William Lyon Mackenzie (Matthew Gin), with help from his assistants Marcia Johnson (left) and Parmida Vand uses his magical deck of cards to explain the relationships in the Family Compact, in 1837: The Farmers’ Revolt at the Blyth Festival. Directed by Gil Garratt. Creative team: Beth Kates, set, projection and lighting designer; Gemma James Smith, costume designer; and Deanna H. Choi, sound designer and music composer. Production stage management: Heather Thompson and Katerina Sokyrko.. Photo credit: Terry Manzo.

A little palate cleanser for the end of the summer. On July 18 2018, at the Huron County Museum, Blyth Festival artistic director Gil Garratt and local historian David Yates sat down with moderator and film director Christopher Spaleta to talk about the history around Blyth's current production of 1837: The Farmers' Revolt. We talked about this play during the episode with designer Rachel Forbes and the production last year at the Shaw Festival. This is more of a historical discussion, rather than one about design, but it is still a great talk about politics and privation and standing up to government, a topic no less germane today than it was 130 years ago.

A special thanks to Beth Kates who coordinated and recorded this event, without whom this presentation would not be found here.

Gil Garratt is a director, playwright, dramaturge, Dora Award-winning actor, and theatre administrator who has worked across Canada and internationally. With a career that has been dedicated primarily to the development of new Canadian plays, Gil has been with the Blyth Festival since 1999.

Gil’s varied and eclectic career as a creator has seen him collaborate with such radical play creation companies as DNA theatre and The Cabaret Company, to such mainstream institutions as The Stratford Festival and The Grand Theatre.

As a performer Gil has literally worked all over the country, including: Theatre NorthWest in Prince George, BC, Centaur Theatre in Montreal, Canadian Stage’s St. Lawrence Centre in Toronto, Shakespeare in High Park, Neptune Theatre in Halifax, the Festival Players of Prince Edward County, Buddies in Bad Times in Toronto, the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg, and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, to name a few.

Gil is also member of the Playwrights’ Guild of Canada, several of Gil’s plays have received multiple productions, toured internationally, and been translated into French.

David is a 28 year history teacher currently at Central Huron Secondary School in Clinton.

Since 2007 his local history column has appeared in The Focus, Goderich Signal Star and other local papers. He is a past President of the Huron County Historical Society.

In 2014, he was a member of the Great Lakes Storm of 1913 committee which won the Governor-General’s Award for Community History Programming. Currently, he is a member of the Huron County and the Great War commemorative committee.

Christopher is a writer, actor  and director for independent film, television and theatre. He grew up in Goderich, studied English and Screenwriting in Ottawa, and lives with his wife Maria on a farm in Central Huron.  In addition to his duties on the Huron Arts and Heritage network board he is a member of the Rebuilding Oversight and Steering Committee for the reconstruction of the Square in Goderich.

Gillian Gallow was a designer right out of the gates. Before finishing her degree at York University, she was already assisting at the Stratford Festival, and had cut her teeth at our favourite summertime haunt: Blyth. Gillian and I discuss her early career and take on design, and her recent work on the Canadian Opera Company remount of the Harry Somers opera Lous Riel. Gillian and I spoke in July of 2017.

This time a special presentation that I happen to catch at the last minute about digital dramaturgy. The teleconference was recorded on April 25, 2018 as a presentation of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatre. The panel discussion is an result of an idea by the artistic practice committee of PACT and centres around the role and dramaturgy of projections in theatre. Designer Beth Kates and artistic director and playwright Gil Garratt from the Blyth Festival speak with Theatre Projects Manitoba artistic director Ardith Boxal and director, writer, and arts educator Health Davies about how to successfully integrate projection into a live theatre production.

Jeremy “Boomer” Stacey, has been working on PACT PD since joining the office in 2010 – just in time to work on the Conference in Cow Head, NL. Aside from work in event production and professional development, Boomer also has a wide range of experience in international performing arts for young audiences. In addition to PACT he works as International Performing Arts for Youth’s (IPAY) founding Executive Director, works on the board of ASSITEJ Canada (Treasurer) and sits on the Pickering Rouge Canoe Club (Commodore). Prior work includes the Artistic Directorship of the renowned Milk International Children’s Festival of the Arts at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. Boomer holds a BFA, visual arts, specializing in photography. He lives just outside Toronto with his wife, boy, girl, dog & cats and the occasional raccoon but has started the slow move to the cabin in the woods in Northern Ontario.

