Stageworthy

Mateo is a young singer, songwriter, actor and pianist currently working on the lands traditionally known as Tkaronto. In 2020, he wrote and produced "Quarantine Songs," a song cycle about different characters dealing with the pandemic, which had its digital premiere on YouTube, featuring performers from Stratford, Mirvish and Charlottetown Festival stages. He is currently preparing to appear in Forever Plaid with Starvox Entertainment, and running a YouTube channel where he uploads weekly analysis videos of the greatest songs from the musical theatre canon. In the meantime, he continues to perform regularly alongside cabaret and comedy legend Mandy Goodhandy in their act, "Lady and the Rambler." www.mateochavezlewis.com Twitter: @MChavezLewis Instagram: @mateochavezlewis Support Stageworthy Patreon: patreon.com/stageworthypod Tip Jar: tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Lisa Alves is a queer artist, theatre producer, educator, and human resource practitioner based in Tkaron:to near the Wonscontach. They grew up in a two-parent household, both Portuguese immigrants and from working-class families. Currently, they are the Managing Producer at Cahoots Theatre with their amazing co-leader, Artistic Director, Tanisha Taitt. Lisa is a graduate Humber’s Theatre Performance Program, Humber's Entrepreneurial Studies Program, and is currently completing her Human Resource Management Certificate. Working as a freelance producer for over 10 years, some of Lisa's favourite productions they've produced include manidoons collective’s bug by Yolanda Bonnell, Soulo Theatre Summer Festivals and Cahoots Theatre’s Supermodel. In their spare time Lisa practices yoga, plays video games, reads way too much, and hangs out with their hamster, Eleanor Waffles. Twitter: @lisa_a_alves Instagram: @lisa_a_alves Support Stageworthy Patreon: patreon.com/stageworthypod Tip Jar: tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

The Red Sandcastle is a 50 seat storefront theatre, where Anything is Possible! In May of 2011, Rosemary Doyle opened the RED Sandcastle Theatre, with the intent of giving theatre artists a canvas. That feeling that Anything is Possible! has become a reality with 922 Queen Street East acting as an artistic hub to rent for creators in theatre, dance, visual art, and music. The Red Sandcastle is managed by the Eldritch Theatre team of Eric Woolfe and Adrianna Prosser. redsandcastletheatre.com Instagram: @redsandcastletheatre The Assembly Theatre provides independent and emerging artists with affordable performance space, and is always actively seeking new modes of outreach in order to better prioritize its use by under-represented and marginalized artistic communities. Co-artistic Directors Luis Fernandes and Cass Van Wyck keep the vision clear and the community thriving. www.theassemblytheatre.com Twitter: @assemblytheatr_ Instagram: @assemblytheatre Support Stageworthy Patreon: patreon.com/stageworthypod Tip Jar: tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Jackie Latendresse is an alumnus of the University of Waterloo where she obtained her H.B.A. in Dance with a minor in Fine Arts. She founded Free Flow Dance Theatre in 1995 and has been the artistic director ever since. The Company relocated to Toronto in the winter of 1996 and has since found a home base in Saskatoon. (17 years) Jackie has been choreographing and producing her own shows since 1993 when she presented her first full evening of dance works at Abstract Machines that Recognise Certain Languages. She has since created a large volume of work and her repertoire includes 20 full-length works (20 min+) and numerous shorter works, Her work has been presented all over Canada at many venues ranging from traditional theatres to schools to parks and back alleys. The company has toured extensively with the Canadian Fringe Festival Circuit and is invited to present work regularly throughout Saskatchewan. She has received various awards including the Special Merit award for outreach with the LGBTQ community from Out Saskatoon 2011, been named Champion of the arts by the Star Phoenix in 2017, was awarded a Saskatoon Foundation for the Arts Artist award 2018 and most recently she received the 2021 Saskatoon YWCA Woman of Distinction award for arts and culture. freeflowdance.com Twitter: @DanceTheatreCo Instagram: @freeflowdancetheatre Support Stageworthy Patreon: patreon.com/stageworthypod Tip Jar: tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Lauren Allen is a theatre and film artist originally from Saskatoon now living in Toronto. She is a lover of puzzles and a foster mother of cats. She is currently working in communications for the Future Prairie Theatre Project. www.lauren-allen.net Twitter: @lesmis456 Instagram: @lesmis456 Support Stageworthy Patreon: patreon.com/stageworthypod Tip Jar: tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Phil Rickaby, host of Stageworthy, announces that after over 300 episodes, he's taking a brief break from the podcast, but he'll be back in a couple of months. www.philrickaby.com Twitter: @philrickaby Instagram: @philrickaby Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philrickaby Transcript: https://stageworthypodcast.com/308-phil-rickaby-an-announcement/ Stageworthy Survey: https://philrickaby.typeform.com/to/gZOjh8lk Support Stageworthy Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy Merch: https://shop.stageworthyproductions.com/

Scott Emerson Moyle is an intimacy director, educator, visual artist, director, producer, actor, and ship’s captain based in Toronto. He does lots of things for The Boundless Library, mostly involving audio drama and making weird physical objects. He probably has one cat, but there may be more hiding in his beard. His favourite accolade is having been Harolded into the House of Don McKellar. Instagram: @moylesmeticulousminis The Boundless Library The Boundless Library is a groundbreaking way to experience stories. Told across multiple formats and from varied perspectives, each of our transmedia experiences stretch what stories can be. Through complex and interactive narrative forms, our stories might span multiple timelines — or even multiple realities! One fragment of a story might come to you in an exquisitely crafted package filled with unusual relics; another might come as an unnerving audio recording; and a third may come as a digital research dossier. www.theboundlesslibrary.com Instagram: @boundlesslib Twitter: @boundlesslib TikTok: @theboundlesslibrary Support Stageworthy Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy Merch: https://shop.stageworthyproductions.com/

An award nominee for the Prix Rideau award and Capital Critics, Jacqui Du Toit is an international theatrical performer and storyteller from South Africa. She has a B.A in Theatre and Performance from the University of Cape Town and has been working extensively as a professional actress, storyteller and arts educator. Her experience covers a wide range of fields including: writing, directing, acting, movement and puppetry. Jacqui immigrated to Canada in 2011 and now resides in Ottawa, where she is the Co-creator of The Origin Arts and community centre and the Creator of 8th Generation Performance. With both of her companies, Jacqui has created numerous community engaged theatrical storytelling productions, including IT IS GOOD - 2018, VALLEY OF STONE - 2017, THE HOTTENTOT VENUS - UNTOLD - 2016 Her most recent theatre performance was in THE OMNIBUS BILL by DARRAH TEITAL, Tactics Theatre festival 2019, directed by Esther Jun and THE DROWNING GIRLS at the GCTC 2018, directed by Bronwyn Steinberg. Twitter: @generation8th Instagram: @jacqui.dutoit Support Stageworthy Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy Merch: https://shop.stageworthyproductions.com/

