and Pochsy’s Lips as well as several short plays and the Neo-Cabaret Pochsy Unplugged, which have been presented across North America and in Germany at venues such as Alberta Theatre Projects, Tarragon Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Joe’s Pub (Public Theatre, NYC), Word Stage, Factory Theatre, Magnetic North, One Yellow Rabbit and Beme Theatre in Munich.

Featured Theatre Company

The Assembly Theatre

No guest this week. With all the theatre closings and cancellations, we may see this coming up now and then. instead, some thoughts about social distancing, and more.

www.stageworthypodcast.com