Beth Kates is an award winning Theatrical Lighting, Set, Costume and Projection Designer, Production Manager, and project consultant.  She is the co-Creative Director/Designer of Playground Studios a design firm she started with partner Ben Chaisson that is dedicated to creating new spaces, re-inventing the use of traditional and non-traditional theatre spaces, as well as producing original work and offering a full spectrum of design and project management services. 

Her work in rock and roll, dance, theatre, opera, and photography has taken her across Canada, the US, UK, Europe, New Zealand and Australia.  Career highlights include Lighting Design: Spurt of Blood and Miinigoowezewin (Banff Arts Festival), Anaconda (Tangent Montreal), the Dora Award winning Music For Contortionist (Shaw Festival and Tarragon Theatre), and numerous works by choreographer Learie McNicols.  Set Design for the award winning production of Assassins directed by Adam Brazier; Production Design for: the world premiere of Judith Thompsons’s Such Creatures directed by Brian Quirt, LuminaTO/Tapestry New Opera Works’ epic oratorio Dark Star Requiem directed by Tom Diamond, and Julie Tepperman’s Yichud (Seclusion).   Yichud was an extensive design that required re-imagining the use of the traditional theatre space to allow the whole building to be converted into a realistic Orthodox Jewish Synagogue.

Beth’s work as a Projection Designer began in 1995, and over the years she has become a self taught Video Editor, Videographer, Photographer, Graphic Designer, and Animator in order to facilitate the creation of various projects. As the Resident Production Designer for WYRD Productions, she has created designs for Slightly Bent, MacHomer, Into The Ring, Bigger Than Jesus, and HARDSELL.  Bigger Than Jesus earned Beth the 2005 Dora Award for Outstanding Lighting Design. In 2009 she, along with husband Ben Chaisson, was nominated for the prestigious Siminovitch Prize in Theatre. Beth and Ben were also recently cited as one of Toronto’s Top Ten Theatre Artists by NOW Magazine.

Gil Garratt is a director, playwright, dramaturge, Dora Award-winning actor, and theatre administrator who has worked across Canada and internationally. With a career that has been dedicated primarily to the development of new Canadian plays, Gil has been with the Blyth Festival since 1999.

Gil’s varied and eclectic career as a creator has seen him collaborate with such radical play creation companies as DNA theatre and The Cabaret Company, to such mainstream institutions as The Stratford Festival and The Grand Theatre. As a performer Gil has literally worked all over the country, including: Theatre NorthWest in Prince George, BC, Centaur Theatre in Montreal, Canadian Stage’s St. Lawrence Centre in Toronto, Shakespeare in High Park, Neptune Theatre in Halifax, the Festival Players of Prince Edward County, Buddies in Bad Times in Toronto, the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg, and the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, to name a few. Gil is also member of the Playwrights’ Guild of Canada, several of Gil’s plays have received multiple productions, toured internationally, and been translated into French.

Gil graduated from the National Theatre School’s Playwriting Program in 1998, holds an Honours BA from the University of Waterloo, and an MA from the University of Guelph.

Artistic Director Ardith Boxall is an actor and director. In 2005, after a year as associate artist, Ardith was appointed the Artistic Director of Theatre Projects Manitoba, a company dedicated to new plays and the development of local artists. Prior to this, she worked primarily as a freelance actor for stage, film and television, a drama instructor, and was an emerging director. A graduate of the University of Winnipeg with an honours degree in Theatre and Drama, Ardith continued her studies at the National Voice Intensive at Simon Fraser University, and mentored in directing under several of Manitoba’s finest theatre practitioners.

Since the company’s founding by Harry Rintoul and members of the community in 1990, Ardith has maintained strong ties with Theatre Projects. Several acting, assistant directing and directing credits at TPM over the years have reinforced the need to preserve the Company as a professional theatre for artists in our region. Selected TPM credits include Ce Weekend la, Live With It, I Do…Do You? The Monster Trilogy, Age of Arousal and three instalments of In the Chamber (2006, 2007 and 2009).

