Author
Virginia Woolf was an English author, feminist, essayist, publisher, and critic, considered as one of the foremost modernists of the twentieth century along with T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, and Gertrude Stein. Her parents were Sir Leslie Stephen (1832–1904), who was a notable historian, author, critic and mountaineer, and Julia Prinsep Duckworth (1846–1895), a renowned beauty. According to Woolf’s memoirs, her most vivid childhood memories were not of London but of St. Ives in Cornwall, where the family spent every summer until 1895. This place inspired her to write one of her masterpieces, To the Lighthouse.
Virginia’s most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One’s Own (1929), with its famous dictum, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” In some of her novels she moves away from the use of plot and structure to employ stream-of-consciousness to emphasise the psychological aspects of her characters.
Playwright
Sarah Ruhl is an award-winning American playwright, author, essayist and professor. Her plays include The Oldest Boy, Dear Elizabeth, Stage Kiss, In the Next Room or the vibrator play (Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2010); The Clean House (Pulitzer Prize finalist, 2005; Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, 2004); Passion Play (Pen American Award, Fourth Freedom Forum Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center); Dead Man’s Cell Phone (Helen Hayes Award for Best New Play); Melancholy Play; Demeter in the City (nine NAACP Image Award nominations); Scenes From Court Life; How to Transcend a Happy Marriage, For Peter Pan on Her 70th Birthday; Eurydice; Orlando; and Late: a cowboy song. Her plays have been produced on Broadway and across the country as well as internationally, and translated into fourteen languages. Originally from Chicago, Ms. Ruhl received her M.F.A. from Brown University, where she studied with Paula Vogel. She is the recipient of a Helen Merrill Emerging Playwrights Award, a Whiting Writers’ Award, a PEN Center Award for mid-career playwrights, a Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, and a Lilly award. She is a member of 13P and New Dramatists and won the MacArthur Fellowship in 2006. She teaches at Yale School of Drama and lives in Brooklyn with her family.
Director
ROYAL MTC All is Bright, Bang Bang (with Belfry).
OTHER THEATRE Eighteen years as Artistic Director of Nightwood Theatre in Toronto, where she directed Unholy, Refuge, Free Outgoing, The Penelopiad, Between the Sheets, The Happy Woman; as well as The List, That Face and Wild Dogs (all in association with CS); The Danish Play (NAC, Aveny-Teatret, Copenhagen; Magnetic North Theatre Festival); Bear With Me (Magnetic North); Finding Regina (Globe); Mathilde and China Doll. Other select credits include: Vigil (TiFT); The Comedy of Errors (CS); This Hotel (Theatre Passe Muraille); and nine seasons of Nightwood’s Lawyer Show, staging Shakespeare’s comedies and Broadway musicals.
TEACHING Associate Director of the Directing Program at the National Theatre School of Canada 2010-2013. Guest Instructor at the University of Toronto Graduate Centre for Drama, and at Sheridan College and Theatre Erindale (U of T) Theatre and Drama Studies Program.
ET CETERA Kelly is Royal MTC’s Artistic Director and has been honoured with the Pauline McGibbon Award, multiple Dora Mavor Moore and Evie Award nominations, a Harold Award, as well as being named a YWCA Woman of Distinction. She wishes to thank her incredible family for all their love and support.
Set Designer
ROYAL MTC Tiny Plays, Big Ideas, Women of the Fur Trade, Heisenberg.
OTHER THEATRE A Short History of Crazy Bone, Beautiful Man, Iceland (TPM); The Good, The Bad and the Munsch, Munschtopia, The Paperbag Princess (PTE); Tribes, Another Way Home, Intimate Apparel (WJT).
TRAINING Honours Degree in Sculpture/Installation from the Ontario College of Art and Design and in Theatre at Dalhousie University in Halifax. Interned at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Theatre and also Design for Dance.
ET CETERA Linda has worked as a visual artist and theatre professional across Canada for a number of years. She has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the British Columbia Arts Council among others. Linda is a member of the Associated Designers of Canada. Thanks to Orlando for helping me see the greeny, green of the grass and so much more.
