Michael has been a working actor for over thirty years in the theatre, Canadian & U.S. film & television, TV commercials, radio and animation voices. He attended the Banff School of Fine Arts and was a member of William Hutt’s Young Co. at the Grand Theatre in London, Ont. He has performed and/or directed at many Canadian theatres, including Toronto’s Royal Alexandra, The Shaw Festival and the Centaur in Montreal, Selected theatre acting credits include: Bert Cates in INHERIT THE WIND, Leonard in THE LEONARD COHEN SHOW and Bob Cratchit in A CHRISTMAS CAROL Selected film and television acting credits include: THE SCALES OF JUSTICE and NAKED LUNCH directed by David Cronenberg, THE SANTA CLAUSE with Tim Allen, OWNING MAHONEY with Phillip Seymour Hoffman, BLUE MURDER, RELIC HUNTER, ELEVENTH HOUR, DOC, QUEER AS FOLK. Michael is the voice of Hamilton Hawks the pig in Nelvana's award winning animated children’s series MAGGIE & THE FROCIOUS BEAST. In 1996 Michael began working as acting and /or dialogue coach, privately, in workshops and on set. Some on set coaching credits include: THE TIME TRAVELLER’S WIFE, the Disney TV series FLASH FORWARD, PSI FACTOR, QUEER AS FOLK, HOTEL METROPOLITAN and feature films; CRIME SPREE, OWNING MAHONEY, CAVEDWELLER and more, plus TV commercials. Michael teaches the KIDS & TEENS ON CAMERA workshops and SUCCESSFUL AUDITIONS and ON CAMERA SCENE STUDY for adults, for his company, bongo productions. Michael teaches Acting For Film And Television at Studio Pavas in Mississauga. Ont.
Christina Collins has been acting for over twenty years. She started off playing Laura in The Glass Menagerie in Stamford Connecticut, and has never looked back. Ms. Collins studied acting at Circle-in-the-Square Theatre School in New York City. She has performed at a wide variety of theatres across Canada and the United States.
Some of her theatre highlights include; Kate in Taming of the Shrew, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Charlotte in Night of the Iguana, Margherita in We Won’t Pay! We Won’t Pay!, Libby in I Ought to Be in Pictures, and the lead role of Darlene in Balm in Gilead. Ms. Collins also has numerous films and television credits to her name. Some highlights include principal roles in: Dead Ringers, Glory, Glory, E.N.G., Women in Prison, Between Love and Honor, Holiday Affair, Deep Water Black, Extreme Measures, Thanks to a Grateful Nation, Reversible Errors and the lead role in the film, The Dinner Party. In addition, she has appeared as a recurring cast member on the BBC/Disney produced series, I WAS A SIXTH GRADE ALIEN. She has also appeared on many Canadian Television series such as; DOC, KEVIN HILL, BLUE MURDER, THIS IS WONDERLAND, REGENESIS and DEGRASSI, SECOND GENERATION to name a few. As well as her acting work, Christina has worked as a Stage manager and producer in the theatre, and was co-founder and co-artistic director for Wildthyme Theatre Company, in Toronto. She tutors actors privately and has taught many improvisational classes for the local school system. Ms. Collins has been delighted to be among the teaching staff for the Film and Television Program at Humber College in Toronto. She also freelances as a director, and frequently directs commercial auditions at Jigsaw Casting, Power House Casting, Gloria Mann, Brian Levy and Fade to Black.
Allan was director of the Training Centre at Second City, Toronto, for seventeen years. He has also taught at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (California), the University of Southern California, and the Actors Studio Drama School in New York. He was co-artistic director of the Actors Workshop in Toronto; whose guest teachers included Uta Hagen and Robert Lepage. For five years, Allan was the artistic director of the Humber Comedy Program. His students have included Mike Myers, the members of the Kids in the Hall, several generations of Second City performers, Keanu Reeves, Bradley Whitford (West Wing), Albert Schultz (Street Legal, founder of Soulpepper Theatre)) and most of those who have taught at the Second City Training Centre.
Allan has also written for the stage and for radio, directed comedies, dramas, musicals, and revues for the stage (Dora Award nomination), and worked as a musical director, composer, and arranger. He has directed several Second City companies, and was musical director of Second City, Toronto, and other shows. He has worked with Gilda Radner, Andrea Martin, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Bill Murray, and many others. He wrote radio dramas for the CBC, and was nominated for an ACTRA Award. As a musical arranger, he has worked with some of the top jazz and classical players in the country. His efforts as a producer, writer, composer, director, and musician have been presented at theatres in New York and across Canada, as well as on radio, television, and recordings.