Heather Davies was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba and grew up in Toronto, Ontario. She's trained as a dancer, singer, actor and musician and has worked professionally since her teens. Heather moved to the UK to continue her actor training; she lived and worked in theatre there for 18 years. In 2001 she began focusing on directing full-time when she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company as a resident director, working there for nearly three years. She returned to Canada in 2007 to attend the MFA- Theatre program at York University, graduating in April 2009. From September 2009 to February 2011 she was the Artistic Associate at The Grand Theatre in London Ontario. She continues to enjoy directing, writing, teaching and adapting in the UK and across Canada. Highlights of 2017 included becoming the first Artistic Director of The Ryga Festival, (inspired by renowned Canadian writer, George Ryga) in Summerland, BC and directing Colours in the Storm at the Grand Theatre in London, Ontario. In 2018, as well as returning to Summerland, Heather's stage adaptation, Judith: memories of a Lady Pig Farmer, (original novel, Judith, by Alberta writer Ardith Van Herk), will premiere at the Blyth Festival. Other projects in development include Silverfish (an original play about economic migration) and the stage adaptation of Night Desk, (novel by George Ryga). She is represented by Ian Arnold at Catalysttcm.com Email: [email protected]

When I was starting in the 90's Andrea had all the work. She was connected to all of the most interesting theatre companies in toronto and had production managed many of them. I envied her for getting their first, for having the ability to get into the middle of the most interesting creative work, but that was not the whole story. Andrea is a brilliant artist, she learned her craft while working with iconic Canadian theatre artists like the Daniels - Daniel Brooks and Daniel McIiver, she was a part of the re-invention of alternative theatre in Toronto with the Poor Alex theatre and the companies surrounding it, with the fringe and with summer works - and most importantly, she fostered and trained a generation of theatre artists that themselves became top artists in their own right, like Rebecca Picherack and Michelle Ramsey. Now she runs one of the most important training programs in Canada for theatre production The National Theatre School in Montreal

I had a sublime conversation with Andrea about her career, training and philosophy of design as well as the changes she has wrought at NTS during her 6 year tenure. This is an important conversation. 

This time on the panel, finally a conversation of the crew/creative members who keep the entire machine together communicating from early days of workshops through the grueling tech-week and then single-handedly corralling all of the artists together to perform the same great show (if you'r luck) over and over again.  Stage managers are experts in communication, project management, social psychology and most have an absolute obsession about what is the best post it note.  And of course us designers could not do what we do with them.

The Bellows is a monthly discussion about the nitty gritty of theatre production and is comprised of Pip Bradford, Rebecca Hooton, Kevin Hutson, Christopher Ross, and Michael Kruse.

NOTE: This file was originally rendered with some channels on mute (!). It has now been re-rendered properly. Our apologies for the sound problem!

Erika Morey is a Canadian stage manager who was born and raised in Moncton, New Brunswick, but is now based out of Toronto. In the city, she has worked for companies like Theatre Passe Muraille, Factory Theatre, Young People’s Theatre, Modern Times Stage Company, Theatre Gargantua, the Toronto International Film Festival, and Tarragon Theatre. She’s also a veteran of the Ontario summer stock scene, and often finds herself in very glamourous tiny towns such as Gananoque, Kincardine, Collingwood, Orillia, Port Dover, Port Colborne and Port Stanley.

Selected Credits: Avenue Q (Lower Ossington Theatre), Chatroom & Citizenship(Toronto Youth Theatre), 7th Annual Showcase (Outside Looking In), Dora’s Pirate Adventure (Lower Ossington Theatre), Unleashed 2014 (George Brown Dance), ASM for Acceleration 2014 (The School of Toronto Dance Theatre), Silent Voices(Dancetheatre David Earle), Project L (Human Body Expression), Arkemy (Gadfly), Toronto Urban Dance Symposium (Gadfly), Camila’s Bones (Maloka Theatre), ASM for Yonge-Dundas Stage (Toronto Pride), 6th Annual Showcase (Outside Looking In), Aforismo (Gadfly), Assistant Stage Manager/Metcalf Foundation Intern for Toronto Dance Theatre’s 2012/2013 Season.
About: Tara is a professional stage manager and is pleased to be working with Hart House Theatre for the first time
 

Alan Brodie, photo by David Cooper

Alan Brodie is a lighting and set designer based in Vancouver B.C. I caught up with him during my visit to the Shaw Festival in May of 2017.  We speak about the early 90's in vancouver and the changes that have taken place there over the last 30 years. We continue the story of the Phantom of the Opera tour that is legendary in Canadian theatre history and Alan recounts his rise to the top of design in Canada.

University of British Columbia - Theatre Dept.

