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Playwright
Alice Childress (1916–1994) was a playwright, novelist and actress. She is a founding member of the American Negro Theatre and wrote her first play, Florence, in 1949. The script was written in one night on a dare from a close friend and then the play was produced off-Broadway in 1950. In 1952, Alice became the first African American woman to see her play Gold Through The Trees professionally produced in New York. Alice is best known today for her 1973 novel A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But A Sandwich, which was subsequently made into a movie in 1978. Other plays written by her include Just A Little Simple (1950), Wedding Band: A Love/Hate Story In Black and White (1966) and Gullah (1984). Throughout her career, she examined the true meaning of being black, and especially of being black and female. As Alice herself once said, “I concentrate on portraying have-nots in a have society.”
Director
ROYAL MTC Assistant Director: Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley. Actor: The Mountaintop, Sense and Sensibility, Di and Viv and Rose, A Christmas Carol, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (with Citadel), Mrs. Warren’s Profession.
OTHER THEATRE Director: Red Velvet – Globe & Mail Critic’s Pick (Crow’s Theatre); Backstage at Carnegie Hall (Centaur); Meet Me at Dawn (TBTR); VOICE (PTE); Subjection of Kezia, Poof (Shaw); The Power of Harriet T (MTYP). Associate/Assistant Director: Fall on Your Knees (CS/Neptune/NAC/Grand); Ladykillers, Getting Married (Shaw); Timon of Athens (Bard on the Beach). Upcoming Directing: Julius Caesar (Bard on the Beach).
TRAINING M.F.A. Acting – York University, B.A.H. Theatre – University of Winnipeg, Independent Study: Directing – NTS, Neil Munroe Directing Internship – Shaw Festival.
ETCETERA Crow’s Theatre RBC Rising Star Emerging Director Prize 2021. cherissarichards.com
Set Designer
ROYAL MTC Made in Italy (with WCT), Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical (with Arts Club/Citadel), Shakespeare in Love (with Citadel).
OTHER THEATRE Damn Yankees (Shaw); Anne of Green Gables, Mamma Mia!, Evangeline (Charlottetown Festival); A Christmas Carol, Mary Poppins, The Rocky Horror Show, Crazy for You, Million Dollar Quartet, Spamalot (Citadel); The Secret Garden, Billy Elliot, Liberation Days, Next to Normal (TC); I Think I’m Fallin’, Puttin’ on the Ritz (Belfry).
TRAINING MFA Theatre Design (U of A), BA Architecture (Carleton University).
ET CETERA Member of ADC 659. corysincennes.com
Costume Designer
ROYAL MTC First engagement.
OTHER THEATRE Sarah is a Nigerian multi-disciplinary artist, filmmaker and theatre designer based in Calgary. Select design credits: Death and the King’s Horseman (Stratford); Steel Magnolias (TC); The Fiancée, The Mountaintop (Persephone); Scope (Lunchbox Theatre); Murder in the Studio (Vertigo Theatre); Gimme Chance Leh (Chromatic Theatre); The Sound of Music, Where Words Once Were (StoryBook Theatre); A Christmas Story, Sexy Laundry (Keyano Theatre); Safe Site (Downstage Theatre).
TRAINING MFA – Theatre Design (U of C), B.A – Theatre Arts.
ET CETERA Sarah is the 2022 winner of the RBC Emerging Artist Award. She enjoys creative collaborations and is passionate about storytelling, and artistic exploration through theatre, film and visual art.
Lighting Designer
ROYAL MTC Lighting Director: Provenance, 2005 (Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes). This is his first Mainstage engagement.
OTHER THEATRE Selected: Jason Kenney's Hot Boy Summer (Grindstone Theatre); Pippin (MacEwan University); Sister Act (Mayfield Dinner Theatre); Billy Twinkle: Requiem for a Golden Boy, Penny Plain (Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes); Arcadia, Avenue Q, Bittergirl - the Musical, Romeo & Juliet, Pride & Prejudice (upcoming) (Citadel). His lighting has been seen by audiences across Canada, Australia, Europe, China and the US.
TV 2021 and 2022 Valentine’s Day Gala televised specials (Edmonton Opera).
TRAINING Graduate of Grant MacEwan University (formerly GMCC).
ET CETERA Member of Associated Designers of Canada Local ADC659 and IATSE Local 210. Chair of the CITT/ICTS Alberta Section. When not designing he is the Principal Lighting Operator at the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium. lxdesign.ca
Sound Designer
ROYAL MTC 2022/23 National Mentorship Program. Orlando.
