MEET THE INSTRUCTORS

back to PlayWorks Ink 2007

MORWYN BREBNER Morwyn Brebner’s plays include Music for Contortionist, award-winning musical Little Mercy’s First Murder, The Optimists (nominated for the 2006 Governor General’s Award for Drama) and The Pessimist. Her translations include Strawberries in January and Mathilde; her adaptations include Love Among the Russians for the Shaw Festival; her writing for television includes The Eleventh Hour and At the Hotel. She is a Playwright in Residence at Tarragon Theatre in Toronto and a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada’s playwriting program.

KEVIN KERR Kevin Kerr is a playwright, director, actor and founding member of Vancouver’s Electric Company Theatre, 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 developed Unity (1918) while Writer in Residence at Touchstone Theatre, which earned him the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama in 2002. Recent works include The Remittance Man (Sunshine Theatre), Studies in Motion (Electric Company and the University of British Columbia), and the screen adaptation of the Electric Company play The Score (CBC Television). His latest work, Skydive, premiered at the 2007 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in Vancouver (Realwheels Theatre and the Belfry Theatre). He was recently appointed Lee Playwright in Residence at the University of Alberta in Edmonton.

Lynda Adams Lynda Adams has directed and choreographed for theatre from Vancouver to Toronto and has taught at MacEwan College, the University of Alberta, the University of British Columbia, Douglas College, the Citadel’s Foote Theatre School, Victoria School of Performing and Visual Arts and Opera Nuova. Lynda was artistic associate at Northern Light Theatre in Edmonton for five years before taking up her current faculty position in Theatre Studies at Red Deer College. She is entering her 20th year as curriculum director for Artstrek, a summer theatre program for teens. Most recently, Lynda workshopped and directed the premiere production of The Dada Play by Mieko Ouchi (Red Deer College). Lynda has a Master's degree from the Laban Centre of Dance and Movement in London, England.

Trina Davies Trina Davies is an actor, writer and director. Her plays include Multi User Dungeon (Alberta Playwriting Competition Discovery Award 2000), The Auction (Writers Guild of Alberta Short Play Competition 2002), West of the 3rd Meridian (Edmonton Fringe 2004) and Shatter (Alberta Theatre Projects 24 Hour Playwriting Competition 2003, world premiere Ship’s Company 2005). Trina’s plays have been read and/or performed at the Globe Theatre (Regina); Theatre Network, Citadel Theatre, Workshop West Theatre, and the Edmonton International Fringe Festival (Edmonton); Alberta Theatre Projects (Calgary); Ship’s Company (Parrsboro, Nova Scotia); and Playwrights Theatre Centre (Vancouver). She is currently working on Waxworks, which has been workshopped/featured at CanStage’s Raw Raw Raw, PTC Writing Colony and New Play Festival, and the Banff Playwrights Colony.

Christopher Hunt Christopher Hunt has been a freelance actor for over 20 years, working mainly in theatre but also in film, television and radio. Recent stage credits include Sitting On Paradise (Alberta Theatre Projects), Go Back For Murder (Vertigo Theatre), GLORIOUS! (Theatre Calgary/ CanStage, Toronto), Mesa (Ghost River Theatre – UK Tour), and Oleanna (Ground Zero Theatre). He is the proud recipient of three Betty Mitchell Awards for his acting work. In addition to acting, Christopher works as a director, teacher, coach and adjudicator. He also sits on the board of CADA (Calgary Arts Development Authority). He lives in Calgary with his family — Elizabeth, Grady and Arden.

Ron Jenkins Ron Jenkins is the former Artistic Director of Workshop West Theatre in Edmonton, where he directed the world premieres of Ron Chambers’ 17 Dogs, Mieko Ouchi’s The Red Priest (Eight Ways to Say Good-bye), and Vern Thiessen’s Apple. Ron has been honoured with five Sterling Awards for Outstanding Director: twice for The Black Rider (November Theatre, Theatre Network); Respectable (Workshop West); Steel Kiss and The Horror, The Horror (Skid Theatre). Additional directing credits include My One and Only, Mesa, The Blue Light and Ilsa Queen of the Nazi Love Camp (Workshop West); Emperor of Atlantis (co-director, Edmonton Opera/Workshop West); Toronto at Dreamer’s Rock (Fringe Theatre Adventures); Burt (Shadow Theatre); and Eureka! (Skid Theatre). Ron has just completed a successful run of Bash’d by Chris Craddock and Nathan Cuckow (Kill Your Television).

