LIANE BALABAN | Claire
For Necessary Angel: Divisadero: a performance
Other: TV: Alphas (SYFY), NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS), Covert Affairs (USA), Abroad (CBC – Gemini Award nomination), Numb3rs (CBS), St. Urbain’s Horsemen (CBC), Above and Beyond (CBC), After the Harvest (Lifetime), Film: Maniac, Finding Joy, The Future is Now, The New Tenants (2010 Oscar, best live action short), One Week (Genie Award nomination), Coach, Last Chance Harvey, The Trotsky, You Might as Well Live, Definitely Maybe, Seven Times Lucky, World Traveler, New Waterford Girl (Canadian Comedy Award nomination, Jury Congratulation – Toronto International Film Festival).
DANIEL BROOKS | Director
For Necessary Angel: Half Life, Bigger Than Jesus, Insomnia, The Eco Show, HardSell, This Is What Happens Next, Divisadero: a performance
Necessary Angel’s Artistic Director since 2003, he has also worked as a director, writer, actor, producer, and teacher. Some of his creations include Red Tape and 86: An Autopsy (with Don McKellar and Tracy Wright); The Lorca Play, House, Here Lies Henry, Monster, Cul-de-sac, and most recently, This Is What Happens Next (all with Daniel MacIvor); The Noam Chomsky Lectures and Insomnia (with Guillermo Verdecchia); Bigger Than Jesus and HardSell (with Rick Miller); The Good Life and The Eco Show. His work as a director includes John Mighton’s Possible Worlds and Half Life, Goethe’s Faust, Beckett’s Endgame, The Drowsy Chaperone, and I Send You This Cadmium Red. He is an Associate Artist with Soulpepper Theatre Company. He was the first recipient of the prestigious Elinore and Lou Siminovitch Prize in Theatre for directing. His work has traveled across Canada and around the world.
STEFAN DZEPAROSKI | Assistant Director
For Necessary Angel: Divisadero: a performance
Other: Stefan Dzeparoski is an alumnus of Directors Lab (2011) at the Lincoln Centre Theatre in New York. Stefan worked as the Production Dramaturge for Assassins by Stephen Sondheim (produced by BirdLand Theatre, 2010 Dora Award winner for the Outstanding Production of a Musical) directed by Adam Brazier. He holds an MFA degree in Directing from University of Alberta, and an MA Degree in Theatre Studies from University of Arts in Belgrade. The focus of Stefans’ directorial aesthetic is the use of projected media and innovative approaches to sound design as a dramaturgical tool for creating stage narratives that are going beyond traditional linear text based theatre. In theatre he is looking for poetic reasoning. His other selected directing credits include: SoulSeek (BirdLand Theatre, Toronto), Roberto Zucco (Studio Theatre, Edmonton), Anime (Lucid Productions, Edmonton), The Creation of the world and other business (The System Theatre, Edmonton) and After the Fall (Studio Theatre, Edmonton). In Europe he also directed Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee (showcased at the Belgrade International Theatre Festival-BITEF in 2005) and Quartet by Heiner Muller. Stefan is also an accomplished theatre educator. He has taught at the Drama Department, University of Alberta and at Ryerson Theatre School in Toronto.
In May 2012 for Birdland Theatre Stefan will be directing Gruesome Playground Injuries by Rajiv Joseph at Theatre Centre.
In 2007 he was nominated for the Sterling Award in Directing.
THE FILM FARM (Simone Urdl & Jennifer Weiss)
Have an eclectic and award- winning slate of over 20 narrative feature films, short films and film-based projects. Their credits include Atom Egoyan’s last two features Adoration and Chloe; Brian de Palma’s Redacted; Sarah Polley’s debut feature film Away From Her; Sook-Yin Lee’s Year of the Carnivore and Mike Goldbach’s Daydream Nation. They are currently finishing post production on their new feature, Foxfire and adaptation of the Joyce Carol Oates novel with Writer/Director Laurent Cantet.