Martin’s many credits include: WRITER/STORY EDITOR on seven television series: Adventures in Rainbow Country; The Starlost; Swiss Family Robinson; Matt & Jenny; The Littlest Hobo; Counterstrike; NBC’s Secret Service. TELEPLAY WRITER of numerous anthology TV dramas and series episodes: CBC’s For The Record – Out of Sight, Out of Mind & Slim Obsession; CBS Top Cops; Profiles of Nature; Stoney Plain; Sidestreet; Diefenbaker mini-series; Taking the Falls; Lassie; Vanderberg; Philosophy series - Rousseau; Hobbes and Locke; Katts and Dog; My Secret Identity; The Campbells; World Religions. SCREENWRITER of six produced theatrical feature films: The Offering; Lions for Breakfast; Deadly Harvest; Wings in the Wilderness; Shape of Things to Come; Klondike Fever. PLAYWRIGHT of 16 produced stage plays: Who is on my Side? Who?; The Mastermind; Romeo, Juliet, and All the Folks at Home; The Magic Mountain; The Newsmaker; The Vagabonds; A Time to Reap; House Beyond Mercy; Dr. Knock; I, Hilda; Idiots & Anarchists; The Life and Times of Practically Nobody; The Magnificent Slowpoke; A Tree. A Rock. A cloud. C.A.F.C.U.; Wake to the Eagle, Singing. EXECUTIVE PRODUCER OF DRAMA – CTV Television Network 1985-90, in charge of all TV Series, Mini-Series, Movies, Specials, including: E.N.G; Neon Rider; Control; Bordertown; Night Heat; The Campbells; Mount Royal; My Secret Identity; Hot Shots; Katts and Dog; Firing Squad; Champagne Charlie; Passion and Paradise; The New North; The Canadians; Summits of Glory; Passion and Paradise; Sword of Gideon; The Execution of Raymond Graham. CTV DEVELOPMENT EXECUTIVE of the following:
Black Robe; Counterstrike; The Sound & The Silence; The Legend of Grey Owl; By Special Appointment; Two For Joy; Scoop; Fortunes of War; Coco Chanel; I’ll Take Manhattan; Angel Square; The Eagle and The Crown; Jericho Rolling; The Lombardos; Shuttle; McCall & Co.; A Women At War; Lady From Berlin; Green Beach; In the Company of Women; The Easter Hunt; Pirates, Ghosts and Gold. INSTRUCTOR – Sheridan College – 2 years: Film & TV Screenwriting; Media Analysis Course. INSTRUCTOR – University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies – 3 years: Feature Film Screenwriting; Television Script Writing; Playwrighting. INSTRUCTOR – Humber College – 3 years: Sit-Com/Screenplay writing in the School of Comedy. INSTRUCTOR - Humber College – 7 years: History of Film, Television & Radio in the AFTV Program. INSTRUCTOR – Sir Sandford Fleming College – 7 years: Creative Writing; Acting. Martin has conducted numerous writing and acting workshops throughout Canada. He was a Genie Award Nominee for Best Screenplay for the Feature Film “Klondike Fever”, and has been awarded two Telefilm-Canada Screenwriting grants, two Canada Council Theatre grants, and four Ontario Arts Council grants in Theatre and Film writing. Martin has been a Creative Consultant to a number of independent producers. Martin was a professional actor prior to focusing on writing. Recently, Martin’s feature-length screenplay, “My Khrushchev September” was the winning script in Wildsound Pictures screenplay competition from over 200 submissions. The script had a professional cast reading in December 2007 at the National Film Board Theatre in Toronto, where it received and enthusiastic response from audience and moderators. His feature-length comedy screenplay, “Slowpoke”, was a semi-finalist in the 2007 Los Angeles-based “Find The Funny” comedy screenplay competition. Martin continues to write screenplays and has recently returned to the acting arena. 2009 marks his 53rd year in the industry.
Catherine has been a theatre professional for over 30 years. Dance training and explorations in physical theatre forms led to a career in acting. As a founding member of Theatre Energy in B.C., she co-created many original productions and toured in a variety of contemporary plays. A graduate of the M.F.A. programme at York University, Catherine has assisted Claudia Moore and the dancers of Moonhorse Theatre with vocal training and production coaching. With director Peter Hinton, she coached The Taming of the Shrew and The Beggar’s Opera, led an intensive professional workshop in Jacobean text in Ottawa, and ran an apprenticeship program at Caravan Theatre in B.C. Catherine has taught Acting at the University of Guelph, and Voice and Text at York University. Currently she guides the Movement curriculum in the Theatre Performance Program at Humber and does private coaching. Catherine is a Somatic Movement Therapist and is currently undertaking graduate studies in Expressive Arts Therapy at ISIS Canada and the European Graduate School.