Costume Designer
ROYAL MTC First engagement.
OTHER THEATRE The Age of Arousal, The Monster Trilogy, How to Kill Yourself with a Screwdriver (TPM); Assassins (Dry Cold); Odyssey: the islands, The Tempest, Macbeth, As You Like It (SIR); A Year with Frog and Toad (MTYP / Citadel); RICH, Honk, Seussical the Musical, Pipi Longstocking, Silver Wing, The Big League (MTYP); Death of a Salesman, Speed the Plow, Lebensraum, Einstein’s Gift, Via Dolorosa (WJT).
FILM The Nature of Nicholas (Jeff Erbach); Re-Order (Sean Garrity).
ET CETERA After an absence of 12 years, Leanne is thrilled to be back in the theatre and working with this amazing team of artists in bringing to life Orlando’s extraordinary journey through time. She couldn’t have arrived here without James and Ethan. Leanne is a member of the Associated Designers of Canada.
*includes costume prop pieces.
Lighting Designer
ROYAL MTC Select credits include: The Mountaintop, Vietgone (Lighting & Video Designer); All is Bright, Women of the Fur Trade, Fun Home, The Color Purple (with Citadel), Kill Me Now (with NAC), Seminar (with Mirvish), Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing (Lighting Designer) and many other productions since the ‘80s.
OTHER THEATRE Hugh has collaborated with choreographers, visual artists and dance and theatre companies worldwide.
ET CETERA Hugh enjoys working beyond the constraints of traditional lighting design using various forms of interactive media, video and photography. His photographic work resides in private collections and has been published worldwide. Hugh is a member of the Associated Designers of Canada and L’Association des professionnels des arts de la scène du Québec. www.pellucid.me.
Sound Designer
ROYAL MTC First engagement
TRAINING B.Mus (Jazz Performance) Brandon University, School of Music.
ET CETERA Ashley Au (she/they) is a Winnipeg-based bassist, composer, sound artist, arranger, and queer creative. A multifaceted musician, Ashley specializes in the upright and electric basses—performing, touring and recording extensively. As a composer and sound artist, Ashley’s work can be found behind various theatre and dance productions in the city. Current and past projects include work with Weakerthans frontman, John K. Samson; folk roots songstress, Carly Dow; internationally-acclaimed Americana tastemaker, Scott Nolan; composer/trumpeter Chuck Copanace; Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers; and Polaris Prize-nominated hip-hop outfit, Super Duty Tough Work. Ashley is the Artistic Director of Cluster: New Music + Integrated Arts Festival. She is currently scoring her first opera, Inertia (libretto by Christene Brown), commissioned by Loose Tea Music Theatre (TO), set to debut in 2023.
Video Designer
ROYAL MTC Tiny Plays, Big Ideas.
FILM Filmmaker: Queer Fear.
ET CETERA Carla is a passionate storyteller from Treaty No.1 Territory. As a proud member of the LGBTQ+ and Latinx community, she is driven to bringing support and awareness to unheard voices through her filmmaking. www.linktr.ee/carlaeher. Designing alongside these truly talented creatives, has been a great pleasure. Gracias!
Choreographer
OTHER THEATRE Le Dire De Di, Exercice de L’Oubli (Théâtre Français de Toronto); The (Post) Mistress (TfT/Pleiades); Alphonse, Charlotte: a tri-coloured play with music (Theaturtle); Director/Choreographer for Opera, Multi-Media (Ensemble Contemporain de Montréal ECM+, Gryphon Trio, Queen of Puddings, Arraymusic,Tapestry Opera).
FILM/TV Documentaries on Marie-Josée Chartier as choreographer and performer on CBC, Bravo!, Radio-Canada, ARTV, Festival de Films sur l’Art de Montréal and with URGE Collective on Adrienne Clarkson Presents (CBC).
