A Christmas Carol

(he/him) FOR THEATRE CALGARY:  TC Returns, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Enron, To Kill A Mockingbird, Much Ado About Nothing, The Crucible, A Christmas Carol (Actor – 2012-14, Assistant Director – 2019-20).  ELSEWHERE: The Hollow, Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Jersey Lily, The Hound of the Baskervilles, Twelve Angry Men, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Black Coffee (Vertigo Theatre); Richard III, Macbeth, Othello, William Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead, and The Winter’s Tale (The Shakespeare Company); The Virgin Trials, The Last Wife, Cockroach, The Motherfu**er with the Hat, Shakespeare’s Dog, Robin Hood, Oliver Twist (ATP). FILM/TELEVISION: The Last of Us, The Revenant, Hell on Wheels. Haysam is the Artistic Producer of The Shakespeare Company.

(they/she) FOR THEATRE CALGARY: A Christmas Carol (2019/2020), Agápi sti Fury (P2S Festival 2021). Jamie T is a queer transdisciplinary artist with special interest in vocal performance/musical theatre, physical theatre/circus, and puppetry. This year, Jamie was a featured artist for the 35for35 Who Are You Now? project at the High Performance Rodeo, filmed A Midsummer Daydream with OYR/BYA for the NAC, and workshopped new musical Black Horse at Caravan Farm Theatre (Summer 2022 premiere). In 2019, Jamie T was honoured as co-recipient of the Betty Mitchell Award for Best Ensemble for their work in GIANT by Ghost River Theatre.  Select credits include: The Gin Experience (GRT), Modern Times Redux (The Grand YYC); Catalyst Theatre's Fortune Falls (ATP/Citadel); The Drowning Girls (Vertigo); Songs from Nightingale Alley (FoF); Awesome Girl and Radical Boy (Lunchbox); The Toxic Avenger Musical (Broadway West); Evil Dead: the Musical (GZT/H&M); Moon, Moon No Moon and Calgary, I Love You but You're Killing Me (OYR). "It’s a sublime thrill, returning to live performance together… sincerest gratitude to the outstanding people making this tradition possible.”

(they/he) FOR THEATRE CALGARY: A Christmas Carol (2019, 2020), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Shakespeare by the Bow), Blow Wind, High Water. ELSEWHERE: Mx., These Four Walls (Alberta Queer Calendar Project, Cardiac Theatre), Where the Two-Spirit Lives (Intrepid Theatre, The Cultch, Theatre Outré), Woven Waters (Found Festival), HKAAHSINONIKS (Making Treaty 7 Cultural Society), Working It Out (WorkPlays). Marshall is an Actor, Director, Writer, Podcaster, and Drag Performer from the Kainai Nation in Southern Alberta. He graduated from the University of Lethbridge where he received his BFA, specializing in Theatre Performance. He is especially interested in using theatre for community development, having been involved in various projects both locally and internationally aimed at using artistic practices to encourage social change. Marshall can also be found teaching at Trickster Theatre or improvising with the folx at Dirty Laundry. He received the 2018 Stephen Hair Emerging Actor Award and is jazzed to be back at Theatre Calgary.

(she/her) Vanessa is a Mexican-Canadian artist living in Mohkinstsis. She is a multidisciplinary theatre and movement artist. She is very excited to be back performing after what has felt like the longest hiatus from theatre because of the pandemic- which is saying a lot because she worked on cruise ships for 3 years. You may have seen her previously on stages and Zoom boxes with companies like Major Matt Mason Collective, Lunchbox Theatre, One Yellow Rabbit: BeautifulYoungArtists, and The Shakespeare Company. She is forever grateful to her family for all their support and she hopes you all enjoy the show! 

(she/her) Karen is an award-winning actor, working in western Canada for over 30 years. As a professional improviser, Karen co-founded Dirty Laundry- The Completely Improvised Comedy Soap Opera. Karen serves as the Administrative Director of ARTSTREK, Theatre Alberta’s summer drama camp for teens, and is the co-host of three podcasts: The Breakfast Dish (with her son Griffin Cork), Scamtime, and Bridging the Gap Between Generations Who Assume Things About Each Other. Her Film and TV credits include Heartland, Fargo and the multi award-winning web series Abracadavers. Karen is the recipient of the Duval Lang Theatre for Young Audiences Award and has played Mrs. Claus for CBC radio for the last twenty-one years. Karen Loves Neil Diamond. As one should.

(he/him) Mike is a Treaty 7-based theatre artist and photographer. He has worked as a co-creator in devised theatre creation ensembles with Downstage, Theatre Junction, and Ghost River Theatre; an acting ensemble member at the Banff Centre Playwrights Lab workshopping new plays from around the world; and as an actor at Vertigo Theatre, Alberta Theatre Projects, and Theatre Calgary. Mike also works as a documentary photographer for arts and culture organizations, events, and independent artists. He is honoured to be back at Theatre Calgary again :) He lives with his loves, Di, his son Aiden; and their cat babies, Frankie and Prismo.

