Dramaworks 2006 Instructors
GEOFFREY BRUMLIK
Teaches The Big Comfy Director's Chair
Geoffrey has worked as Artistic Director of
Edmonton’s River City Shakespeare Festival and
spent four seasons as Resident Director at The
Citadel Theatre. Geoff’s training includes a BFA in
Acting from the University of Alberta, two summers
of study at the Banff Centre, and a tenure with the
Young Company at The Stratford Festival. Recent
directing credits include Shakespeare’s Will at the
Citadel Theatre (2005 Sterling Award for Outstanding Production), and A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, As You Like It, and Comedy of
Errors at the River City Shakespeare Festival. He has also worked as either
coach or assistant director on more than 14 productions at the Citadel
Theatre, where he is currently working as Artist-in-Residence. Acting credits
include work at The Citadel Theatre, Globe Theatre, Theatre Network,
Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan, and The Stratford Festival. Geoff also
maintains a private practice as a voice and acting coach, as well as physical
integration coaching with professional actors.
BRUCE CABLE
Guest Instructs On Your Toes: A Directing Primer for Musical Theatre
Since studying jazz saxophone performance and
composition at Grant MacEwan College and
Secondary Music Education at the U of A, Bruce has
taught both instrumental and choral music to students
in and around the Edmonton area, most recently at
Victoria School of Performing and Visual Arts, where
he was also concert choir and jazz director. He served
as Co-Artistic and Music Director for St. Albert Children’s Theatre for eight
seasons. Bruce was also a member of the professional chamber choir Pro
Coro Canada, a baritone in the a cappella group VOCE, and the director of
the Festival Singers Community Choir. He is currently working to complete
his Master's in Choral Conducting at the University of Miami.
MICHELLE DIAS
Teaches Grand Illusions: Scenic Art Tips and Techniques
Michelle Dias is a graduate of Ryerson University’s
Theatre Production program. She is an accomplished
mask and props builder as well as a scenic artist
who has worked for such diverse companies as The
Canadian Opera Company (Toronto), National Arts
Centre (Ottawa), Theatre Calgary, Alberta Theatre
Projects and Alberta Ballet. Michelle has worked for
the Banff Centre Props Department since 1988 and
has been Head of Props there during the summer festival since 1996. She
moved to Edmonton that same year and has been Head of Scenic Art at the
Citadel Theatre since the 1996/97 season. Michelle was the recipient of the
Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award for Outstanding Personal Achievement in
Theatre Production in 2004. In addition to many years of mentoring students
learning props skills in Banff, Michelle has taught several classes in scenic
art, including an enjoyable Dramaworks workshop for Theatre Alberta several
summers ago.
BRIAN DOOLEY
Teaches Masks, Mockery, and Mayhem: An Introduction to Commedia
D’ell Arte
Brian has been involved in Canadian radio, television,
film, and theatre for 25 years. As former Vice President
Creative and producer for Great North Productions,
Alliance Atlantis, Brian oversaw the development and
production of many original documentary and drama
projects. Among his credits are the series The Things
We Do For Love and Who’s On Top for LIFE Network,
The $100 Taxi Ride for National Geographic, The
Canadians for HISTORY Television, and Jake and the Kid for Global. As an
actor, Brian has been nominated for a Gemini Award for The Boys of St.
Vincent and a Betty Mitchell Award for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (ATP),
and has been honoured with two AMPIA Awards for The Beat (Best Performer
and Best Production Under 60 Minutes). Brian has a long history in new
play development and dramaturgy with organizations such as Playwrights’
Workshop Montreal, Factory Theatre, The Banff playRites Colony, and The
National Film Board. He has worked with the National Theatre School since
1983 as an instructor and coordinator, and currently teaches neutral and
character mask there.
GREG DOWLER-COLTMAN
Teaches On Your Toes: A Directing Primer for Musical Theatre
Greg is currently the Department Head of the School
of Theatre at Victoria School of Performing and
Visual Arts with Edmonton Public Schools where
he teaches Acting and Directing. A University of
Alberta BFA Acting graduate, Greg has served as
Artistic Associate at Theatre Network and directed
productions at Northern Light Theatre and The
Citadel Theatre. Greg has many musical theatre
directing credits, including a recent production of the grandiose Seussical
the Musical at Victoria School. He has taught at the University of Alberta,
Concordia College, and Artstrek, and even spent a few summers working as
coordinator of Dramaworks!
PAUL GELINEAU
Teaches Dueling Dramatis Personae and Bad Behaviour in the Theatre
One of only 12 certified Fight Directors in Canada
and the Past President of Fight Directors Canada,
Paul Gelineau is a renowned Fight Director who has
received local, national, and international recognition
for his work. He has worked in most major theatres
across Canada and currently serves as Artistic
Director of Keyano Theatre in Fort MacMurray. His
most recent fight directing projects include Romeo
and Juliet (National Arts Centre, Ottawa), West Side Story (Citadel Theatre/Theatre Calgary), and As You Like It (CanStage, Toronto); he is currently
working on a massive production of Peter Pan at the Citadel Theatre. Paul
has taught combat through Fight Directors Canada in such prestigious institutions as The National Theatre School, Ryerson University, University
of Alberta, University of Nevada Las Vegas and Université catholique de
Louvain, Belgium.
JANE HEATHER
Teaches What’s Your Point?: small p political theatre
Jane Heather is a playwright, director, and popular
theatre facilitator. She teaches at the University
of Alberta in Edmonton and at the Centre for
Indigenous Theatre in Toronto. She has created
community based theatre projects with prison
inmates, aboriginal youth, unions, teachers, seniors,
counselors, women’s groups, and a wide variety of
social agencies and organizations. Two of her plays
are performed each year in Edmonton schools: Are We There Yet?, a play for
12–16 year-olds about sexual health and decision-making; and Work Plays,
for 15–18 year-olds about workplace health and safety. Jane has also cut
grass at a mental hospital, run a snack bar at a curling rink, taken surveys
door to door, catalogued a visual arts library, and been a social worker, union
rep, and day care worker. She is committed to the notion that people can
create a more just, clean world using theatre but wonders if that’s because
that’s what she likes to do.
