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Griffin Cork, Yoshie Bancroft.
Photo: David Cooper
Forgiveness
- By MARK SAKAMOTO
- Stage adaptation by HIRO KANAGAWA, Directed by STAFFORD ARIMA, a joint production with the Arts Club Theatre Company (Vancouver)
Overview
Experience the Power of Forgiveness
Forgiveness is the acclaimed 2018 Canada Reads–winning novel by Mark Sakamoto. It’s a memoir of Sakamoto’s grandparents and their harrowing experiences during the Second World War. Mark’s maternal grandfather was a Canadian soldier who spent years as a prisoner of war in a Japanese camp. His paternal grandmother was one of the thousands of Japanese Canadians interned by the Canadian government during the war. In the face of tremendous adversity and transgressions, they chose not to live a life of anger but instead to embrace and teach forgiveness. Be prepared to be moved by Governor General’s Literary Award-winner Hiro Kanagawa’s heartfelt adaptation.
A joint production with the Arts Club Theatre Company (Vancouver).
Audience Advisory: This performance contains racial slurs, scenes of violence, representation of alcohol abuse, and theatrical devices such as water-based haze, sudden bright lights, and prop firearms.
Banner image: Griffin Cork and Yoshie Bancroft; projection design by Cindy Mochizuki; photo by David Cooper for the Arts Club Theatre Company, Forgiveness, 2023.
- DIRECTOR STAFFORD ARIMA
- DRAMATURG STEPHEN DROVER
- SET DESIGN PAM JOHNSON
- COSTUME DESIGN JOANNA YU
- LIGHTING DESIGN JOHN WEBBER
- SOUND DESIGN JOSHUA D. REID
- ORIGINAL COMPOSITION REZA JACOBS
- VIDEO DESIGN & ANIMATION CINDY MOCHIZUKI
- NEW MEDIA SYSTEM PROJECTION DESIGN TEAM CHIMERIK 似不像 COLLECTIVE - SAMMY CHIEN (DESIGNER), VANKA SALIM (CHIMERIK INTERN ASSISTANT DESIGN)
- FIGHT DIRECTOR & STUNT COORDINATOR MIKE KOVAC
- INTIMACY DIRECTOR JESSICA ANNE NELSON
- CULTURAL CONSULTANT & DIALECT COACH (JAPANESE CANADIAN) JULIE TAMIKO MANNING
- JAPANESE LANGUAGE CONSULTANT YAYOI HIRANO
- VOICE & DIALECT COACH (EAST COAST CANADIAN) JANE MACFARLANE
- MILITARY CONSULTANT PETER COLENUTT
- ASSISTANT DIRECTOR HOWARD DAI
- ASSISTANT SET DESIGN RYAN CORMACK
- ASSISTANT COSTUME DESIGN MELICIA ZAINI
- ASSISTANT SOUND DESIGN BRONWYN BOWLBY
- ASSISTANT FIGHT DIRECTOR BRIANNA JOHNSTON
- ANIMATION ASSISTANT CHERRY WEN WEN LU
- 1960s DANCING & CELTIC JIG CHOREOGRAPHY SHELLEY STEWART HUNT
- SWING DANCE CHOREOGRAPHY GREGORY PEMBER
- STAGE MANAGER ERIKA MOREY
- ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER PETER JOTKUS
- APPRENTICE STAGE MANAGER BRIANNA DIODATI
- CAST YOSHIE BANCROFT, JEROD BLAKE, GRIFFIN CORK, DANIEL FONG, JUNE FUKUMURA, MANAMI HARA, ALANA HAWLEY PURVIS, FIONN LAIRD, JACOB LEONARD, ISACC LI, ALLISON LYNCH, JOVANNI SY, KEVIN TAKAHIDE LEE
- SWINGS HOWARD DAI, CHARLIE GOULD, KATELYN MORISHITA, BERNARDO PACHECO
Gallery
Production Materials
- Programme - Forgiveness View | Download pdf
- Play Guide - Forgiveness View | Download pdf
Cast and Creative Team
Yoshie Bancroft
(she/her) Theatre Calgary debut. Elsewhere: The Orchard (After Chekhov) (Arts Club); Exit, Pursued by a Bear (Globe Theatre); Griffin & Sabine (Belfry); JAPANESE PROBLEM (Universal Limited/Soulpepper); Home Is A Beautiful Word (Sum Theatre/Persephone). Film & TV: Superman & Lois, Bones of Crows, Alaska, A Million Little Things, Color My World with Love, Christmas Under the Stars. Yoshie is a member of Vancouver’s Japanese Canadian Hastings Park Interpretive Centre Society, working to establish a commemorative interpretive centre at the site of the 1942 incarceration at Hastings Park. To get involved or find out more: jchpics2022@gmail.com. yoshiebancroft.com, @yoshiebancroft
Jerod Blake
(he/him) For Theatre Calgary: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare by the Bow 2019). Elsewhere: Frankenstein (Jupiter Theatre); The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (ATP); Spinning, Eden, Stones in His Pockets (Liffey Players). Film & TV: Under the Banner of Heaven, The Birds Who Fear Death, Heartland, Wilderness, Black Summer, Heart’s Creek, Damnation. A three-time CAT Award winner and graduate of the Company of Rogues Masterclass program, Jerod would like to thank his mom and Don, Joe and the faculty at Rogues, the Calgary Drop-In Centre management/ staff, and the Big Guy in the Sky for all their support and love.