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 recently scored her first opera, Inertia (libretto by Christene Brown), commissioned by Loose Tea Music Theatre (TO).
Dialect Coach
FILM/TV Dialect Coach on the CBC & BET’s Emmy-nominated period drama The Porter, and on Amazon’s newly released The Peripheral. He is currently in production as Acting & Dialect Coach on the new franchise film The Exorcist.
TRAINING M.F.A. in Acting from the University of Washington School of Drama.
ET CETERA Tré Cotten is a published and award-winning creator and educator. Based on the Kwakwaka’wakw Territory of North Vancouver Island, BC., Tré has been featured in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times for his work as Dialect Coach on Regina King’s One Night in Miami... A Juilliard Teaching Fellowship Finalist (2021) and the keynote speaker for the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA) Conference in 2021. Raised in North Carolina, he is of proud Black and Indigenous descent. IG: @tre_cotten
Voice & Dialect Coach
ROYAL MTC Coaching: The Rez Sisters, Jane Eyre. Acting: Much Ado About Nothing, Richard III.
OTHER THEATRE Coaching: The Winter’s Tale, Hamlet, Richard III (SIR); Iceland, Mary’s Wedding (TPM); Little Thing, Big Thing (PTE); Shrek (Rainbow). Acting: A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Little Women, Urinetown (Dry Cold); Hamlet (Bunchback’d Toads); Passion (Red Hen Productions); Annie (Rainbow); The Odyssey (SIR); Troilus and Cressida, Measure for Measure (Tom-Tom Theatre).
FILM/TV Coaching: The Porter, Esther, Incident in a Ghostland. Acting: The Spencer Sisters, Love in the Alps, Burden of Truth, Nobody.
TRAINING/TEACHING MFA in Acting with a Voice Specialization from York University. Tom regularly teaches courses on voice and performance for the Department of Theatre and Film at the University of Winnipeg.
ET CETERA I’m so glad to be back at Royal MTC supporting another fantastic group of artists!
Assistant Director
ROYAL MTC Actor: The Three Musketeers; Apprentice Artistic Director*; Assistant Director: Orlando; 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 Macbeth (SIR/Blackfriar).
TRAINING Bachelor of Arts Honours in Theatre and Film Acting from the University of Winnipeg.
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. Love to M, M, I and OFUR.
*Supported by the Manitoba Arts Council.
Apprentice Costume Designer
ROYAL MTC Production Designer: The World Goes ‘Round (Royal MTC/MBA). Assistant Set Designer: Orlando.
OTHER THEATRE Costume Designer: Alunsina’s Love, Blink, 365 Plays/365 Days (U of W); Innocence Lost, Urinetown (MTYP Young Company). Set Designer: Bloodsuckers (ADM); People, Places and Things (U of W).
TRAINING Bachelor of Arts (Hons) degree in Theatre and Film Design from the University of Winnipeg. Previous recipient of the Jean Murray-Moray Sinclair Apprenticeship Program.
ET CETERA A huge thank you to my family, Royal MTC and everyone else who has supported me along the way. Enjoy the show!
Stage Manager
ROYAL MTC Assistant Stage Manager: Doubt: A Parable (with TC).
OTHER THEATRE Six, Hadestown (Citadel); Flight, Fidelio (Pacific Opera Victoria); The Unnatural and Accidental Women (NAC); The New Canadian Curling Club, Glory (ATP); Die Fledermaus, Madame Butterfly (Calgary Opera); Elf, The Cure for Death by Lightning, Liberation Days, Les Misérables (WCT); Romeo and Juliet, The Drowning Girls (Globe Theatre); Grace & Glorie, Over the River and Through the Woods (Chemainus Theatre Festival); The December Man, Steel Kiss (Green Thumb Theatre).
TEACHING Lisa is a sessional instructor at the University of Calgary and MacEwan University.
ET CETERA Lisa was the project manager for World Stage Design 2022, the production stage manager for the Summer Arts Festival at the Banff Centre for four years and spent seven seasons at the Stratford Festival.
Assistant Stage Manager
ROYAL MTC Apprentice Stage Manager: Black Coffee, 23.5 Hours, Billy Elliot the Musical. Assistant Production Manager (2014/15 season). Assistant Producer: Billy Elliot the Musical. Artistic Coordinator (2017–2019).
OTHER THEATRE Selected: Nutcracker, A Cinderella Story, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Sleeping Beauty, Fast Forward, Q Dance (RWB); By Grand Central Station, a Heavy Bell Production (PTE); petites danses, Schemas 1-5 (Gearshifting Performance Works); The 50 Dancer Project, The 60 Dancer Project (NAC Canada Dance Festival); Winnipeg’s Contemporary Dancers, NAfro Dance Productions, Sick and Twisted Theatre, Winnipeg Folk Festival and Winnipeg Comedy Festival.
