Rebecca Russell (she/her) is a Dora award-winning multidisciplinary performing artist and director based in Ottawa, Ontario, on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg people. Rebecca holds a BA Combined Honours in Music and Theatre from Dalhousie University.

Originally from Newfoundland, Rebecca has had the pleasure of working with both professional and community-based groups across Canada and beyond. As a director and storyteller, Rebecca is interested in exploring big ideas through a multidisciplinary practice involving music, movement, text, puppetry, ensemble work, and more. As skilled at working with large-scale casts as she is with intimate productions, Rebecca brings a collaborative approach to her work which builds a safe space to explore and create.

Select theatre directing credits include “Newsies” (Orpheus Musical Theatre), “Godspell” (9th Hour Theatre Company), “Peter Pan,” “West Side Story,” and “High School Musical” (Timber Lake Camp). Rebecca has also directed for film and TV, including a music video for local Ottawa band Lions Leading Sheep and short documentaries for charities OrKidstra and The AFC.

Select performance credits include the workshop creation of the new musical “Marian” (Theatre 4.669), the title role in the workshop presentation of “Maupin” (TACTICS), “AtG’s Messiah” (Against the Grain Theatre), “Fear of Flight” (Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland), three international tours with Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, and many others.

Rebecca looks forward to connecting with you regarding your upcoming collaborative project.

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Pronouns: he/him

Bio: Relatively new to the Ottawa area, Micah is a director, performer, visionary and is excited to collaborate with the exceptional talent here. He hails from the States where he began his career: between projects in Phoenix, Los Angeles & Chicago, most of his directing experience lies in TYA and musicals, though he is eager to expand into more mature and complex pieces. Most recently he directed Joanne John’s play Puzzles at the Fringe, and will be music directing Memphis at Orpheus Theater. Always seeking the unexpected and drawn to innate passions, Micah looks forward to opening his own theater company Unexpected Theater locally in 2023 and potentially collaborating with you. Notable projects include: Mary Poppins (Seton Catholic), Mockingbird (CTM), Much Ado About Nothing (GCU) & At Worlds End (Desert Stages). Cheers.

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Website - micahjondel.com

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Bio: David Whiteley has extensive experience as director, producer and also as playwright (himself a member of Playwrights Guild, primarily as a translator and adapter of existing works). He is attending this workshop with his director/producer hat on. In that capacity, David's most relevant experience is as Artistic Director of Plosive Productions, a resident company at The Gladstone Theatre. Plosive has produced 34 works and counting at that venue, with Canadian and local works being an important part of that programming, and their run of Claude Montigny's Mæstro, presented in English and French in rep, as an Ottawa and English-language première of that work, was the product of a past Playwrights Guild of Canada Director-Playwright dialogue session. Proof that these sessions can lead to actual productions happening!

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Website - DavidWhiteley.ca

Pronouns: He/Him

Bio: Originally from the Detroit River Region, Dillon Orr is a Franco-Ontarian stage director. He is a graduate of the Department of Theatre from the University of Ottawa, and the Artistic Residency program at the National Theatre School of Canada. Strongly interested in the development and production of new dramaturgies, Dillon is the recipient of the Paulette-Gagnon (2016) and National Excellence RBC (2019) awards, awarded by the Foundation for the Advancement of Francophone Theatre in Canada, as well as the Pauline McGibbon Award (2021) from the Ontario Arts Council. His work and theatrical point of view, characterized by its passion fueled approach to cringe, are exciting new forms of popular entertainment. Anchored in humour and accessibility, Dillon’s unique approach to live art is representative of an intrinsically Franco-Ontarian theatre aesthetic. His many creations include Le club des éphémères (Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario, Théâtre français de Toronto), Ceci n’est pas une lettre d’adieu… (Théâtre Catapulte), Toutou (Vox Théâtre), Jeff Koons (Théâtre du Trillium, Phi Centre) and Vaches, The Musical (Creations In Vivo)."

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Bio: Griffin McInnes is a director, playwright and producer in Toronto and Ottawa. He is the Creative Producer at Outside the March and one of the co-creators of The Ministry of Mundane Mysteries, a phone-based, pandemic-responsive production performed thousands of times in 200+ cities worldwide. His work is often based in research-creation, a practice he developed during a graduate program at France’s SciencesPo, collaborating with interdisciplinary artists from around the world. He is a white, cis-gendered, able-bodied settler of Scottish, English, Irish and French descent. He mostly works from home, lives in a two-income household and graduated debt-free because of intergenerational wealth. He is a husband, father, son, big brother, grandson, friend, collaborator, mentor and mentee. His most recent project, Revelations—an escape room-inspired show about the End of the World—was selected as Upintheair Theatre’s inaugural Updrafts Commission and produced in Vancouver in September.

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