Griffin Cork
(he/him) For Theatre Calgary: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare by the Bow 2019). Elsewhere: Stones in His Pockets (Rosebud Theatre); 12 Days of Christmas (Stage West/Birnton Theatricals); Last Christmas (Lunchbox Theatre) and Richard III (The Shakespeare Company). Griffin was named one of the AFA’s Top 25 Young Artists in 2019, and a Lieutenant Governor of Alberta’s Emerging Artist in 2020. He sends love to Karen, Kevin, Max, and his Oma, who hates list-y bios. (Sorry Oma!)
Daniel Fong
(he/him) For Theatre Calgary: A Christmas Carol (2018), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare by the Bow 2012). Elsewhere: Romeo & Juliet (Bard on the Beach); Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Rosebud Theatre); US (The Globe); The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Fortune Falls, The Circle (ATP). Daniel is a mixed-race Chinese/European performer born and raised in Moh-kíns-tsis (Calgary) and is thrilled to be joining this wonderful team! Daniel is supported by his amazing wife Nadia, and his friends and family.
June Fukumura
(she/her) Theatre Calgary debut. Elsewhere: Animus Anima (Trade Co.); MINE (Theatre Replacement); 12 Minute Madness (Centre for Embodied Performance). Film & TV: Shōgun (FX), Pachinko (Apple TV+), Joy Ride (Lionsgate); selected voice work: Restoring Harmony (The Chop Theatre); 1000xResist (Sunset Visitor); Mizuko (CBC Podcasts). Other June is a multi-discipline, nisei theatre artist from Vancouver. She is honoured to be making her Theatre Calgary debut with Forgiveness. She is a graduate of Simon Fraser University's Theatre Performance program and works as an actor, clown, devisor, and dramaturg; Artistic Director of Popcorn Galaxies and the Co-Founder of New(to)Town Collective.
Manami Hara
(she/her) Theatre Calgary debut. Elsewhere: Courage Now (Firehall Arts Centre); Kuroko (vAct); Cat Killer, Baking Time (PHT); China Doll (Gateway Theatre); This Stays in the Room (Horseshoes & Hand Grenades Theatre); After the Quake (Pi Theatre/Rumble Production); Top Girls (Vancouver Playhouse); Sexual Practices of the Japanese (Theatre Replacement); Hanna’s Suitcase (Grand Theatre), Apple (Touchstone Theatre); The Tempest (Globe Theatre); Romeo and Juliet (Carousel Theatre for Young People). Film & TV: Shogun, Stargate: Atlantis, Da Vinci’s Inquest. Manami is an actor, playwright, instructor, interpreter/translator, and dramaturg. Her critically acclaimed play Courage Now just had its world premiere at the Firehall Arts Centre. She is privileged to work with an amazing team at the Presentation House theatre as the Director of Applied Theatre. Manami is a Jessie Richardson Award winner and nominee for her acting and collaborative creations and a graduate of Studio 58.
