ROMEO & JULIET: CAST

Steve Coombes

(Capulet/Friar John)     This is Steve’s second production with Humber River Shakespeare, having toured with Macbeth in 2012.  An actor and director for thirty-five years, some of Steve’s stage performances include Elwood in Harvey, El Gallo in The Fantasticks, Claudius in Hamlet, Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night, Jacob in Of The Fields,Lately, and John Barrymore in I Hate Hamlet.  Screen appearances include roles on Kojack, This is Wonderland, Breakout Kings, Rookie Blue, and as Grand Ma-ma on Wingin It.     (Q&A: Get to know Steve)

 

Matthew Lawrence

(Benvolio/Paris)   A recent graduate of the University of Toronto, Matthew is a multi-talented performer who has already been seen and heard in numerous venues around the city.  Select theatre credits include: The Gondoliers (Vic Chorus), Shakespeare M.D. and the Shakespeare-In-Hospitals Ensemble 2013 (Spur-of-the-Moment Shakespeare Collective), Age of Arousal (Helen Gardiner Playhouse) and The Importance of Being Earnest (New Faces).  As a musician, Matthew can be heard regularly as the keyboard player for Toronto band Streetlight Marathon as well as tickling the ivories for a variety of local singer-songwriters.  Last fall he also had the pleasure of serving as music director and vocal coach for Hedwig and the Angry Inch produced at the Helen Gardiner Playhouse.     (Q&A: Get to know Matthew)

 

Tim Machin

(Friar Lawrence/Montague)   Tim is an actor, musician and writer.  He has worked in the UK, Europe and Canada.  He is looking forward to spending his summer outside performing.  His previous experience doing this sort of thing includes three seasons with Driftwood Theatre (Twelfth Night, Macbeth, The Odyssey) and The Gift Horse at the Caravan Farm Theatre in BC.  Most recently Tim co created, wrote the music for and performed in Cracked:  New Light on Dementia for Possible Arts at Stratford’s SpringWorks Festival.  Other work includes The Red Kite Project for Theatre Direct and Frankenstein  for Catalyst Theatre. Highlights from his time in the UK include The Complete Millennium Musical (Abridged) for the Reduced Shakespeare Company and Weekly Rep in Frinton and Sheringham.  On Tour in Europe with TNT Theatre One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and The Murder of Sherlock Holmes.  Tim is putting the finishing touches on his record Folk on Bikes with his band Sing Along Tim and the Pacifiers and will be playing with them at various festivals, fairs and farmers’ markets over the summer and fall.  Check out www.singalongtim.com for more info.     (Q&A: Get to know Tim)

 

Eunjung Nam

(Juliet)    Eunjung is grateful to be a part of such a universal piece with Humber River Shakespeare.  She was born and raised in Seoul, Korea, although trained at George Brown Theatre School.  Her selected credits from George Brown include: Queen Elizabeth in Richard III; Martha in The Vile Governess; Laura in Glass Menagerie.  Elsewhere: Sing-song Girl in On the Other Side of the World (Next Stage Festival); Hye-Sun in Big Metal Box (Toronto Fringe Festival). Eunjung enjoys playing alto saxophone, and is also a vigorous runner.  She is fluent in Korean, and would like to thank all those who have and continue to support her in her career back home.     (Q&A: Get to know Eunjung)

Drew O’Hara

(Mercutio/Prince)    A newcomer to Toronto, Drew is a performer, writer, and director from Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Credits include Neptune Theatre: Rabbit Hole, OLIVER!, The Sound of Music,To Kill a Mockingbird; Halifax Theatre for Young People: Merlin, LiveBait Theatre: Angel’s River; and eleven seasons with Shakespeare by the Sea.  Drew is a recent graduate of the Ryerson Theatre School, where, in 2012, he received the Des McAnuff Scholarship Award for classical theatre.  As a writer, Drew is co-creator of 4 musical adaptations: Cinderelly, Robin Hood: The Legendary Musical Comedy, Alice in Wonderland (Robert Merritt Award nominee for best new play 2012), and Snow White (Robert Merritt Award nominee for best new play 2013), and the original musical And Now, The End, which premiered at the New Voices Festival in the Spring of 2014.  Drew is also the Artistic Director of Toronto’s Everybody to the Theatre Company. Everybody Co.’s current project is the Theatre on a Theme Series, which has a new installment coming soon! www.everybodytothetheatrecompany.com.
(Q&A: Get to know Drew)

 

Kelly Penner

(Romeo)    Kelly is very excited to be joining the wonderful people at Humber River Shakespeare this summer.  Originally from the small town of Kingsville, Ontario, Kelly made Toronto his home after graduating from the University of Windsor’s Acting Program.  Selected Credit:  Bianca in The Taming of the Shrew (Red One Theatre), Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Hortensio in The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare Bash’d), Laertes in Hamlet (St. Lawrence Shakespeare), Jim in The Railway Children (Mirvish), An Ideal Husband and The Doctor’s Dilemma (Shaw Fest).   (Q&A: Get to know Kelly)

 