Apprentice Stage Manager
OTHER THEATRE Climate & Main (Stage Manager – TPM). For U of W: Concord Floral (Wardrobe Coordinator), Frankenstein (Production Assistant), Time and the Conways (Sound Designer), Love of the Nightingale, Love’s Labour’s Lost (Assistant Stage Manager), Everybody (Set Designer), 365 Days/365 Plays, Alunsina’s Love (Stage Manager). FAME the Musical (Design Mentee – WST).
TRAINING University of Winnipeg Bachelor of Arts – Stage Management & Production.
ET CETERA All my love to my family and friends!
Wiletta Mayer
ROYAL MTC First appearance.
OTHER THEATRE Ma Rainey in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Wild Woman in Rose, Idomeneus (Soulpepper); Novelette in ‘da kink in my hair (Arts Club); Freedom (Stratford); Spoon River (Signature Centre NYC).
FILM/TV Recent film/series credits include: Mysticons, Total Dramarama, Hannibal, Wayne, Zokie Sparkleby. Radio/Recordings: Narrator in The Journey to Jazz and Human Rights (JazzFM Radio); Mr. King Dice in Cuphead.
ET CETERA Much love to Tanisha. For mom.
John Nevins
ROYAL MTC The Color Purple (with Citadel).
OTHER THEATRE Choir Boy (CS); The Color Purple (Neptune); Everybody, Sweeney Todd, Peter and the Starcatcher (Shaw); You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (Stratford); Hairspray (Charlottetown/Drayton/Rainbow); Dreamgirls (Grand); Hadestown (Citadel).
TRAINING Graduate of the Sheridan Musical Theatre Program.
ET CETERA Andrew is excited to share this thought-provoking and timely story with this talented cast and creative team. Special thanks to The Talent House; and loved ones at home who are the roots and reminders to return ‘home’.
Eddie Fenton
ROYAL MTC As You Like It (with Citadel).
OTHER THEATRE Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Arts Club/Citadel); Peter and the Starcatcher, Once, A Christmas Carol (Citadel); Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Winter’s Tale (Freewill Shakespeare Festival); Shakespeare’s R&J (Kill Your Television); Much Ado About Nothing (Thou Art Here); Evelyn Strange, The Hothouse Prince, Lost Lemoine (Teatro la Quindicina); Featuring Loretta, Criminal Genius (Punctuate Theatre).
FILM Meet Me at Christmas, #Roxy, LoST. Voice: Anthem, Future Card Buddyfight Ace.
TRAINING BFA: Acting, University of Alberta.
Millie Davis
ROYAL MTC Network (with Citadel).
OTHER THEATRE Perfect Wedding (Thousand Islands Playhouse); Cabaret, Venus, Assistance, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (NTS); Hamlet (SIR); Torn Through Time (MTYP); Home 2.0, New Beginnings, Shattered (Sarasvàti); Marat/Sade, Nothing Sacred, After Magritte, Titus Andronicus (Black Hole Theatre).
FILM/TV Made for Each Other, Love in Design, Journey Back to Christmas (Hallmark); Channel Zero (Syfy).
TRAINING Graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada Acting Program 2022. University of Manitoba – Black Hole Theatre Graduate of 2018.
ET CETERA It’s a dream come true to be performing on this stage. I’m truly blessed to have such a loving, caring and supportive family, who have cheered me on every step of the way. It has been quite the journey. Mum, Dad, Nicole, Joel, Jude, all of my Aunties, Uncles and Cousins – you’re all my favourite people and I'm thankful for each and every one of you. I love you!
Judy Sears
ROYAL MTC Apprentice Director: New.
OTHER THEATRE (selected) Actor: Whatever Happens After? (Naked Theatre); Knock Knock Ginger (One Trunk Theatre); Seasons of Love (ViC); The Country Wife, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Measure for Measure, Hedda Gabler (Drama Studio London). Musical Director: The Selfish Giant (DSL); Little Women (Genesis).
FILM (selected) Canada in Focus (Coelement); Inhibition Exhibition (ViC); A Winter Getaway (Hallmark).
TRAINING/TEACHING Alumna of Drama Studio London & The Village Conservatory for Music Theatre; Bachelor of Philosophy (Carleton University/Collège Universitaire Dominicain). Jodi is a co-founder of Genesis School of Dance, where she heads up the musical theatre program.