Keshia Palm (she/they) is a Toronto-based Filipinx-Canadian settler from Treaty 6 Territory who seeks to expose, challenge and dismantle systems of oppression by creating thoughtful and inclusive art/spaces. Her creative practice includes dramaturgy, direction, performance, writing and producing. Keshia has developed and performed new works with theatre companies across Canada and is the dramaturge for a number of works in development by IBPOC, queer, women and trans artists. Her digital community arts project Make Me An Alleycat (created with wheels from Claren Grosz) invites people to connect over stories and destinations while social distancing by going for a bike ride. Keshia is a playwright in the 20/21 Hot House Lab at Cahoots Theatre, and a former Factory Foreman. She has been the Online Content Producer for ArtistProducerResource.com at Generator since 2018. Julia Dickson (she/her) is an arts manager, educator, and producer currently based in Toronto. She currently works as the General Manager of the Paprika Festival, with Young People’s Theatre as an Artist Educator, and with Single Thread Theatre Company as their Artistic Producer. Previously, Julia worked with Studio 180 Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, and the Festival Players of Prince Edward County. Julia has a post-graduate certificate in Arts Administration and Cultural Management from Humber College, and a Bachelor of Education with a focus on Artist in the Community Education from Queen’s University. About Paprika Paprika Festival is a youth-led professional performing arts organization. Paprika runs year round professional training and mentorship programs that culminate in a performing arts festival of new work by young artists. Paprika generates opportunities for young artists to lead their own creative process with the support of their peers and professional mentors. paprikafestival.com Instagram: @paprikafestival Twitter: @paprikafestival Support Stageworthy Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy Merch: https://shop.stageworthyproductions.com/

Sunny Drake’s inventive theatre works have been presented in over 60 cities across the world and translated into 4 languages. His wide range of audiences have spanned international arts festivals, queers in underground warehouses, elderly ladies in regional theatres and young people in drop-in centres. ‍ Sunny was commissioned by the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres, Playwrights Guild of Canada and ATFC to write the 2019 World Theatre Day message for Canada. He was awarded the inaugural Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize 2019 ($25,000) for having a significant impact on performing arts in Ontario, and was a finalist for the K. M. Hunter Theatre Award (2018). www.sunnydrake.com Twitter: @sunny_drake Instagram: @sunny_drake About CHILD-ish Following sold-out showings at SummerWorks in 2019 as a theatre play, Sunny Drake brings you the CHILD-ISH web series, shot at Toronto playgrounds. The virtual event will also digitally tour around the world. Virtual Tour Dates and more: https://www.sunnydrake.com/creations/child-ish-web-series Support Stageworthy Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy Merch: https://shop.stageworthyproductions.com/

Maev Beaty and Debashis Sinha joined Stageworthy host, Phil Rickaby to talk about Necessary Angel's upcoming audio production of Roland Schimmelpfennig's play The Great Fire. Maev Beaty is a critically-acclaimed actor, writer and voice-over artist. She has originated roles in 23 Canadian premieres (Hannah Bunny, Kate Hennig’s The Last Wife, Michael Healey’s Proud and The Front Page, Judith Thompson’s Palace of the End, Sharon Pollock’s Angel’s Trumpet); co-writing and starring in award-winning theatre (Secret Life of a Mother, Montparnasse, Dance of the Red Skirts); performing in ensembles of epic theatre endeavours (Sheep No Wool/Outside the March/Convergence’s Passion Play, Nightwood’s Penelopiad, Volcano’s Another Africa, TheatreFront’sThe Mill); and interpreting lead classic roles across the country and over five seasons at the Stratford Festival (The Front Page, King Lear, She Stoops to Conquer, School for Scandal). She is a Toronto Theatre Critics’ Award winner, three-time Dora Award winner and twelve-time Dora nominee in both performance and writing, referred to as “the excellent Maev Beaty” by the New York Times. Her film debut (Mouthpiece) was a Special Presentations Opening Film at 2019 TIFF. maevbeaty.com Instagram: @maevbeaty Twitter: @maevbeaty Debashis Sinha’s creative output spans a broad range of genres and media, from solo audiovisual performance projects on the concert stage to the interior spaces between two headphones. Driven by a deep commitment to the primacy of sound, Sinha has developed his creative voice by weaving together his own experience as a 2nd generation south Asian Canadian, his training with master drummers from various world music traditions, a love of electronic and electroacoustic music and technology, and a desire to transcend the traditional expectations of how these streams might intersect and interact. debsinha.com Twitter: @sinhadeb Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/debsinha Necessary Angel Theatre Company is one of English Canada’s most vital original creation and touring organizations. The company has a history of innovation and risk taking and engages theatre artists from a variety of disciplines in the creation of new work. An influential and original presence on the national and international theatre scene for over 40 years, the company has produced more than 60 productions, including 30 world premieres and 11 North American premieres. Work created by Necessary Angel has been nominated for and has won Governor General’s Awards for Drama, Chalmers Awards for Outstanding New Play, and numerous Dora Mavor Moore Awards. www.necessaryangel.com Twitter: @necessaryangel The Great Fire: https://www.necessaryangel.com/the-great-fire

The Red Sandcastle is a 50 seat storefront theatre, in which_ Anything is Possible!_ In May of 2011, Rosemary Doyle opened the Red Sandcastle Theatre, with the intent of giving theatre artists a canvas. The Red Sandcastle acts as an Artistic Hub to rent for creators in theatre, dance, visual art, and music. 2021 marks the 10th anniversary of Red Sandcastle, and brings a new look and new management: long time renter with Red Sandcastle, Eldritch Theatre‘s production and artistic team, Eric Woolfe and Adrianna Prosser, join the Red Sandcastle team as Managing Director and General Manager and will act as Caretakers of the Castle. Adrianna Prosser Adrianna is a Theatre Erindale + Sheridan College Alumnus and award winning storyteller. She joined Eldritch Theatre as their Marketing Monster and Artistic Producer in 2016, marketing and producing Dora award winning shows such as The Harrowing of Brimstone McReedy and Space Opera Zero! _as well as adding new programming such as children and adult Dungeons and Dragons camps _Sword and Sorcery School, and online digital theatrical experiences during the COVID-19 theatre blackout. Adding a new layer of support for artists at Red Sandcastle Theatre, with her digital marketing expertise; Adrianna has been teaching digital marketing storytelling at Centennial College since 2017 to both their Arts Management and the Museum Management program, and has been a guest lecturer for Humber College. As well as leading Eldritch Theatre’s marketing, Prosser has led digital marketing for the City of Toronto’s museums, Festival Players, Groundling Theatre, Theatrefront, GhostLight, and many more. Eric Woolfe Eric is an actor, playwright, puppeteer and magician, and the Artistic Director and founder of Eldritch Theatre which has been horrifying audiences since 1999 using puppetry, live actors, and parlour magic. His work for Eldritch Theatre includes Dora award winning and nominated works such as Space Opera Zero!, The Harrowing of Brimstone McReedy, Frankenstein’s Boy, Madhouse Variations, _and _The Babysitter. He is resident Dark Arts Professor at Eldritch Theatre’s Sword and Sorcery School, where he is head Dungeon Master and writer of Dungeon and Dragon adventures for the young and young at heart. Some of his other theatre credits include Old Man and the River (Theatre Direct), The Comedy of Errors (Humber River Shakespeare), The Glass Menagerie, Ghosts (Touchmark Theatre) Rocket & the Queen of Dreams, (Roseneath Theatre). Little Shop of Horrors (Canstage), and Timon in Disney’s The Lion King. Rosemary Doyle Rosemary founded the Red Sandcastle Theatre in 2011, after being in theatre for 80% of her life and counting. Currently she is the Artistic Director of Theatre Kingston in Kingston, Ontario her home-town. Notable roles created by Rosemary include, Jane in My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding, (Fringe, Mirvish), and A.L.P. for Finnegans Wake (Grand Theatre, Tarragon). Doyle has won seven 24 hour playwriting contests. This love of instant creation inspired her to create the Thousand Monkeys Playwriting Festival and her Play in a Week Camp that creates a play from nothing to full production in 5 days. Because of her love and talent for creation, she has been referred to as the “patron saint of indie theatre” a nickname she works hard to live up to, even in the government funded theatre world she is navigating now. Rosemary actively acts, directs, builds and designs sets and costumes and, of course, writes plays. We call her our Red Queen Emeritus. redsandcastletheatre.com Instagram: @redsandcastletheatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RedSandcastle Support Stageworthy Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy Merch: https://shop.stageworthyproductions.com/