Alana Hawley Purvis
(she/her) For Theatre Calgary: Blow Wind High Water. Elsewhere: Network (Citadel Theatre/RMTC); Garneau Block, Venus In Fur (Citadel Theatre); The Humans (Canadian Stage/CT); Coriolanus (STC’s ACA); Sequence (Downstage Theatre); Closer (Ground Zero); Drama: A Pilot Episode (ATP); I’ll Be Back Before Midnight (Vertigo Theatre); The Winter’s Tale, Caesar & Cleopatra, Romeo & Juliet, Bartholomew Fair, Love’s Labour’s Lost (Stratford Festival). Film & TV: Charmed (CW), Supergirl (Warner Bros./DC); Range Roads (North Country Cinemas – 2022 Canadian Screen Awards Nomination Best Actress). Training: Academy for Classical Acting (MFA), Birmingham Conservatory, and UofA's BFA Acting. Alana is a vocal coach/instructor with Bard on the Beach, Arts Club, On the Mic, Douglas College, and the LGBTQ+ Wellness Centre specializing in Trans vocal care.
Fionn Laird
(he/him) For Theatre Calgary: The Louder We Get, Billy Elliot The Musical, A Christmas Carol (2012-15, 2017-18). Elsewhere: Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Richard III (The Shakespeare Company); Hair (Brown Cow Collective). Film & TV: Under the Banner of Heaven. Fionn attends The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) in the Acting discipline. He is incredibly passionate about theatre, music, dance, and playwriting, and is delighted to be back at Theatre Calgary! Thanks to Mum and Dad.
Jacob Leonard
Theatre Calgary debut. Elsewhere: Not a Day Goes By (City Opera Vancouver); Mary’s Wedding (Firehall Arts Centre); Tomorrow Love Paris Departure (Studio 58); Cabaret (Queen’s Musical Theatre); The End of the World Club (Dan School); Concord Floral (Theatre Kingston). Jacob is an actor, singer and writer based in Vancouver, BC. He is a graduate of Studio 58 and Queen’s University where he received his Acting Diploma and Life Science degree, respectively. He would like to thank every teacher and mentor for the endless knowledge and talent they have given him over the years; and, of course, his parents and grandparents for their love and smiles.
Isaac Li
(he/him) Theatre Calgary debut. Elsewhere: The Code (Green Thumb); She Sells Sea Shells (United Players); Anon(ymous), Antony and Cleopatra (Studio 58); Of Mice and Men (Promethean); Cabaret, Mortified (Studio 58); recent directing credits include: Derwent is Different (Green Thumb); King Lear, Saint Joan (Promethean); Chicken Wings & Jell-O Shots (Studio 58). Isaac is an actor, director, producer based in the land of the Coast Salish peoples–Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. He is a graduate of Studio 58 and artistic director of Promethean Theatre. Upcoming projects: Goodnight Desdemona, (Good Morning Juliet) at Blue Bridge Theatre.
Allison Lynch
(she/her) For Theatre Calgary: Sound Designer/Composer – A Christmas Carol (2019-21), Steel Magnolias, The Scarlet Letter; As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet (SBTB 2013), Comedy of Errors (Shakespeare on the Go); Music Director – A Christmas Carol (2016-19); Actor – Steel Magnolias, A Christmas Carol (2010-19), The Secret Garden, Dear Johnny Deere, One Man, Two Guvnors. Elsewhere: Allison was the recipient of four Betty Mitchell awards for Romeo & Juliet (The Shakespeare Co.); Ash Rizin’ (Alberta Theatre Projects); Twisted (Forté); Composer: The Scarlet Letter (Theatre Calgary), as well as a Greater Victoria Regional Theatre Awards Critic's Choice award for Design for The Ministry of Grace (The Belfry). You may have also seen Allison onstage at the NAC, The Grand, Rainbow Stage, Persephone, The Drayton Festival, the Chemainus Theatre Festival, Vertigo, ATP, Lunchbox, OYR, and as far abroad as Kuala Lumpur with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. Her album Skin & Flame is on all streaming platforms.
Jovanni Sy
Theatre Calgary debut. Elsewhere: Dig (Ghost River); End Dream (Theatre Junction); Mr. Miyagi in the pre-Broadway premiere of The Karate Kid: The Musical (STAGES St. Louis); Noises Off, The Great Leap (Arts Club); As Director: Murder on the Orient Express (Vertigo Theatre); Yoga Play, Valley Song, Closer Than Ever (Gateway); God of Carnage, Antigone, Blackbird (Theatre du Pif, Hong Kong); As Playwright: Nine Dragons (Vertigo/Gateway—Jessie Award winner, Betty nomination); A Taste of Empire (Cahoots); In Development: Salesman in China (Stratford Festival); Kowloon Bay (Vertigo); The Tao of the World (Citadel/Arts Club—PGC Comedy Award winner). Jovanni is the former Artistic Director of Gateway Theatre and Cahoots Theatre and an MFA Candidate at the University of Calgary's School of Creative and Performing Arts.
