Talent Bank Adjudicators

Theatre Ontario's Talent Bank matches educational and community organizations with professional theatre teachers and trainers for workshops, adjudications, and short-term consulting contracts.

The Adjudicators listed in our Talent Bank are professionals interested in travelling to your community to adjudicate festival and other theatre events.  Contact Cornelia Persich, Education Coordinator of Theatre Ontario at 416.408.4556 x.10, info@theatreontario.org to get in contact with a particular Adjudicator.

Maja Ardal
Maja Ardal is a director, playwright, actor, and former Artistic Director of Young People's Theatre (now Lorraine Kimsa Theatre.)  She trained in Scotland, and began her Canadian career as a company member of Toronto Workshop Productions, under the inspired guidance of the late George Luscombe, whom she regards as her theatre mentor.  In 2001, Maja returned to her native Iceland to direct her play Midnight Sun, which was also co-produced by Tarragon Theatre and the National Arts Centre, as well as Goulcester Playhouse, Massachusetts.  Maja wrote the book for the musical Joy, produced by Workman Theatre, Toronto.  Maja has directed at the Shaw Festival, The Grand Theatre (London), Alberta Theatre Projects and the Great Canadian Theatre Company, among others.

Ron Cameron-Lewis
Ron is well known to community groups across the province, as a teacher, workshop leader and adjudicator. He has adjudicated over 2,000 productions throughout Ontario for community theatres and for the Sears Ontario Drama Festival, as well as in the United States at state, regional and national festivals. Ron adjudicated the Theatre Ontario Festival, Sault Ste. Marie, 2004. He has worked as a director of plays and musicals, dramaturge, and consultant on voice and accent techniques. He also works as vocal coach for CTV newly-hired photojournalists, and most recently he worked for CBC as text coach on Othello for TV and radio. He currently teaches acting and directing for Music Theatre Performance at Sheridan College and their joint program in Theatre Drama Studies with the University of Toronto at Mississauga. His book, Acting Skills for Life, is in its third edition with Dundurn Press. Ron was the recipient of the Maggie Bassett Award in 2004.

Rod Carley
Rod became Coordinator for Canadore College’s new Theatre Arts Program in 2005 after developing the curriculum for the program in 2004.  He currently teaches Acting Shakespeare, Acting Fundamentals, Text Analysis and Scene Study, Theatre History, as well as directing student graduate productions and overseeing the day-to-day operations of the theatre school.  He is also Artistic Director of Rep 21, the graduate acting company of the Theatre Arts program.  As founding Artistic Director of Nipissing Stage Company, North Bay's professional summer theatre company, from 1999 to 2005, Rod directed 25 mainstage productions.  He has directed and produced over 80 productions to date, both nationally and internationally, ranging from the classics to the development of new Canadian work.  He spent two seasons with the Stratford Festival as resident Assistant Director and was the first recipient of the Festival's Jean Gascon Director's Award; he also received a Tyrone Guthrie Award.  He was nominated for the first John Hirsch Director's Award in 1993 and in 1997 was short-listed for the Pauline McGibbon Award for his body of work to date.  As an instructor, Rod has been a sessional professor with Nipissing University for the past eight years, a Guest Artist with the University of Windsor (four years), George Brown Theatre School (three years), and has taught workshops for the Stratford Festival, Equity Showcase, Artsperience, Theatre Ontario, and school boards throughout the province.  He has been a provincial adjudicator for the past eleven years.

Jane Carnwath
Director, writer, adjudicator - Jane has worked and taught in all aspects of the theatre.  An MFA in theatre from York University, she was Professor of Acting in the Music Theatre Program at Sheridan College for ten years.  For several years she was Program Director of the Alumnae Theatre in Toronto.  Her most recent directing credits include: Jennie's Story, Not Wanted on the Voyage, A Midsummer Night's Dream for Sheridan Music Theatre; The Gut Girls, After You, Homeward Bound for the Alumnae Theatre; The Children's Hour for Theatre Erindale.  She works with community theatre groups as production consultant and acting instructor.  She taught a directing intensive at Theatre Ontario Summer Courses for a number of years.  Jane has adjudicated for WODL, EODL, QUONTA and ACT-CO, as well as the Theatre Saskatchewan Festival.  In 2005 she adjudicated the Theatre Ontario Festival in Belleville.