Mark Crawford is an actor and playwright. His plays are: The New Canadian Curling Club; Boys, Girls, and Other Mythological Creatures; The Birds and the Bees; Bed and Breakfast; and Stag and Doe. Mark's first play, Stag and Doe, premiered at the Blyth Festival in the summer of 2014. The play has received several other professional productions: Neptune Theatre, Port Stanley Festival Theatre, Lighthouse Festival Theatre, Upper Canada Playhouse, Festival Players of Prince Edward County, Theatre Orangeville, and others. Stag and Doe made its international premiere at Teatr Powszechny, Lodz, Poland in 2019 where it continues to run in rep. As an actor, Mark has performed on stages across the country. Mark grew up on his family's farm near Glencoe, Ontario. A graduate of the University of Toronto and Sheridan College, he now lives in Stratford. Twitter: @markjdcrawford Chase the Ace at Festival Players of Prince Edward County: https://www.festivalplayers.ca/chase-the-ace Support Stageworthy Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy Merch: https://shop.stageworthyproductions.com/

In this, the 300th episode of Stageworthy, host Phil Rickaby presents a retrospective of some of his favourite episodes from the past 5 years. There have been so many conversations that it would be impossible to present all of the favourites, so we've narrowed it down to 6: Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Siobhan Richardson, Philip Akin, Helen Knight, Diana Tso, and Tanisha Taitt. You'll find links to the full episodes of the selected episodes below. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee https://stageworthypodcast.com/62-paul-sun-hyung-lee/ Siobhan Richardson https://stageworthypodcast.com/70-siobhan-richardson/ Philip Akin https://stageworthypodcast.com/152-philip-akin/ Helen Knight https://stageworthypodcast.com/216-helen-knight/ Diana Tso https://stageworthypodcast.com/51-diana-tso/ Tanisha Taitt https://stageworthypodcast.com/210-tanisha-taitt/ Support Stageworthy Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy Merch: https://shop.stageworthyproductions.com/

Neurodiversity & Mental Health in theatre, a conversation with Alia Ettienne, Emerjade Simms, and Victoria Urquhart. Emerjade Simms is a Jamaican-Canadian actor and storyteller. She is a graduate of the Acting program at the University of Windsor and holds a BFA degree. Emerjade is also a 2016/17 graduate of the Mechanicals program at Factory Theatre. In her career as an actor so far, she has worked with many wonderful people and companies. Select theatre credits include Peter Pan (Bad Hats/Soulpepper), School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play (Obsidian/Nightwood), Wounded Soldiers (4th Line), The Bird Killer (Let Me In). Television credits include Forbidden, Fear They Neighbor, See No Evil and Paranormal 911. Emerjade enjoys napping in her down time and thanks her family for inspiring her daily. Twitter: @emerbabe Instagram: @em.er.jade Alia Ettienne is a theatre writer, actor, performer and facilitator from Toronto, ON. Ettienne is of Afro Caribbean descent which often influences her performances and writing. Initially, she studied Performance at Sheridan College, moving on to explore Creative Writing and Arts Marketing. Her first solo piece, YellowZoned, premiered in The 2016 Toronto Fringe Festival, remounting in Hamilton,ON on two separate occasions. This led to her being featured in Hamilton’s View’s Magazine. Her creative wellness program, Chill N Do Art, has been running for a total of four years. This workshop series then inspired her to start the Creative Coping Kits Initiative, which attracted the attention of Toronto blog She In The City. Currently, she is most focused on The Creative Coping Kits Initiative, and writing her second full length piece Allow For Release: The Xiety Complex. www.aliaettienne.com **Instagram: @**its_aliaj Victoria Urquhart is a queer, triple-invisibly-disabled neurodiverse artist hailing from Caledon, living and working professionally as an actor, director, artistic director of the Spur-of-the-Moment Shakespeare Collective and all around creator in theatre and film across Toronto and Ontario. Favourite credits include acting in Chloe Whitehorn's Dressing Amelia, directing Theatre Orangeville's 2019 TYA production of Treeboy and the fringe production, _The Girl In The Photograph. _Tune in to find her playing Vivian in the debut episode of Web of Darkness on T&E this spring. Twitter: @gnitenet Instagram: @g_nitenet Support Stageworthy Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy Merch: https://shop.stageworthyproductions.com/

Uche Ama is a Black queer performer, actor & vocalist born on the indigenous land called Tkaronto. She is passionate about cathartic art that intrigues and makes you ask questions. A 2019 Dora nominated graduate of the Music Theatre Performance program at St Clair College and an alumni of 'Broadway Theatre Project', her previous performances include 21 Black Futures (Obsidian Theatre & CBC Arts),The Negroes Are Congregating (Piece Of Mine Arts) & Obeah Opera (Asah Productions). www.ucheamaartist.com Instagram: @ucheama89 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uamaartist Support Stageworthy Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy Merch: https://shop.stageworthyproductions.com/

Erin Jones wrote Time Limits Dropped on Easter Sunday especially for the digital Toronto Fringe Festival. As a playwright, she is taking an anti-oppressive stance and is focused on exploring and developing untold stories in Canadian history that represent BIPOC folx with dignity. She is thrilled and humbled to have had talented and supportive people in her world. Erin Jones is a writer, actor, playwright and emerging director. She has performed in theatre and independent films across the GTA. She supports performing arts behind the scenes with publicity, articles, newsletters, social media, grant writing, governance, photography, director hiring committees, and Respect in the Workplace committees. Her short story script Lovingly Yours, Olive was recently featured in the Toronto Fringe Next Stage Community Booster Series. She also recently directed Exit: An Illusion with Shadowpath Theatre Productions. Time Limits Dropped on Easter Sunday Wonder Jones Productions is a collective of talented artists who are willing to take risks and explore new forums to keep theatre alive! Our team is comprised of talent across Canada. Opportunities are not limited by how individuals self-identify. Our collective represents our community. "Time Limits Dropped on Easter Sunday" was inspired by family memories and the regret of not having the opportunity to get to know a loved one. It was especially written for the Digital Toronto Fringe Festival. wonderjonesproduct.wixsite.com/timelimitsdropped Instagram: @timelimitsdroppedeastersunday Support Stageworthy Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy Merch: https://shop.stageworthyproductions.com/

Steven Griffin is a Canadian filmmaker and theatre creator. He is currently based in Toronto. He has directed numerous projects, including short films that have seen screenings at the Boston Shorts Film Festival, Toronto Arthouse Film Festival and Kingston Canadian Film Festival. His theatre work has been shown at the Toronto Fringe Theatre Festival, Toronto Queer Theatre Festival and soon to be the Hamilton Fringe Festival. His style revolves around the still and the deliberate, based firmly in an art history background and trusting that the decision to not do something within a frame is just as important as the choice to do something. stevenpgriffin.ca Black Deer In Blizzard blackdeerinblizzard.squarespace.com Instagram: @blackdeerinblizzard Support Stageworthy Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy Merch: https://shop.stageworthyproductions.com/