Clem Martini Clem Martini is equally at home writing for adults and young people, whether for live theatre, film or television. He is a three-time winner of the Alberta Writers Guild Drama Prize, a Governor General’s Award for Drama Nominee for his anthology A Three Martini Lunch, a National Playwriting Competition winner for The Life History of the African Elephant, and the past president of the Playwrights Guild of Canada. His text on playwriting, The Blunt Playwright, has enjoyed tremendous success at universities and colleges across the country. His trilogy of novels for young adults, Feather and Bone: The Crow Chronicles, has been translated into German, Dutch, Swedish and Japanese, and optioned for film. Clem is a Professor of Drama at the University of Calgary where he teaches Playwriting, Screenwriting, and Theatre for Young Audiences.

Peter Moller Peter Moller is a Calgary-based musician/designer. Selected sound design credits include Boy Gets Girl (Theatre Junction); Mesa, The Carrot Warrior Seminar, and Paranormal (Ghost River Theatre); Beowulf (Old Trout Puppet Workshop); Mesa (Workshop West); Mistero Buffo and The DeadRats Trilogy (generic theatre); Mom, Dad, I’m Living With A White Girl (Theatre Network, Running with Scissors Theatre); and DreamMachine (One Yellow Rabbit). He is the recipient of three Betty Mitchell Awards and two Sterling Awards for his work in sound design. Peter has been a member of Theatre Junction’s Resident Company of Artists since its inauguration in 2006/07. He plays and tours with Calgary’s Kris Demeanor & his Crack Band and has released a solo album entitled The Shrine of Impossible Love (Concrete Discs 2005). A selection of his sound designs can be found at www.eggpress.ca/p_moller.html#.

Kate Newby Kate Newby has been actively involved in professional theatre since 1985 and has over 100 theatre and film credits to her name. Selected acting credits include Counsellor at Law, Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (Theatre Calgary); Cyrano de Bergerac and Wait Until Dark (Citadel Theatre); Angels in America Part I and II (Alberta Theatre Projects); The Ugly Man (Workshop West Theatre); and The Bear (Lunchbox Theatre). Selected directing credits include The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? (Alberta Theatre Projects); The Libertine and MUD (University of Calgary); Oleanna (Ground Zero Theatre); Office Hours and Kreskinned (Lunchbox Theatre); CRAVE (Blacklist Theatre Project); Flowers (University of Alberta); and Otherwise Bob (Globe Theatre). Kate received a Betty Mitchell Award for Outstanding Direction in 1988 for Lion in the Streets (Sage Theatre) which she will be directing once again for Sage Theatre’s 10th anniversary season in September 2007.

Val Pearson Val Pearson is looking forward to PlayWorks Ink after a busy summer performing, assistant directing, and teaching at Shakespeare in the Park (Mount Royal College) and playing an old vaudevillian in The Full Monty (Ground Zero Theatre and Hit & Myth Productions). She has a long association with Theatre Alberta, having previously taught at both Dramaworks and Artstrek. Her acting career spans 28 years with stage credits including The Stone Angel, Angels in America and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Alberta Theatre Projects), Twelfth Night (The Globe) and Counsellor at Law and Cyrano (Theatre Calgary). She has recently begun directing, with credits such as The Glass Menagerie and Dogbarked for The Globe Theatre and Sandstone Cowboys for the Calgary Centennial Project. Val lives in Calgary with Pat, her husband of 40 years.

Vanessa Porteous Vanessa Porteous is a director and dramaturg based in Calgary. In fall 2007 she will be Production Dramaturg on The Wars by Dennis Garnhum at Theatre Calgary. Selected directing credits include: Why Freud Fainted by David Rhymer with Vanessa Porteous (Alberta Theatre Projects); The Syringa Tree (ATP, Thousand Islands Playhouse); Pinocchio with The Old Trout Puppet Workshop (ATP, Magnetic North); and Plan B, Proof, The Hobbit and Respectable (ATP). Upcoming directing credits include: Snake in the Grass (Vertigo Theatre), Helen’s Necklace (Urban Curvz) and The Syringa Tree (Alberta Theatre Projects). Vanessa is a member of the Executive of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas.

David van Belle David van Belle is a Calgary-based writer, director, actor and singer. He recently completed a six-year stint as part of the creative ensemble of One Yellow Rabbit Performance Theatre, where he participated in the creation of plays such as Dream Machine, Somalia Yellow and Hayride. David has written numerous professionally-produced plays including X-Ray (with David Rhymer and Kira Bradley) and Picnic (with Doug Curtis, David Rhymer, and Elinor Holt) for Ghost River Theatre, and Dragonfly (with Anita Miotti and Ken Cameron) for Theatre of the Living Statue. David co-wrote OYR’s Friction (2005), which premiered in Calgary and toured to Amsterdam, Berlin and Maastricht. David’s new solo show, Beard, was produced twice in Calgary and performed in April 2007 as part of Toronto’s RED Festival.