TRAINING Dance and voice training in Montréal (Pointépiénu, Nouvelle Aire), Toronto (various), USA (New York, Jacob’s Pillow).
ET CETERA Chartier created over 30 choreographic works for various dance artists and companies presented in Canada and internationally. Recipient of: Jacqueline Lemieux Prize, K.M. Hunter Award for Achievement in Dance, Soulpepper Multi-Disciplinary Award, nine Dora Mavor Moore nominations and recipient of three Dora Awards. Guest teacher in Canada and abroad in dance, voice and movement, composition. Artistic Director of Chartier Danse.
Intimacy Director
ROYAL MTC Director: The Mountaintop, Women of the Fur Trade. Intimacy Director: Fun Home. Consulting Director: Bang Bang (with Belfry). Actor: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (with Mirvish), Good People, Medea (with Mirvish), The Crucible. Dramaturg: Tiny Plays, Big Ideas.
OTHER THEATRE Director: Blink (U of W); Prairie Nurse (Lighthouse Theatre); Calpurnia (Nightwood Theatre/Sulong Theatre); The Apology (Rabiayshna Productions). Dramaturgy at Factory, CS, Volcano Theatre, Roseneath Theatre, YPT, Second City, Studio 180, Obsidian Theatre, Anandam Dance Theatre, Nightwood Theatre and Tarragon.
TRAINING National Theatre School of Canada.
ET CETERA Audrey is Royal MTC’s Associate Artistic Director and is a multi-disciplinary artist with over 20 years of experience working as an actor, director, playwright, teacher, artistic director, facilitator and mentor. She won the Cayle Chernin Award for Theatre in 2015. She has been nominated for four Dora Awards and has won three. She has been nominated for the Pauline McGibbon Award for Direction twice. She was the Artistic Director of Cow Over Moon Children’s Theatre. She was the Urjo Kareda Artist in Residence and the Assistant Artistic Director of Tarragon Theatre. She has been commissioned by Nightswimming Theatre to write The Generations. She was a recipient of CBC’s Creative Relief Fund for her television series called The Gordons.
Fight Director
ROYAL MTC Fight Director (selected): Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical (with Arts Club/Citadel), Vietgone (with fu-GEN/Hope and Hell), Hand to God, Unnecessary Farce, Private Lives, Gone With the Wind, August: Osage County, Romeo and Juliet, The Seafarer. Actor: Alice Through the Looking-Glass, Top Girls.
OTHER THEATRE Fight Director (selected): Macbeth (Bard on the Beach); Indigenous Playwrights New Works Workshop (PTC – Vancouver); Beauty and the Beast (Rainbow); The Flood Thereafter (CS); Don Giovanni (Manitoba Opera); Macbeth, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Taming of the Shrew (SIR); Prairie Nurse (PTE).
TEACHING U of Winnipeg, U of Manitoba, Trinity Western, Simon Fraser University, Kansas State University.
ET CETERA Jacqueline was a founding member of the Canadian Comedy Award-nominated sketch group Hot Thespian Action. She is directing the first show of Manitoba Opera’s 2021/22 season, and is currently developing a theatre-for-one show with Theatre Projects Manitoba.
Gender Consultant
OTHER THEATRE Shaw Festival Theatre (ON); MCC (NY); Delaware Theatre Co.; Seattle Rep; Chicago Shakespeare Theatre; Kansas City Rep; Fifth Ave. Theatre (WA); TimeLine Theatre (IL); Village Theatre (WA); development of Stu for Silverton, Other World, Interstate, MISS STEP.
TEACHING Nearly 200 gender inclusivity trainings for schools, hospitals, theatres, and more. Josephine is also the gender consultant for Actors’ Equity Association USA and Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas.
Albert McLeod is a Status Indian with ancestry from Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation and the Métis community of Norway House in northern Manitoba. He has over 30 years of experience as a human rights activist and is one of the directors of the Two-Spirited People of Manitoba.