Megan Legesse will be playing the role of Katrina in the production of Black Deer in Blizzard. Some of her credits include Lion Womxn (Summerworks 2018), The Breath Between (Summerworks 2019) as well as numerous acting work within the York University’s Acting Conservatory. She comes from a family much obsessed with the world of news and storytelling, which is one of the many reasons she is especially excited to dive into the plot of Black Deer in Blizzard. With all the time the pandemic has given her, she has been dusting up on her poetry skills, rewatching every Pixar film, and exploring the lovely world of face masks. Instagram: @megsventures Gwyneth McFall-Gorman is an American-Canadian actor, vocalist, and playwright. She was born in Connecticut in 1997 and is currently working as a theatre professional in the Toronto area. Gwyneth has been building her career as a stage actor and playwright since 2017, and she’s found early success in the film industry - above and below the line. She has a particular passion for re-imagining classics, and she believes strongly in the efficacy of the Performing Arts and its Creatives in their ability to create an accessible and equitable world by amplifying diverse human experience. www.gwynethmcg.com Instagram: @gwengorman.eh Black Deer in Blizzard Set in a crumbling news station in a small town, Black Deer in Blizzard (BDIB) is about Beverley Campbell, a young, future Anderson Cooper wannabe, who has the interview of a lifetime mere minutes away. It’s exactly what she needs to escape her small-town position and reach Big City success. But when Beverley discovers the famous artist she booked is an imposter, she must decide if her ambition is worth compromising her friends, town, profession, and the truth. Premiering in the 2021 Hamilton Fringe, BDIB explores the biases shaping news media and the destructive consequences of blind ambition. blackdeerinblizzard.squarespace.com Instagram: @blackdeerinblizzard Tickets: https://boxoffice.hamiltonfringe.ca/event/866:25/ Stageworthy Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy Merch: https://shop.stageworthyproductions.com/

Karen is a Hamilton-born Filipina- Canadian multidisciplinary artist She’s an original member of the Hamilton 7 and just finished a project with Kwentong Bayan Collective lcpcomicbook.com for myseumoftoronto.com as a storytelling facilitator and Decolonise Your Ears Festival with redbettytheatre.org directing/outreach. She is co-founder of Porch Light Theatre dedicated to the development of youth emerging and professional theatre/storytelling artists. Through Porch Light Theatre, Karen has been working with an incredible team on a site-specific audio story show called Tin Can Telephone at the Hamilton Fringe. She is currently working on The Garden Project 2021 in partnership with Industry and urging people to DONATE OR APPLY here: https://www.industrypresents.com/garden-project Currently, Karen is working with openheartartstheatre.com with Conversations Around The Table, Fertility Monologues with Light Echo Theatre. Karen is a recent recipient of a City of Hamilton Arts Award 2021. Porch Light Theatre on Instagram: @porchlighttheatrehamilton Transcript available at: https://stageworthypodcast.com/294-karen-ancheta/ Stageworthy Tip Jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy Merch: https://shop.stageworthyproductions.com/

Andre is a Toronto-based Actor, Director, Producer and Writer. He has spent most of his career working in the Theatre across the country. This is his 7th season at Stratford where he is playing Bottom in A Midsummer's Night Dream, opening the new Tom Patterson Theatre Parking Lot under a tent. He also played the title character in the 2018 Stratford hit Coriolanus directed by the World Renowned Robert Lepage, and was in the top 10 shows of 2018 in the Washington Post and The Globe & Mail and more. In addition, he spent four seasons at The Shaw Festival where he played Tom in The Glass Menagerie and received a My Entertainment World Best Actor Award for his work in An Octoroon and a Dora Award & Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best Actor for his work in Master Harold and the Boys. He has also worked at Soulpepper Theatre where he toured with Kim's Convenience across the country, and also played Othello at The St. Louis Black Rep, and many other companies across the country. He is a Resident Artist with The Actors Repertory Company (ARC). Online: Check out his new web series on YouTube called Private Idiots. Instagram: @dre373 Twitter: @andresills373 Private Idiots Instagram: @privateidiotsseries Twitter: @Privateidiots

Sandi Becker is a professional stage manager who has been working all over Canada for nearly 20 years. She has worked on shows varying from school tours for kindergarteners to operas to horror/magic/puppet extravaganzas to Shakespeare. Sandi has recently started a collaboration on a podcast called "Chewing Scenery", a humorously angry look at theatre as portrayed in the movies. Listen to Chewing Scenery: https://anchor.fm/chewing-scenery Transcript at https://stageworthypodcast.com/292-sandi-becker/ Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Vikki is an actor from Toronto, ON who accidentally stumbled upon her purpose. In 2012, she started a business, offering affordable studio and performance space to her fellow artists. It wasn't until a few years later that she realized that what she was doing was running a business and she was actually an entrepreneur and had been one all along. This led her to realize that all artists are actually entrepreneurs and yet all of the business resources and language that are made available to entrepreneurs are missing in arts education and culture. Vikki is now a multi-passionate artist-entrepreneur, business owner, author and coach, helping other artists turn their passion into a purpose and their creative skills into a paycheque, without losing the art. www.spacespacerevolution.com Instagram: @businessownerbymistake Artist-Bosses: https://www.facebook.com/groups/artistboss Transcript available at https://stageworthypodcast.com/291-vikki-velenosi/ Phil's Patreon: https://patreon.com/philrickaby

Brad Fraser is one of Canada's best known playwrights. Born in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1959, Brad won his first playwriting competition at the age of seventeen, and has been writing ever since. Brad's international hit play Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love premiered at the Alberta Theatre Projects' PlayRites Festival in 1989. It has since been produced worldwide, in many languages, with highly successful runs in Toronto, New York, Chicago, Milan, Sydney and London. Poor Super Man, developed by Canadian Stage, was first produced by the Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati in 1994 and has enjoyed successful runs in many cities, including Toronto, London, Sydney, Edinburgh and Denver. It was nominated for a Governor General's Literary Award for Drama and adapted into a feature film, Leaving Metropolis, written and directed by Brad. Poor Super Man, like Unidentified Human Remains, was listed by Time magazine as one of the top ten plays of its year. Many other plays have followed in successful productions. Brad has also written extensively for magazines and newspapers, including The Globe and Mail and the National Post, and for three seasons was a writer and producer on Showtime's Queer As Folk. Brad Fraser's Memoir, All The Rage, is available now at your favourite bookseller. bradfraser.net Twitter: @fraser_brad All the Rage: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/665321/all-the-rage-by-brad-fraser/ Transcript available at https://stageworthypodcast.com/290-brad-fraser/ Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Cooking for Grief After a sudden death in his family, Rob is forced to come to terms with his own identity and the actions that inform his role as a son, partner and friend. He returns to group therapy— after a sudden hiatus— on the heels of a fractured realization of self. As the members of Group work together in their healing process, they find common ground in their experiences with loss, pain and addictions. Cooking for Grief explores familial relationships, toxic masculinity, and what it means to accept healing into one’s life Breanna Maloney (she/her) is an actor, writer and indie theatre producer based in and around Toronto. Coming from a background in movement and devised theatre, her current practice focuses on the research and exploration of shame, grief and the healing process through use of dialogue and movement. Recently, Breanna has contributed writing to Tall Tale Theatre's Night Terrors podcast, the Windsor-Essex Nature Poetry and Environmentalism zine and The Tank NYC's_ Rule of 7x7_. Breanna is a co-founder of Skipping Stones Theatre, a Toronto-based, independent collective whose mandate is to explore stories through the lens of mental health and neurodiversity. Breanna is a graduate of East 15 Acting School (MFA) and the University of Windsor (BFA). Recent credits include: Imposter's Sin Room (Hamilton Fringe, 2021), A Christmas Carol (White Mills Theatre), Hamlet(s) (Skipping Stones Theatre) and Crave (Pure Carbon Theatre).**** www.breanna-maloney.com Twitter: @bree_maloney Instagram: @bree_maloney Sarah Marchand is an award-winning performer, producer, and founder of Alma Matters Productions. She has worked in television (The Handmaid’s Tale, The Umbrella Academy), and theatre extensively. Select awards include: The Hnatyshyn Foundation's Emerging Artist Grant (Best Actress in English Theatre), The Second City’s Tim Sims Encouragement Fund Award (nominated), and the Carolyn and Richard Renaud Grant for Acting. She received her BFA in Acting at Concordia University and her MA in Performance Studies at the University of Toronto. Sarah recently completed Nightwood Theatre's 19-20 Young Innovators Program and is currently a participant in the Women in Film and Television (WIFTV) Actor Career Mentorship program under the guidance of Carly Pope. Select Recent Credits: Winter of ‘88 (NNNNN) Nowadays Theatre, 2020 Next Stage Festival (Performer/Co-Producer), Swim Team (NNNN) Nowadays Theatre, SummerWorks Performance Festival (Producer/Assistant Director), Drink of Choice (Toronto Fringe Patron’s Pick) Produced by Alma Matters Productions. In keeping with her creative mandate, Sarah’s work continues to produce and create works that explore mental health, intersectional feminism, queerness, and body image. www.sarahmarchand.com Twitter: @sarahamarchand Instagram: @sarahamarchand www.almamattersproductions.com Twitter: @almattersprod Instagram: @almattersprod Transcript at https://stageworthypodcast.com/289-sarah-marchand-and-breanna-maloney/