Candy Pryce

(Nurse)    A newcomer to Humber River, Candy has a  BFA in Theatre Performance from York University.  It was there that she first performed in Romeo & Juliet, playing “Lady Capulet” under director Neil Freeman.  More recently she played “The Nurse” in a film of the play for Shakespeare at Play and last summer played “Capulet” and “Lady Capulet” as a combined role with Theatre By the Bay.  She is very excited to be delving once more into this beautiful and fascinating work.  Other favorite roles include:  “Gertrude” in Hamlet  and “First Witch” in Macbeth, both for Shakespeare at Play, “Beatrice” in Much Ado About Nothing, “Jessie” in ‘night, Mother (self-produced) and “Florence” in The Odd Couple (Female Version.)  Candy has also completed more than sixty on-camera or voice-over projects since returning to full-time acting four years ago.  She is represented by Hines Management.   (Q&A: Get to know Candy)

 

Phillip Psutka

(Tybalt)    Phillip is an actor and playwright who graduated with distinction from the University of Windsor’s BFA in Acting program. In 2013, he co-founded the performing arts company Theatre Arcturus (TheatreArcturus.ca).  Currently, he performs with DuffleBag Theatre and Stilt Guys. Theatre credits include: Twelfth Night (Humber River Shakespeare); Stalled (Toronto Fringe, 2013); The Wharf at York (Redpath Waterfront Festival); Macbeth and Richard III (Hart House Theatre); No Time For Dreams (Toronto Fringe, 2011); Twelfth Night (Written On Water Theatre);  Noises Off and An Ideal Husband (University Players); Titus Andronicus, Waiting for Godot, The Winter’s Tale, and Coriolanus as well as assistant directing at The Shakespeare School (Stratford Festival).  For film: Lost Girl (Bo Series 4 Inc.).  His play Stalled was a Mooney on Theatre Staff Pick and an In the Greenroom Top 10 Pick at the 2013 Toronto Fringe Festival. He has his Advanced Actor Combatant Certification with Full Distinction (FDC), holds a PAL firearms license (RCMP), and is the recipient of the Rapier Wit Award as well as a Tyrone Guthrie Award from the Stratford Festival. He is thrilled to be joining Humber River once again!   (Q&A: Get to know Phillip)

 

Paula Schultz

(Lady Capulet)    Paula is delighted to be returning to Humber River Shakespeare’s summer tour.  For HRSC, past credits include Ursula/Connie in Much Ado About Nothing, Courtesan/Emilia in Comedy of Errors, Tranio in Taming of the Shrew and Viola in Twelfth Night. Favourite credits elsewhere include Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing for Dream North (Toronto/Whitehorse), the title role in Candida for Theatre Kingston, and Becca in Rabbit Hole for Alumnae Theatre.  Paula is also the Theatre-in-Education Coordinator for HRSC.     (Q&A: Get to know Paula)

 

CREATIVE TEAM

Kevin Hammond – Director

Kevin is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Humber River Shakespeare, based in Toronto.  For the company he has directed Twelfth Night, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, Comedy of Errors, A Christmas Carol, An Evening with Hamlet and Ophelia: A Shakespeare Cabaret, Henry V, The Sonnet Show, among other pieces.

In 2012 Kevin was selected to participate in the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction at the Stratford Festival where he spent two seasons as an Assistant Director. In 2013 he worked on the critically acclaimed Measure for Measure directed by the incomparable Martha Henry.  While at the Festival he also directed workshop productions of Double Falsehood and an original Shakespeare mash-up he created, entitled A Most Unnoble Swerving.

Upcoming Directing Projects: This fall he will be directing Othello for the Arabian Shakespeare Festival in San Francisco.  He will also be directing The Taming of the Shrew for the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company in 2015.

Kevin also spent five years as Artistic Director for Toronto’s Shakespeare in the Rough and continues his work with the Bard as a co-founder of the Toronto Shakespeare Workout.  During his tenure with Shakespeare in the Rough, the company garnered 6 Dora Award nominations. Kevin also coaches and teaches Shakespeare to many young actors.

Kevin is the featured voice performer for Oxford University Press’ OXFORD NEXT on-line Shakespeare Program.  He has been a juror for Canada’s National Shakespeare Youth Festival, and is a mentor/director for the “Shakespeare in the Hospitals” project with Spur of the Moment Theatre Collective.

 

Andrea Mittler – Set Designer

Andrea is a graduate of York University’s Theatre production program and works as a designer and scenic artist.  This is her seventh season with HRSC and she is delighted to be back!  Past credits include, set design for Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, The Comedy of Errors, Macbeth and As You Like it.

Andrea is also the resident designer for Worsdmyth Theatre where she has won a Dora Award for Outstanding Set Design in the independent theatre division for The Dumb Waiter and a Dora nomination for her set for Brothers Karamazov.

Selected set design credits also include, assistant set designer for Kiss Me, Kate and The Grapes of Wrath (Stratford Shakespeare Festival).  Pith!  (The Theatre Department); Tainted (Moyo Theatre); The Menaechmus Twins (Theatreworks);  Fat Pig (Geek Girl);  Twelfth Night and Macbeth (Classical Theatre Project).  Andrea has also been the set designer and guest instructor at the Etobicoke School of the Arts for the past eleven years where she has designed such musicals as Seussical, CATS, Anne of Green Gables, Urinetown, RENT, West Side Story, Fosse, and Into the Woods.

