Stageworthy

The week 1 Toronto Fringe Roundup with producer of Damn Tank (@damntankTO), Laura McCallum (@lauramcsee), Nisha Coleman (@NishaColeman) of Self-Exile, David Kingsmill (@dragonliterate) of Romeo and Juliet Chainsaw Massacre (@RJMassacre), and Gillian English (@gillian_english)joined host, Phil Rickaby on a slightly windy morning on the second last day of Toronto Fringe, to continue the conversation about Toronto Fringe, how their shows have been going, what they've seen and their favourite Fringe moment of Toronto Fringe 2016. Recorded Saturday, July 9 2016 @ 10AMStageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Following their 2015 Fringe hit SwordPlay (Winner, Just For Laughs Best Comedy Award), Sex T-Rex is raising the bar with their most ambitious show yet. Masters of genre parody, this year their sights are set on Post Apocalyptic mayhem in Wasteland. This action-packed thrill-ride makes its Toronto premiere at the Randolph Theatre from July 1 to July 9, 2016.Also joining in: Kyle Allatt of The House of Style’s The No Bull$#!% History of Invention also playing at the Toronto Fringe.Sex T-Rexhttps://sextrexcomedy.com/@sextrexKyle Allatthttp://the-house-of-style.tumblr.com/@houseostyle@KyleAllattStageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

The week 1 Toronto Fringe Roundup with producer of Damn Tank (@damntankTO), Laura McCallum (@lauramcsee), Nisha Coleman (@NishaColeman) of Self-Exile, and Scott Garland and David Kingsmill (@dragonliterate) of Romeo and Juliet Chainsaw Massacre (@RJMassacre) joined me bright and early on Saturday morning (by Fringe standards) to talk about Toronto Fringe, what they’ve seen, what they are looking forward to seeing and much more. Recorded Saturday, July 2 2016 @ 10AMStageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Shira Taylor is a performer, director, producer, and doctoral candidate at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at U of T. For her dissertation, she created SExT: Sex Education by Theatre to explore the use of theatre for sexual health education among youth in Toronto’s Thorncliffe/Flemingdon Park. Shira obtained her BSc. (Psychology) and MSc. (Epidemiology) from Queen’s University, where she performed with Queen’s Players, Queen’s Musical Theatre, and Existere, and co-founded and directed the social action theatre program, Excetera. Shira and her puppet doppelganger Lucy perform with the multiple award-winning theatre company, Shakey-Shake and Friends, which uses puppets and popular culture references to make Shakespeare accessible to young audiences. She also works with Indigenous girls in the Northwest Territories as Evaluation Consultant and Drama Facilitator with FOXY and is a Research Coordinator at SickKids on the cross-Canada, Art for Social Change (ASC!) project, working closely with artists and change-makers to further the use of the arts in social justice agendas.SExT: Sex Education by Theatre empowers youth from a community where sexuality is a cultural taboo to take centre stage. SExT is a collaboration between Toronto theatre artists and a diverse group of youth from Flemingdon and Thorncliffe Park - two immigration destinations in Toronto and the recent hub of protests opposing sex education reform in the wake of the first curriculum update since 1998. Check us out at the Toronto Fringe and SummerWorks 2016 to hear what these youth have to say about growing up in the age of cyberbullying, sexting and rape culture. It’s time to let TEENS give THE TALK!www.sexeducationbytheatre.com SExT Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWP6RQkx0yA SExT @ Toronto Fringe: http://fringetoronto.com/fringe-festival/shows/sext/ SExT @ SummerWorks: http://summerworks.ca/2016/artists/sext/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/sextedshow Twitter: @SExTEdShow #SExTEd Instagram: @SExTEdShow #SExTEdTwitter: @ShiraTaylor Instagram: @theshirataylorStageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Record your album, make your film, open your restaurant, pursue your passion – what’s stopping you? Confronted with this question and unable to finish a script, playwright Katherine grapples with the voice in her head that’s controlling her life. In a race against the clock, Katherine works her way through the detritus of her half-finished plays in search of resolution. Scenes From Plays I Never Wrote is a comedy about what drives us forward, what holds us back, and how to achieve your dreams!Ayesha Mansur Gonsalves INSTAGRAM - @lostsouthasian TWITTER - @ayeshalivesGreta Papageorgiu INSTAGRAM - @meisnergal TWITTER - @meisnergalBrittney A. Filek-Gibson INSTAGRAM - @bfg85 TWITTER - @bfg85Full Circle Theatre INSTAGRAM - @fullcircleTO TWITTER - @fullcircleTO FACEBOOK - www.facebook.com/fullcircleTO WEBSITE - www.fullcircletoronto.comStageworthy: http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Nisha Coleman was born in a swamp near Huntsville, Ontario. She studied music and psychology at McGill and Wilfrid Laurier University. Once school was out of the way, she went to live in Paris as a street violinist. Her memoir about these years is called Busker: Stories from the Streets of Paris and was released with Hagios Press in November 2015 to critical acclaim (Montreal Gazette. 