Kevin Takahide Lee
Theatre Calgary debut. Elsewhere: Surrey Re-Enactors (Museum of Surrey); Hold These Truths (EJCA & University of Alberta); A Charlie Brown Double Bill (Carousel Theatre for Young People); Tom Pinkerton: The Ballad of Butterfly's Son (Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre); Chernobyl the Opera (Troika Collective). Film & TV: Walk with Me, Untold Stories of the ER. Kevin is the recipient of the Bill Millerd Artist Fund, NAJC Endowment Fund, and BC Arts Council Grants.
Howard Dai
(he/him) Theatre Calgary debut. Howard was last seen on stage in The Five Vengeances and New Societies. He was the 2022 artist-in-residence with PuSh Festival and Royal Court Theatre with his new play 菠蘿麵包Pineapple Bun, and is a current Associate Artist with rice & beans theatre. He holds a BFA in Theatre Performance from SFU.
Charlie Gould
For Theatre Calgary: The Tempest (Shakespeare by the Bow). Charlie is an actor and writer based in Calgary. Favourite theatre credits include: In Wonderland (Alberta Theatre Projects), Sherlock Holmes and the American Problem (Vertigo Theatre), Our Town (Caravan Farm Theatre), Little Red (Ghost River Theatre/Major Matt Mason Collective), Control, girls! girls! girls! (Major Matt Mason Collective), Drinking Habits, Suite Surrender (Stage West), What I Call Her (Crow’s Theatre), Richard III (Shakespeare in the Ruff). Film&TV: 11/22/63 (Bad Robot/Warner Bros.), Incontrol (Umbrella Collective), Railpath (Periwinkle Productions). Charlie is a graduate of Mount Royal University’s Theatre Performance Program and George Brown Theatre School.
Katelyn Morishita
For Theatre Calgary: Steel Magnolias, Billy Elliot the Musical. Select acting credits include: Naughty but Nice: Nine Live (Forte Theatre) CowGirl Up (ATP), Classic Country Roads (Chemainus Theatre), Red Riding Hood (Green Fools & Calgary Pro Musica), Murder In The Studio (Vertigo Theatre), Neverending Story, Matilda the Musical, Curious George the Musical (StoryBook Theatre), Canada the Musical, Legends (Carter Ryan Productions), Bare A Pop Opera (The Honest Collective), Rudolph (Birnton Theatricals). Select directing credits include: 9 to 5 The Musical – AD (Citadel Theatre), Scattered the Musical – Director (SideNote Theatre), The Shift – AD (One Act Play Festival), Junior Claus the Musical – AD (StoryBook Theatre), The French Kiss Off – AD (Confederation Theatre). Sending big love to her family and friends for their endless support. Continuing the story for her Great Grandparents, her Grandpa and her Dad.
Bernardo Pacheco
For Theatre Calgary: Little Women. Bernardo is an Alberta artist, excited to be working again with Theatre Calgary. After graduating from the University of Calgary’s Drama program, he trained with The Art of Acting Studio in Los Angeles, and participated in Arts Club Theatre’s Actors’ Intensive in Vancouver. Bernardo has been fortunate enough to enjoy an international career in theatre, television and voice over. Some highlights include: San Diego Repertory Theater, Citadel Theatre, Chinook Animation and Disney Fx.
Mark Sakamoto
Hiro Kanagawa
(he/him) Theatre Calgary debut. Elsewhere: The Patron Saint of Stanley Park (Arts Club). Hiro is an award-winning actor and writer based in Vancouver. His full-length plays The Patron Saint of Stanley Park and The Tiger of Malaya have been performed across Canada, as have many of his shorter works. He received the 2017 Governor-General’s Literary Award for Drama for his play, Indian Arm. Also a script doctor and consultant, Hiro has served as a story editor on several critically-acclaimed Canadian television series, including Da Vinci’s Inquest, Da Vinci’s City Hall, Intelligence, and Blackstone. Hiro’s next play, Urashima, co-commissioned by the Banff Centre and the Stratford Festival, is inspired by the astonishing true accounts of nineteenth-century Japanese castaways in the Pacific Northwest.