Trevor Copp
is a professional theatre performer, creator, and artistic director. He has completed a Master's Degree at the University of Guelph and studied at the Marcel Marceau School for Mime in Paris, France. As an actor, he appeared in The Oakville Festival of the Classics' Pericles, Theatre & Company's Beauty and the Beast, Metamorphosis, and Barefoot in the Park, as well as MT Space's The Last 15 Seconds. He has also extensively choreographed for the theatre, particularly ballroom dancing in which he has professionally competed since 2003. Trevor founded Burlington's Tottering Biped Theatre in 2009, where he regularly acts, directs, and programs.

Paul Eck
Paul is currently  President of his own company, Eck Talent Associates.  He has adjudicated all regional festivals in Ontario as well as being a four-time adjudicator of the Theatre Ontario Festival.  He holds a degree in theatre from York University; a Diploma in Arts Administration from Harvard, and has directed more than 400 plays in his career.  Paul teaches in the Ryerson University Program In Theatre.  For eleven years he was Artistic Director of Everyman Players and has directed two productions for the International Theatre Festival.  He was the host for three years of "The Play's The Thing" on Stereo FM and spent several years as a drama critic for radio, television and print media.  Paul is the Executive Producer of Ontario Contact and the Programming and Operations Consultant for Chatham-Kent Roots Festival.

Dennis Johnson
Dennis Johnson is an educator and director with twenty years experience as an adjudicator. He holds an M.A. in Educational Drama and has studied theatre in Ontario, New York, and California. A wide-ranging teaching career includes Dramatic Arts teaching qualifications courses at University of Toronto and Brock University, as well as a Circus Skills course at the Maggie Bassett Studio. Dennis has also been active in community theatre for over thirty years as an actor, director, producer and set designer for the Road Show Theatre, Guelph Little Theatre and Royal City Musical Productions. Recent directing credits include Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor and Schoolhouse (by Leanna Brodie) at the River Run Centre in Guelph. He is founding Artistic Director of Theatre Guelph, a community theatre producing at the River Run Centre. Dennis has served on the Education and Summer Courses committees of Theatre Ontario and worked for nine years on the executive of CODE [the Council of Drama in Education, Ontario's professional association of drama teachers] three of them as President. Dennis has been on the "receiving end" of festival adjudications both as an actor and as a director. He has been associated with the Sears Ontario Drama Festival for over thirty years as a director and festival coordinator, and has adjudicated for over twenty years at both the District and Regional levels. He has twice adjudicated for the Association of Community Theatres Central Ontario [ACT-CO] - in their Comedy and Musical Theatre categories - and has twice been Preliminary Adjudicator for the Western Ontario Drama League [WODL].

John P. Kelly
John has now been over five years in Canada, after a successful career in his native Ireland in theatre, television and radio. He trained as a theatre director with the famous Abbey Theatre before embarking on a career which had him direct in many of the major theatres in Ireland. He began with the Irish equivalent of CBC as a radio drama director and rose to take charge of arts output before moving to Switzerland to work with the European Broadcasting Union as Head of Specialized Programming. Based in Ottawa where he has his own theatre production company, he has been named Best Professional Director twice over the last three years by the Capital Critics Circle and in 2008, of the 50 nominations in various categories for the Rideau peer voted awards, 11 related to shows directed by him, including two nominations as best director for separate shows. He has conducted workshop in acting and direction in various parts of Ontario and also adjudicated widely over many years in Ireland, Scotland and Canada, including the Theatre Ontario Finals in North Bay. He has already been engaged to adjudicate the Irish finals in 2011, his second occasion to officiate at that level. Of all his activities in theatre, his favourite is workshop training.