Since 1970, Sheila McCarthy has worked across Canada in every regional theatre, playing a variety of parts including Ophelia in Hamlet at CanStage, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris at Vancouver Playhouse, You Can’t Take it with You at the Arts Club, Vancouver; Private Lives, Kamloops, Putting on the Ritz at the Shaw Festival, The Boyfriend, Toronto, Say Hello to Harvey at the Royal Alexandra, Toronto; Really Rosie at Young People’s Theatre/Toronto [Dora Mavor Moore Award/best actress]; Little Shop of Horrors at Crest Theatre [Dora Mavor Moore Award/best actress]; Robin Phillips’ Grand Theatre season, playing in Waiting for the Parade, Godspell, Timon of Athens and Prisoner of Zenda; four seasons at the Stratford Festival playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret; Lady Teasle in School for Scandal; Toinette in The Imaginary Invalid; Adelaide in Guys and Dolls; Helena in Midsummer Night’s Dream and Irma in Anything Goes.
Her television credits include ten years of CBC TV variety shows, including Tommy Hunter, Air Farce, CBC birthday celebrations [20th and 25th anniversaries], Picket fences [CBS Los Angeles], Street Legal, This Is Wonderland, Sesame Street [won Gemini for guest actor], A Nest of Singing Birds [nominated for Gemini Best actress], Emily Of new Moon[ won Best actress Gemini 2001]. I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing [Genie Award/best actress, Charles Chaplin Award in Vevey, Switzerland and People’s Choice Award/Cannes Film Festival, 1987], Lotus Eaters [Genie Award, best actress, 1994]. Other films include Die Hard 2, The Day After Tomorrow, Paradise, Stepping Out, Bright Angel, Being Julia, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Rare Birds, The Lathe of Heaven, Pacific Heights, A Woman of Independent Means, Beautiful Dreamers, Nest of Singing Birds, The Dairy Girls, Roxanna [fall, 2006 release] Four seasons starring on CBC TV’s Emily of New Moon, starring as Aunt Laura [Gemini, best actress 1999]. Guest-starred on Picket Fences, Wonderland, Avonlea, Sesame Street [Gemini/best featured actress, 2000].
Sheila is also an accomplished writer, producer, choreographer and director. She has trained at the University of Victoria and with the National Ballet School, as well as in NYC with Uta Hagen at HB Studio. She has taught at The National Theatre School, Humber College, at Stratford Shakespeare’s Summer School and has also mentored Stratford apprentices. She currently can be seen on CBC’s Little Mosque on the Prairie in the starring role of Sarah Hamoudi.
Viv was born in England and has worked collaboratively and as a solo artist as a dancer, actor, choreographer and teacher for 31 years, in dance, theatre, film and video in Sweden, Australia, England and Canada. She co-founded Remote Control with Dave Wilson in 1979 (Vancouver) and participated in the inaugural fFIDA in 1991 (Toronto). She has co-written several publications and worked with many special population groups, in London (England) and Toronto. Some of Viv’s own dance theatre works include: Bogie Woman (1999 Paula Citron fFIDA Award), Body Geometry-Seventh Angel (2002 Dora nomination), On Tenterhooks (Nuit Blanche-Distillery) and her solo show Worcestershire Saucy she choreographed, produced and performed at Factory Theatre. Dance films include Ohm, Waking the Witch and tra la la. Viv has been an actor and company member of Theatre Rusticle (The Stronger) and Mackenzie Ro (Rake’s Progress) for many years. She has been movement coach and choreographer for Theatre Direct (Dora Nominated Sanctuary Song) and on selected plays and films including Hedda Gabler (Dir Judith Thompson, Shaw Festival), Midsummer Night’s Dream (Dir Kate Lynch,Theatre Passe Muraille), La Danza (Quartetto Gelato). She has danced in Denise Fujiwara’s Conference of the Birds, and continues to study butoh, dance improvisation and physical theatre. She has recently been creating work with EFDSS (English Folk Dance & Song Society) in England. Viv received a Harold (1998), was National-Coordinator of Fight Directors, Canada (Advanced Combatant) and is a certified Reflexologist. She has a BFA (Dean’s Honours List) and an MA. Viv has taught at McMaster and Ryerson Universities, Seneca, George Brown and Sheridan Colleges, and has been teaching at Humber since 1985, (Theatre Department and Acting for Film & TV) where she choreographed main stage productions and directed Decadance (dance company) within the Theatre Department.
Sonia has worked for over 20 years in theatre, film and television as an actor, director, writer, creator, dramaturge and producer. She has an MFA in Directing from York University, studied physical theatre at Ecole Jacques Lecoq, Ecole Philippe Gaulier, Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre and is a graduate of The Vancouver Playhouse Acting School. Her work has been nominated for three Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards (Best Supporting Actress, Outstanding Performance, Outstanding Artistic Achievement Script and Design) and received numerous grants from the Canada Council, BC Arts Council, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, Canadian Embassy, Mellusine Foundation, YASC Zimbabwe and HIVOS Netherlands.
