DRAMA: Pilot Episode
By Karen Hines
Blake Brooker - Director
Blake is the co-founder and co-artistic director of One Yellow Rabbit. An author and director, he has created or collaborated on most of the company's productions since 1982.
Lindsay Burns - Cast/Decision Maker
For Alberta Theatre Projects: Heartbreaker, For Love and Money, Moliere, Zadie's Shoes, How I Learned to Drive, Popcorn, The Ugly Man, Skygeezers, Our Country’s Good. Elsewhere: Lindsay is most known for her witty and insightful one-woman shows, Dough: The Politics of Martha Stewart, The Vajayjay Monologues and Pack of Lies which have toured to New York, Winnipeg and Edmonton. Lindsay first took part in the Playrites festival in 1992 and has been an enthusiastic supporter of it ever since. She is a passionate Calgarian who lives with, and loves deeply, Grant and Jasper.
Mabelle Carvajal - Cast/Columbia
A recent graduate of the Playhouse North School of Theatre, Mabelle is ecstatic to be working with ATP this season. Previous theatre credits include Zac and Speth (ColdWater Theatre), The Crucible (Playhouse North),Godspell (Playhouse North) and The Crackwalker (Theatre Mystic). Look for Mabelle’s one-woman show, EAT SLAY LOVE: A Wench's Tale, appearing this upcoming summer at a Fringe Festival near you. Heartfelt thanks go out to Cindy Christensen and Waldo, Vanessa and Alex.
Johanne Deleeuw - Stage Manager/Production Stage Manager
Johanne is a free-lance stage manager, director and dramaturge who is proud to make her home in Calgary. In recent years, she has stage managed for One Yellow Rabbit, Vertigo Theatre, Ground Zero and Sage Theatre. Her directing work has been seen, among other places, at Vertigo, Lunchbox Theatre and here at ATP, where she directed the production of A Boy’s Own Jedi Handbook. Johanne also works as an administrator in the arts and other non-profit sectors. Currently, she works with Calgary’s Green Fools Theatre and The Asian Heritage Foundation, where she is coordinating programming for Asian Heritage Month in May 2012. This is Johanne’s first time as a stage manager with ATP and her first experience working on the Enbridge playRites Festival and she is having a blast!
David Fraser - Lighting Design
The 2012 Enbridge playRites Festival will mark David’s seventh year as the festival’s lighting designer at the Martha Cohen Theatre. Other previous designs with the company include the set and lighting for The Goat, and The Syringa Tree, the lighting for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Unity (1918), and twenty-five other world premieres tucked into seven years of festivals here at Alberta Theatre Projects. As an Edmonton-based artist, David works extensively in theatre, dance and opera. His theatrical work has been seen across the country from The National Arts Centre in Ottawa, to The Belfry Theatre in Victoria, and his designs in dance have been seen both nationally and internationally with Edmonton based Choreographer Tania Alvarado. He has been nominated for a Betty Mitchell and a Jessie Richardson award for his lighting designs. In Edmonton, David has also been nominated for nine Sterling Hanes awards for both set and lighting, and he has been the recipient once for his lighting design with Theatre Network. David is a member of the Associated Designers of Canada.
Christian Goutsis - Cast/Content Provider
Christian is thrilled to be back at Alberta Theatre Projects for the Enbridge playRites Festival. Previous playRites festival plays include; The Romeo Initiative, Heartbreaker (2011), The Clockmaker (2009), Strawberries in January, Pageant (2003), A Guide to Mourning, Grace (1998), The Heart As It Lived, Tolstoy’s Wife (1997), Other Alberta Theatre Projects productions include The Drawer Boy (Betty Mitchell Award – Supporting Actor), Amadeus, and The Boy’s Own Jedi Handbook. Other selected credits; The Wars (Theatre Calgary/Vancouver Playhouse), The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Macbeth, Candida, Dangerous Corner (Theatre Calgary), Evil Dead: The Musical, Little Mercy’s First Murder (Betty Mitchell Award - Supporting Actor) (Ground Zero Theatre) The Mousetrap (Betty Mitchell Award - Supporting Actor), Wait until Dark, Woman in Black (Vertigo Theatre),The Clockmaker (Tarragon Theatre), Cabaret, The Producers, Master Harold and the Boys (Neptune Theatre); Two Weeks with the Queen (Globe Theatre); Anything That Moves (Belfry Theatre); Grease, The Music Man, Richard III, A Man for All Seasons (Citadel Theatre); Mesa (Ghost River Theatre - UK tour 06 and 08). Christian also works as a voice director and writer for Six Degrees Music and Productions.