Albert began his Two-Spirit advocacy in Winnipeg in 1986 and became an HIV/AIDS activist in 1987. He was the director of the Manitoba Aboriginal AIDS Task Force from 1991 to 2001. In 2018, Albert received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Winnipeg.
Albert lives in Winnipeg, where he works as a consultant specializing in Indigenous peoples, cultural reclamation, and cross-cultural training. albertmcleod.com
ROYAL MTC Playwright/Performer: The Show (Tiny Plays, Big Ideas). Apprentice Director: Kill Me Now (with NAC).
OTHER THEATRE Playwright: Winnipeg Stories: The Green Building (PTE). Performer: Othello (Beau Theatre Co.); Boundary Ave, TASTE (One Trunk Theatre). Director: Village Ax (TPM).
TRAINING B.A. Hons. Directing – Dept. of Theatre & Film (University of Winnipeg).
ET CETERA Liam is a member of the Prairie Theatre Exchange and Manitoba Association of Playwrights-supported Emerging Playwrights Unit.
Production Dramaturg
OTHER THEATRE Director: To: Morrow (Sarasvàti). Assistant Director: Meet Me at Dawn (TBTR). Co-Director/Actor: Inhibition Exhibition (ViC). Actor: House at Pooh Corner (MTYP); Arcadia, Love’s Labour’s Lost (U of W); To Kill a Lizard (Sarasvàti); Student Body (Beau Theatre Co.); School of Rock (WST).
TRAINING Creative Manitoba Mentorship with Krista Jackson, University of Winnipeg (BAH Peformance), The Village Conservatory for Music Theatre.
ET CETERA Emma is the recipient of multiple Jean Murray-Moray Sinclair scholarships and is grateful to Royal MTC for their continued support of her development as an artist. Many thanks to Kelly for inviting her to join this incredible team, and much love to her family and friends for their unending encouragement.
Assistant Director
ROYAL MTC Apprentice Artistic Director*. 2020/21 National Mentorship Program. Artistic Coordinator: Tiny Plays, Big Ideas.
OTHER THEATRE Voice (PTE); Spelling 2-5-5 (MTYP); School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play (Obsidian/Nightwood Theatre); Hamlet (SIR); Blink (One Trunk/W&T); Home 2.0, The Game, New Beginnings (Sarasvàti); O(phelia) (ShakespeareFest); Animosity (Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival); Time and the Conways, Concord Floral, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (U of W).
FILM GRIEF (Kaiju Productions); Harmonize (Prairie Kid Productions); Macbeth (SIR/Blackfriar).
TRAINING Graduate: The University of Winnipeg Honours Acting.
ET CETERA Dora Award: Outstanding Production and Toronto Theatre Critics’ Choice Award: Outstanding Production of a Play (School Girls), Bethia Henry Memorial Scholarship in Theatre and Drama, Reg Skene Emerging Artist Award.
*Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Assistant Set Designer
OTHER THEATRE Blink, 365 Plays/365 Days, People, Places and Things, Love’s Labour’s Lost (U of W).
TRAINING Currently studying at the University of Winnipeg for a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) degree in Theatre and Film Design.
ET CETERA A huge thank you to my family, Royal MTC and everyone else who has supported me up until now.
Vocal Arrangement, Russian Sea Song
Stage Manager
ROYAL MTC Stage Manager: The Mountaintop, The Color Purple (with Citadel), A Doll’s House, Part 2 (with Mirvish), Once (with Grand), Kill Me Now (with NAC), Black Coffee, My Name Is Asher Lev (with Segal), Myth of the Ostrich, Late Company, Cabaret, Venus in Fur, The Melville Boys (tour), Wingfield on Ice (tour), Looking Back – West, Bad Dates (tour). Assistant Stage Manager: As You Like It (with Citadel), Billy Elliot the Musical, Jane Eyre, Gone With the Wind, Grumpy Old Men: The Musical, White Christmas, Pride and Prejudice, Fiddler on the Roof, Educating Rita (tour), Guys and Dolls (with TC/Citadel). Show Manager: Tiny Plays, Big Ideas. Talent Coordinator: All is Bright.