Stafford Arima
(he/him) Stafford is the Artistic Director of Theatre Calgary. In 2015, he became the first Asian Canadian to direct a Broadway musical – Allegiance; and was nominated for a 2004 Olivier Award for his direction of Ragtime (West End). Additional credits: The Secret Garden, Mary and Max, A Christmas Carol, Billy Elliot The Musical (Theatre Calgary); Altar Boyz and Carrie (Off-Broadway); Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris (Stratford Festival); Bhangin’ It (La Jolla Playhouse), Dial M for Murder (The Old Globe). Stafford was Associate Director on Seussical and A Class Act (Broadway). He is a graduate of York University, and an Adjunct Professor at UC Davis. He is a founding Board member of the Canadian Guild of Stage Directors and Choreographers. Stafford dedicates his work on Forgiveness to his father (Ray), his aunts (Tak and Tosh), his uncle (Mush), and his grandmother (Same) who were interned in Slocan Valley, BC. staffordarima.com
Stephen Drover
(he/him) For Theatre Calgary: Skydive. Stephen is a dramaturg and director based in Vancouver and originally from Newfoundland. He is a graduate of Memorial University, UBC, and the University of Ottawa and is currently in charge of New Works and Professional Engagement at the Arts Club. Notable dramaturgy projects include: Redbone Coonhound by Amy Lee Lavoie & Omari Newton, Harlem Duet by Djanet Sears, Indian Armby by Hiro Kanagawa, The Society for the Destitute presents Titus Bouffonius by Colleen Murphy, The Cull by Michele Riml & Michael St. John Smith, and Teenage Dick by Mike Lew. A four-time recipient of a Jessie Richardson Award for directing, he has directed productions of Hand to God, Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, Cock, Richard III, Mustard, Mary’s Wedding, Macbeth, Oedipus the King and others.
Pam Johnson
For Theatre Calgary: King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, W.O. Mitchell’s Jake and the Kid. Elsewhere: Closer Than Ever (debut, 1991); Blues in the Night, The Visit, Side by Side by Sondheim, Under the Influence, All My Sons, Memory of Water, Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, Mom’s the Word, Mom’s the Word: Unhinged, Age of Arousal, Mrs. Dexter and Her Daily, Mom’s the World: Remixed, Intimate Apparel, Master Class (costumes), Saint Joan, Bakersfield Mist, Redpatch, Kinky Boots, Mom’s the Word: Talkin’ Turkey (Arts Club).
Film & TV: Done & Undone (Bard on the Beach), The Garden of Alice, The Italian Lesson, Bon Appetit (Pacific Opera). Pam has also worked at Bard on the Beach, Vancouver Playhouse, Shaw Festival, Belfry Theatre, and several companies across Canada. Pam has received many Jessie Richardson Awards, as well as a Career Achievement Award.
Joanna Yu
(she/her) Theatre Calgary debut. Elsewhere: Recent designs include ‘da Kink in My Hair (set design, Soulpepper, TO Live); The Queen in Me (Canadian Opera Company/Amplified Opera/Nightwood); 1939 (Stratford Festival); R.U.R Torrent of Light (costumes, Tapestry Opera); among men (Factory Theatre); How to Fail as a Popstar (Canadian Stage). Joanna is an award-winning set and costume designer working in theatre, film and dance. Joanna’s designs have been seen on stages across Canada and internationally; of over 100 shows, more than half have been new works. She is the winner of the Pauline McGibbon Award and the Virginia Myrtle Cooper Award for costume design. Joanna sits on the board for the Associated Designers of Canada (ADC659). joannayudesign.com
John Webber
For Theatre Calgary: Onegin (Arts Club presentation). Elsewhere: Kinky Boots (Arts Club); The Wizard of Oz, Chelsea Hotel (Western Canada Theatre); The Little Mermaid (East Van Panto/Theatre Replacement). John is honoured to be a back with Theatre Calgary and the Arts Club once again, and to be a part of the production of Forgiveness. A long-time designer of both sets and lighting, he has had the privilege of working with some of Canada’s most talented and adventurous artists.