49th Shelf, Pickle Me This). Nisha is a regular storyteller as well as co-producer of the storytelling series Confabulation in Montreal. Her stories have been broadcast on the CBC (WireTap) and No More Radio. In 2015, she teamed up with Jeff Gandell to co-write and perform Things Drugs Taught Me, a show that combines storytelling, theatre, and comedy. Her solo show, Self-Exile, explores isolation, flatulence, selective mutism, music, human connection, and what it means to be yourself. Self-Exile will be featured at the 2016 Montreal and Toronto Fringe Festivals. TO Fringe Link: http://fringetoronto.com/fringe-festival/shows/self-exile/ Trailer for Self-Exile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usyIg39pf_s Website: nishacoleman.com Faceboook: facebook.com/NishaColemanwriter Twitter: @NishaColeman Instagram: @NishaColeman Stageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Amy Blackmore is the Executive & Artistic Director of MainLine Theatre and the St-Ambroise Montreal FRINGE Festival and the Artistic Director of the Bouge d’ici. An award-winning creator, she has produced, choreographed, performed and assisted the work of many companies, including The Montreal Highlights Festival, Kidd Pivot, Just For Laughs and RUBBERBANDance. Her work has been seen in MainLine Theatre's The Mid-Life Crisis of Dionysus, MTL Shakespeare Theatre Company's Macbeth, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Unseamly by Infinitheatre. Amy sits on the board of Quebec's English Language Arts Network. twitter: @_amyblackmore Mainline Theatre@mainlinetheatrehttp://www.mainlinetheatre.ca/ Montreal Fringehttp://2016.montrealfringe.ca/@fringemtl Stageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Alexandra Simpson is an interdisciplinary theatre artist with a background in dance, music, documentary, play writing, installation and directing. She has created and produced a number of audience-immersive and site-specific shows that focus on the role of the individual within collective society. Alexandra is interested in how artistic practice and activism converge and how degrowth environmentalism can be applied to consumer cultures. She is on the board for Common Boots Theatre (formerly Theatre Columbus and a member of their Devised Theatre Lab. Terra Incognita = unknown or unexplored territory. We live in a world in which economic and personal growth is a prerequisite to being human. The alternative lies in what has yet to be explored. Confined by what we are told and know as the good life, we must choose, will we degrow on our own initiative or will we continue until the biosphere forces us to stop? This is a site specific performance documentary work that involves collective creation and theatre mask technique to explore our complicity within growth culture and the potential degrowth alternative. The work uses interviews from researchers at Research & Degrowth collected from prior research, the collective’s own experiences creating the piece, improvisation, documentation of pop-up performances around the city of Toronto (we have a performance coming up this Sunday at the Indie Exchange) and community partnerships with Greenpeace and Toronto350.org. www.terraincogco.org Twitter: @terra_incogco Facebook: facebook.com/degrowthcollective Stageworthy: http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Christel is an Actor, Comic, Writer, Teacher, and Solo Show creator living in Toronto. She is a graduate of the Second City Conservatory Program, Randolph Academy for the Performing Arts and has studied Clown extensively with John Turner & Michael Kennard (Mump and Smoot) as well as Sue Morrison, Philippe Gaulier and Francine Cote. She had the pleasure of performing with Mump and Smoot in “Something” at the Westbury Theatre in Edmonton. She is a member of Faustwork Mask Theatre/Prologue for the Performing Arts and performs the show The Mask Messenger in schools regularly. In 2008 she developed her first solo show “CHAOTICA” which went onto to win numerous awards and garnered rave reviews. She developed 2 other solo shows “ONEymoon” & “Significant Me” and all three solo shows have been nominated for a Canadian Comedy Award “Best One Person Show”. Christel continues to tour her work, and has toured across Canada, to the US & the UK. She has been teaching for over 15 years. She has taught Improv at the Second City, teaches Mask, Clown, Dance, Movement, independently to schools all across the