Roland is a 30-year veteran of the voice profession. He has voiced hundreds of radio and television commercials and many animated series. Many will remember him as the voice of “Zeddy The Teddy” for Zellers TV commercials and the voice of “Melvin” in the hit animated series “Sailor Moon”. After graduating as an award-winning student in the Radio and Television Arts Program at Ryerson University in 1971, Roland went on to perform as a lead guitar player in the popular rock/jazz fusion band “Brandy” and subsequently spent 3 1/2 years in a small Toronto advertising agency as a copywriter and radio/TV producer. He then parlayed his advertising and music skills into his own jingle production company Wizard Productions Inc, in 1975. He is the recipient of over 75 international awards for his advertising music including the much-lauded “Ontario Yours To Discover” jingle which aired from 1979 until 1985, one of the longest running jingles in Canadian advertising history. This jingle made a brief re-appearance on the airwaves in spring 2003. Roland is also a respected voice director. In the past he directed 55 episodes of “Sailor Moon” and most recently the entire series of “Inside the Moon”. In addition to a 13-year stint in the Theatre School at Ryerson University, he has also conducted classes and workshops in commercial voice-over, character voices and dialects for “ACTRAWorks”, “Equity Showcase” and the “CN Anime Festival”. Roland has also conducted voice workshops and demo production sessions on behalf of ACTRA in Halifax, Winnipeg & St. John’s
Maria Ricossa has worked in Theatre, Film, Television and Radio for over 25 years. She was a series lead in Street Legal and Riverdale, recurring roles in Degrassi, the Next Generation, Missing and Da Kink in my Hair. Recent episodic TV work includes guest starring roles on Flashpoint, Warehouse 13 and Unnatural History. Maria has played leading roles in numerous Movies of the Week, most recently the Hallmark movies
Other Theatre credits include work with The Tarragon, Nightwood Theatre and Studio 180. Maria is a private acting coach for film and TV. and theatre and has coached actors on the sets of The Prizewinner of Defiance Ohio, Hairspray and The Music Man. She has also been on faculty at George Brown Theatre School, Armstrong Acting Studio and University of Toronto Scarborough.
Dixie Seatle trained at Dawson College and graduated from the National Theatre School in Montreal. Her many stage credits from Canadian theatres include leading roles in Moon for the Misbegotten, Long Day’s Journey into Night, The Goat, The Secret Rapture, Philadelphia Story, Top Girls, Plenty, and Mother Courage. In five seasons at the Stratford festival she performed in Othello, Merry Wives of Windsor, Macbeth, Death of a Salesman, Equus, and An Ideal Husband.
In addition to a long list of individual television credits, she has been a series lead in four television series, receiving “Best Actress in a Continuing Role” Gemini awards for her work in Adderley (CBS/Global) and Paradise Falls (Showcase). She was also a Gemini nominee for the CBC shows A Gift to Last, Population of One, I love a Man in a Uniform, and she received a Genie nomination for the film A Ticket to Heaven.
Her teaching credits include an on-camera Master Class at the Stratford Festival, regular camera technique classes at Toronto Centre for the Arts and the Armstrong Acting Studio, and five years of Shakespeare Scene study at George Brown College. She was a guest artist at Earl Haig School for the Arts, and the Shakespeare in the Schools program. She directed a Claude Watson School for the Arts showcase, worked as acting coach on the television series Metropia, Connor Undercover, Overruled, and also, frequently coaches audition technique privately.
Steve has been in the entertainment industry for 37 years. He works primarily as a stunt coordinator/performer, a theatre fight director and teacher of film and stage combat. Prior to coming to Canada he taught at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff for sixteen years, he also instigated the combat courses at The Friars Gate, Exeter and the Oxford Drama School, he has also taught guest lectures or examined at all of the major drama schools in the United Kingdom. His resume contains approximately 400 credits in film, television and theatre. He is a Master Instructor with the Academy of Dramatic Combat and Fight Master with the British Academy of Dramatic Combat, a member of the Canadian Actors Equity Association Fight Directors register, The Society of Canadian Fight Directors and ACTRA. Some of the companies that he's worked for are the BBC, S4C Television and Channel 4 Television, Discovery Channel, Space Channel, MTV, Disney, Thames Television and HTV. He also teaches the stage combat component of the Humber Theatre School curriculum. Selected Credits include : As a stunt performer: “Aaron Stone”, “The Dresden Files”, “Secret Adventures of Jules Verne”, “Mutant X” “The Mad” and “Weapon”. As Stunt Coordinator: “Troubled Waters”, “UKM”, “Lucky 10”, “Final Draft”, “Green Door” and “Bottom Feeder”.