Shane Adamczak graduated from WAAPA in 2003 and has since gone on to become a stalwart of the West Australian Theatre and Improv scene; a Fringe Festival veteran of over 50 festivals worldwide and “One of Perth’s most successful independent theatre creators” (The Sunday Times) as a founding member and current Artistic Director of Independent Theatre Company Weeping Spoon Productions. He best known for his roles in FRANKIES, Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show, Vicious Circles, Trampoline and This Is Not A Love Song. His most recent work is a play about a man who lives in another man’s beard called The Ballad Of Frank Allen, which won the coveted JUST FOR LAUGHS award (Best Comedy) at The Montreal Fringe. He was also the face of STAN’s national “Hungry Eyes” campaign. He is the host of the Good Morning Mrs. Strawberry podcast and recently launched his own independent toy company CUBE BOY COLLECTABLES. Twitter: @shaneadamczak Instagram: @shaneadamczak Transcript at https://stageworthypodcast.com/288-shane-adamczak/ Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

joey o'dael is a Dora award-nominated trans nonbinary artist, performer, director, and comedian. A UWinnipeg/Randolph College alum, joey has cultivated a career focused on social equity, accessibility, and challenging oppressive paradigms. Raised in a remote Northern Manitoban community, they are deeply invested in bringing art and training opportunities to underserved communities across Turtle Island. In 2017, joey served as co-writer, dramaturg, producer, and performer for the award-winning, breakout hit ‘NASTY’ at the Toronto Fringe. They are a co-founder of both Maelstrom Art Collective; a collective dedicated to creating diverse protest pieces, and horror theatre company Aberrant Theatre. instagram: @ratkingcole.jpg tiktok: @ratkingcole twitter: @deathsparkle Transcript at https://stageworthypodcast.com/287-joey-odael/ Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Caroline Toal is an award winning actor and a graduate of George Brown Theatre School. Theatrically, Caroline has performed in Seattle, Montreal, Toronto, all across southern Ontario, and has originated roles for multiple new Canadian productions. Caroline has been nominated for six awards, winning Dora Mavor Moore awards for ‘Outstanding Ensemble’ in both Casimir and Caroline produced by The Howland Company in 2020 and for the world premiere of Selfie by Christine Quintana at Young People’s Theatre in 2018. Caroline co-wrote Single Thread Theatre Company’s immersive production of Ambrose in 2015 and she is currently writing her first play, Survivors, supported by Studio 180 and Workman Arts. She is passionate about mental health awareness and the environment. www.carolinetoal.com Instagram: @toalbooth Twitter: @caretoal Transcript at https://stageworthypodcast.com/286-caroline-toal/ Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Siobhan Richardson is an internationally-recognized Fight Director, an Intimacy Director (a pioneer voice in this specialty across Canada), and an award-winning actor/fighter/singer/dancer. Her teaching career has spanned Canada, USA and Europe, including international events such as the Paddy Crean International Art of the Sword Workshop, Fight Directors Canada's National Workshops, and the Nordic Stage Fight Society's Summer Workshops, and four separate teaching tours including Sweden, Norway, Estonia, England, Ireland, Scotland, Finland, Germany and France. She’s been both a student and a teacher online for over a decade. Siobhan’s work has been seen on some of Canada’s most well-recognized stages (The Canadian Opera Company, National Arts Centre, The Shaw Festival, The Stratford Festival, Factory Theatre and Soulpepper, to name a few), as well as around the world through online performance and education. In all her work, Siobhan is dedicated to the growth and development of the art form, the artists and our workplaces in order to support a vibrant and healthy artistic community. Passionately curious, Siobhan continues to pursue her own training, and is continually experimenting, drawing from arts and science for the betterment of our performances, rehearsal practices and the spaces we work in. Practices that foster joyful workspaces for vulnerable and creative work has been a particular focus of the last several years. www.SiobhanRichardson.com Instagram: @fighteractress YouTube: www.youtube.com/actorsr Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SiobhanRichardsonFighterActress/ Nicole Winchester is a storyteller, a narrative designer for live-action and tabletop roleplaying, and an ‘international larper of mystery.’ A co-founder of Fair Escape Studios where she produced two sold-out immersive evenings of vampire intrigue, she has written for Green Ronin Publishing, Pseudonym Productions, John Wick Presents, the Toronto Star, and more. Currently studying Social Work at York University, Nicole’s latest work is “Heather was right: The real curse in The Blair Witch Project is the mediocre white dude,” an essay in Transgressive Horror launching today, April 27th, on Kickstarter. www.nicolewinchester.com Twitter: @noizangel Instagram: @noizangel Fair Escape Studios: fairescapestudios.com Transgressive Horror by Ghost Show Press https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ghostshowpress/transgressive-horror Transcript at https://stageworthypodcast.com/285-emotional-bleed-in-theatre-a-conversation-with-siobhan-richardson-nicole-winchester/ Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Daniel Fong is an actor, singer and mostly coordinated mover bringing light and laughter from his hometown of Calgary, Alberta in Treaty 7 territory. With his mixed-race background, Daniel’s work centers around the breathing of life into new works, and reimagining treasured stories in contemporary ways. Daniel received his training at Grant MacEwan University (Class of 2012) and was the recipient of the Stephen Hair Emerging Artist Award for 2019. Using his music, heart and energy he hopes to help lead his local theatre community into the next chapter of its journey. Selected Acting Credits include: The Paper Bag Princess (StoryBook Theatre); Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Twelfth Night, DiVerseCity (The Shakespeare Company); Gutenberg the Musical! (Lunchbox); A Christmas Carol (Theatre Calgary); Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Skin of Our Teeth (Rosebud); US (The Globe Theatre);The Lion The Witch And The Wardrobe, Fortune Falls, The Circle (ATP); [Title of Show] (Birnton Theatricals); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare by the Bow); Journey of a Lifetime (Quest Theatre); Spring Awakening (ACT) Film/TV: Fargo, Wynonna Earp, Mutant World, The Dorm, Forsaken, Klondike. Transcript at https://stageworthypodcast.com/284-daniel-fong/ Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Jenna is a mixed-race Director and Dramaturg based on Treaty 7 Territory. She is the founding Artistic Director of Chromatic Theatre – a company dedicated to producing and developing work by and for artists of colour. Jenna is also the Dramaturg for the Playwrights Lab at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. A passionate arts equity advocate, she is a graduate of the NTS Artistic Leadership Residency, the Banff Centre’s Cultural Leadership program, and the artEquity National Facilitator Training cohort. She was shortlisted for the 2021 Gina’s Prize and is a recipient of a 2018 Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Emerging Artists. She holds an MA in International Performance Research from the universities of Amsterdam and Tampere. Recent Directing credits include Mary’s Wedding _at the Citadel Theatre, _Actually _at Alberta Theatre Projects, and Sherlock Holmes and the Raven’s Curse at Vertigo Theatre; For Chromatic