John Lazarus
John is an internationally-known, award-winning Canadian playwright and teacher. He has taught at Studio 58, the Vancouver Film School, and the National Theatre School, and is presently a professor in the Drama Department at Queen’s University. He has adjudicated for Theatre B.C., the Association of B.C. Drama Educators, the Sears Festivals, and the Eastern Ontario Drama League, and also worked as the Vancouver theatre critic for CBC Radio. John’s own plays include Babel Rap, Village of Idiots, and Dreaming and Duelling. His latest play, Trouble on Dibble Street, opens in July 2010 at the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival (Prescott), and he is working with Julie Salverson on a book of games and exercises for playwrights. John is a graduate of the National Theatre School.

Sandy Macdonald
Sandy is well known to community groups across the province. He has worked as a director, musical director and play polisher with groups such as Kanata Theatre, Theatre Woodstock, Mississauga Players, and The Borelians to name a few. He has delivered workshops in directing, audition techniques, acting techniques, and advanced character development. Sandy has also been employed by several municipalities and education organizations as a theatre facility and operations consultant. He has adjudicated for ACT-CO, WODL, QUONTA and EODL, as well as the Sears Drama Festival and the New Brunswick Drama League Festival.

Mimi Mekler
Mimi Mekler's work as director, actor, dramaturge, writer and adjudicator has taken her from California to Czechoslovakia and Italy to Israel.  She can be currently seen across Canada starring in the children's TV series Crazy Quilt.  Other acting highlights include performing in the hit Fringe play Bella Donna, portraying both Portia and Calpurnia in Julius Caesar, dubbing films in Prague, and co-creating a clown-dance piece.  Her directing has been praised for its "dramatic edge" (NOW Magazine) and was given a Thea Award for "Unique Creativity, Imagination, Inventiveness and Originality."  She has been dramaturge for over sixty productions, specializing in developing new plays and revitalizing classics.  Mimi has adjudicated in Manitoba, the United States, and throughout Ontario.  including Ottawa Little Theatre's One-Act Playwriting Competition.  She holds her B.A. and M.F.A. in Theatre from York University, and is Head of Sheridan College's Acting Discipline in the Music Theatre Department.

David C. Phillips
David is an actor, director, production consultant and set designer who has regularly worked with many community groups since graduating from the University of Windsor with a degree in English and Dramatic Art.  David is a skilled teacher and his workshops on directing, vocal techniques, and acting attract many participants.  Some of David’s directing credits include The Most Happy Fella, Driving Miss Daisy, Sweeney Todd and The Dresser.  He also spent two seasons as Artistic Director of the Petrolia Summer Theatre.  For the past three summers, David has been the Production Consultant for summer theatre in Haliburton, where he also directed That Summer, Painting Churches, and The Perfect Rhyme.  He has adjudicated the Bramalea Backstage Drama Festival, the comedy, drama and musical categories for ACT-CO, the EODL spring festival, and the 2003/2004 WODL Festival.  David will be adjudicating the 2005 QUONTA Festival.

Edwin Procunier
(On sabbatical from the Talent Bank)

Beatrix Quarrie
Bea Quarrie has been involved in theatre almost all her life. Her stage experience ranges from her first role learned phonetically at age eleven to two recent summers when she played a lead role in the 4th Line Theatre production For Home and Country, to directing a high school production of Paper Bag Princess in Yingkou, China for viewing by 42 million people! As well as being a theatre practitioner, Bea has served as an arts advocate on regional, provincial and national committees and Boards of Arts Councils, theatre companies and theatre service organizations.She is the co-founder of three professional companies in Peterborough, Ontario, where she has lived for the last 38 years. Her education includes an Honours degree in Drama and Fine Arts, studies in England with Peter Brook, summer courses at Theatre Ontario and an Arts Management course at Banff. She was a member of a Canadian Theatre Educators delegation to Cuba, has adjudicated Sears and community theatre drama festivals for twenty-five years, and has directed over seventy-five productions ranging from Rashomon to Murray Schafer's The Enchanted Forest and Wolf Shall Inherit the Moon. She retired from teaching at Lakefield College School recently and has been exhibiting her large abstract paintings with the Visual Poetry Group of painters of Peterborough. An award-winning director whose productions have been chosen to represent Canada at international festivals in Canada, Japan, Germany, Aruba and Venezuela, Bea strongly believes in the transformative power of the arts.