Samantha Aylsworth – Costume Designer

Samantha is a Toronto-based costume designer, production designer, and stage manager.  She is an honors graduate of Humber College for Theatrical Production, and has apprenticed in the Wardrobe department at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.  She has been nominated for multiple awards,  including Best Costume Design at the upcoming Indie Series Awards for her work on the award-winning webseries Pete Winning and the Pirates.

Samantha can be found almost daily at Bravo Academy for the Performing Arts in Leaside, Toronto, where she designs and builds costumes 6 fully staged productions and 20 recitals each school year for children and youth ages 5-19.  Her most recent credits with Bravo Academy include Happy Days: The Musical, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, My Son Pinocchio Jr., The Little Mermaid, Anne of Green Gables, and Anne & Gilbert.

Other costume design credits include: Charming Monsters (Afterglow Theatre), And Tell Sad Stories of the Deaths of Queens (Afterglow Theatre), Bird Brains and City Hearts (Cryptozoology Playground), A Freudian Slip of the Jung (Suga Jam Productions)

Siobhan Richardson – Fight Director

Siobhan Richardson is an actor/fighter/singer/dancer and fight director based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Fight Direction credits include The Hobbit (The Grand Theatre, London), White Biting Dog (Soulpepper), Such Creatures (Nightswimming and Theatre Passe Muraille), Death of a Chief (Native Earth), and several productions with Humber River Shakespeare Company.  Acting credits include Mo and Jess Kill Susie (Harley Dog Productions), Sofia’s Doll (Film Freak Productions), Duel of Ages (True Edge Productions), The Maids (Whirligig Productions), as the twins Jessica and Julia in The Last Resort (Stirling Festival Theatre), and the world premiere productions of The Madness of the Square (Cahoots Theatre Projects) and The Forbidden Phoenix (Citadel Theatre and LKTYP).  When not pursuing her performance career, she and her partner run Burning Mountain, dedicated to the growth and development of stage combat, both for the art form and for the artists. They build upon existing safety practices of stage combat, and draw from various historical martial arts and performing styles.  Their teaching style is characterized by the drawing of parallels to the actor’s process, in order to connect fight technique to the character’s thought process. Siobhan teaches private lessons and workshops at home in Toronto, as well as internationally, and has recently returned from her second tour of Europe. Teaching credits range from the Paddy Crean International Stage Combat Workshop in Banff, to theatre companies and stage combat groups in London, Dublin, Edinburgh, Munich, Brittany, Norway, Finland, Estonia, and Sweden.  www.SiobhanRichardson.com www.BurningMountain.ca

Nicola Pantin – Choreographer

Nicola has been an independent professional dancer since 1990 and has worked with numerous choreographers/companies and toured internationally.   For 3degrees Nicola has choreographed and created for Nuit Blanche, Springworks (Women of Tango, Table Dance) Impulse, Summerworks, Ffida and 3 Degrees Cabaret. Selected Stratford credits include The King and I (ensemble) and choreography for Henry V, Twelfth Night, The Tempest, As You Like It, Hamlet, Fuente Ovejuna, Much Adao About Nothing, The Liar, The Glass Menagerie, The Donnellys: Sticks & Stones, Measure for Measure, The Count of Monte Cristo and Timon of Athens. Other selected choreography includes Harbourfront World Stage, YPT (Jacob Two Two, Wizard of Oz, Charlie Brown, Seussical) TNB, Citadel Theatre, Expect Theatre,  Red Barn Theatre, CATS Mainstage, Shakespeare in the Rough, Theaturtule. Awards: Two Dora Mavor Moore Awards for outstanding choreography (Romeo/Juliet Remixed, Jacob Two-Two),  gold at Les Jeux de la Francophonie (Corpus). Nicola is the associate choreographer for Des McAnuff’s new musical Yoshimi Battles the Robots and choreographer on the hit comedy Spank!Nicola has choreographed for severaldance and music videos, most recently Chelsea Mcmullan’s Mise en Scene (NFB).

Stephanie Meine – Stage Manager

Previous Humber River Shakespeare credits: stage manager of Macbeth and As You Like It, and designer of Twelfth Night at Casa Loma. Other stage management credits include: Camelot, The Matchmaker, The Three Musketeers and Hay Fever (Stratford Festival), Pith! (The Theatre Department), The Wizard of Oz (Mirvish Productions) and The Unplugging (Arts Club Theatre). She is the resident stage manager of Main Street Theatre in Vancouver.

Stephanie grew up in King City, holds a BFA degree from UBC, and is a recipient of the Jean A. Chalmers Award (Stratford Festival).  A self-proclaimed Romeo & Juliet fanatic, Stephanie is enormously grateful for the opportunity to join the HRSC team again this summer, and would like to send all her love, as always, to Kevin and Sara.

Steve Coombes, Kevin Hammond, Tim Machin, Stephanie Meine, Drew O’Hara, Kelly Penner and Siobhan Richardson appear with the permission of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association.