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Playwright
Caryl Churchill was born on September 3, 1938 in London and grew up in the Lake District and in Montreal. She was educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Downstairs, her first play written while she was still at university, was first staged in 1958 and won an award at the Sunday Times National Union of Students Drama Festival. Caryl Churchill’s plays include: Owners, Traps, Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, Cloud 9, Top Girls, Fen, Serious Money, Ice Cream, Mad Forest, The Skriker, Blue Heart, This is a Chair, Far Away, A Number, Drunk Enough To Say I Love You?, Seven Jewish Children, Love & Information, Here We Go and Escaped Alone. Music theatre includes Lives of the Great Poisoners and Hotel, both with Orlando Gough. Caryl has also written for radio and television.
Director
ROYAL MTC Directing debut. Acting: Indecent, The Lehman Trilogy, Network, Trouble in Mind, Bang Bang (Evie Award), King Lear, Scorched, My Name is Asher Lev (Meta Award). Upcoming: appearing in Murder on the Orient Express (with Citadel).
OTHER THEATRE Directing: This Hotel (TiFT); Bully (Artistic Fraud Newfoundland); Jim and Shorty (Factory); Going (Buddies); The Dining Room, Love and Information (Toronto Film School); Anybody and Nobody (Theatre Centre); Bananafish: The Album (SummerWorks). Alex has worked extensively in film and television and performed across Canada including Soulpepper, Canadian Stage, Citadel, Theatre Calgary, Tarragon and Segal Centre. He has published/produced several plays and is completing a residency for WJT (Edenbridge) and a commission for Royal MTC (Intrepid). Upcoming: His play The Right Road to Pontypool will receive three staged readings at WJT in November.
ET CETERA alexpochgoldin.com
Set Designer
ROYAL MTC Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes.
OTHER THEATRE Pauline Boutal, entre les toiles et les planches (TCM); Hand to God, Smarty Pants (Magnus); Summer of Semitism, Bar Mitzvah Boy, After Jerusalem (WJT); Guys and Dolls (Randolph College for the Performing Arts); The Cave (Theatre Passe Muraille); The Velveteen Rabbit (Carousel Players); This is How We Got Here (Native Earth Performing Arts); Set and Costume Assistant (Shaw); La Liste (TCM); Awaken (Zone41/ SIR).
FILM/TV The Great Salish Heist, Burden of Truth Season 3.
TRAINING Graduate of the University of Winnipeg’s Theatre and Film program, as well as the Environmental Design program at the University of Manitoba having studied Architecture. She is also a member of the Associated Designers of Canada.
Costume Designer
ROYAL MTC Costume Design: Waitress, The Recipe (with TPM), among men (with TPM). Set Design: Mix Tapes From My Mom. Upcoming: Hockey Mom Hockey Dad (Set and Costumes), Holland (Costumes – with TPM).
OTHER THEATRE (selected) Costume Design: Rock of Ages, Rent (Rainbow); End of the Line (TPM); Twelfth Night (SIR); Narrow Bridge, Bar Mitzvah Boy (WJT). Set Design: Raised by Women, Year of Magical Thinking (PTE); The Dark Lady (SIR); PLÉ (Plé Collective/MTYP). Set, Prop and Costume Design: Glad to Be Here, Meet Me at Dawn, Edward II, Cock, Bull (TBTR); Hamlet, Timon of Athens (SIR); Red Earth (One Trunk/TPM).
ET CETERA SATA Nomination for Production Excellence (The Dark Lady); Evie Award for Outstanding Design (Red Earth).
Lighting Designer
ROYAL MTC Costume Designer: King James, Yaga. Assistant Designer: As You Like It, Matilda the Musical. Design Apprentice: The Seagull, Cabaret, Sherlock Holmes. 2020/21 National Mentorship Program. Design team for MTC/MBA Lawyers Plays: Mamma Mia!, Urinetown. Upcoming: Holland (with TPM).
OTHER THEATRE Selected recent set, costume and/or lighting designs: Gather, The Velveteen Rabbit (MTYP); Rock of Ages, Breaking Up, Cash (Rainbow); The Band’s Visit, Address Unknown (WJT); Yaga (Belfry); None of this is Happening (TPM); Much Ado (SIR); Katharsis (PTE); It’s a Wonderful Life (Magnus).
TRAINING/TEACHING Training: U of W (BAH), U of Alberta (MFA), Pratt Institute, Banff Centre. Teaching: Creative Manitoba, U of W, Musical Stage, MTYP, Theatre Alberta.
ET CETERA Ksenia is Royal MTC’s Education and Enrichment Manager, a Rick Hansen Foundation Accessibility Certification Professional, and ADC659 member. Grateful for support of my family, this production team and mentors, including Per Brask in whose class I first read A Number, and who once remarked “sh*t happens – and it’s a good thing too, otherwise we wouldn’t have plays.”