Joshua D. Reid
For Theatre Calgary: Ragtime: A Concert Performance, Million Dollar Quartet, The Louder We Get, Billy Elliot The Musical, The Secret Garden. Elsewhere: Recent design selections include A Christmas Carol (Broadway, Geffen Playhouse; LA Drama Critics Circle Award, LA Ovation Award); West Side Story (Teatro Lirico di Cagliari); A Little Night Music (Arizona Opera); Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas (national tour); The Color Purple (national tour); Girlfriend (TheatreWorks Hartford; Connecticut Critics Circle Award). Joshua is a sound and systems designer, working extensively on Broadway, Off-Broadway, national tours, international productions and sound system installations. Full credentials at ReidSoundDesign.com.
Reza Jacobs
Theatre Calgary debut. Reza is an award-winning music director, arranger, composer, and sound designer, known for his versatility in style and genre. Credits include Composer and Sound Designer for the Shaw Festival, Stratford Shakespeare Festival, the Arts Club Theatre Company, Factory Theatre, Tarragon, Passe Muraille, Volcano, Cahoots, the Luminato Festival, and Harbourfront’s World Stage Festival. As Music Director, he has won Dora Mavor Moore Awards for Life After (Best Music Direction and Best Musical, 2018); London Road (Best Music Direction and Best Musical, 2014); Caroline, or Change (Best Music Direction and Best Musical, 2012); and Assassins (Best Musical, 2010). He has played Ted in 2 Pianos 4 Hands (National Arts Centre, Globe, Centaur), and has been the resident Canadian Music Director for Andrea Martin’s one-woman show, Everything Must Go. He is the inaugural Penny Fine & Hugh Furneaux Director of Music for the Musical Stage Company. His favourite gig of all time is being partner to Stephanie and father to Arabel, Iris, and Winter.
Cindy Mochizuki
(she/her) Theatre Calgary debut. Elsewhere: Visual and animation design for Theatre Replacement, Urban Ink Productions, Little Onion Puppet Co, Lisa Mariko Gelley, and Veronique West. Cindy creates multi-media installation, audio fiction, performance, animation, drawings and community-engaged projects. She has exhibited, performed and screened her work in Canada, US, Australia, and Japan. Recent exhibitions include the Nanaimo Art Gallery, Surrey Art Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery, Burrard Arts Foundation, Richmond Art Gallery, Frye Art Museum, and Yonago City Museum. She was the recipient of the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation for the Visual Arts VIVA Award (2020) and the Vancouver’s Mayor’s Arts Award in New Media and Film (2015).
Sammy Chien (Chimerik 似不像 Collective)
(he/she/they) Theatre Calgary debut. Elsewhere: The Great Leap and Redbone Coonhound (Arts Club). Sammy Chien 簡上翔 is a Taiwanese-Canadian immigrant and queer artist-of-colour, who’s an interdisciplinary artist, director, performer, researcher, and mentor in film, sound art, new media, performance, movement, and spiritual practice. With over 400 collaborative projects, his work has been exhibited across Canada, Western Europe, and Asia including Centre Pompidou (Paris) and the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing). He has worked with pioneers of digital performance: Troika Ranch and Wong Kar Wai’s Cinematographer Christopher Doyle, and active in projects engaging various underrepresented communities. Sammy has been featured on magazines, TV and commercials such as Discorder, Keedan, CBC Arts, and BenQ. Sammy is currently leading a dance research project “We Were One” and media arts project “Ritual-Spective 迴融”, both funded by Canada Council for the Arts and BC Arts Council. Sammy is the official instructor of Isadora, Member/Council of MotionDAO and Artistic Director of Chimerik 似不像, an award winning new media art & design collective.
Mike Kovac
Theatre Calgary debut. Elsewhere: The Thing About Men (debut, 2009); as Fight Director: Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Mustard, Misery, Noises Off (Arts Club); Children of God, Les Filles du Roi (Urban Ink); Sweeney Todd, Cabaret (Snapshots Collective); She Kills Monsters, The Crucible (UBC). Film & TV: Batwoman, Tin Star, The 100, Supernatural, Kung Fu, Fake Blood. Mike is the recipient of the Paddy Crean Award and J.P. Fournier Award – Fight Directors Canada.