GTA and currently teaches Clown/Movement at the Toronto Film School and teaches and directs Clowns at Humber College in the Comedy & Writing Program. http://christelbartelse.com/ Twitter:@cbartelse Stageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Choreographer Alysa Pires has created works for Ballet Jorgen, Citie Ballet (Edmonton, AB), Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre, Cadence Ballet, Ryerson University, Dancestreams Youth Dance Company, Victoria Academy of Ballet, McMaster Dance Company, Helix Dance Theatre, the Parahumans, Kalos Collective, and her own company Alysa Pires Dance Projects. Her work in theatre includes choreography for ten musicals, a series of world premiere plays by Judith Thompson (CAN), Velina Hasu Houston (USA) and Timberlake Wertenbaker (UK) that toured through Greece (The Women and War Project) and the first workshop of a new commission for the Los Angeles Opera. In July 2014, Alysa represented Canada and performed as part of the Tin Forest Theatre Festival in Glasgow, Scotland in celebration of the Commonwealth Games. Her work ...keeping in mind they may be behind you was reimagined for the 2014 Emerging Artist Intensive in Toronto. Alysa was the sole North American and the only female selected from a pool of international applicants as one of four choreographers to participate in DanceEast's ChoreoLab in Ipswich, UK in April of 2013, where she developed “i am vertical.” The work recently received its Canadian premiere at the dance:made in Canada Festival in Toronto. She is the Heliconian Club of Toronto’s 2015-2016 Dancer-in-Residence. Alysa is an Honours BFA graduate of Ryerson Theatre School. Look for a full-length work from Alysa Pires Dance Projects at the 2016 Toronto Fringe Festival. For more information go to www.alysapires.comAlysa Pires Dance Projects is a Toronto based contemporary dance company. Founded in 2015 as a home for choreographer Alysa Pires, APDP aims to utilize the extreme physical ability of the dancers while maintaining their humanity so that the audience can see their own trials and tribulations expressed through a heightened but relatable physical language. Through highly dynamic physicality and tender intimacy, Alysa Pires makes contemporary dance works that aim to transcend their abstraction and connect to an audience beyond dedicated dance lovers. For more information, visitwww.alysapires.com/APDP or follow us on Instagram @alysapiresdanceprojects. INSTAGRAM - @alysapiresdanceprojects TWITTER - @alysapires FACEBOOK - www.facebook.com/alysapiresdance FUND WHAT YOU CAN - bit.ly/APDPFringeStageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Daniel Pagett and Jason Maghanoy talk about Jason's play Hangman, opening May 13, 2016 at the Storefront Theatre.An examination of how we are shaped by our circumstances, Hangman follows the story of Alistair, a murderer who survives hanging for his crimes and finds unexpected salvation in a mysterious drifter named Winston. Winston takes what he needs to survive and has the town searching for him, greatly endangering the paralyzed Alistair who has been left for the rats under the gallows. As Alistair begins to realize he can rise above his dire situation and past life, Winston sinks deeper into the violence that is consuming the town, leading to a tragic and explosive ending. Written by Jason Maghanoy and directed by Daniel Pagett. Starring Prince Amponsah, Alexander Thomas, Vanessa Trenton, Jon Blair, and Vince Carlin, with puppeteer Kaitlin Morrow.Danny Pagett Twitter: @spoonydan Instagram: @danquoJason Maghanoy Instagram: @jmaghanoyhttp://jsquaredtheatre.blogspot.ca/Storefront Theatre@storefrontTOhttps://www.facebook.com/TheStorefrontTheatrehttp://thestorefronttheatre.com/Stageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Tim Turnell is a multiple-award winning artist who has called Saint John home for over ten years. His one-person performance company (and art moniker) Theatre Narcissus Twelve was created to provide unique theatre experiences while using non-traditional theatre spaces. This facilitates artistic exercise and challenges both performer and audience with new works.Tim has contributed to theatre, radio, television, and film across Canada. His acting workshops have been invited into all levels of schools, theatre groups, and even correctional facilities. Nominated as Best Actor at the 2011 Acting Irish International Theatre Festival (Calgary, AB) and the New Brunswick Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for High Achievement in Performing Arts in 2014. Winner of the Best Actor in a Drama Award at the Silverwave Film Festival (Fredericton, NB) and Best Theatre Performance at The Originals Arts Awards in 2014 (Saint John, NB).He is recognized as an actor, producer, short filmmaker, and illustrator. Tim's long-awaited web-series DULSE on