Composer & Sound Designer
ROYAL MTC Casey and Diana (with TA), Little Women, The Recipe (with TPM), The Lehman Trilogy, among men (with TPM), Burning Mom, Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes, Trouble in Mind, Orlando. 2022/23 National Mentorship Program.
OTHER THEATRE Burning Mom (Arts Club); The Year of Magical Thinking (PTE); 2024 ThisGen Fellow (Why Not Theatre).
TRAINING B.Mus (Jazz Performance) Brandon University, School of Music.
ET CETERA Ashley Au (she/they) is a Winnipeg-based bassist, composer, sound designer, arranger and queer creative. A multifaceted musician, Ashley specializes in the upright and electric basses – performing, touring and recording extensively for the last 15 years. As a composer and sound artist, Ashley’s work can be found behind various theatre and dance productions as well as galleries and stages internationally. Ashley is the artistic director of Cluster New Music + Integrated Arts Festival.
Assistant Director
ROYAL MTC (selected) Actor: As You Like It, Di and Viv and Rose, Shakespeare in Love (with Citadel), Sarah Ballenden, The Fighting Days, The Penelopiad, The 39 Steps, Bleeding Hearts, After Miss Julie.
OTHER THEATRE (selected) Actor: Much Ado About Nothing, Timon of Athens, Richard III, Henry V (SIR); Dragonfly, Reservations, Beautiful Man (TPM); A Doll’s House, Part 2 (Segal); Strawberries in January, The Swearing Jar, Godspell (PTE); Am I Not King? (zone41). Director: The Winter’s Tale, Julius Caesar, Stripped Down Hamlet (SIR); Mary’s Wedding (TPM); Hamlet (Snakeskin Jacket); Edward II (TBTR).
FILM/TV Actor: The Best Christmas Pageant Ever!, The Zealot, The Stone Angel, High Life, Todd and the Book of Pure Evil, Less Than Kind, Flag Day.
ET CETERA Sarah is in two bands, both of which have albums coming out soon: Claire Thérèse and The Lockdown this fall, and The Fu Fu Chi Chi Choir in the spring.
Assistant Sound Designer
Stage Manager
ROYAL MTC Assistant Stage Manager: Waitress, The Mountaintop.
OTHER THEATRE Select recent credits: Liars at a Funeral, Raised by Women, Year of Magical Thinking (PTE); Bad Parent (PTE/vAct); Frozen, Mary Poppins, The Little Mermaid, The Wizard of Oz, Cinderella (Rainbow); A Charlie Brown Double Bill (MTYP); seven seasons of rain and sunshine with SIR.
ET CETERA Thanks to Kristjan, Rupert and Juniper for all their support this season and to Mike, Ali, Zahra and Dustyn, who I wouldn’t have gotten here without.
Apprentice Stage Manager
ROYAL MTC Murder for Two, Mix Tapes From My Mom (tour).
OTHER THEATRE Assistant SM: Macbeth, Waiting for Godot (SIR). Apprentice SM: Mary Poppins (Rainbow). Production Assistant: The Little Mermaid, RENT, The Wizard of Oz, The Hockey Sweater: A Musical (Rainbow).
TRAINING Graduate of the University of Winnipeg with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Film.
ET CETERA Thank you to my family, friends and colleagues for their never-ending support and guidance.
Bernard 1 / Bernard 2 / Michael Black
ROYAL MTC Actor: Little Women, The Three Musketeers. Assistant Director: Private Lives. Upcoming: Murder on the Orient Express (with Citadel).
OTHER THEATRE (selected) Actor: Four seasons at Stratford Festival (2016–2019); The Player King (SIR); A Dance to the End of the World (PTE). Director: The Year of Magical Thinking, Pandora (PTE); Waiting for Godot, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Iago Speaks, The Dark Lady, Hamlet (SIR).
FILM/TV Nobody 2; Intersection; The Snow Must Go On, The Santa Summit, Snowkissed (Hallmark).
TRAINING Birmingham Conservatory (Stratford); MA in Classical Acting from LAMDA (UK); BA (Honours) from the University of Winnipeg; Michael Langham Workshop (Stratford).
ET CETERA Rodrigo is the Artistic Director of Shakespeare in the Ruins (SIR).
Salter
ROYAL MTC Warehouse: Automatic Pilot 1985. Mainstage: Marco in A View from the Bridge 1989.
OTHER THEATRE Five seasons at the NAC English Company from 1978 to start my career; worked in every major and many minor theatre across Canada; nine seasons at Stratford; Inexpressible Island 2020; this is my second Caryl Churchill production – Cloud 9 in the early ‘80s.
FILM/TV I keep telling people that if you don’t look for me, I will show up in the oddest films or TV. Upcoming: appearing in Hallmark’s Holiday in Happy Hollow movie this Christmas.
TRAINING I was trained on the job. Amateur work at 12 years old, semi-pro at age 17, pro at age 23. I’m now 73 years old and still learning.
ET CETERA I think this will be my theatrical swan song. My memory is still good, but the body is revolting. I’ll stick to small film work from now on.