the matchmaker - Stratford Festival

Chris AbrahamThird season: Director of The Matchmaker. Stratford: The Little Years,For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again. Elsewhere: Seeds, I, Claudia,BOXHEAD (Crow’s Theatre); Eternal Hydra (Crow’s/Factory Theatre);Geometry in Venice (Crow’s/Segal Centre); I, Claudia, The PatientHour (Tarragon); Blue/Orange (Canadian Stage); Antigone, The Lesson(Soulpepper); Hedda Gabler, The Glass Menagerie, Salt-Water Moon(Saidye Bronfman Centre). Training: National Theatre School of Canada. Awards: DoraAwards for Eternal Hydra, Easy Lenny Lazmon…; Sterling Award for Frozen (CitadelTheatre); Gemini Award for I, Claudia (CBC/Sienna Films); 2002 Elinor and Lou SiminovitchProtégé Award. Website: www.crowstheatre.com. Et cetera: Chris is the Artistic Directorof Crow’s Theatre in Toronto, for whom he will direct the premiere of Kristen Thomson’slatest, “Someone Else”, next season. He is past Co-Director of the National TheatreSchool of Canada Directing Program.Skye BrandonFourth season: Second Cloten Lord in Cymbeline and Ambrose Kemperin The Matchmaker. Stratford: Titus Andronicus, Richard III, TheWinter’s Tale, As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Julius Caesarand Bartholomew Fair. Elsewhere: The Secret Mask, Chimera (PTE);Reflections/The Little Prince, Mary’s Wedding (Dancing Sky Theatre); ThePillowman, Fat Pig (Wild Side Productions); Henry IV, Part 1, The Tempest,The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan); Julius Caesar, The Shapeof Things (Theatre Ecstasis); Twelfth Night (Globe Theatre); The Coronation Voyage, It’s AllTrue (Last Exit Theatre). Directing credits include Pageant (Last Exit) and The Busy Worldis Hushed (Northern Light Theatre). Radio: Yann Martel’s The Facts behind the HelsinkiRoccamatios (CBC). Training: Birmingham Conservatory, ACT (San Francisco), Universityof Saskatchewan (BFA Honours). Awards: SAT Award (Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, DST),Sterling nomination (The Credeaux Canvas, NLT), Equity Emerging Artist 2005.Alden AdairStratford debut: Jupiter/Second Briton Captain/Second Gentleman inCymbeline, appears in Elektra and understudy in The Matchmaker.Elsewhere: Bard in The Hobbit, Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice (GrandTheatre); Alistair in The Alice Nocturne (Globe Theatre); Proteus in TheTwo Gentlemen of Verona, Stephano in The Tempest, Prince Hal in HenryIV, Part 1 (Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan); Zastrozzi in Zastrozzi,Dan in Closer (Hectik Theatre). Film/TV: Tideland, RenegadePress.com, Corner Gas, TheEnglishman’s Boy, Hybrid, Storming Juno, Dan for Mayor, Flashpoint. Training: BFA inActing from the University of Regina, Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre.Ian D. ClarkSecond season: Soothsayer in Cymbeline and appears in TheMatchmaker and Elektra. Elsewhere: The Pitmen Painters, TheatreAquarius; Stuff Happens, Studio 180; The Foreigner, Royal Alex; HumbleBoy, Tarragon; Blue/Orange, Centaur; The Three Musketeers, Citadel;Shaw Festival veteran; all other regional theatres coast to coast. SelectedU.S. credits: Amadeus, Enchanted April, The Voysey Inheritance, TheConstant Wife, Finian’s Rainbow, Walnut Street Theatre; The Constant Wife, CoconutGrove, Miami. Film/TV: 14 feature films including Equus, Lilies, The Avro Arrow, Thirty-TwoShort Films About Glenn Gould, That Old Feeling, Cruel Intentions 2, The Boy in Blue; leadin five television series: Little Men, McPherson’s Herd, Paradise Falls, The Associates,Road to Avonlea. Most recently: Above Asking (pilot), Flashpoint, Murdoch Mysteries,Rookie Blue. Awards: Critics, Ohio State, Masque, Best Actor (Miami). Other: Jury member,Canadian Academy; co-author, For a good time, call…; MA from McGill.Devon BhimFourth season: Assistant set designer of Much Ado About Nothing, 42ndStreet, The Matchmaker and Henry V. Stratford: Costume assistant, TheGrapes of Wrath; set assistant, The Misanthrope; assistant designer, TheWinter’s Tale, Three Sisters. Elsewhere: Hansel & Gretyl (Solar Stage); Woyzeck(Red Light District); Therac 25 (Direct Flight Theatre); Songs for a New World, …Forum, Tick Tick Boom, Moonlight and Magnolias, Over the River and Throughthe Woods (Rose Theatre Productions, Brampton); Twistin’ to the ’60s, Spooktacular (Canada’sWonderland); The Love List (Markham Theatre); As You Like It, The Two Gentlemen of Verona(Shakespeare in the Square, Brampton). Associate producer: Opera on the Rocks, A MidsummerNight’s Dream. Other: Assistant new media designer for Dancap Productions and continuesto work in digital graphics for various clients throughout North America. Awards: FabriclandCreative Design Award and Technical Production