a BENCH debts in 2016 as well as his third season hosting the radio program "In Bed with Tim Turnell" - a limited radio series on Local 107.3 FM (www.localfm.ca) supporting the Fundy Fringe Festival. Tim is considerably more modest than his bio leads one to believe.www.facebook.com/TheatreNarcissusTwelvewww.facebook.com/FringePowerwww.facebook.com/DulseonaBench@timturnellStageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Alison MacDonald is a Jessie Award winning performer who has worked across Canada as a singer, actor, teacher, and producer. Recently, she made an album of 1950s/60s tunes and coming up, she will be reprising one of her favourite roles ever - "Patsy Cline" in A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline at Thousand Islands Playhouse. @thisisalimacwww.alisonmacdonald.caStageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

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.Film Credits Include: Red Lark with Funro Productions (1st runner up in Toronto’s 48Hr Film Festival) and Misinformed with Stratasfear Productions.Twitter: @gnitenet Instagram: @gnitenetTwitter: @shakespur Instagram:@shakespurhttp://spurofthemomentshakespeare.weebly.com/Shakesbeers Showdown: https://www.facebook.com/events/982597821848312/Shakespeare Lives Micro Festival in Toronto https://www.facebook.com/events/1261842920510338/Stageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Suzette McCanny is a theatre actor and a film director specializing in ensemble work. She is currently playing Blaire in We Three by Cue 6 Theatre at The Tarragon Theatre. She has played Josie in The Skriker at the Storefront Theatre by Red One Theatre. The Skriker was included in the Top Ten Indie Productions of 2014 by Toronto's Now Magazine. Other credits include Mistress Ford in Merry Wives of Windsor and Rosaline in Love's Labour's Lost for Shakespeare Bash'd and Isabelle in Norman Yeung's Theory directed by Joanne Williams.She played 'Stage Manager' in Play: The Film by Kelly McCormack which won the People's Choice Award at the Canadian Film Festival. Suzette directed her first short film, 99 . 7% (Official Selection of aGliff) in Nov 2013. She directed, edited and starred in a trio of short films that called Triptych Triptych Triptych including The Garfield Appreciation Club, Can't Close a Painted Eye and We Think it Belongs in the Sea; due to hit the 2016 festival circuit. Suzette works to change the way that women see themselves and their contribution to society by telling fresh [email protected] THREE: http://cue6.ca/Stageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Mark Allan has been performing in theatre across Canada for the past 22 years. In that time he has touched on all aspects of the industry from acting, directing and choreographing, to casting and producing. He was honoured to have been awarded a Calgary Critics Award in 2015 for his portrayal of Brave Sir Robin in Spamalot. He loves theatre and hopes to be fortunate enough to keep doing what he loves for at least another 22 years!It is easy to use, both for back end and front end users; however the app is only as useful as the user makes it. We've used the app twice now for our conferences and have not had the usage/response we were hoping for, although we did get a better response overall the second time.Stageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Michael is a writer and performer with over 30 years experience. He’s acted on stages and behind the microphone from New Brunswick to Alberta and his writing has been performed around the world. His short play Nine Types of Ice was a gala finalist and audience selection at the Short + Sweet Festival in Sydney Australia (2012) and has been re-mounted in Auckland NZ, Melbourne AU, Dubai UAE and Delhi IN and Vals FR. In 2013 Nine Types was made into a film and subsequently selected by the prestigious Montreal World Film Festival. He is currently developing another short film entitled, Mountains which is set to begin production this May. Fire Proof, a procedural series he’s developed about a fire scene investigator / professional poker player has been picked up by Flout Media Productions and is being pitched to 3 networks in March. Other produced works include the short stage plays Lunch With Cassiopeia (The Storefront Theatre) and The Transformational Potential of Laundry (New Theatre, Sydney) and the full length plays, Letters to St. Rita (Red Sandcastle Theatre, Toronto) and To Distraction (Toronto Fringe). A regular participant at Harold Award Winner Chris Owen’s Monday Nite Group where he routinely workshops new work, he is also a published poet and lyricist.As an actor on television he’s had roles on Suits, 12 Monkeys, State of Syn and Mayday. Film highlights include parts in Alex Boothby’s Mr. Viraland Jacob Tierney’s Twist.Twitter: @TalentedMrInstagram: @GallantRedMrRipleyStageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Ruth Lawrence’s work as an artist has taken her to Ireland, France, the US, and across Canada. As Artistic Director of White Rooster Theatre, a company in its 16thyear, she produces the work of women writers, garnering accolades and presentations across Canada.She is co-founder and coordinator of the Women’s Work Festival, now celebrating 10 years of developing new plays by women, the festival has a proven record as a successful springboard to production for women playwrights.As a filmmaker, her short films have screened, won awards and nominations across Canada and the US.Ruth won the Joan Orenstein Best Actress Award for Clipper Gold at the 2011 Atlantic Film Festival and the RBC Michelle Jackson Award for Emerging Filmmaker in 2011 for Two Square Feet starring Jeanne Beker. She was named the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council’s Artist of the Year for 2011 and in was honoured with the Queen’s Jubilee Medal in 2013. Since 2014, she has produced three award-winning short films for Blue Pinion Films and co-produced her first feature Hunting Pignut (Pope Productions), all with women as writer/directors. Ruth is the co-creator and director of the 5-episode webseries Buy the Boards.She directed her first music video, Bounce Back, in 2015 with award-winning artists The Once and The Swinging Belles (Nine Island Productions). Visit www.whiteroostertheatre.com, www.bluepinionfilms.com (or our Youtube Channel), and www.womensworkfestival.ca to see some of this work.Twitter: @IamRuthLawrence Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ruth.lawrence.980Stageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

TJ Dawe is an award winning writer/performer/director. Current projects: Medicine, PostSecret: Unheard Voices and Never Shoot a Stampede Queen. Various credits include The Slipknot, The Power of Ignorance, Lucky 9, 52 Pick-up and Dishpig. He did a TEDx talk. He co-wrote the play Toothpaste and Cigars, which has been made into the movie The F Word, starring Daniel Radcliffe. Twitter: @tj_dawehttp://www.tjdawe.ca/Stageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Sex T­-Rex, Toronto’s hottest comedic theatre company, teams up with the Storefront Theatre for a double bill of old school cinematic entertainment and adventure. W​atch out WIldkat!​ and Swordplay, ​both award-winning A resident company at Toronto’s Bad Dog Theatre, has wowed audiences across the country since their inception nearly a decade ago. Watch out WildKat! premiered at the Montreal Fringe in 2014, receiving five star reviews from the CBC, The Torontoist, and Halifax’s The Coast, as well as taking home the awards for Best Show and Best Comedy at the Atlantic and Montreal Fringes. Swordplay: A Play Of Swords, the second half of this action-packed double feature, is a love letter to classic Swashbucklers and retro fantasy video games that inverts the genre’s stereotypes while offering a sophisticated parody on more modern offerings like Game of Thrones.Watch out Wildkat! and Swordplay, both award-winning comedies by Sex T-­Rex, run March 11th ­- 27th.Twitter: @sextrexwww.sextrexcomedy.comStageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Active in Toronto's vibrant arts scene since the 1980's, early projects included assisting in producing/coordinating major commercial musical theatre works for Warrack Productions, Bradley/Francis Productions, Brian MacDonald Productions and Ron Francis Theatrical Management. She also coordinated 2 tours in North American for Mirvish Productions (including the Tony nominatedMikado) and the joint 1988 Olympic Arts Festival Tour for Esprit and SMCQ Orchestras. Since founding Sky Arts Management in 2004 she has undertaken general management, strategic and logistical planning, marketing and publicity for Continuum Contemporary Music (including their first European tour), multidisciplinary physical theatre company Theatre Gargantua, South Asian theatre company Rasik Arts, the extreme outdoor operas of R Murray Shafer for Patria Music Theatre Projects as well as 3 one-woman cross Canada tours for comedienne Christel Bartelse. In addition to her work as the Executive Director of Associated Designers of Canada, projects of note include management of the multi-award winning company Puppetmongers and the development of a new multidisciplinary adaptation of the fable Aska & the Wolf for April productions with collaborating artists in director Dragana Varagic, composer Ana Sokolovic and visual artist Vessna Perunovich. Twitter: @skyartsmgmt Stageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Laura was born to tell stories. Her lifetime of performing began when she was enrolled in dance class at the Canadian Dance Company at the age of 11. She studied psychology at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, and