Virginia Reh
Virginia's multi-faceted career embraces directing, acting, teaching, theatre, music theatre, opera, film, T.V.  A former Artistic Director of the Gryphon Theatre and founding Co-Director of Script Lab, she has worked with the Shaw Festival, Edmonton, Canadian and Vancouver Opera Companies, Opera Lyra, Tapestry Singers, Toronto Operetta Theatre, Theatre on the Grand and Shakespeare in the Square.  Currently a member of the Dramatic Arts faculty at Brock University, she has taught at he Banff Festival, Sheridan College, the Opera School at the University of Toronto and Theatre Ontario's Summer and Youth Courses.  She was drama coach and Production Manager for the Canadian Children's Opera Chorus for 14 years and has been Dramatic Consultant to Opera In Concert for 23 years.  A transplanted New Yorker, Virginia has been a champion of Canadian theatre, dramaturging and workshopping scripts for theatre, film and music theatre.  She has adjudicated in every region of the province, as well as adjudicating Theatre Ontario in Sarnia in 2006 and Sudbury in 1983.  She has worked in communities around Ontario as director, workshop leader and consultant.  Virginia is a past recipient of Theatre Ontario's Maggie Bassett Award, for her outstanding contribution to theatre in Ontario.

Alan K. Sapp
Alan has lived and worked in Kitchener-Waterloo since 1992. From 1992-2004, he was a member of the acting ensemble of Theatre & Company, and helped to establish the company's education mandate. In 2004, Alan became a founding member of Lost & Found Theatre, where he continues to act, direct and teach. He has appeared in two world premiere productions by award-winning playwright Gary Kirkham, Queen Milli of Galt and Falling: A Wake.  Alan has taught at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate since 2004. He has also been sought after for play polishing, including work with Guelph and Galt Little Theatres.  In 2008, Alan began work with the MT Space Theatre on a new production, The Last Fifteen Seconds, which will premiere at the Fall 2009 IMPACT festival in K-W.  Alan appeared in Sleeping Dogs, a 2006 TIFF and VIFF entry.  Alan received his BFA from Florida State University and his MFA from the Asolo Conservatory.  For more information, please visit www.alanksapp.com.

Mark Schoenberg
Mark has served as Artistic Director, Program Head, Professional Actor Training Program, Humber College in Toronto; Founding Artistic Director, Theatre 3, Western Canada; Associate Artistic Director, The Citadel Theatre, Western Canada; Managing Artistic Director, The Sudbury Theatre Centre, Ontario; Head, Graduate Directing Program, University of Alberta, core acting teacher, BFA Acting Program, University of Alberta; Coordinator BFA Acting Program, University of North Carolina. Degrees: BFA Carnegie Mellon University, MFA, Ph.D Tulane University. Master Acting Teacher: Stage/Film. Mark maintains an active actor coaching service for both theatre and film, is the founding Artistic Director of Stage (Toronto) and recently adjudicated for ACT-CO. Past executive drama producer radio/tv for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, past film reviewer national/local for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Writer/Producer/ Director Parallels recently scheduled on The Movie Channel, Canada. Recent screenplay, Fool's Target, semi finalist in both Red Inkworks and Fade In. Awards: Outstanding Faculty Award, Humber College, Alberta Achievement Award for Excellence in Theatre.