OTHER THEATRE Over 50 productions at theatres around Winnipeg and Canada, including Rainbow Stage, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Shakespeare in the Ruins, Manitoba Theatre for Young People and Winnipeg Jewish Theatre.
TRAINING Graduate of Sheridan College and member of CAEA.
ET CETERA Leslie owns and operates Updog Boutique, with the support and love of her husband, Sean, and her dog, Murtaugh – updogboutique.com.
Assistant Stage Manager
ROYAL MTC Fun Home, Buying The Farm (tour with Magnus Theatre), Morning After Grace, Kill Me Now (with NAC), Seminar (with Mirvish), The Woman in Black, Private Lives, Jane Eyre, Other People’s Money.
OTHER THEATRE Stage Manager: Twelfth Night (The Keep Theatre/The ViC) Danny and the Deep Blue Sea (The Keep Theatre); Charlie Brown: A Double Bill (MTYP); Tribes, Another Way Home (WJT); Reefer Madness, American Idiot (WST). Assistant Stage Manager: Post-Democracy, The Third Colour, Happy Place, Prairie Nurse (PTE); Sister Act (Mayfield Dinner Theatre); Sister Act (Drayton); R&H’s Cinderella, Beauty & The Beast, Shrek: The Musical, Sister Act (Rainbow).
TRAINING University of Winnipeg Department of Theatre and Film, with a Theatre Honours degree.
ET CETERA “It’s chaos, be kind.” – Michelle McNamara
Apprentice Stage Manager
OTHER THEATRE Production and Tour Coordinator: Seven Visions Digital School Tour (Sarasvàti). Associate Producer / Sound Design: Othello (MPF/Echo Theatre). Stage Manager / PA: FemFest 2019 and 2020 (Sarasvàti). Stage Manager: People, Places, and Things (U of W). Other credits: Middletown, Arcadia, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (U of W). Director: Animosity (DownsideUp); The Student Body Project, Women of Manhattan (Beau Theatre). Associate Company Member of Winnipeg Independent Theatre (WIT). Artistic Producer / Founder of Beau Theatre Co.
TRAINING University of Winnipeg Bachelor of Arts Honours, Stage Management, Production, and Design.
ET CETERA Special thanks to Melissa Novecosky and Creative Manitoba for an amazing mentorship 2020/21. Many thanks to Janelle Rainville for the opportunity to be a part of the SMarts Conference 2021. As always, couldn’t do it without my partner Matt, and cat, Zella.
Chorus #4
ROYAL MTC Romeo and Juliet.
OTHER THEATRE Highlights include: The Secret Garden (YPT); Romeo and Juliet (SIR); Tick (Carousel Players); Breathing Corpses (Coal Mine Theatre); Richard III (Shakespeare in the Ruff); The Matchmaker, Cymbeline (Stratford); The Particulars (Winnipeg Fringe/Edmonton Fringe/SummerWorks/The Theatre Centre/La Cité/Off-Broadway); What We’re Thinking About When We’re Thinking About Lying On The Ground (Buddies in Bad Times/Rhubarb Festival).
FILM/TV Portrait of the Con Artist as a Young Man (upcoming) (VitalOnly Films); Raspberry (Miclo Productions); Flush (Thunderbox Productions); The Transporter (HBO).
TRAINING University of Manitoba, National Theatre School of Canada.
ET CETERA Deep regard, fondness and gratitude for Chris Johnson, 1944-2021.
Chorus #2
ROYAL MTC First appearance.
OTHER THEATRE Urinetown, Antony and Cleopatra, Cabaret (Studio 58); East Van Panto: Pinocchio (Theatre Replacements).
FILM Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia (Lifetime); Reframed (Electric Company Theatre).
TRAINING Graduate of Studio 58.