after completing her degree, she returned to performance.Laura believes that the purpose of art is to be in love with everything that you do. She has many passions in life, and plans on pursuing each and every one of them. She considers herself to be extraordinarily lucky to have the ability to pursue a life and career in such a fulfilling and infinitely interesting industry. She cannot imagine living happily any other way.Twitter @LaPiccininInstagram: @Lpiccininwebsite: http://cargocollective.com/laurapiccininThe Suicide Key: http://laurapiccinin.ca/Stageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.comTwitter @stageworthyPodFacebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Sarah Winstanley graduated with honours and as Valedictorian from the Academy of Acting College in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Selected credits include Mabel in An Ideal Husband, Ilse in Spring Awakening: The Play and Caliban in The Tempest. You can find her around town doing character simulations at Ryerson University, dancing with the Army of Sass, or on stage every week as Princess Catalina at Medieval Times. If you can't find her it's because she's binge watching Brooklyn Nine Nine in her leopard print onesie.Twitter: @sarah_c_wFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/sarah.winstanley.10

Richard Beaune has performed in every province and territory across Canada in both official languages over a 30 year career. His work as actor and director has garnered rave reviews and several awards, including a Dora Mavor Moore Award and a Canadian Comedy Award, and has been seen in Canada’s largest theatres, including the Stratford and Shaw Festivals, as well as the smallest indie theatres and found spaces. Stylistically, his work has ranged from Shakespeare (29 professional productions and counting) to new works of physical theatre and all stops in between, but always carries a trademark sensibility that he credits to his clown’s heart. A dedicated theatre educator, he has taught at Ryerson University’s Act II Studio, York University and George Brown College, as well as countless workshops. Richard is perhaps best known as the founding Artistic Director of Keystone Theatre, a company that creates new plays in the style of silent film which has been recognized across Canada for its unique and carefully crafted work. He is now returning to a company that he previously founded, Simple Truth Theatre, a company dedicated to plays that focus primarily on the art of acting, regardless of style.Website: http://www.richardbeaune.comStageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.comTwitter @stageworthyPodFacebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

A Toronto based actor/singer, Merritt graduated from George Brown Theatre School and holds a BA Honours in Psychology and Drama from Queen's University. She has been a member of the award-winning company Shakey-Shake and Friends for the past 5 years, most recently performing in the 2015 Toronto KidsFringe in Hamlet...A Puppet Epic! She is a proud member of Queen's Players Toronto's Board of Directors and has acted in their last two summer shows. She also loves brunch and is really good at MarioKart64.Twitter: @fullofmerritt Instagram: @merrittcStageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter @stageworthyPod Facebook: http://facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Siobhan Richardson and Matt Richardson are actors and fight directors. Siobhan’s theatre credits include Credits include Mo and Jess Kill Susie (Harley Dog Productions), Sofia’s Doll (Film Freak Productions), and Duel of Ages (True Edge Productions). Matt’s theatre credits include (True Edge Productions), Measure for Measure (Shakespeare in the Square), and A Complex Verdict (Do Your Thing Productions). Through Burning Mountain, Matt and Siobhan offer fight direction, consultation and instruction in the art of violence on the stage.Siobhan:www.SiobhanRichardson.comdemo reel: www.tinyurl.com/SRreeltwitter: @fighteractressInstagram: @fighteractressFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/SiobhanRichardsonActresswww.imdb.me/siobhanrichardsonYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ActorSRMatt:www.MattRichardson.ca/MattRichardsonImdb: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0724695/Burning Mountain:www.BurningMountain.catwitter: @burningmtnFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/BurningMountainSummitVimeo: https://vimeo.com/theburningmountainYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/BurningMountainCanLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/burning-mountainwww.patreon.com/BurningMountainblog: www.tinyurl.com/fightblogalso: http://www.burningmountain.ca/connect/soapbox-blogStageworthy:http://www.stageworthypodcast.comTwitter @stageworthyPodFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/StageworthyPod

