Katherine Ashby is a Gemini nominated actor. Katherine has been acting in theatre, radio, television, and film since graduating from Ryerson Theatre School in 1985. Credits include Liberty Street, A Guy and a Girl (lead), This is Wonderland, PSI Factor, Road to Avonlea, Wild Card, and other made-for-TV movies. Katherine has an ongoing role in Degrassi: The Next Generation. Theatre credits include Theatre Passe Muraille, Factory Theatre, Buddies in Bad Times, the Blyth Festival, and the Toronto Fringe Festival. Having taught and designed improvisation programs at Second City and at the Workman Theatre Program, she has just launched The Kate Ashby Academy.

Richard Beaune has been acting and directing for 25 years. He spent two seasons as assistant director and actor at the Stratford Festival, was an intern director at the Shaw Festival, and participated in the Lincoln Centre Theatre Director’s Lab in 2000. Directing credits include Macbeth and As You Like It for Shakespeare in the Square, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Edward Ironside for Firebrand Theatre, Trapped in Taffeta (Canadian Comedy Award) with Simple Truth Theatre, Flowers for Algernon (Jenny Award), and Keystone Theatre’s The Belle of Winnipeg (three Dora nominations). Richard has also appeared in several TV commercials and on film.

Lynda Del Grande has enjoyed a diverse professional background as a teacher, life coach, certified Laughter Yoga leader, and therapeutic clown for residents in long term care homes. She holds a Master of Education in Adult Education (OISE), a certificate in life coaching, and has studied clown with several master teachers including Mike Kennard and John Turner (Mump and Smoot), Helen Donnelly, and Adam Lazarus. Lynda is the architect and principal instructor of Programs for 50+’s Caring Clown Program which prepares students to be volunteer clowns in long term care facilities.

Vrenia Ivonoffski is the artistic director of ACT II STUDIO. She holds a Master of Arts from the University of Toronto and trained in physical theatre at the École Jacques Lecoq (Paris) and directing at Ryerson Theatre School. She is on the Acting faculty at George Brown Theatre School and previously taught at Ryerson Theatre School. Vrenia has 30 plus directing credits, has written 12 plays, and is a member of Theatre Ontario’s Talent Bank. She is a past president of the Toronto Association of Acting Studios (TAAS).

Kennedy C. MacKinnon (MFA) is an actor, director, and coach. Kennedy is artistic director of Shakespeare Link Canada and was on the full-time faculty of head of voice at Humber College Theatre School. She has just completed her fourth season as voice coach at the Stratford Festival. Teaching experience includes Equity Showcase, the National Voice Intensive, York University, and George Brown Theatre School.

Hannah Moscovitch (MFA) is playwright in residence at the Tarragon; winner of many awards including several Doras, nominee for the Governor General's Award, Carol Bolt Award and the international Susan Smith Blackburn Prize; and a graduate of the national Theatre School. Her plays which include Essay, The Russian Play, East of Berlin, The Children's Republic and the Huron Bride have been produced in major thatres across Canada.

Graham Orwin has directed dramas, docudramas, and specials for CBC, CTV, PBS, TVO, and the National Film Board. He has directed over 1,000 corporate TV dramas and commercials in Canada and the US, winning 43 international awards for his work. Graham has lectured for the Canadian Association of Advertising Agencies, Ryerson’s Radio and Television Arts (RTA) program, and at Sheridan College’s Media Arts and Musical Theatre School. He is a member of the Director’s Guild of Canada and is a graduate of Ryerson’s RTA program.

Jodi Pape (ACTRA, EQUITY) has been a professional actor since 1964, performing as a singer, actor, musical entertainer and voice-over artist. She is also an instructor, facilitator, writer and corporate coach. As a ukulele player, she has performed in seniors’ residences and in primary schools helping people improvise their own songs. She draws on a broad range of songs from all over the world.

Les Porter is a director, choreographer, and actor. Credits include Newsroom, Cliff Hanger (NBC), The City, Three to Tango, Wild Card, and Touch of Pink. He is a graduate of Ryerson Theatre School.

Alexandra Rambusch was a founding member, with Tony Kushner and others, of Heat & Light Co. in New York City where she co-created and acted in several plays; director at Story Theatre in Cincinatti; actor with Mohonk Mountain Stage Company (NY); and general manager of the National Dance Institute (NY). Since moving to Canada she has assistant directed at Nightwood Theatre. She is a graduate of the Tisch School of the Arts ONYU).

Liz Rappeport is a movement specialist who draws from her diverse background as a writer, artist, certified yoga teacher and bioenergetics therapist, registered massage therapist, meditation instructor, and long term student of eastern and western forms of movement. She has lectured on movement approaches at Ryerson University and at the Association of Theatre in Higher Education Conference in Toronto. She is a private movement coach and teaches Breath, Body & Mind in Connection classes in Richmond Hill. She has taught body awareness to musicians at Wilfrid Laurier University, to actors at the Sunderland Arts Studio and to nurses at La Loba Project at York University.

Tracey Erin Smith trained at Studio 58, Vancouver, and Creativity Workshop, New York. Her teaching experience includes Second City, York University, and the University of Toronto. Her acting credits include Two Hander, Millennium (US television series), and a solo show she created, The Burning Bush, which received Best of the Fringe 2006 status.

Julie Tepperman performed for two seasons at the Stratford Festival and at the festivals RED, Lab Cab, Hysteria, Fringe/Next Stage, SummerWorks, and the Ashkenaz Festival. She works as “artist-inthe-schools” for Tarragon, Factory, Luminato, and Diaspora Dialogues, and is on the faculty of George Brown Theatre School. As co-artistic director of Convergence Theatre, Julie co-created/wrote the hit plays AutoShow, The Gladstone Variations (Dora nomination) and Yichud (Seclusion). In January 2011, her adaptation of Strindberg’s The Father will premiere at the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre at the Manitoba Theatre Centre’s Master Playwright Festival.

Jeffrey Wetsch has played various roles during his seven seasons at the Stratford Festival. He has also performed in the York Shakespeare Festival, The Grand Theatre, New West Theatre, and in Mirvish Production’s Orpheus Descending. Roles have included Mercutio, Cassio (Othello), Lysander, and Claudio (in both Measure for Measure and Much Ado About Nothing). He is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada and Stratford’s Birmingham Conservatory.

Dawn Whitwell has taught standup comedy at many of Toronto’s comedy hot spots – like Second City, the Comedy Bar, and Bad Dog Theatre – since 2002. In 2007 Dawn began co-producing Girls School, voted Top Ten Comedy Show of 2006 by NOW Magazine. As a standup performer, she was rated “one of America’s Funniest Lesbians” by Curve Magazine. Dawn has performed at the LA Comedy Festival, across the UK including the Edinburgh Festival, New York’s Gotham and Comic Strip Live, and on The Jon Dore Television Show. Her live show Dirty Rotten Egg in 2008 played to sold-out audiences at We’re Funny That Way Festival.

Aaron Willis, originally from Edmonton, has acted in theatres across Canada including Tarragon, Factory, Passe Muraille, Harbourfront Centre, Roseneath Theatre (Dora nomination), Shakespeare in the Rough, The Great Canadian Theatre Company, and The Norman Rothstein Theatre. As co-artistic director of Convergence Theatre, he co-created and directed the hit plays AutoShow, The Gladstone Variations (Dora nomination) and Yichud (Seclusion). Aaron was the assistant director of Evita at the Stratford Festival (2010). He holds a Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) in Drama from the University of Alberta and graduated from George Brown Theatre School.

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