Alana Hawley - Cast/Actress
Alana is a graduate of The Robbins Academy Professional Program, The Birmingham Conservatory For Classical Theatre Training, the U of A BFA Acting Program, Tarlington Training (film/TV), and The Speech Studio. Past theatre credits include: Constance in The Three Musketeers (Citadel Theatre); Dorcus in The Winter’s Tale, Grace in Bartholomew Fair, Princess of France in Love’s Labour’s Lost (Stratford Shakespeare Festival); Queen Elizabeth in Richard III, Viola in Twelfth Night (Birmingham Conservatory); Zanda in The Clink, Flaminia in The Double Inconstancy (Studio Theatre); Flora in 27 Wagons Full of Cotton, Regan in King Lear, Kitty Packard in Dinner at Eight (U of A Drama Dept.); Anna in Anna Karenina, Third Witch in Macbeth and Ophelia in Hamlet (PGTW). Musical theatre credits include Little Women (Citadel Theatre), Oliver! (Prince George Playhouse) and Grease (St. Albert’s Children’s Theatre). She has enjoyed working with artists from across the country, participating in the New Plays Festival with Theatre BC and partaking in the National Artists Program at the 2005 Canada Games.
Karen Hines - Playwright
Hines is the author of Pochsy’s Lips, Oh, baby, Hello…Hello, Citizen Pochsy as well as several short plays, which have been presented across North America at venues including Tarragon and Factory Theatres, World Stage, Actors Theatre of Louisville, One Yellow Rabbit and most recently Beme Theatre in Germany. She has directed horror clowns Mump & Smoot as they grew from the fringes to venues including ATP, Yale Repertory and La Jolla Playhouse, as well as Linda Griffiths,’ Age of Arousal for its ATP PlayRites’ premiere. Hines has also appeared in many stage, television and film productions. Her performances, direction and playwriting have won numerous citations including Dora Mavor Moore Awards, Alberta Writers Guild Awards, Gemini and CableACE nominations, Chalmers Playwriting Award nominations, while the collected Pochsy Plays (Coach House) was finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama. Chicago-born, Toronto-bred, Hines now lives in Calgary, where she is playwright in residence at ATP (project: DRAMA: Pilot Episode) and is writing her first feature film, Crawlspace, and a new play, Criticism.
Richard McDowell - Sound Composition
Richard McDowell has been an ensemble member of One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre in Calgary, Alberta since 1985 and has participated in over 30 One Yellow Rabbit productions. He has toured and performed with OYR across Canada and to Scotland, Germany, Holland, the Czech Republic, Mexico and the United States. His areas of expertise include composition, sound design, audio recording and video recording, editing and post-production. Richard is also One Yellow Rabbit’s web designer. In addition to his work with OYR, he has composed and or designed theatre scores for Alberta Theatre Projects, Trickster Physical Theatre, The University of Calgary Drama Department, The Shiny Beast Collective and collaborated with Mexican actress and director Zaide Silvia Gutiérrez on four award winning plays produced in Mexico City. Richard’s scores for dance include commissioned works for Peggy Baker Dance, Decidedly Jazz Danceworks, choreographer Nicole Mion and numerous collaborations with dancer, choreographer and fellow OYR ensemble member Denise Clarke including the score for The Blind Struggle - Female Rounds, her work for the 1988 “Olympic Arts Festival - Modern Dance Commissions”. He has participated with full scholarship in creative programs at both The Banff Centre in 1987, and Simon Fraser University in 1994.
Allan Morgan - Cast/Sage
Allan is very pleased to be returning to Alberta Theatre Projects. He was last seen in Abraham Lincoln Goes to the Theatre (he was nominated for a Betty Mitchell award) and How Do I love Thee. Previous credits include: Two Words for Snow, Aberhardt Summer, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, and Studies In Motion.Other Calgary credits include: Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, and The Overcoat for Theatre Calgary, and It Is Solved By Walking for Urban Curvz.A resident of Vancouver, where he is a regular performer at Bard on the Beach Allan has appeared across Canada, and also toured internationally. He has been nominated for 7 Jessie Richardson awards in his hometown, and has garnered 4 awards for his work over the years. He was also voted Performer of the Year in Victoria for his work in I Am My Own Wife at that city’s Belfry Theatre.Allan is pleased to return to see and work with his many friends and colleagues in Calgary, his home away from home. He is a graduate of Studio 58 Theatre program in Vancouver.