Jessica Anne Nelson
(she/her) Theatre Calgary debut. Elsewhere: Cipher (Assistant Director & Co-Intimacy Director, 2020) (Arts Club & Vertigo Theatre). Jessica is an award-winning theatre director, and intimacy director, living and working on the stolen and traditional lands of the Coast Salish peoples. Jessica sets the bar for creating respectful, passionate, and imaginative spaces for artists to play in her provocative productions. Her intimacy direction centers on the principles of creating consent based and trauma informed work where we can have braver rehearsal and creation spaces. Thank you to her husband, Mike, for all his love and support – she really couldn’t do this work without him. jessicaannenelson.com
Julie Tamiko Manning
(she/her) Theatre Calgary debut. Elsewhere: The Tashme Project: The Living Archives (Tashme Productions/Firehall Arts Centre); Burning Vision (Rumble Theatre); Mixie and the Halfbreeds (Neworld Theatre); Paradise Lost (Centaur Theatre); Jean Dit (Centre du Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui); Othello (Scapegoat Carnivale/Segal Centre). Julie is an award-winning actor and theatre creator from Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. She is currently completing her third play, Mizushōbai, based on the life of Kiyoko Tanaka Goto, a Japanese picture-bride turned ‘underground’ business woman in 1930s British Columbia, with a Montreal production in October 2023.
Yayoi Hirano
Theatre Calgary debut. Elsewhere: Identity – Ancestral Memory (2011); Medea/Rokujo (2013); Okuni (2017); Comedia (2020); A Life at the Hawk’s Well (2022); collaboration with pianist Sara D. Buechner at Carnegie Hall, NY (2017) and the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. (2018). A native of Japan, Yayoi is a graduate of Toho Gakuen College of Drama. In 1989, she became the first mime artist to receive the Japanese Ministry of Education Fellowship, and spent a year collaborating with mime and dance artists in Germany and Canada. Yayoi has extensive experience with both western and traditional Japanese dance theatre. Her career as a solo performer includes numerous European, Asian festivals and many North American tours, for 14 countries and over 30 cities.
Jane MacFarlane
(she/her) For Theatre Calgary: Resident Voice Coach – More than 60 productions since 2000 including Little Women, The Importance of Being Earnest, Million Dollar Quartet, Steel Magnolias, Admissions, The Louder We Get, Noises Off, Billy Elliot the Musical, The Scarlet Letter, Mary and Max – A New Musical, Honour Beat, 11 seasons of Shakespeare by the Bow and 15 years of A Christmas Carol. Recently, Jane adapted and directed the 2022 Shakespeare on the Go production of The Merry Wives of Windsor. She has also worked for ATP, is the Voice & Dialect Consultant for Vertigo Theatre and the Voice & Text Coach for The Shakespeare Company. Jane also coaches Voice and Presence through her business Voice Activated. She has taught Voice for the Actor and Acting at such institutions as York University, Harvard University, Southern Methodist University, MRU, UofA, and is currently on faculty in the Drama Division in the School of Creative & Performing Arts at UCalgary.
Peter Colenutt
Theatre Calgary debut. Peter served in the British Columbia Regiment and deployed to Afghanistan with the Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians) Regiment.
Ryan Cormack
Theatre Calgary debut. Elsewhere: Kinky Boots (Arts Club); Yaga (Touchstone); A Shakesperience (Bard on the Beach); Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play (DSDM); If/Then, Bring It On! (QMT); Christina the Girl King (5th Co); as Assistant Set Designer: The Jungle Book (Alberta Theatre Projects) Done/Undone, Romeo and Juliet (Bard on the Beach); Actually, The Great Divide (Harold Green/Obsidian). Ryan is a graduate of the DAN School of Drama and Music; studied Set and Costume Design at the National Theatre School of Canada.
Melicia Zaini
(they/them) Theatre Calgary debut. Elsewhere: My Little Tomato (VACT / Zee Zee Theatre); Courage Now (Firehall Arts Centre); A Broadway Holiday (Gateway Theatre); we the same (Ruby Slippers Theatre); The Journal of the Plague Year (TomoeArts); TomorrowLove (Studio 58); Turn of the Screw (Aenigma Theatre). Film & TV: Breakdown Artist for Avatar: The Last Airbender (Season 1, Netflix). Melicia was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia to a family of Chinese ancestry, and is grateful to be living and creating on the unceded and ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations, colonially known as Vancouver, BC. meliciazaini.com
Bronwyn Bowlby
(she/her) Bronwyn is Theatre Calgary’s Head of Sound. Elsewhere: Mesa (Arts Club). Bronwyn has worked all over the country in many different roles, continuing to explore her tech theatre passions. She is thrilled to have the opportunity to work on this beautiful production. Thank you to JDR.