It has been a great privilege to play Scrooge for these 28 years. And a great surprise. No actor expects to be playing the same role for so long. And so my thanks to all of you who, over many years, have made our Christmas Carol tradition a part of your family’s annual celebration. And to those newcomers to our show...Welcome! If I have learned anything in playing this wonderful role it is simply this...we all make mistakes in life but we never lose the chance to be able to change and advance from darkness to light. Many of you have shared with me your own stories of being moved by Scrooge’s journey. As an actor, to know that you may have touched someone and made an impact in their life is a humbling thing. And not something I take lightly. But that is why actors and audiences come together in a darkened room...to share, to laugh, to cry and to learn from each other. Thanks to all of you for allowing me to be a part of this remarkable journey.

(he/him) FOR THEATRE CALGARY: A Christmas Carol (2019, 2020), Billy Elliot the Musical, Mary and Max - A New Musical, The Secret Garden. ELSEWHERE: Allegiance (Broadway); Ragtime (West End); Carrie (Off-Broadway); Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living In Paris (Stratford Festival); Red Velvet (The Old Globe, CA); The Tin Pan Alley Rag (Roundabout Theatre Company, NYC); Altar Boyz (Off-Broadway); bare (Off-Broadway); Candide (San Francisco Symphony); Bowfire (PBS television special); A Tribute to Stephen Sondheim (Boston Pops); Saturday Night (Off-Broadway); Two Class Acts (The Flea Theatre, Off-Broadway); Poster Boy (Williamstown Theatre Festival); Guys and Dolls (Paper Mill Playhouse, NJ); Children’s Letters to God (Off-Broadway); The New World (Bucks County Playhouse, PA); Bright Lights, Big City (Prince Music Theater, PA); The Princess and the Black-Eyed Pea (San Diego Rep); Total Eclipse (Toronto); Spring Awakening – The Musical (UC Davis); and Marry Me A Little (Cincinnati Playhouse). Stafford served as associate director for the Broadway productions of A Class Act and Seussical. He is on the faculty of Broadway Dreams, and a former adjunct and Granada Artist in Residence at the University of California, Davis. Stafford studied at York University in Toronto.
staffordarima.com

(he/him) FOR THEATRE CALGARY: Playwright – A Christmas Carol (2019-20); Actor - Skylight, Much Ado About Nothing. Geoffrey is a Calgary-based playwright, actor, director, and co-creator of the Major Matt Mason Collective. As a playwright, his work has been produced in Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, and Montreal. His plays include Destroy, Air, Control, Still Still Still, Michael Mysterious, If I Could Tell You Everything (with the Theatre Junction High School Mentorship Ensemble) and The Circle – which was published by Scirocco Drama in 2017. He is the winner of two Betty Mitchell Awards, Theatre Calgary’s Stephen Hair Emerging Actor Award, and Tarragon’s RBC Emerging Playwright Award. Geoffrey is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s playwriting program. Love to M, D, A, & E.

(she/her) FOR THEATRE CALGARY: Resident Voice Coach – More than 60 productions since 2000 including Admissions, The Louder We Get, Noises Off, Billy Elliot the Musical, The Scarlet Letter, Mary and Max – A New Musical, Honour Beat, The Secret Garden, Twelfth Night, The Audience, Skylight, Bad Jews, The Crucible, Liberation Days (WCT co-pro), One Man, Two Guvnors, The Mountaintop, Enron, 10 seasons of Shakespeare by the Bow and 15 years of A Christmas Carol. Jane has also worked for ATP, is the Voice & Dialect Consultant for Vertigo Theatre and the Voice & Text Coach for The Shakespeare Company. She has taught at such institutions as York University, Harvard University, Southern Methodist University, MRU, UofA, and is currently teaching in the Drama Division in the School of Creative & Performing Arts at the UofC.

(he/him) FOR THEATRE CALGARY (selected): TC Returns, A Christmas Carol (lighting – 1999, set & projections – 2019, production design – 2020), Billy Elliot the Musical, Mom’s The Word: For Crying Out Loud, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, A Raisin in the Sun, Sherlock Holmes, Crimes of the Heart, Romeo and Juliet, Gaslight. ELSEWHERE: Stealing Sam, Disgraced, The New Canadian Curling Club, The Virgin Trial, The Last Wife, 1979 (ATP); Strangers on a Train, Dracula: The Bloody Truth, The Thin Man, The Lonely Diner, Nine Dragons, The Drowning Girls (Vertigo); Eugene Onegin, South Pacific, Die Tote Stadt (Calgary Opera); Our Canada, Class Acts (Alberta Ballet); Better Get Hit in Your Soul, Modern Vaudevillians, Juliet and Romeo (DJD). Scott has also designed for such companies as Quest Theatre, Lunchbox, and The Shakespeare Company.