KEVIN KERR
Teaches It Really Happened: The Use of History in Playwriting
Kevin Kerr is Co-Artistic Director and founding
member of Electric Company Theatre, a Vancouver
collective with whom he’s co-written numerous plays
including The Wake, The Score, Dona Flor and Her
Two Husbands, Flop, The Fall, and Brilliant! The
Blinding Enlightenment of Nikola Tesla. He has been
the recipient of three Jessie Richardson Awards for
his writing, and in 2002 he received the Governor
General’s Literary Award for Drama for his play Unity (1918), which has since
received multiple productions across Canada in both English and in its French
translation by Paul Lefebvre. Recently, Kevin co-wrote a feature-length screen
adaptation of the Electric Company play The Score which premiered at the
Vancouver International Film Festival and subsequently was broadcast on
CBC’s Opening Night. Other recent works include The Remittance Man, a
historical comedy for Sunshine Theatre in Kelowna, and Studies in Motion, which was co-produced by Electric Company Theatre and Theatre at UBC at
the 2006 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival. Kevin lives and works
in Vancouver.
MARISSA KOCHANSKI
Teaches Dress for Less
Marissa Kochanski has designed for the Citadel
Theatre, Theatre Network, Teatro la Quindicina,
Keyano Theatre and many more. She also works
as a scenic artist and designer/instructor for the
Citadel’s Foote Theatre School. She counts among
her favourite things: quad-ruled graph paper,
mechanical pencils with lots of lead, libraries, and
mugs of hot tea. In the 2004/05 season she won
an Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award for Outstanding Set Design (Theatre
Network’s Marion Bridge) and a Betty Mitchell Award for Costume Design
(November Theatre’s The Black Rider).
DAVID LOVETT
Teaches Upstaging Design
David Lovett is a Professor Emeritus of the University
of Alberta’s Drama Department. He came to Canada
in 1969 intending to stay for two years and retired from
the U of A in 2004 … he is still confused as to what he
wants to do when he grows up. In the meantime he
has happily combined teaching with a design career,
teaching also at UBC, the Banff Centre, and most
recently with Uta Birnbaum in a “Brecht Workshop”
for the Aboriginal Acting Company. He studied in England at the Wimbledon
School of Art and designed scenery and costumes for a variety of repertory
theatres in the UK. Canadian design credits range from opera to vaudeville
with the Citadel Theatre (Who Has Seen the Wind), Stratford Festival (The
Importance of Being Earnest), Theatre Calgary, Alberta Ballet, Edmonton
Opera, Studio Theatre and Fort Steele Historic Park. He is a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Arts and a member of the Associated Designers of Canada
and the Canadian Institute of Theatre Technology.
JOANNE LOWRY
Guest Instructs On Your Toes: A Directing Primer for Musical Theatre
Joanne Lowry has a broad background in dance after
studying ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, modern and folk
dance in Winnipeg, Edmonton, Toronto, Vancouver,
Los Angeles, New York, Texas, and Miami. She
received her Bachelor of Education from the
University of Alberta and is currently the Department
Head of Dance at Victoria School of Performing
and Visual Arts in Edmonton. Joanne served on
the committee in charge of the development of the dance curriculum for
Edmonton Public Schools. She is currently a company member with Free
Fall Dance in Edmonton.
MEREDITH SCOTT
Teaches Stepping into the Spotlight
Meredith Scott is a voice, dialect and acting coach
and a graduate of the Central School of Speech
and Drama, the University of Toronto, and Sheridan
College. Over the past nine years she has worked
as an actor, playwright, director and teacher across
Canada with companies such as Soulpepper Theatre
Company, the Grand Theatre and the Atlantic
Theatre Festival. In Edmonton she has taught for the
University of Alberta and Theatre Alberta’s Workshops by Request program,
and has coached several shows for the Citadel Theatre. She is thrilled to be
part of Dramaworks for the first time.
EUGENE STICKLAND
Teaches The Serious Business of Comedy
Eugene Stickland is one of Alberta’s most frequently
produced playwrights and the author of several
award-winning plays, including Some Assembly
Required and A Guide to Mourning. Eugene is
currently working on a number of projects, including
a full-length adaptation of his play Closer and Closer Apart for Edmonton’s Theatre Network. Eugene
writes a feature column for the Calgary Herald and
teaches at St. Mary’s University College.
SCOTT SWAN
Teaches Got the “Willies” Over Shakespeare?
Scott Swan has been a professional theatre director
and teacher for 30 years, winning numerous awards
for his work. He was the Founding Artistic Director
of Northern Light Theatre in Edmonton, the Artistic
Director of Festival Lennoxville in Quebec, and has
also served as a National Radio Drama Producer
for the CBC. He has directed at most of the major
regional theatres in Canada including: The National
Arts Centre, The Shaw Festival, Manitoba Theatre Centre, The Citadel Theatre,
Alberta Theatre Projects, Vancouver Playhouse, Vancouver Shakespeare
Festival, Bard on the Beach and the Bastion Theatre. He has also had two
shows optioned for Broadway! Scott has served as the Director and Head
Teacher of his own acting studio in Vancouver, Seacoast Studios, for the last
12 years. Former students work professionally in theatre and film in Canada
and the US, and have been accepted to some of the most highly acclaimed
theatre schools and university programs around the world.