Pacific Northwest Music Festival in Terrace BC

Niagara College theatre production (now defunct)

Bonnie Beecher

Banff Centre for the Arts

Adrian Muir

Crystal Pite

Kim Collier

Ian Arnold

Doug Welch built DWD Theatre Design

Vancouver Opera

Queen Elizabeth Theatre

Move Ent

Dance Training Program at Banff

National Ballet of Canada

Pacific Northwest Ballet in Seattle

Plot Point at Netherlands Ballet

Emergence, by Crystal Pite from Alan's Portfolio

Ubu the Musical, from Ubu Roi

Tom Montvilla

Kevin Lamotte

La Tragedie de Carmen, Peter Brook's Carmen

Phantom of the Opera, Canadian tour by Livent

Rob Bosworth

Ruthie Mitchell

Showboat, by Livent

Joseph and the Technicolour Dreamcoat by Livent

Ragtime, by Liveent

Jeff Hyslop

Heidi MacDonald nee Lingeren

Andrew Bridge

Maria Bjornsen

Sunset Boulavard, by Livent

Semaphore colour changers

Strand LP90

Vivian Leone on InOne Podcast

Garth Drabinski

The Last of the Mohicans, the Musical

Vari-Lites

Artisan Console

SMPTE time code

Full House Theatre collective aka Bard On the Beach

Christopher Gaze

Vancouver Shakespeare Festival, aka Bard on the Beach in Vanier Park

Vancouver Children's Festival

Mara Gottler

Theatre Calgary

The Belfry Theatre

Michael Shamata

The Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre

The Overcoat, by Morris Panych (not to be confused by the new Morris Panych opera The Overcoat: a Musical Tailoring) Choreographed by Wendy Williams

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Canadian Stage

Red at Canadian Stage

The Company at Studio 58, by Morris Panych

Glynnis Leyshan

Ken MacDonald

Leslie MacMillon

Bob Ashman, director of photography

CBC Radio Orchestra

SARS outbreak and the cultural sector in Canada

The Barbican Centre

The Shaw Festival

Vancouver Opera

Sholem Dolgoy

Michael Whitfield

Harry Frehner

Guy Simard

Rob Thomson

Philip Cygan

The Lady's Not For Burning, directed by Christopher Newton

Detective Story, directed by Neil Munro, designed by Cameron Porteus

Jackson Pollock

Coronation Voyage, design by Ken MacDonald

Sweeney Todd, at the Shaw Festival

Hotel Pecidillo, by Morris Panych

Ah Wilderness, directed by Jo Zeigler

Summer and Smoke, directed by Neil Munro

Oklahoma, at Stratford Festival

Moby Dick and Wanderlust, by Morris Panych

Tear the Curtain by Kim Collier

Max Reimer at the Vancouver Playhouse

Theatre Aquarius

Huron Country Playhouse

Knee-High Theatre Company

Noel Coward's Brief Encounters, based on Brief Encounters Film

La Ronde

Little Mercy's First Murder, by Touchstone Productions in Vancouver

Little Mercy's First Murder, from Alan's Portfolio

Landscapes of the Dead and from Alan's Portfolio

Godspell, directed by Sarah Jean Hosie

Sean Nieuwenhuis, projection designer

A Little Night Music by Patrick Street Productions

Dracula at the Shaw Festival

Sea of Stories, White Rock, BC for Canada 150

2010 Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver Opening Ceremonies

Rob Sondergard and Electric Aura

Cam Davis

Michael Gianfrancesco

ALD Pro and Lightwright

WYSIWYG by CAST Software

Dracula at The Shaw Festival 2017

On this episode of The Bellows our trusty moderator Kevin Hutson talks with Ian Garrett and Ryan Wilson about what do do with that old set or how to build a more sustainable design. This installment of the monthly production panel discussion was recorded at the Wychwood Barns in Toronto on Oct 24 2017.

The Bellows is Pip Bradford, Rebecca Hooton, Kevin Hutson, Christopher Ross, and Michael Kruse.

Ian Garrett  is Associate Professor of Ecological Design for Performance at York University; is director of the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, a US think tank on sustainability in arts and culture; and is the resident designer for the Indy Convergence, an arts accelerator in Indianapolis, Toronto, and Haiti. He is a member of the Performance Studies International Performance+Design Working Group and is the Curator for the US for the 2019 Prague Quadrennial. He maintains a design practice focused on the integration technology and scenography. He was executive producer for Transmission at the FuturePlay Festival in Edinburgh and Future of Storytelling Festival in New York. Other recent creative interactive projects include Theatre Panik's durational performance, Peep, at Scotiabank Nuit Blanche; Erika Batdorf's Micro-theatre for Burnish at the Theatre Centre and Venice Biennale, the set and energy capture systems for Zata Omm Dance Projects’ Vox:Lumen at the Harbourfront Centre, and the geolocated Silo No. 5 on Maria Island, Tasmania. He has worked on installations such as DTAH Architects’ Ravine Portal and on the lighting team for the Crimson Collective’s Ascension, a 150’ wide, origami-style crane sculpture at the 2010 Coachella Music Festival. He serves on the Board of Directors for Associated Designers of Canada.