Theatre (我的名是张欣恩 (Gimme Chance Leh), Winners and Losers, Cowboy Versus Samurai); fu-GEN Theatre (Mixie and the Halfbreeds); Workshop West Theatre (Beyond the Darkness); Pape and Taper Theatre (Timmy, Tommy, and the Haunted Hotel); and Lunchbox Theatre (Let the Light of Day Through). _She was selected as part of the 2020 Michael Langham Directors Conservatory at the Stratford Festival. chromatictheatre.ca Instagram: @chromatictheatre Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chromatictheatre Transcript at https://stageworthypodcast.com/283-jenna-rodgers/ Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Caleigh Crow is a queer Métis writer, musician, and performer from Calgary. Her work tends towards themes of metaphysics, class struggle, magic, and joy. Previous topics include: a talking crow with magical powers who transforms a grocery store clerk into the agent of her own freedom, the Antifa Supersoldier, the intersection between 12th century Franciscan nuns and Britney Spears, witch revenge, and a landlord musical. Playwriting credits include HEXEN, The Order of the Poor Ladies, Kill Time Before Time Kills You, and There is Violence and There is Righteous Violence and There is Death; or The Born Again Crow, most recently performed in partnership with Gwaandak Theatre in Whitehorse. Her latest play, Hucksterland: The Musical, is in development with the support of Chromatic Theatre’s inaugural BIPOC Playwrights Unit. She wrote and performed in Betch-A-Sketch at the St Ambroise Montreal FRINGE Festival, and was the assistant director for Gender? I Hardly Know Them’s HTTPEEPEE this summer, marking her entry into sketch comedy. She has performed in the Revolution They Wrote: Feminist Short Works Theatre Festival, the Montreal Anarchist Theatre Festival, and Sage Theatre’s Ignite! Festival. You can hear her in the Alberta Queer Calendar Project’s Without You by Elena Belyea, in the role of Andrea, wherever you get your podcasts. She also plays bass guitar in the band Pope Joan. Her work tends towards themes of metaphysics, class struggle, magic, and joy. www.thumbsupgoodwork.com Instagram: @thumbsupgoodwork Transcript at https://stageworthypodcast.com/282-caleigh-crow/ Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Chelsea Haraburda Chelsea Haraburda (she/they) is a performer, producer, director, designer, and creator for stage and screen. Chelsea is proudly queer and passionate about featuring voices of socio-economic diversity, queerness, and their works seem to continuously feature their hometown, Hamilton ON. Over the past 6 years, Chelsea has performed as both a solo and collaborative artist at a number of festivals including Hamilton Fringe, Toronto Fringe, and FKN Make Film Festival. While studying a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Studies, Chelsea produced their first solo show, entitled “For Eden” hosted by the Array Space and York University. Chelsea has gone on to produce and perform deeply personal and original interactive installations, such as “Full Disclosure: A Story for Eden” (2018) in association with mentorship programs such as The Junction/Theatre Aquarius and Crapshoot/Tarragon Theatre. This summer, Chelsea is returning to the Hamilton Fringe with a new play “Vagabond” in collaboration with Ryan Percival and ADD Productions where they will be featuring whimsical shadow art projections while exploring gender expression, and the idea of home. www.chelseaharaburda.com Twitter: @ChelseaHarabur1 Instagram: @chelseaharaburda Ryan Percival Ryan Percival is a Toronto-based creator who specializes in back projection shadow and stencil art, as well as site specific show creation. After graduating the York University Devised Theatre program, he jumped right into show creation and film work, directing 2 shows at the Toronto Fringe Festival, featuring a guerrilla marching band in a bar setting combined with solo storytelling, as well as it’s Hamilton Fringe Festival grandfather, The Teeny Tiny Music Show (R.I.P Baltimore House). Ryan also Stage managed Phil Rickaby’s solo prophecy The Commandment at The Toronto Fringe Festival, and served as Dramaturg for Glass Wall Theatre’s Hamilton Fringe Debut, For Eden, an intimate site specific installation piece about youth homelessness in Hamilton. Ryan and his company, Attention Deficit Drama, are delighted to be collaborating with Chelsea Haraburda and Glass Wall once again for our new show, Vagabond, premiering at this year’s Hamilton Fringe Festival Digital showcase. Ryan also loves cooking, bad movies, and adorable animal videos on Youtube. Instagram: @obi.ryan.kenobe Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Conor Wylie is a performer, writer, and director creating experimental theatre. He lives and works on the unceded, ancestral, and occupied lands of the Coast Salish peoples, including the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) nations. Alongside Nancy Tam and Daniel O’Shea, he runs A Wake of Vultures, a performance collective working across sonic, visual, and theatrical disciplines, who recently released an online miniseries called K BODY AND MIND, a mash-up of 90s cyberpunk anime aesthetics and minimalist theatre. Conor's work has increasingly incorporated explorations of science-fiction and videogame aesthetics, and he frequently collaborates with a variety of independent companies, including Theatre Replacement, Hong Kong Exile, and members of the Progress Lab consortium. In 2019, he was named Siminovitch Prize Protégé by Maiko Yamamoto and James Long. In 2021, he joins the writing team of a new video game studio, sunset visitor 斜陽過客. conorwylie.ca Instagram: @awakeofvultures Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Yvonne Addai is an Ghanaian- Canadian Actor/ Artist Educator. She is a graduate from the University of Saskatchewan BFA acting program. She has had the opportunity to work on stages in Saskatchewan and now calls Toronto home. She was also part of the 2019.2020 Factory Theatre’s Mechanicals program under the Leadership of Nina lee Aquino and Natasha Mumba. Along with acting, Yvonne is passionate about the importance of art education and creation with children. She works with Young People's Theatre as an artist educator. Her selected theatre credits include The Tempest ( Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan) An Atlas and Other Concerns (Toronto Fringe) Monday Night (Highway 55 Production/Live 5 ), Overhear ( Nutrien Fringe Saskatoon), Pride & Prejudice (Persephone Theatre) ,The Shorts Cuts festival (Hardly Art Theatre) ,The Woodcutter and the Lion ( Sum Theatre) and Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Theatre Naught/ Live Five). Instagram: @Yvonneaddai Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Joella Crichton Joella Crichton is an actor for stage and screen. She holds a BFA in Acting from York University. Joella is passionate about her Caribbean heritage and is the nine time Queen of Carnival here in Toronto. She has been nominated for her work on stage and loves the theatre! Alongside her many years experience in theatre, film and television, Joella also works to develop equality, diversity and inclusivity in these fields. She has created and worked on initiatives such as the Bechdel Bill and Share The Screen. Twitter: @joellacrichton Instagram: @joellacrichton Sedina Fiati Sedina Fiati is a Toronto based performer, producer, director, creator and activist for stage and screen. Proudly Black and queer, Sedina is deeply invested in artistic work that explores the intersection between art and activism, either in form or structure or ideally both. Upcoming projects: Switching Queen(s) (devised street performance), Last Dance (a web series). Sedina is also a Principal with BIPOC Executive Search, working on equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives and the current