Craft Achievement. Training: Sheridan CollegeTheatre Arts, Technical Production.Laura Condlln11th season: Irene Molloy in The Matchmaker, Chrysothemis in Elektraand understudy in Cymbeline. Stratford: Credits include Peter Pan (Mrs.Darling), The Merry Wives of Windsor (Mistress Page), King of Thieves(Polly), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Helena), Shakespeare’s Universe:Her Infinite Variety (the Moll), Pentecost (Amira), The Liar (Clarice/Lucrece/Sabine), The Duchess of Malfi (Cariola), As You Like It (Audrey), Henry IV,Part 1 (Lady Mortimer), Timon of Athens (Phrynia). Elsewhere: Beckett: Feck It! (CanadianStage/Queen of Puddings Music Theatre); Having Hope at Home, Marion Bridge (GlobeTheatre, Regina); A Christmas Carol (The Grand Theatre); and Over the River and Throughthe Woods (Theatre Aquarius). Training: Laura holds a BFA from the University of Windsorand is a graduate of the Birmingham Conservatory (2005). Awards: Recipient of the MarySavidge Award, Stratford Shakespeare Festival.Robert BlackerFifth season: Dramaturge for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.Dramaturge for The Matchmaker and Henry V. Stratford: Dramaturgedseven productions of Shakespeare, Caesar and Cleopatra, The Little Yearsand Rice Boy. Elsewhere: Over 50 projects from Robert’s eight years asartistic director of Sundance Theatre Labs went on to production, including IAm My Own Wife (Tony, Pulitzer), The Laramie Project, The Light in the Piazzaand Spring Awakening (Tonys for latter two). He was interim chair of playwriting at Yale Schoolof Drama; taught playwriting and Shakespeare studies in graduate programs at Columbia,Iowa, UCSD and Yale; and dramaturged 17 productions of Shakespeare for Des McAnuff andothers. Robert was McAnuff’s associate artistic director at La Jolla Playhouse and worked onThe Who’s Tommy and Steppenwolf’s The Grapes of Wrath (Tonys for both), among others. Hewas the first dramaturge at Joseph Papp’s Public Theater (New York). Training: Cornell.Victor DolhaiThird season: Henrique Oswald in Much Ado About Nothing and August inThe Matchmaker. Stratford: The Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night, TheMisanthrope, As You Like It, The Winter’s Tale. Elsewhere: Pride and Prejudice(Citadel); Brilliant! (Belfry/Electric Company Theatre); Little Women (Persephone); AsYou Like It, Death of a Salesman, The Fantasticks (Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre);The Full Monty (Patrick Street Productions); The Pirates of Penzance (ChemainusTheatre Festival); Narnia (Kaleidoscope Theatre); Grimm Tales (Itsazoo Productions); WoyzeckSongspiel (Ecce Homo); Guys and Dolls, Tartuffe, Metamorphoses, Tyrants, Street of Crocodiles(Phoenix Theatre); Wreck Beach Butoh (Kokoro Dance); 14 cabarets with Atomic Vaudeville. Training:Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre, Citadel/Banff Centre Professional Theatre Program,University of Victoria. Awards: Lindsay Thomas Award, Tyrone Guthrie Award. Et cetera: ArtisticAssociate of the award-winning SNAFU Dance Theatre. Founding artist with the critically acclaimedBlue Bridge Repertory Theatre.Simon BrackenStratford debut: First Cloten Lord in Cymbeline and appears in TheMatchmaker. Elsewhere: Hugo in Tomasso’s Party (NextStage Festival);Balthasar in Romeo and Juliet (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre); Ensemblein The Ark: The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht (National Arts Centre); Gordon inthe The Particulars and In General (Pyretic Productions); Eli in Stop Heart,Hippolito in Women Beware Women, Fiscur in Lilliom (National TheatreSchool). Film/TV: The Transporter (HBO). Training: Simon is a graduate of the NationalTheatre School of Canada and the University of Manitoba.Andrea DonaldsonStratford debut: Assistant director of The Matchmaker. Elsewhere: Directinghighlights include the following Dora-nominated projects: The Atomic Weightof Happiness for Stand Up Dance and Theatre Direct Canada; Montparnassefor Groundwater in association with Theatre Passe Muraille; Offensive Foulsfor Theatre Direct; and The Unfortunate Misadventures of Masha Galinskiin Winnipeg, Victoria and twice in Toronto. Awards: Andrea has beennominated for numerous awards, including the John Hirsch Directing Award (2008 and 2011),eight Dora nominations for her various projects and the Gina Wilkinson Award for EmergingFemale Directors. She has received SummerWorks’ Spotlight Award – Directing, as well astwo Dora Awards for Theatre Direct’s URGE project And By the Way, Miss, for which she was acollaborator and performer. Website: www.sometimesandrea.com. Et cetera: As of fall 2012,Andrea will join Tarragon Theatre in Toronto as Assistant Artistic Director.10