Ryan Wilson is a passionate artist whose talent, collaborative spirit and work ethic have earned him praise from his peers. Currently the head scenic carpenter at Young People’s Theatre (Toronto), he has worked at numerous theatre companies, including Soulpepper Theatre Company (Toronto), fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company (Toronto), Factory Theatre (Toronto) and Globe Theatre (Regina, Sask.). As a freelance production manager/technical director at fu-GEN Asian Canadian Theatre Company, Wilson worked on four productions: Ching Chong Chinaman (2013), Brown Balls (2011), lady in the red dress (2009) and Banana Boys (2008). Ryan Wilson graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Ryerson University’s Theatre School in 2007.

Photo by Joy von Tiedemann

Ken MacDonald went from teaching drawing and painting at high school in the 1970's to one of the most sought after theatre artists in Canada today. His artistic and personal partnership with Morris Panych has resulted in some of the most iconic Canadian theatre productions, including the international sensation The Overcoat.  Ken and I spoke in May of 2017 at his home in Toronto.

In the opening rant I reference this interview that appeared on CBC Metro Morning, regarding the civil suit brought against now former artistic director of Soulpepper Theatre Albert Schultz. 

Please support the show at Patreon.com

University of British Columbia, Art Education

Gordon Smith

Sam Black

MUSSOC UBC Musical Theatre Society

Sheila McCarty

Don Shipley

Patty Armstrong and the The Belfry Theatre

Danny Costein

Puttin' On The Ritz, at The Belfry Theatre

Puttin' On the Ritz, at the Shaw Festival

Cameron Porteus

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg by Peter Nichols

Piaf by Pam Gems at The Belfry

Dames at Sea Directed by Glyis Leyshon at The Belfry

Da by Hugh Leonard with Denis Arndt at The Belfry

Private Lives by Noel Coward at The Belfry

Canadian Gothic, American Modern by Joanna Glass at the Belfry Theatre

A Thousand Splendid Suns at ACT in San Francisco, by Khaled Hosseini

The New Play Centre in Vancouver, Artistic Director Pamela Hawthorn

Tamahnous Theatre

Haunted House Hamlet, by Peter Eliot Weisse

Festival TransAmeriques in Montreal

Sleep No More by Punchdrunk

Morris Panych

Last Call, a Post-Apocalyptic Musical

Sue Astley, director

Vancouver East Cultural Centre, The Cultch

CBC Special of The Last Call

The Last Call at The Globe Theatre, with Patrick McManus and Alan Moon, designed by Deeter Shurig

Chris Thomas and Lucy Peacock

David Sereda

Don Williams, producer for CBC

Ukrainian Labour Temple, Thunder Bay - this is most likely the Finnish Labour Temple, but could have been the Ukrainian Labour Temple in Winnipeg, where Don Williams was based. 

Rene Simard

Adelaide Court Theater, Toronto

Cheap Sentiment, Tamahnous Theatre

Simple Folk, Songs of a Generation (1987)

Babz Chula, a la Mary Travers

John Forrest, bass player

Odessa, Russia

The Berlin Wall, and East Berlin

Wolfgang Kolneder, director (translate from the German)

Key (Floor) Ladies in Russian Hotels

Langara, Studio 58, Pam Johnson, resident designer, Bruce Kennedy, Technical Director, Katherine Shaw, artistic director

Glynis Layshen

Green Thumb Theatre

Ken McKenzie, designer

Eugene Lee, designer of Oklahoma

Michael Eagan  (not interviewed yet :) )

Michael Levine, designer

Christina Podubiak, and Scott McEwean

Amedeus, at Canadian Stage

Parfumerie at Soulpepper

Picture This, by Morris Panych and Brenda Robbins at Soulpepper

Barber of Seville, Quebec City

Gaudi and Frank Gehry

You Never Can Tell, at the Shaw Festival

The Cost of Living, by Morris Panych

Vigil, by Morris Panych with Alan Williams

7 Stories, by Morris Panych

The Overcoat, by Morris Panych

The Waiting Room, by Morris Panych, about Spirit of The West's John Mann

The Banff Centre for the Arts

Urjo Kereda

The Tarragon Theatre

Margaret Barton

Vigil at the National Theatre of Japan in Tokyo

Vigil at Wyndham's Theatre in London, UK (debuted under title Auntie and Me)