Desmond Scott
Desmond is a graduate of Cambridge University (M.A.) and of London’s Old Vic Theatre School. He has taught at the National Theatre School in Montreal, at Guelph University, Ohio University, Boston University and the University of Toronto.  He has directed for Domino Theatre, Kingston and the East Side Players of Toronto.  He has adjudicated the EODL One-Act Festival.  Professionally he has directed for the Manitoba Theatre Centre (5 years), Theatre New Brunswick, Citadel Theatre, Edmonton and the Bayview Playhouse in Toronto.  Desmond has written radio and TV scripts for CBC, CTV and TVO and has performed in over 300 radio programmes for the CBC.  TV acting credits include Canada:  A People’s History; Anne of Avonlea; Street Legal; Read All About It and Judge!

Theresa Sears
Theresa has been working as an actor, producer, writer and director in theatre, film, radio and television.  She has also worked as a guest artist in many theatres, universities, and theatre schools across North America.  Her theatre experience ranges from directing Shakespeare to creating musicals, from developing original Canadian drama to playing the Broadway classics.  Performing with partner David Switzer they have played in theatres from Japan to Britain and from the North Pole to the Caribbean.  Theresa has worked with many community groups as a director, play polisher and has taught at Theatre Summer Courses.  Sears and Switzer have often worked as adjudicators at the Theatre Ontario Festival and for other festivals around the province.  She is co-creator of the annual Sound and Light festival on Parliament Hill, recently honoured as the best special event in the world (2006.)

Ralph H. Small
Ralph has an extensive list of credits as an actor, director, writer and teacher. For Theatre Erindale at UTM he has directed Love's Fire, Jane Eyre, Alarum Within and Radium Girls. While on faculty in the Theatre Dept. at Laurentian University (Thorneloe), he directed String Of Pearls and a workshop production of The Ecstasy Of Rita Joe. As an actor, Ralph's credits include Norm Foster’s Looking at the Victoria Playhouse in Petrolia (world première), as well as M.J. Cruise's Separate Beds. Other credits include The Grand ('Kris Kringle' in Miracle On 34th Street), Theatre Aquarius (Colours In The Storm), Huron Country Playhouse (Noises Off), Charlottetown Festival (Anne Of Green Gables & The Shooting Of Dan McGrew), National Arts Centre (Thin Ice), Theatre New Brunswick (The Wild Guys), Vancouver Playhouse and US tour (Durante), among many others. Ralph has also workshopped, acted in, and/or directed dozens of new plays and musicals with companies such as Tarragon Theatre, Miles Nadal (JCC), Script Lab, Buddies in Bad Times/Shaw Festival, Roseneath, and Theatre Orangeville, where he directed mainstage productions of The Secret Garden and Jim Betts’ The Mystery Of The Oak Island Treasure. As an associate and resident director at Toronto Youth Music Theatre Company, he has directed Guys & Dolls and The Music Man. He has also written and directed several musicals for young people, and wrote the book for Whiskey Serenade, which premiered at the Toronto Centre for the Arts' Studio Theatre. He is presently on faculty at both The University of Toronto at Mississauga (UTM) and the Sheridan Institute for Advanced Learning and Technology. Ralph conducts workshops for schools, universities and community theatres all across Ontario, and is a long time member of Theatre Ontario as an instructor and adjudicator. He most recently directed The Foreigner for The Highlands Summer Festival.

Gerald Smith
Jerry is a successful manager, educator and producer with an M.B.A. (Arts Management) from York University.  For a number of years, Jerry has coordinated    the Arts Management Certificate Program at Humber College.  His teaching career has taken him to England and Australia where he initiated programs in theatre.  His work as a freelance consultant includes such clients as:  Arbor Theatre, Bronfman Foundation, Danceworks  and the Peterborough Festival of the Arts.   Jerry has worked with many community groups, e.g. Espanola Little Theatre, Cambrian Players and Belleville Theatre Guild.  He has adjudicated for QUONTA, WODL, EODL and the Theatre Ontario Festival and is a Past-President of Theatre Ontario.