ROBERT HARDING | Stage Manager
For Necessary Angel: This Is What Happens Next (w/ Great Canadian Theatre Company & Magnetic North Theatre Festival)
Other: The Normal Heart (Studio 180/Buddies In Bad Times), Our Class, Blackbird (Studio 180/Canadian Stage) Parade (Studio 180/Acting Up Stage), Stuff Happens, (Studio 180/Mirvish Productions), Side by Side by Sondheim (The Grand Theatre); “Master Harold”…and the boys (Thousand Islands Playhouse); Happy Days (Theatre Columbus); Another Home Invasion, Communion, A Beautiful View, How It Works, Past Perfect (Tarragon Theatre); Festen, Marion Bridge, A Whistle in the Dark (Company Theatre); British Invasion!, British Invasion 2: America Strikes Back! (Charlottetown Festival); Seussical (LKTYP); Carmela’s Table (Centaur Theatre); The Taming of the Shrew (ShakespeareWorks); and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Resurgence Theatre).
MAGGIE HUCULAK | Anna
For Necessary Angel: Tamara, Mein, Desire, Seven Lears, King Lear, Beating Heart Cadaver, The Piper, Hysterica, Half Life,Divisadero: a performance, Tout Comme Elle
Other: Antigone, Travesties, A Christmas Carol and The Wild Duck (Soulpepper); Age of Arousal (Nightwood Theatre); The Woman in White (Theatre Aquarius); The Black Bonspiel of Wullie Macrimmon, The Clean House, The Glass Menagerie and Elizabeth Rex (Globe); 4:48 Psychosis (Summerworks); Lonely Nights and Other Stories, Twelfth Night, The Knee Plays, and The Betrayal (Chalmers Award) (Theatre Columbus). A six-time Dora Award nominee, Maggie has co-created four plays, including Mein, winner of a Dora Award, and The Betrayal, winner of a Chalmers Award. Maggie acts extensively on camera, with regular and recurring roles on Puppets Who Kill, Queer as Folk, Wind At My Back, The Adventures of Shirley Holmes, and Eric’s World. Recent film work includes Fugitive Pieces, Anne: A New Beginning, and The Gathering. Maggie narrated CBC’s epic documentary Canada: A People’s History, and the dramatizations of Michael Ondaatje’s In The Skin of a Lion, and The English Patient. She dedicates this performance to her father, Walter Huculak.
ANDREA LUNDY | Lighting designer
For Necessary Angel: Tout Comme Elle, Andromache, The Eco Show, Half Life, Insomnia, Hamlet, Divisadero: a performance
Other: Andrea Lundy is an award winning lighting designer, having been nominated for 22 Dora Mavor Moore Awards, winning 9 times for Hamlet, The Mill, The Eco Show, Stories from the Rains of Love and Death, Russell Hill, The Attic, The Pearls and Three Fine Girls, Possible Worlds, Insomnia, and Oedipus. She has spent four seasons at the Shaw Festival and has worked extensively with Tarragon Theatre, Soulpepper Theatre, Canadian Stage, Necessary Angel Theatre Company, Factory Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, and Neptune Theatre among other Canadian companies. She is currently the Director of Production at the National Theatre School of Canada and is a member of the Associated designers of Canada.