Patti Neice - Assistant Stage Manager
Patti is thrilled to be part of the Enbridge playRites Festival. Selected credits include: Stage Manager for The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Eric Carle Favorites (Mermaid Theatre, tours of Canada/USA/Ireland/South Korea & Singapore) Lillibet, Maddy Heisler, The Net & Shatter (The Ships Company), How it Works (Mulgrave Road). Assistant SM for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Crazy for You & How the Other Half Loves (Drayton Entertainment), Marion Bridge (The Company Theatre).
Scott Reid - Set Design
Selected Alberta Theatre Projects credits include: East of Berlin, Half Life, Oliver Twist, Sitting on Paradise, Peter Pan, The Clean House (set and lights), numerous Enbridge playRites Festivals, Treasure Island, Amadeus, Marion Bridge (set and lights), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? And The Collected Works of Billy the Kid. Selected design credits include: The Cunning Little Vixen, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Dido & Aeneas (The Banff Centre – Opera Program); Losing Ground (The Banff Centre – Dance Program); Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, Seven Deadly Sins & Songs of a Wayfarer, Requiem (Alberta Ballet/Edmonton Opera); Mom's The Word, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Theatre Calgary), A Raisin In The Sun (Theatre Calgary/Soulpepper Theatre Company), Crimes of the Heart (Theatre Calgary/MTC), And Then There Were None, Rebecca, Evelyn Strange, Blood Relations, Noirville (Vertigo Theatre), The Inventors [projection design], Little Women, Dead Man Walking and Faust (Calgary Opera).
Amy Sawka - Cast/Fig
Amy is thrilled to a part of the playRites festival this year! She is a graduate of York University’s Theatre program with a specialization in devised theatre. Former devised performances include To Write Love On Her Arms (The Play) and Vicarious Entertainment with the Toronto collective WireTap. Most recently Amy was part of Castlereigh Theatre Project’s ensemble cast in Castle In The Sky which premiered at Sage’s IGNITE Emerging Artist Festival 2011 and toured to Medicine Hat and the Interplay Festival in Fort McMurray. Other previous Calgary-based productions include various performances at Bishop Carroll High School and for StoryBook Theatre. Many thanks to Mom, Dad and Paul for their endless support and love.
Vicki Stroich - Dramaturg
Vicki is Artistic Associate – Festival and Dramaturg at Alberta Theatre Projects where she has been a member of the Artistic Team for over ten years. Vicki’s focus at ATP is dramaturgy and programming for the Enbridge playRites Festival of New Canadian Plays. She is also Co-Director of The Banff Centre’s Banff Playwrights Colony. She freelances as a dramaturg, facilitator, and director. Her work has included dramaturgy of dramatic text, devised theatre and performance creation. She teaches the occasional workshop and hosts the odd panel. Vicki is President-Elect and VP Canada of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and was Conference Chair of the international 2010 LMDA Conference in Banff. She is the proud recipient of a Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding Achievement for her contributions to new work. Vicki would like to thank her collaborators and co conspirators for the inspiration.
April Viczko - Costume Design
Selected credits: production design for Backwater (Windrow Performance), Hello… Hello (Kill Your Television), set and costume design for Bea’s Niece (Tarragon), As You Like It (Citadel Theatre) and Stray (Workshop West), costumes for The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Birdland Theatre – Dora Nomination), costume design for This Castle with Moonhorse Dance Theatre, Blackbird and True Love Lies (Citadel Theatre). Recently for the University of Calgary Drama Department: King Lear and Perfect Pie. In 2006, April shared the Siminovitch Protégé Prize awarded by Dany Lyne. Currently, April is a Vice-President of the Associated Designers of Canada. She is also a faculty member in the Department of Drama at the University of Calgary.
Daniela Vlaskalic - Penelope
ATP: Hippies and Bolsheviks, Picking up Chekhov (playRites’06); Moliere, Midlife (playRites’02). Selected Theatre: Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure (Theatre Aquarius); How the Other Half Loves (Drayton Entertainment), The Drowning Girls (National Tour); Boston Marriage (Skeleton Key Theatre); Doubt (Canadian Stage); All’s Well That Ends Well, Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew (Stratford Shakespeare Festival); Cripple of Inishmaan (Betty nomination, Theatre Calgary); Vimy, Equus, Einstein’s Gift (Citadel Theatre); At the Zenith of the Empire (Teatro La Quindicina); Arms and the Man (NAC, Citadel Theatre, Vancouver Playhouse); The Blue Light (Fire Hall Arts Centre); A Doll’s House (Persephone Theatre); Twelfth Night, Strawberries in January, The Red Priest (Globe Theatre). As a playwright, Daniela has co-written: Comrades, The Last Train, Mules and The Unknown Woman with Beth Graham. She is also one of the co-creators of the multi-award winning play, The Drowning Girls, which premiered at ATP in 2008.