Laurel Smith
Laurel is a theatre director, playwright, producer and performer with an MA in Drama from the University of Toronto's Graduate Centre for the Study of Drama, an MBA in Arts and Media Administration from York University (Dean’s List), a degree in music and opera performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, and theatre training at the Banff School of Fine Arts and the Drama Studio in London, England.  Laurel has adjudicated for the ACT-CO Festival, the Mississauga Arts Awards and the Meadowvale Music Theatre Awards.  She has taught at Brock University, and has facilitated many theatre training workshops.  As a playwright, she had a staged reading of her new work, "the crush of beauty" in the 2006 Summerworks Festival, which will be produced by Burning Passions Theatre in the spring of 2009.  Laurel has received an OAC grant through Nightwood Theatre to develop a new play, Syndrome, about the effects of Gulf War Syndrome on three women’s lives, which will be produced in 2010.  Her TYA play, The Reluctant Dragon is also currently in development.  In the spring of 2007, Laurel acted as dramaturge for Theatre Direct's new play festival, Seedlings, through a PTTP grant from Theatre Ontario.  Favourite directing credits include: Mrs. Warren's Profession – Burning Passions Theatre; The Mikado, Pirates of Penzance, The Gondoliers – Clarkson Music Theatre; The Wager – Lost Carnival Productions; Wrong Turn at Lungfish, Little Shop of Horrors – Gryphon Theatre; Fireweeds: Women of the Yukon – Burning Passions Theatre.  In addition, Laurel was Producer of Modern Times Stage Company for four years.  Currently, Laurel is Artistic Producer of Burning Passions Theatre.  The company will be producing David Copelin's play, Bella Donna (recipient of the 2005 Fringe New Play Award) in May/June of 2008 at the Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs (directed by Sue Miner), and is currently developing a new work entitled The Body Politic by Sarah Casselman, to be produced as a double bill with the crush of beauty in the spring of 2009.  This upcoming summer season, Laurel will be one of two assistant directors working at the Shaw Festival as part of the Directors' Project.  She will be assistant director on Wonderful Town with director Roger Hodgson, and After the Dance with director Neil Munro.

John Snowdon
Operating his theatrical activities under the banner of The Theatre Downstairs, John is a producer, director, actor and designer of numerous stage productions. John was the founding Artistic Director and Manager of Theatre on the Grand, Fergus, working there for five years before moving on. He continues to operate a dinner theatre, Theatre In The Trees in the Arboretum at the University of Guelph, which he founded 18 years ago. As producer and director, he also stage manages productions for touring in Ontario. When time permits, he will adjudicate, production consult, and give theatrical workshops.

Dr. Ross Stuart
Former Chair of the Department of Fine Arts, Atkinson College; Chair, Department of Theatre, and Associate Dean, Faculty of Fine Arts, York University, Ross is an experienced theatre director and academic. He has taught everything from acting and directing to stage and lighting design and playwriting, from Shakespeare to musicals. Currently his concentration is on improvisation and playmaking, helping groups create theatre from a variety of sources. Ross has also adapted and directed works by Shakespeare, Ibsen, Louisa May Alcott, Shel Silverstein and Stephen Leacock for educational theatre. His publications include a book on prairie theatre and studies of the Stratford Festival, summer theatres, Canadian musicals and post-secondary theatre for various reference books. Ross has adjudicated frequently for Theatre Ontario and recently directed The Miracle Worker (Thistle Theatre, Embro), developed a new high school play (title to come) and delivered a lighting workshop in Brampton.