ET CETERA Jodi is also a pianist, writer, choreographer, singer and dancer. Much love to my family & friends. ICXC
Henry
ROYAL MTC Network (with Citadel), To Kill a Mockingbird (with Citadel).
OTHER THEATRE A Christmas Carol, The Candidate, The Party, Peter and the Starcatcher, Death of a Salesman, One Man, Two Guvnors, The Wizard of Oz, Beauty and the Beast (Citadel); Outside Mullingar, Mistakes Were Made, Art, Sexy Laundry, The Fly Fisher’s Companion, Heisenberg (Shadow Theatre).
Bill O’Wray
ROYAL MTC Selected: Network (with Citadel), Bang Bang (Evie Award), Scorched, King Lear, My Name is Asher Lev (Meta Award), Quills, Six Degrees of Separation.
OTHER THEATRE Selected: Oslo, Disgraced (Mirvish); Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Dybbuk, Incident at Vichy (Soulpepper – Dora Award); Harper Regan, Intimate Apparel, Comedy of Errors, Angels in America, The Tempest, Wit (Canadian Stage); Criminal Genius, Belle (Factory/NAC); Amadeus, Vigil, Romeo and Juliet, Possible Worlds (TiFT/Munich); Superior Donuts (Coal Mine). Playwriting: The Trial of William Shakespeare, Cringeworthy (Siminovitch Nomination); This Hotel, Yahrzeit (German tour).
FILM/TV Selected: Made for Each Other, Little Bird, The Porter, Suits, Burden of Truth, Missing and Alone, Cardinal, The Calling, Nero Wolfe, Flashpoint.
ET CETERA Coaching at alexpochgoldin.com. Love to Chloe Babette!
Al Manners
ROYAL MTC The Last Night of Ballyhoo (with WJT/Segal).
OTHER THEATRE Acting: Serving Elizabeth (WCT); You Will Remember Me, How Do I Love Thee?, Games (ATP); Philadelphia Story, Fire (Betty Nomination) (TC); Oslo (Studio 180/Mirvish); War Horse (Mirvish); If We Were Birds, No Great Mischief, Alias Godot (Tarragon); Doubt (Theatre NorthWest); Leisure Society, Zadie’s Shoes (Factory); Indian Ink (CS/NAC); Stratford Festival; Charlottetown Festival. Directing: Western, A Quiet Place (Dora Nomination) (NextStage); The Swearing Jar (Best of Fringe); Red Machine, The Brown Bull of Cuilainge (The Room); As You Like It (George Brown Theatre School).
FILM/TV It, Mockingbird, Accused, Macy Murdoch, Murdoch Mysteries, Grand Army.
TRAINING/TEACHING Graduate of Queen’s University and George Brown Theatre School, where he is now a regular instructor, director and dialect coach.
Sheldon Forrester
ROYAL MTC Morning After Grace, Proposals (with Mirvish).
OTHER THEATRE Amadeus, To Kill a Mockingbird, Company (Arts Club); Born Yesterday, Of Mice and Men (VP); Stone Angel, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, Filthy Rich (Firehall Arts Centre); Serjeant Musgrave’s Dance, Lysistrata (Seattle Repertory Theatre); The Taming of the Shrew (Actors Theatre of Louisville).
FILM/TV Over 150 IMDB credits including more than 20 Hallmark movies and currently the roles of Pop Tate on Riverdale, Lewis Thompson on Resident Alien and voices on the animated series The Deep and Polly Pockets.
TRAINING Graduate of Carnegie Mellon University.
ET CETERA Alvin has received three Jessie Richardson Theatre awards for his performances in Driving Miss Daisy, Of Mice and Men and Colored Museum. He served several terms as Vice President of ACTRA and President of their BC branch UBCP/ACTRA.
Emergency Replacement Actor - Judy Sears
Kira Chisholm (she/her) is an actor and theatre-maker who grew up on the land of the Wolastoqiyik (Fredericton, NB). She graduated from St. Thomas University in 2019 with Double Honours in English and Political Science, and the National Theatre School of Canada’s Acting program in 2022. She is now based in Winnipeg on Treaty 1 Territory, where she thrilled to be exploring what it means to be a multi-disciplinary artist. Select Theatre Credits include Sally Bowles in Cabaret; The Brother/Mother-Showman/Grade-school Chum in Venus; An Irresistible Urge to do Something Inadvisable; and Puck in A Midsummer Nights Dream (National Theatre School of Canada). Velma Kelly in Chicago; Agave in The Bacchae (Theatre St. Thomas), Isabella in Measure for Measure, Lady Anne in Richard III (Bard in the Barracks).