ET CETERA Ivy was the Head Coordinator of Studio 58’s Diversity Committee from 2019-2020, the Head Facilitator from 2018-2019 and the winner of the Hnatyshyn Grant for English theatre in 2019.
Chorus #3
OTHER THEATRE Highlights include: Actor: Fully Committed, Pleasureville (Neptune); Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet (Wintergarden Theatre); Hair (National Tour – Broadway World Award for Best Featured Performer in a Touring Production). Playwright: LAST SHOW ON EARTH!™ (Nightwood Theatre’s Groundswell); you wake up on stage (Alberta Theatre Projects Playwrights Unit).
FILM/TV O’Keeffe in Slasher (Shudder); JR in Y: The Last Man (Hulu/FX); Bishop in Henry G20 (Luminato); Banu in Dawn, Her Dad and the Tractor (Crave); Pretty Hard Cases (CBC/NBC).
ET CETERA This one is for all of you. Welcome back. @bretonlikethecrackers
Orlando
OTHER THEATRE Sense and Sensibility (Citadel); Fiddle Cat (Kompany Family Theatre); Bone Cage (Theatre Yes); Bright Lights Cold Water (Toy Guns Dance Theatre). Other credits include playing the violin for Vigilante (Catalyst/Citadel); and Calvin Berger (Three Form Theatre).
FILM/TV Jupiter’s Legacy (Netflix); Kim’s Convenience, Murdoch Mysteries (CBC); Home Again, Bunker Burger (Shorts); Cor Values (Amazon Prime US).
TRAINING Em has trained with Armstrong Acting Studios in Toronto.
ET CETERA Em is a Nonbinary, Genderfluid actor, producer, and actor-combatant based in Toronto. Huge thanks to Kelly and Royal MTC for the opportunity to embody Orlando and for supporting Nonbinary representation in theatre. Twitter/Instagram: @emsmccourt
Chorus #1
ROYAL MTC Director: The (Post) Mistress. Assistant Director: The Cottage. Actor: The Dresser.
OTHER THEATRE Director: Pippin, American Idiot (ViC/WST); Freestyle Fantastique, Songs for a New World (White Rabbit Productions); The Last 48 (ArtLaunch); 7 Stories (TBTR); The Last Five Years (Winnipeg Fringe). Acting: The Winter’s Tale (SIR); The House at Pooh Corner, James and the Giant Peach, Honk! (MTYP); L’article 23 et sa suite, Le Boucher, Le Père, Heyderabad (TCM); Little Shop of Horrors, South Pacific, Les Misérables, The Little Mermaid, The Producers (Rainbow); Blithe Spirit (Echo Theatre); Sunday in the Park with George (GalleryWorks).
TRAINING/TEACHING Founding member of the Village Conservatory for Music Theatre (ViC). Simon holds a Masters from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, trained with Peter Hinton at the Stratford Festival and is a graduate of the theatre arts program at MacEwan University.
ET CETERA Simon is a francophone Métis artist who self identifies as two spirited and enjoys creating multidisciplinary art through collaboration and self-exploration.
Sasha
ROYAL MTC The New Canadian Curling Club, A Thousand Splendid Suns (postponed due to COVID-19).
OTHER THEATRE Selected acting credits include: The Snail and the Whale (MTYP/Tall Stories); Love’s Labour’s Lost, Arcadia (U of W); Bastard. (OFUR); Animosity (Downside Up Productions); Here Together (Autonomous Productions). Assistant Directing: Like Mother Like Daughter (Why Not Theatre Co/FemFest). Sophie is the Associate Artistic Director at Shakespeare in the Ruins, and is a Co-Founder and Collaborator of Out From Under the Rug Collective (currently in residence at PTE).
TRAINING University of Winnipeg Honours Acting; mentorship with Haysam Kadri through Royal MTC, mentorship with Ann Hodges through Creative Manitoba.
ET CETERA Sophie is a queer artist who’s eternally grateful to believe in choosing Big Love, all the time. She extends that love to her dearest friends, who know exactly who they are. Instagram: @sophiesmithdost