Artist-Activist at Nightwood Theatre. Sedina was the co-chair of ACTRA Toronto’s Diversity Committee and 2nd VP of council for Canadian Actors’ Equity Association. Twitter: @bwheelsheels Instagram: @bwheelsheels The Black Pledge The Black Pledge is an open call for positive, lasting change in live arts spaces across Canada, so that they truly reflect the beautiful mosaic tapestry of our nation. Our mission is to foster greater inclusion and awareness surrounding the needs of underserved communities in the Arts, especially the Black community. We stand in solidarity with Indigenous peoples and other communities of colour seeking equity, while retaining our Black-centric advocacy. www.theblackpledge.ca Twitter: @BlackPledgeCa Instagram: @BlackPledgeCanada Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBlackPledge/ Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Kendra Jones A director, creator, and dramaturg, Kendra Jones graduated with Distinction from the MA Text & Performance at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), London, and holds a BA(Hons) in Theatre Performance from the University of Winnipeg where she has also been guest faculty. Favourite directing credits include Simon Stephens’ Sea Wall, Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis (Theatre By the River), a site-specific interpretation of Tim Crouch’s I, Malvolio (impel theatre), Watching Glory Die (Love2 Theatre), Drunk Enough To Say I Love You, Seagulls (selardi theatre), Clever Little Lies (Assistant director to Steven Schipper, RMTC,) and Richard II (workshop Assistant Director to Christopher Brauer, Zone41). Kendra is also a creator of original work, including Dear Mama, Tonight at Eight, Autel, and her adaptation of Marlowe’s Edward II. She writes about contemporary performance from an academic perspective on her blog; this writing focuses on the performer-audience relationship and the ethics of performance, and has been published by CBC Manitoba, Common Ground Publishing, Brunel University, and the Humanities Education Research Association. In 2020, Kendra’s site-specific production of Tim Crouch’s I, Malvolio toured to ShakespeareFest in Winnipeg to critical acclaim, and her direction of Love2 Theatre’s production of Judith Thompson’s Watching Glory Die ran in February 2020 at the Grand Canyon in Toronto, receiving accolades from audiences and critics alike for its inventive staging and visceral interpretation of the script. www.kendrajones.net Twitter: @impeltheatre Instagram: @impeltheatre Blythe Haynes BLYTHE HAYNES (she/her) has had a varied career with many stops along the way. From her first gig at ten months old in a LOTTO 64 commercial, she went on to obtain her BFA in Acting from the University of Alberta. Blythe has called Toronto home for some time, where she is an actor, award winning voice artist and producer. She is a co-founder and co-artistic director of Gangway! Theatre Co., a Toronto-based collective focused on exploring feminism, Canadian history, and mental health through an intersectional lens. She is also a co-founder of the History Actor Department at Black Creek Pioneer Village, where her interest in site-specific theatre was born. Blythe regularly lends her voice to podcasts, including the award winning Six Stories, Told At Night and Campfire Radio Theatre’s Woods Ferry, and has received two PARSEC awards for her voice work. She was recently on the producing team of the Judith Thompson lead Watching Glory Die at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where she created and hosted a podcast to accompany the production. Twitter: @**HaynesBlythe Instagram:** @blythe_haynes An Acorn: Instagram: @forest_acorn Tickets: http://www.kendrajones.net/impel-theatre?fbclid=IwAR3cudc3vLPauwMfmxRjSfbFl5sZlduS8gZJDERN5gu_Arjv75fgvMK8zrU Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Cassie Davidson is an emerging actor, indie producer, playwright, and theatre educator from the beautiful small town of Walkerton, Ontario. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Studies from The University of Guelph and is a graduate from George Brown Theatre School’s acting conservatory. Cassie is also a certified basic actor combatant with FDC, and will be continuing to advance her certifications when restrictions are lifted. Recently, Cassie has begun teaching youth acting classes with Stagecoach Oakville and on Outschool. She comes from a long line of teachers in her family, and is not at all surprised that she ended up in the world of education. As a founding member of Theatre Foolscap (a new Toronto-based indie theatre company), she is very passionate about helping other emerging theatre artists showcase their work and find opportunities to further their craft. Cassie is passionate about heart racing, heightened, highly physical theatre that features powerful women in powerful positions. Currently, she is producing a series of horror, radio plays called “The Chilling Anthologies of Theatre Foolscap” alongside her partner Ryan Maxwell and collaborator Duncan Gibson-Lockhart. Instagram: @theatrefoolscap Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theatrefoolscap Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Keith Tomasek is an award-winning arts marketing consultant whose Facebook campaign for the Grand Theatre won the International Association of Business Communicators' Virtuoso Award. Recently, Keith's campaigns have sold over $400,000 worth of tickets to virtual events. He's also the leader of the Arts Marketing Mastermind group. Keith studied theatre in Montreal and is the founder of the website Stratford Festival Reviews and The Performers Podcast. Twitter: @FestivalReviews Instagram: @keithtomasek Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KeithTomasek Arts Marketing Mastermind Group: https://keithtomasek.com/arts-marketing-mastermind/ Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Lauren Allen is a theatre artist originally from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Since graduating from Grant MacEwan University in 2013, she has worked across Canada and Europe as an actor, producer, burlesque instructor, stage manager, and director. She has settled in Toronto, for the moment. Most recently she has taken courses to become a script supervisor and will soon be seen again in Saskatchewan for Burn Rubber, Dolly at The Lyric Theatre in Swift Current. Lauren is also a social media marketer, and the creator of Social Media the L.A. Way. lauren-allen.net socialthelaway.com Twitter: @lesmis456 Instagram: lesmis456 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/socialthelaway/ Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Lili Robinson (she/they) is a playwright, poet, actor and community organizer based on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Lili is passionate about centring voices at the intersections of queerness, Black diaspora, socio-economic diversity and femme identity in her work. Having completed a year as the Artistic Producing Intern at Theatre Replacement in 2019, Lili is currently the Emerging Playwright in Residence at Rumble Theatre, and recently completed the Emerging Playwrights’ Unit at the Arts Club. Beyond playwriting, their most recent projects include: the role of Alejandra in Rumble’s online production of B by Guillermo Calderón; writing for Theatre Replacement’s sound installation project Speaker A; and co-organizing Rest and Resilience, a series of events creating space for the Black Queer community to connect this past summer. Mx, Lili’s debut play, was the recipient of the Fringe New Play Prize in 2019. Mx went on to win the Cultchivating the Fringe Award, earning the show a spot in the Cultch’s upcoming 2021 spring season. Instagram: @lilrobmakesthings Mx at the Cultch: https://thecultch.com/event/mx/ Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