COLEEN MacPHERSON * | Assistant Director
For Necessary Angel: Debut
Other: Coleen is a Toronto-based theatre artist and poet. Her most recent directing credits include The Editor at the Toronto Fringe and The Double (Theatre Passe Muraille’s BUZZ! Festival). She is currently writing a new play The Selfsame Hour anddeveloping The Pasolini Project with TheatreRUN (Canstage's Festival of Ideas and Creation 2010, Canstage’s Spotlight Italy Festival 2011). This project is an original English translation of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s play Pylades, which will soon appear in an Italian journal on 20th century theatre. She also founded The Pocketology Collective with Chicago-based visual artist Rachel Ellison, touring pocket story installations across the GTA (Art on the Danforth 2012) and performed in Luminato's New Waves Festival with The Raven (Why Not Theatre). Recent credits: Anais Nin in the China tour of Artaud: Un Portrait en Décomposition (TheatreRUN, International Contemporary Theatre Festival Shangai), created a performance piece for Nuit Blanche Toronto via skype from Paris, France entitled si vous étiez là oû seriez vous? (Theatre Local). Coleen has worked with TheatreRUN, Theatre Smith-Gilmour, Why Not Theatre, MT Space, Fixt Point, Jumblies Theatre, Expect Theatre Company, The Children’s Peace Theatre and theatrekairos. Coleen holds a BA from The University of Toronto, studied Theatre and Development at Concordia University and Acting at Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris. She is thrilled to be working on Divisadero and will later join Daniel on Untitled in the Spring.
* The services of Coleen MacPherson were made possible through Theatre Ontario's Professional Training Program funded by the Ontario Arts Council
ALEXANDER Mac
Sween | Composer and Sound designer
For Necessary Angel: Hamlet Project, Divisadero: a performance
Other: Alexander MacSween has participated in many dance, theatre and film projects. He has worked with Marie Brassard, François Girard, Brigitte Haentjens, Robert Lepage, José Navas and Wajdi Mouawad. He previously worked with Necessary Angel on Graham McLaren’s adaptation of
Hamlet. As a drummer, Alexander is active in the worlds of rock, improvisation and electronic music. He has played with Paolo Angeli, Tim Berne, Michel F. Côté, Bionic, Frank Gratkowski, The Nils, and Sam Shalabi. He is a member of Martin Tétreault’s Turntable Quartet and of the group, Foodsoon. Alexander has also created solo pieces and sound installations. His work has been presented in several festivals, including CitySonics, Sonorama and Mutek. He also gives workshops in real-time sound processing for the performing arts at various North American and European institutions.
http://alexandermacsween.com
TOM Mc
CAMUS | Father/Gil/Mancini
For Necessary Angel: It’s All True, Hamlet (workshop), Divisadero: a performance
Other: Thom Paine (Tarragon Theatre), Mathilde (Nightwood Theatre), Hedda Gabler (Volcano), Innocent Eye Test (Royal Alex). Eleven seasons with the Stratford Festival, roles include: Jim Casey in the Grapes of Wrath, Captain Hook in Peter Pan, Valmont in Dangerous Liaisons, MacHeath, Richard III, Brutus, Vladimir in Waiting for Godot, Coriolanus, King Arthur, Edmund in Long Day’s Journey into Night. Four seasons with Theatre plus Toronto. Eight seasons with the Shaw Festival. Film & TV: Cairo Time, Shake Hands with the Devil, Waking up Wally: The Walter Gretzky Story – Gemini/ Actra Award, Possible Worlds, Long Day’s Journey into Night, The Sweet Hereafter, I Love a Man in Uniform – Genie Award.
ELIZABETH Mc
DERMOTT | Assistant Stage Manager
For Necessary Angel: Divisadero: a performance
Other: Stage Manager: Danny, King of the Basement, Roseneath Theatre; Twelfth Night and All’s Well That Ends Well, St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival; Teacht i dTír: Voices from Ireland Park – Workshop & Student Outreach, MacKenzieRo.
Assistant/Apprentice Stage Manager: Night, Human Cargo (Ottawa, Inuvik, Yellowknife, Whitehorse, Gananoque, Iqaluit, Pond Inlet); As You Like It and King of Thieves, Stratford Shakespeare Festival; Yellowman, Nightwood Theatre/ Obsidian Theatre; Late and Black Medea, Obsidian Theatre; Foto The Orange Company, Summerworks. Production Assistant: Bartholomew Fair, Three Sisters, Phèdre and Ever Yours, Oscar, Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Awards: Jean A. Chalmers Apprentice Achievement Award 2009 & 2010 (Guthrie Award, Stratford Shakespeare Festival).