Brianna Johnston
For Theatre Calgary: Assistant Fight Direction – A Christmas Carol (2016); Acting – The Crucible, Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare by the Bow 2013). An actor and fight director, Brianna has had the immense pleasure of working across Alberta. Favourite fight credits include The Extractionist (Vertigo Theatre), The Canadian Badlands Passion Play (The Badlands Amp), All I Want for Christmas (Lunchbox Theatre, Betty Mitchell nomination), The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Alberta Theatre Projects), GIANT (Ghost River Theatre, Betty Mitchell nomination), A Dinner Party (Bad Knaps Collective). Favourite acting credits include The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Alberta Theatre Projects), The Tempest, The Three Musketeers (The Shakespeare Company), The Money Shot (Ground Zero Theatre, Betty Mitchell nomination), The Bone House (Apparition Theatre). Watch for her upcoming fights in Richard III (TSC), Teenage Dick (ATP), and Ministry of Grace (Making Treaty 7). Thanks and love to Logan and all her family and friends for their support.
Shelley Stewart Hunt
Greg Pember
Calgary Theatre: Choreographer for Elf: The Musical (Storybook Theatre), performer in Crazy For You (Theatre Calgary/Citadel Theatre), Spamalot, Young Frankenstein, Screwball Comedy and Priscilla: Queen of the Dessert (Stage West).
Elsewhere: Brigadoon (The Shaw Festival), Newsies, Shear Madness, The Rainmaker, The Drowsy Chaperone, Beauty and the Beast, Rock of Ages, Thoroughly Modern Millie, It Runs in the Family, White Christmas, The Music Man, The Little Mermaid, Footloose, Damn Yankees, Legally Blonde, Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music (Drayton Entertainment), Ghostlight (Off-Broadway/Signature Theatre), Spring Awakening, title role in Hamlet (The Roxy).
Training: B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from The Boston Conservatory. Love and gratitude to Mom, Dad, Bob, and Scott for their unconditional support and for allowing me to follow my dream.
Websites: Choreography: gregpember.com
Yoga: yogawithgreg.com IG: @yoga.with.greg
Erika Morey
(she/her) Theatre Calgary debut. Elsewhere: Boy Falls from the Sky (Mirvish); Anne of Green Gables: The Musical, Mamma Mia!, Jesus Christ Superstar, Kronborg, Métis Mutt, Ghost Light, Spinning Yarns (Charlottetown Festival); The Marriage of Figaro (Edmonton Opera); The Seagull, Rose: A New Musical (Soulpepper); Buffoon (Tarragon Theatre). Erika a current board member for ARC and sat as Secretary-Treasurer for the Canadian Actor’s Equity Association from 2018–2021.
Peter Jotkus
For Theatre Calgary: The Overcoat, An Inspector Calls. Elsewhere: Kim’s Convenience (tour), The Shoplifters (tour), Cost of Living, The Orchard (After Chekhov), The Humans, Jitters, Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches, Good People, One Man, Two Guvnors, Santaland Diaries, Next to Normal (Arts Club). Peter has also worked at the Belfry Theatre, Pacific Opera, Vancouver Playhouse, Electric Company, Bard on the Beach, SFU Woodward’s Citadel, Banff Centre, MTC, Canadian Stage, the National Arts Centre, Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival, Livent, Opera Atelier, Centaur, Charlottetown Festival; touring: Luminato Festival, Toronto; Royce Hall, Los Angeles; DeSingel, Antwerp; BAM, New York; Edinburgh International Festival; Kammerspiel, Munich; American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco; Bergen Festival, Norway; Wellington Festival; Adelaide Festival; Barbican Theatre, London; World Stage Festival. He is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada.
Brianna Diodati
(she/her) Theatre Calgary debut. Elsewhere: Previous Stage Management Apprenticeships include Priscilla Queen of the Desert and One Hit Wonders (Stage West Theatre). Brianna has also worked as an actor across Canada and Spain. Select acting credits include Matilda (La Tourné Teatro - Spain), Carrie: The Musical (University of Lethbridge), and Nunsense The Musical (Music Box Productions). Big thanks to her family and friends for all their love and support.
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