A multifaceted artist currently based in Toronto. A South African Transgender man born in the midst of apartheid and witnessed the fall of an era while assimilating to life in Canada. The last born in a Methodist house hold, growing up on the westernmost prairie provinces of Canada where he began his lifelong pursuit of learning the art of theatre and film. An Actor, director and a self-taught film editor/ photographer, his art practices aims to enhance the Black and Transgender voice(s) showing the many different diverse intersectionality of blackness. www.tsholovisions.com Twitter: @tsholovisions Instagram: @tsholovisions Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Kyungseo Min is a storyteller, no matter the medium. Her journey began in theatre, riveted by the power of live performances. With her stories and performances, she challenge her audience to re-think Western standards of storytelling, and strives for experiences that weave Oriental and Occidental philosophies, breaking linear structure and finding drama not only in action, but stillness as well. Kyungseo writes and performs stories that remove her audience from reality, transporting them into a realm where a single word or gesture can slow down the heartbeat, making the audience stop in their seat and feel what is underneath the banalities of the everyday. www.kyungseomin.com Twitter: @kminminpow Instagram: @minminpow Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Jasmine Chen is a Chinese-Canadian multidisciplinary artist based in Toronto and Vancouver. Jasmine was born in T’karonto (the place in the water where the trees are standing), where from an early age she was immersed in arts based education. An alumni of the Claude Watson Arts Program, Jasmine studied Music, Art, Dance and Theatre for nine years. She majored as a dancer for four years, training and competing in ballet, jazz and modern. In high school she majored in Theatre, where she was president of the Arts Council. Her time spent in extracurricular shows and performances led her to continue her post-secondary training in the Theatre Performance: Acting Program at Ryerson University, graduating with a BFA. Jasmine has worked extensively as a performer in Theatre and Film/TV. She is a director, performer, educator, movement coach, community facilitator, and producer. Jasmine has engaged with audiences across Canada in repertory festivals, independent theatres, site-specific spaces, regional theatres and outdoor venues. She has worked with leaders in film, opera, music, theatre, and media, such as: Atom Egoyan, Aria Umezawa, Lido Pimienta, Hawksley Workman, Ins Choi, and Amanda Parris. She has taught at Studio 58 Langara College, McGill Schulich School of Music, the Paprika Festival, Festival Players Academy, Canadian Stage, Cahoots Theatre, and the Children’s Peace Theatre. Jasmine is the recipient of the Gina Wilkinson Award for Female Directors, the Stratford Festival Jean Gascon Award, a Toronto Harold Award, and is a Dora Mavor Moore Award nominee. www.msjasminechen.com Instagram: @hausofchen Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Brenda Kamino is an actor, artist, teacher, and cultural activist. Brenda has been seen as a performer on many of Canada's best known stages for over 40 years. A veteran performer of the Shaw Festival, she has created many roles in new plays at such theatres as Theatre Passe Muraille, Factory Theatre and Young Peoples' Theatre in Toronto as well as the Prairie Theatre Exchange in Winnipeg and Alberta Theatre Projects in Calgary. Her theatrical career has taken her from the National Arts Centre in Ottawa to the Citadel in Edmonton in shows as varied as the Dora Award Nominated "Naomi's Road" to "M. Butterfly", working with such directors as Canadians Douglas Campbell, Peter Hinton, Jackie Maxwell, Neil Munro, Dennis Foon, Sue Miner, Ed Roy, Sally Han, Vinetta Strombergs, Ron Jenkins, Nina Aquino and Guillermo Verdecchia, as well as British Director Tudor Davies and American Directors Lane Nishikawa, David Levine and Raul Aranas. Her performance in "suicide notes" by Kenneth Williams for Toronto's Summerworks Festival, garnered her recognition for Outstanding Performance by Now Magazine. Her television and film career includes over 100 guest and lead performances and many years as host, narrator, radio artist and improviser. www.brendakamino.com Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Alia Ettienne is a theatre writer, actor, performer and facilitator who was born and raised in Toronto, ON. Ettienne is of Afro Caribbean descent which often influences her performances and writing. She graduated from the Sheridan College Performance Program and since then has gone on to study Creative Writing as well as Arts and Entertainment Marketing. Ettienne aims to create art for social change. Her first solo piece, YellowZoned premiered in The 2016 Toronto Fringe Festival and then remounted as a part of Hamilton's premiere Mental Health Theatre Festival MindPlay. Ettienne is now focused on her mental health workshop series Chill N Do Art, The Creative Coping Kits Initiative and writing her second full length piece Allow For Release: The Xiety Complex. Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Polly Esther is an award-winning writer, storyteller, and performance artist from Toronto. Since 2018, she has been touring her one-woman show _Dammit, Jim! I'm a Comedienne, Not a Doctor! _about how Star Trek has helped her in her journey as a recovering alcoholic. She has performed in several cities including Chicago's Funny Women Comedy Festival, SOLOCOM in New York City, the Yard Theatre in Los Angeles, (un)Told Storytelling in Ottawa, and at Fringes across North America. Polly’s Dammit, Jim! was an award-winner at three different fringe festivals over three years running, picking up the "Low Tech" award at the Orlando Fringe in 2018, the "Spirit of the Fringe” award at the Ottawa Fringe in 2019. and “Best of the Fringe” at the 2020 Hartford Fringe. Polly was also invited to present Dammit, Jim! as a featured event for Algonquin College’s National Addictions Awareness Week in 2019. The Orlando Fringe was also the site for the World Premiere of Polly’s newest show last year (about her “Weird Al” Yankovic fandom), POLLYWOOD. . Here at home, Polly has participated in the Toronto Storytelling Festival at the Drake Hotel, BRAVE: The Festival of Risk and Failure at the Harbourfront Centre, and several other monthly storytelling events around the city (But That's Another Story, DARE Storytelling, Witty Women). Twitter: @pollyesthergems Instagram: @pollywoodproductions FB: facebook.com/DammitJimPollyEsther Patreon: patreon.com/pollyesther Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Laura was born to tell stories. Whether as a dancer with Tokyo Disney, a writer for Alumnae Theatre’s Gay Play Day, a teacher at the Toronto District School Board, or as a comédienne with Just for Laughs, Laura’s unstoppable passion in life lies in telling people all sorts of eccentric stories, whether they want to hear them or not. www.laurapiccinin.com Instagram: @lpiccinin Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Danny Harvey has been a performing arts professional for the past 19 years. Currently functioning as the Artistic Programming Coordinator for the Rose Theatre Brampton, Danny curates the theatre’s presenting series. The Rose Theatre is a multidisciplinary venue providing Theatre, Music, Dance, and Comedy to the people of Brampton. Prior to this Danny was an artistic director of the Shakespeare in the Square festival as well as the producing wing of the Rose Theatre Brampton. Danny has been a performer and artistic director on amateur and professional stages for the past 19 years having directed some 30 plays and musicals. A Graduate of Humber College – Comedy Writing and Performance program, Central Peel Secondary School in Brampton. Recently Danny had the honour of adjudicating the National Theatre School festival. Instagram: @dannydontdance Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy

Sadie Berlin is a published fiction author, a writer of post-dramatic texts, and a performance artist. In previous incarnations, she has been a legal anthropologist and ethnographer, an offshore finance journalist, and a literary buyer for a bookshop chain in London, U.K. Last year, Sadie was the dramaturge and performance curator-in-training at the Stratford Festival Lab. As a recent recipient of the Metcalf Foundation grant, Sadie will be working as the Dramaturgy Intern at the Stratford Festival under the mentorship of ted witzel. Sadie is also an educator, an activist and an anti-racism consultant. Twitter: @artysadie Instagram: @sadiediamorphine Support Stageworthy: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/stageworthy