David Switzer
David is an actor, playwright, director, workshop leader and acting instructor.  He works in film, radio and television as well as theatre.  With partner Theresa Sears, they have been called the "most sought-after acting coaches in Canada."  Their studio in Toronto is one of Canada’s most respected actor training conservatories.  He has worked as a guest artist in many theatres, universities, theatre schools and conservatories across North America.  David has also worked with community groups such as Bramalea Little Theatre, Guelph Little Theatre, Tara Players of Ottawa and Take Two Theatre.  The team of Sears and Switzer have been adjudicators for various Theatre Ontario Festivals, and for other festivals across Canada.  He is co-creator of the Sound & Light show on Parliament Hill, honoured as the best Special Event in the world for 2006.

Terry Tweed
Terry Tweed has been working in Canada as an actor, director and teacher for over thirty years.  As an actor, she has appeared on television, film and radio, but her first love is the theatre.  She has worked in theatres across the country as both an actor and director.  Terry has been involved in teaching voice, acting, and directing in both English and French at the University of Windsor, University of Toronto (Erindale), Humber College and Sheridan College.  She has been an adjudicator for the Sears Ontario Drama Festival, the EODL One-Act Play Festival, and acted as a judge at the Canadian Improv Games.  Terry has had a great deal of experience working as a dramaturge and directing playwrights workshops for Toronto Free Theatre, Blyth Summer Festival, Canadian Stage, Mulgrave Road Co-op, and the National Arts Centre.  She has also worked with community theatres as a play polisher, and has given workshops in directing, audition techniques, and approaches to Shakespeare.

Brian Van Norman
Brian Van Norman has been employed over 35 years in a variety of venues within the theatre community. As well as being an educator, he has worked with school, university, amateur and professional companies serving variously as director, writer, producer and designer. A popular and experienced adjudicator due to his constructive, positive style, Brian has adjudicated literally hundreds of plays through the past ten years. He has adjudicated for the Sears Ontario Drama Festival on multiple occasions at District and Regional levels, for the Western Ontario Drama League, Association of Community Theatres - Central Ontario (GTA), the Eastern Ontario Drama League and for the Theatre Ontario 2007 Festival. Brian also authored the Guidelines for Adjudicators document for the Sears Ontario Drama Festival. Brian has served on the Board of Theatre Ontario and is a member of Theatre Ontario's Professional Talent Bank. When not adjudicating, writing, or directing, Brian conducts a variety of highly sought after theatre workshops in acting, directing and design, as well as play polishing. Brian taught "Director's Bootcamp" for the Theatre Ontario Summer Courses at Brock University. The range of Brian's work runs the gamut of theatrical styles in the over two hundred productions he has directed. He has worked in drama, dance and film. His projects have appeared in a number of professional venues including the Stratford Festival, the Arts Club Theatre in New York, the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, the Grand Theatre in London, Theatre & Company, the Waterloo Stage and Next Level Theatre in the Waterloo Region and Theatre Muskoka, as well as in numerous amateur and educational venues. Brian has also acted...once. He played the dead guy.

Chris Worsnop
Chris Worsnop has been connected with community and student theatre for more than 50 years. In that time he has done almost all things theatrical, playing all kinds of roles on stage, dramatic and musical, professional and non, and doing all kinds of backstage work as well. He has directed, written scripts, worked as a play polisher, presented workshops and organized and hosted festivals. He knows and understands community and student theatre from the inside. He is the proud winner of two acting awards from ACT-CO and another from EODL. For several years he operated a professional murder mystery theatre company that specialized in resort-based murderous weekends. As an adjudicator he has worked at various levels in the Sears Festival, the Meadowvale Music Theatre Festival on three separate occasions, the ACT-CO Festival for two consecutive years (2006/7 & 2007/8), the Eastern Ontario Drama League One Act Play Festival (2008) and the Theatre Ontario Festival (2009). He enjoys developing a dialogue with practitioners in his adjudications, exploring the triumphs and challenges of community and student theatre in a rigorous and friendly session of peer review. Chris is available to lead a workshop on sound design, and also enjoys working as a play polisher for spoken-word theatre.