Vigil with Olympia DuKakis at ACT in Los Angeles

Vigil with Brent Carver and Martha Henry

Vigil with Morris Panych and Jenny Phipps

Magrite, dadaism

Peter Anderson

The Barber of Seville, Pacific Opera

This Fabulous Century Series of books

Madness of King George III, at the Shaw Festival

Our Town, directed by Molly Smith at The Shaw Festival

Chopin's Nocturns

The Overcoat, a musical tailoring

Wendy Gorling, choreographer

Kurt Gödel and Shostakovich

Moby Dick with Debussy at The Stratford Festival

The Barbican, London

The Overcoat, on CBC television

Alan Brodie, lighting designer

John Mann and Spirit of the West music videos

Earshot, by Morris Panych, starring Randy Hughson

The Imaginary Invalid, by Moliere

Leslie MacMillan

The fall of the Vancouver Playhouse

Wayne Reierson, propmaster at Shaw

Donna Hrabluk, former propmaster at Shaw

Company, by Theatre 20

The Dishwashers

Trapdoor, by Anika and Brita Johnson

Sovereignty, at The Arena Theatre in Washington

2000, by Joan Macleod

Sweet Charity at the Shaw Festival

OCAD Designer: Shannon Lea Doyle

French Painter Raoul DuFy

Another installment of the Bellows for this episode. This is a compliment to the previous episode on Contracts and Fees we did earlier in 2017. This time with production manager Erin Birkenbergs and producer Sue Balint. This covered areas we did not have a chance in the last episode and I am sure you will learn even more from this discussion. The Bellows was recorded on September 23 2017 at Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto. As normal, the panel discussion was moderated by Kevin Hutson and hosted by Christopher Ross.

Erin studied theatre at York University, and has spent the past three seasons as Factory Theatre's Production Manager in Toronto. Previous to that she was a Freelance Production Manager and technician for theatre, opera and dance. Selected credits include:  opdog/Underdog, Ruined (Obsidian Theatre); Window on Toronto (Soulpepper); The Story (Theatre Columbus); The Mill Parts 1-4 (Theatrefront); A Synonym for Love (Volcano Theatre); The Test (The Company Theatre); Turn of the Screw (Against the Grain Theatre); Svadba - Wedding (Queen of Puddings Music Theatre); La Calisto (Glenn Gould School of Opera). 

Sue has been working in arts management for the past decade, acting as producer for Modern Times Stage Company for several seasons, and for Theatrefront’s Dora award-winning play cycle, The Mill (Parts 1-4). She has also worked with visual artist/architect Philip Beesley, and most recently served as producer for SummerWorks’ Progress festival and Aluna/Modern Times’ co-production of Blood Wedding (Bodas de Sangre). Sue holds degrees in Theatre and Religion (Queen’s University) and Journalism (King’s College).

Rachel Forbes, photo by David Cooper.

I caught up with Rachel Forbes just before the opening of 1837: The Farmer's Revolt at The Shaw Festival in May of 2017. We discuss choice of going into theatre and the beginnings of what promises to be a long a fruitful career in theatre. 

Ryerson School of Performance (Nee theatre school)

Videocaberet

Hooray for Johnny Canuck

Obsidian Theatre Company

Michael Gianfrancesco

Astrid Dora Janson

Soulpepper

Weyni Mengesha

Djanet Sears

 1837: The Farmers Revolt, Shaw Festival. LD: Steve Lucas, Director: Philip Akin, Actor: Sharry Flett

PamAm Games

Jim Plaxton

1837: The Farmers Revolt by Rick Salutin at the Shaw Festival

Philip Akin

Migrant Workers in NOTL and The Shaw Festival

Diversity on Canadian Stages

D'bi Young

Obeah Opera

How Black Mothers Say I Love You, Factory Theatre Dir: Trey Anthony, LD: Steve Lucas, Actor: Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah

How Black Mothers Say I Love You by Trey Anthony

Beyond the Great White North at the Factory Theatre

The Dream Catchers at Confederation Centre PEI

Gwyneth Stark, head scenic artist at Shaw, on how to distress wood on PBS

Equity in Theatre