Stageworthy

Siobhan is an actor/fighter/singer/dancer, currently based in Toronto, but originally from Kitchener-Waterloo, and trained at the Canadian College of Performing Arts in Victoria. Tours and travelling are one of the perks of the job! Acting credits include Lucy Debrie (And Then The Lights Went Out, Stage West Calgary), Mo (Mo and Jess Kill Susie, Harley Dog Productions), Lady Capulet (Romeo and (her) Juliet Headstrong Collective/Urban Bard), Solange (The Maids, Whirligig Productions), the twins Jessica and Julia (The Last Resort, Stirling Festival Theatre), and the world premiere productions of The Madness of the Square (Cahoots Theatre Projects) and The Forbidden Phoenix (Citadel Theatre and LKTYP). www.siobhanrichardson.com Twitter: @fighteractress Instagram: @fighteractress

Jon Paterson has been working in the theatre industry for the past 30 years and is the current Technical and Artistic Director of the Astor Theatre in Liverpool, NS. Jon is also one of the founders of FringeLiveStream. Jon studied theatre at Grant Macewan University in Edmonton, where he began his association with director Kenneth Brown. Jon has co-produced, performed in, designed and/or directed dozens of shows with his theatre company, RibbitRePublic. Jon has performed in various theatre and festivals across North America including The Centaur Wildside Festival, Canoe Theatre Festival, Just For Laughs Comedy Festival, Mayfield Dinner Theatre, Vertigo Mystery Theatre, Zero Gravity Circus, Orlando Fringe Festival, Fresno Rouge Festival and, most recently, Off-Broadway’s Soho Playhouse. Jon is also a stilt-walker, stage manager, poster designer, and Winnipeg Jets fan. Instagram: @jon.paterson Fringe Live Stream FringeLiveStream is a group of artists dedicated to providing a platform for live performances. Show

Chris Tolley is a writer, director and producer, and the Co-Artistic Director of Expect Theatre. After graduating from York University he teamed up with Laura Mullin, and together they have created award-winning multi-disciplinary productions that have toured across Canada and the US. Chris’ work has been nominated for five Dora Awards in the General Theatre category, and has been shortlisted twice for the Toronto Arts Foundation Awards. In 2006 both Chis and Laura won Harbourfront Centre’s inaugural FreshGround commissioning award. His most notable works include Romeo/Juliet REMIXED (Toronto and Philadelphia), STATIC (World Stage Festival) and AWAKE (Next Stage Festival). Other work with Mullin include the CBC Radio drama, The Tunnel Runners, and the short film, AWAKE. He sits on the Board of the Playwrights Guild of Canada and serves as the Contracts Chair. He is also on a number of other theatre boards. Outside of theatre, Chris is also very active in national politics. In 2015, Chris ran in the federal el

Rebecca Perry is a Toronto-based playwright, performer and producer. She has written three solo shows which she tours around the English-speaking world. Her most well-known show, Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl has earned her awards and critical acclaim, has sold out in more than 30 cities worldwide, and was taped in front of a live studio audience for Bell Fibe TV’s On Stage On Demand. Her most recent show, From Judy to Bette: The Stars of Old Hollywood recently featured in the Sudbury Theatre Centre’s 19/20 season, debuting all-new scenography, and the grandest production Rebecca has yet put on. Following a hugely successful run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019, a two-month tour of the UK was booked (currently being rescheduled), and the show is in talks with presenters in Australia and New Zealand. Her work has even had celebrity attendees, including Anthony Rapp and Neil Patrick Harris. She also works in film and TV, and her work can be seen on Amazon Prime (Best Friend from Heaven, For

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

Lucy Eveleigh is the Executive Director of the Toronto Fringe Festival, and the President of the Canadian Association of Fringe Festivals. She has been the Managing Director of the Toronto Fringe, the General Manager for the SummerWorks Performance Festival, and the General Manager of the Pleasance Theatre in London, England. Twitter: @eveleigh_lucy Toronto Fringe https://fringetoronto.com/ Twitter: @Toronto_Fringe