Tom is the co-founder and Associate Artistic Director of Theatre Brouhaha. A dramaturge, playwright, puppeteer, and producer, Tom is also the co-creator and Artistic Director of Shakey-Shake and Friends Puppet Shakespeare Company, where he adapts and performs Shakespeare for young audiences. Tom has been the dramaturge and occasional co-creator on all of award-winning playwright Kat Sandler's plays, most recently 'Liver,' 'Retreat,' 'Punch Up' and the forthcoming 'Mustard,' which opens as part of the Tarragon Theatre season next year.Tom also works as an independent communications consultant, focusing on media and presentation training with an audience-centric focus.Recently, he worked as an arts consultant on John Tory's successful mayoral campaign. Tom has a Masters Degree in Theatre Studies from the University of Toronto and a BAH from Queen's University in Theatre and Classics. He also runs a nerd blog (WhaHappen.ca) where he analyses modern mythologies and a podcast that analyses sequels ('Please Sir, I Want Some More' available on iTunes). Next up, Tom will be directing David Ives' All In The Timing at the Highland Arts Theatre in Cape Breton as well as dramaturging the new Theatre Brouhaha play in Fringe. For Shakey-Shake and Friends Tom will be writing and performing Twlefth Night...A Puppet Epic! in FringeKids this summer well as remounting Hamlet...A Puppet Epic in the Best of FringeKids at Solar Stage in April/May.Twitter: @mcgeetdWebsite: http://tdmcgee.comBlog and Podcast: http://www.whahappen.caShakey-Shake and Friends: http://shakeyshakeandfriends.comTheatre Brouhaha: http://theatrebrouhaha.com/Stageworthy:www.stageworthypodcast.comTwitter @stageworthyPodFacebook: facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Welcome to episode 2 of the Stageworthy Podcast, with host Phil Rickaby. This episode’s guest is Sam Rosenthal,an actor, director and was the Artistic Director of Tribal Productions which was the resident theatre company of the Toronto Centre for the Arts (Studio Theatre). As a director, Sam’s work includes The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ( City Playhouse) , War of the Worlds ( City Playhouse), The Marketeer ( Theatre New Brunswick) , Misery ,The Wild Guys, The Possibilities, A Doll’s House , Death Defying Acts, Office Hours, Dangerous Liaisons, War of the Worlds ( Tribal Productions ). Acting credits include Mr. Cohen in The World Premiere of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz ( Segal Centre) ,Time Stands Still ( TSS Collective ) On The Other Side of The World ( Harley Dog Productions - Next Stage Festival), Too Many Cooks (Drayton Entertainment).Sam is directing Hogtown, a new and exciting immersive theatrical experience coming to Toronto's Historic Campbell House Museum this January, 2016. Incorporating drama, music and dance, HOGTOWN aims to create a completely immersive environment where the audience has the power to create their own adventure and discover the dark secrets of Toronto’s past.Check out Hogtown:http://www.hogtownexperience.com/Twitter: @hogtownliveInstagram: hogtownliveFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/hogtownexperienceStageworthy:www.stageworthypodcast.comTwitter @stageworthyPodFacebook: facebook.com/stageworthyPod

Welcome to Episode #1 of Stageworthy, with host Phil Rickaby. This episode’s guest is Rebecca Perry, an actor, singer and writer from Toronto. She’s worked with a variety of companies across North America in theatre and film. This year she starred in the Brain Power Studios television movie Forest Fairies and provided voices for two principal characters in the feature film The Fast And The Furriest and her latest show From Judy To Bette is featured at the 2016 Next Stage Theatre Festival. Her solo show, Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl premiered in Toronto in 2013 at The Storefront Theatre. It subsequently toured the Canadian and US Fringe circuit, garnering critical acclaim, and a live taping for Bell TV’s Onstage On Demand. After opening the 2015 Rose Theatre season, her run of Confessions… at the Edinburgh Fringe 2015 has resulted in a tour of the UK in Spring 2016, including a run at the Brighton Fringe, regional theatre engagements and a repeat appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe 2016! Adventures of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl, the follow-up to Confessions..., premièred at the 2015 Toronto Fringe Festival and continued Rebecca's run of sold out festivals.Find Rebecca online at www.redheadedcsg.comTwitter @Redheaded_CSG.Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ConfessionsOfARedheadedCoffeeshopGirlFind Stageworthy at www.stageworthypodcast.comTwitter: @StageworthyPodFacebook: http://facebook.com/StageworthyPod