(she/her) FOR THEATRE CALGARY: Noises Off, Shakespeare by the Bow (2012-2018, 2021), Blow Wind High Water, The Crucible, One Man, Two Guvnors, King Lear. Deitra is so incredibly thrilled to be writing this bio and for you to be reading it! She has been designing theatre, dance, film, and TV across the prairies for well over a decade. She is an awarded designer who was educated both at Grant MacEwan University and ACAD. Her career in design has allowed her to work with some of the best companies in the country. Selected credits include: Dracula: the Bloody Truth!, Calamity Town, Sherlock Holmes, Sweeney Todd, The 39 Steps (Vertigo); Intimate Apparel, Legend Has It, playRites 2013 (ATP); Evil Dead: The Musical: ’09, ’10, ‘12 (GZT/H&M); and The Penelopiad (Arts Club). Welcome back everyone! Sending love to my brood of boys!

(she/her) Allison has appeared on most of Calgary’s stages either onstage as an actor or behind the scenes as a composer/sound-designer/music director (and sometimes all simultaneously). Allison was the recipient of three Betty Mitchell Awards for acting (Romeo & Juliet- The Shakespeare Company/ Hit & Myth, Ash Rizin’- ATP, Twisted- Forte) and one for composing (The Scarlet Letter, Theatre Calgary), as well as the 2019 Critic's Choice Award for Outstanding Design for her score for The Ministry of Grace (The Belfry) at the Greater Victoria Regional Theatre Awards. You may have seen her outside Alberta onstage at the NAC, The Grand, Rainbow Stage, Persephone, The Arts Club, The Drayton Festival, The Belfry or The Chemainus Theatre Festival, and as far abroad as Kuala Lumpur with the Malaysian Symphony Orchestra. You can find her debut album Skin & Flame on all streaming platforms.

(she/her) FOR THEATRE CALGARY: SM – TC Returns, A Christmas Carol (2020). ASM – The Louder We Get, The Secret Garden, Twelfth Night, The Audience, The Light In The Piazza, The Little Prince – The Musical, The Crucible. Other stage management credits: Naughty But Nice Vaccin8te, Naughty But Nice: Six In The City, Crossing Swords, Touch Me: Songs For A (dis)Connected Age, Naughty But Nice Too! (Forte Musical Theatre); SensoryBox, Giant (Ghost River); Strangers On A Train, The Thin Man, The 39 Steps, Our Man In Havana, Dial “M” For Murder, Vintage Hitchcock (Vertigo); In Flanders Fields, Ride, It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play (Lunchbox); Legends Of Country, Million Dollar Quartet, Rumors & Dreams (Stage West); Canada 151, Million Dollar Quartet (Drayton Entertainment);  The Patron Saint of Stanley Park (TNW); The Red Priest (ATP); Polygraph (Sage); The Peace Maker (Next Stage Festival). Wishing you joy and love this holiday season! 

(she/her) FOR THEATRE CALGARY: TC Returns, A Christmas Carol (2020), The Louder We Get. Elsewhere: Filumena, Turandot, South Pacific, Rigoletto, Everest, Hansel & Gretel (Calgary Opera); All That Binds Us (Azimuth); There Goes the Bride, 80’s Solid Gold 1 & 2, Spamalot, Chicago, Love Train, Fiddler on the Roof, Gameshow (Stage West); The Thin Man, The Hollow (Vertigo); A Love Letter to Emily C, A Chitenge Story, The Tall Building (Handsome Alice); Flight Risk (Lunchbox); Assassinating Thompson (Lunchbox/Inside Out); Make Love Not Art (Inside Out); Benefit (Downstage); La Boheme, L'incoronazione di Poppea (Centre for Opera in Italy); Sylvia, Twist & Shout, The Drawer Boy, Frolic!, Tidings (New West Theatre). Kennedy is a proud graduate of the University of Lethbridge's Technical Theatre Program.

(she/her) Emma is so pleased to be back with the team at Theatre Calgary for A Christmas Carol, a show very near and dear to her heart. Select credits include: A Christmas Carol (2010-19), The Scarlet Letter, Mary and Max, Sisters: The Belles Soeurs Musical, Crazy For You, Mary Poppins (Theatre Calgary); Actually, Zorro: Family Code, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, Venus in Fur, The Motherf**ker with the Hat (ATP); Undercover, The Hollow (Vertigo Theatre); Sansei: The Storyteller, Inner Elder, 6 Guitars, Beneath Springhill (Lunchbox Theatre); Romeo and Juliet, The Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare by the Bow); and Blind Date (Spontaneous Theatre). Emma would like to thank her husband Eric for feeding the cats, keeping the home fires burning, and always being the steadiest rock in the tides.