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

Recorded via live stream: April 7 2020. Michael Ross Albert Michael is the author of several plays including Miss (FringeNYC; Unit 102 Actors Company); The Farmers Lit the Fields on Fire (Edinburgh Fringe Festival); The Grass is Greenest at the Houston Astrodome (FringeNYC, published by Applause in Best American Short Plays 2014-2015); and Karenin’s Anna (Toronto Fringe Festival, “Outstanding New Play,” — NOW Magazine), as well as the 2018 Toronto Fringe hit, Anywhere and the 2019 Fringe hit The Huns, which was to travel to the Brighton Fringe, until that festival was postponed. http://michaelrossalbert.com/ Twitter: @michaelralbert Instagram: michaelralbert Cass Van Wyck Cass is an actor and producer, one of the co-creators of the new works series, Open Open Open, and one of the forces behind Toronto’s Assembly Theatre. Cass was part of the cast of The Huns. Twitter: @classvanwyck Instagram: classvanwyck Please consider supporting The Assembly Theatre. Due to the current mandated closure and the multiple can

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

Maria Wodzinska (“she/her”) Maria began her training at Humber College working with physical theatre practices from the Barba, Grotowski and Lecoq tradition. Later inspired by mask and movement workshops in London at LAMDA with Mark Bell, she continued physical theatre studies and graduated from L’ecole Jacques Lecoq in 2015. Concurrently she studied under Pascale Lecoq in the Laboratory of Movement (LEM). LEM focusses on the language of movement of scenic objects, masks, and object manipulation. Additionally, she has worked with Raymond Bobgan of the Cleveland Public Theatre on physical theatre training from the Grotowski tradition. Her current interest is to develop a blended pedagogy from these two traditions, Lecoq and Growoski, and evaluate their possibilities for applied theatre contexts. This is the focus of her Major Research Project for her MA Studies at York University, funded through SSHRC research fellowship. www.mariawodzinska.com Twitter: @Maria_Wodzy Instagram: mariawodzinska Oliver Jane (“they

Karen is an award-winning writer, director and performer and the artistic director of Keep Frozen: Pochsy Productions, which develops Hines’ dark comedies for stage and screen. She is the author of Drama: Pilot Episode, Citizen Pochsy, Hello…Hello (A Romantic Satire),Oh, baby and Pochsy’s Lips as well as several short plays and the Neo-Cabaret Pochsy Unplugged, which have been presented across North America and in Germany at venues such as Alberta Theatre Projects, Tarragon Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Joe’s Pub (Public Theatre, NYC), Word Stage, Factory Theatre, Magnetic North, One Yellow Rabbit and Beme Theatre in Munich. Featured Theatre Company Many theatres and theatre companies that have shut down their productions as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. A lot of these companies are in desperate need of help to ensure that they can keep their doors open once the current crisis is over, and many are turning to crowdfunding in order to do that. In the coming weeks Stageworthy will highlight some c

No guest this week. With all the theatre closings and cancellations, we may see this coming up now and then. instead, some thoughts about social distancing, and more. www.stageworthypodcast.com Twitter: @StageworthyPod Instagram: stageworthypod Facebook: https://facebook.com/StageworthyPod

Steven Vlahos Steven is an actor/creator based out of Toronto. His mom thinks he’s a really nice guy, but don’t let that fool you, he’s also an infamously known bad boy. He can lift upwards of 30 pounds, but Steven knows that muscles don’t make the man, which is why his only life aspiration is to make all of your dreams come true. He is also a co-founder and associate producer of The Theatre Circuit and one half of Nose Bros Comedy (an improv, sketch and clown duo). Steven attended the Humber Theatre Performance program, and has performed in numerous theatre, tv, and film productions since graduating. You can catch him hosting “Bad Improv” at the Imperial pub or playing different comedy shows in the city with Nose Bros. He was recently seen playing Pratt in Judith Thompson’s new play ,Who Killed Snow White? at 4th Line Theatre. He was also seen as Roy in Brandon Crone’s Turtleneck (Some more theatre credits include: The Last Performance (Nose Bros), Sister Act: The Musical (Lower Ossington Theatre), Inch Of Y

The Negroes Are Congregating (NAC) unapologetically wrestles with deep-rooted internalized racism through the lens of the Western World and the ‘Black experience’ hat stretches far beyond Canada and the United States, and rather a pan-African exploration. The laugh-out-loud piece balances comedy with discomfort, pulling audiences beyond the fourth wall, where everyone is invited to cackle, cry and be still together. Artists; Uche Ama (Female 1), Christopher Bautista (Male 1) and Christopher Parker (Male 2) perform this contemporary piece delivered through a fusion of spoken word, satire, soulful dialect and musical vocals. Audiences will enter a realm of private truths and leave with an understanding of what it means to be Black, proud, and ready. The Negroes are Congregating has already received international acclaim, having been programmed by Théâtre de l’Usine (Geneva, Switzerland); Black Theatre Network Conference (Memphis, TN); Halifax Fringe (Halifax, Nova Scotia); SummerWorks Performance Festival (Tor

Natasha Adiyana Morris is an award winning playwright whose work has been presented in Canada, the United States, and Europe. She is the founder and executive director PIECE OF MINE Arts, a platform for Black play creators to showcase work-in-development, featuring over 150 artists since 2013. Natasha is the recipient of several accolades including SummerWorks’ New Performance Text Award, The Black Canadian Awards’ Leadership Certificate, and the Ontario’s Leading Women Building Communities Certificate. She credits local companies b current, anitafrika dub theatre, and Obsidian Theatre for her invaluable artistic training. The Negroes are Congregating originated out of development and excerpt presentations during the Piece of Mine Festival in 2016 at Toronto’s Palmerston Library Theatre. The Negroes Are Congregating The Negroes Are Congregating poses an unapologetic and impolite perspective about the ongoing effects of racism in Canada and around the world. Delivered through a fusion of spoken word, satire,

Alan Dilworth is a theatre director, playwright and teacher. He is Artistic Director of Necessary Angel Theatre Company in Toronto. Alan’s work explores personal, social and political transformation, questions of the nature of ‘self’ and its relationship with ‘the other’, and the notion of a contemporary text-based theatre, although he also works in physical and image-based forms. His practice privileges vulnerability, presence, simplicity and the unknown. Alan has directed across Canada and internationally. www.alandilworth.com Twitter: @alandilworth1 The Events by David Greig Music by John Browne Directed by Alan Dilworth Cast: Raven Dauda and Kevin Walker Written in response to the politically motivated mass shootings in Norway, The Events has been described as “…a solemn, searching and ultimately very moving play…” and “ an extraordinary new work…strangely uplifting…”. www.necessaryangel.com Twitter: @necessaryangel Note: in this episode, 2004 is given as the year of Utoya shootings, however this event ac

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/ Transcript: https://stageworthypodcast.com/lauren-allen/

Shaista Latif is a Queer Afghan-Canadian multidisciplinary artist, consultant and facilitator. Her works and collaborations have been presented by Koffler Gallery, Ontario Scene Festival, SummerWorks, Why Not Theatre, Blackwood Gallery, Mercer Union, the AGO, Halifax Queer Acts Festival, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and recently the Undercurrents Festival. She is a published playwright (Playwrights Canada Press) and voiced the character Soraya in the Oscar-nominated film The Breadwinner. In 2020, Latif will be touring her critically acclaimed show The Archivist around Ontario. Her latest work Learning the Language of My Enemies was recently presented in conjunction with Nevet Yitzhak: WarCraft at the Koffler Gallery. Twitter: @shaista_latif Instagram: shaistalatifmakes How I Learned to Serve Tea A participatory workshop on the politics of capacity and resource sharing, How I Learned to Serve Tea explores dynamics of power through acts of hospitality with artist-facilitator Shaista Latif. “Assessing the langua

Mateo Lewis is a Toronto based actor, writer and composer. His musical, Boys Don’t Cry was performed at the 2019 Toronto Fringe. Twitter: @mateolewis Instagram: mateo.lewis

Alexander Crowther plays Casimir, and Hallie Seline plays Caroline, in The Howland Company’s production of Casimir and Caroline. Casimir just got fired, his phone’s not working and his shoes are falling apart. Caroline wants to dance, sing karaoke, and forget about the weight of the world for just one night. They are engaged… for now. Casimir and Caroline is a play about love in the cold atmosphere of modern capitalism. We follow these ultra star-crossed lovers, as they navigate clingy co-workers, sketchy best friends, questionable HR representatives, the playboy boss, that powerhouse from the Montreal office and those beautiful few who might actually possess an ounce of wisdom. They all desperately long for something more. None of them can say what that might be. But at least their lives look #goals on Instagram. CASIMIR AND CAROLINE, European playwright and novelist Ödön von Horváth’s 1932 tragicomedy, is one of the most frequently staged plays in the modern German repertoire, but until now has never been s