JEREMY MIMNAGH | Projection Designer
For Necessary Angel: Debut
Other:Jeremy works as a photographer and video designer. His interest in performance-based works has involved collaborations in contemporary dance, music and theatre. Recent film credits include the short film:
girl in mourning for Chartier Danse’s Red Brick this past September, and
From Gentle Ashes which screened at this year’s CanAsian Festival. His video design for Chartier Danse’s Bas Reliefs earned him recognition in Germany’s Ballett und Tanz Jahrbuch.Mimnagh also has an interest in documenting creative process with still photography and film, leaving evidence of the ephemeral evolution within the creative process. Exhibitions of some his still collections have been exhibited throughout Canada and internationally. Upcoming projects for 2012 include collaborations with celebrated artist Fides Krucker/Good Hair Day Production’s new electroacoustic opera Julie Sits Waiting, a new creation from Dancer/Choreographer Heidi Strauss/Adelheid as well as a new gallery work from Dancer/Choreographer Jenn Goodwin.More information at
www.mimnagh.ca
MICHAEL ONDAATJE | Writer
For Necessary Angel: Coming through Slaughter, Divisadero: a performance
Other: His books include, Coming through Slaughter, In the Skin of a Lion, The English Patient, Anil’s Ghost, Divisadero, books of poetry and a non- fiction book, The Conversations, about film editing. His new novel, The Cat’s Table was published in August 2011.
AMY RUTHERFORD | Bridget
For Necessary Angel: The Message, Divisadero: a performance
Other: Amy Rutherford trained at the National Theatre School of Canada and Stratford Conservatory. Most recent credits include: The Children's Republic (Tarragon Theatre) Our Class (Studio 180) The 39 Steps (Theatre Aquarius), Aftershock (Summerworks), Goodness (Volcano Theatre), The Vertical Hour (prairie Theatre exchange), Zadie’s Shoes (GCTC), The Odd Couple / As You Like It (Soulpepper Theatre). Selected TV and Film: The Scan and A Kindness (Bravofact) Murdoch Mysteries (Shaftesbury), Puppets Who Kill (Comedy Network), Confessions of an American Bride (Lifetime), Four Minutes (ESPN). Amy is currently writing a play with Columbus Theatre entitled The Public Servant. Many thanks to Daniel and Michael for this special opportunity, her family and The Gary Goddard Agency for all of their love and support.
JUSTIN RUTLEDGE | Coop, Singer / Songwriter
For Necessary Angel: Divisadero: a performance
Other: Eurydice (Summerworks 2011). Film: Into the Light. Music: Signed to Six Shooter Records, Justin’s albums include No Never Alone (2005), The Devil On A Bench In Stanley Park (2006 – Juno nomination), Man Descending (2008 – longlisted for the Polaris Prize), The Early Widows (2010 – Juno nomination, longlisted for the Polaris Prize).
JOHN THOMPSON | Set & Costume designer
For Necessary Angel: Divisadero: a performance
Other: The Test,Through The Leaves, Festen, Whistle In The Dark, Marion Bridge (Company Theatre); Our Class, The Normal Heart (Studio 180 Theatre) Eternal Hydra (Crow’s Theatre); The Retreat From Moscow, The Tempest, The Clean House, Humble Boy, The Shape of Things (Manitoba Theatre Centre); Blue/Orange, Side By Side By Sondheim (Canstage); Waiting For Godot, No Man’s Land, Betrayal, Don Carlos, The Misanthrope (Soulpepper Theatre); The Trials of Ezra Pound (The
Stratford Festival); The Pessimist, Helen’s Necklace, Russell Hill, Little Mercy’s First Murder, The Good Life, Skylight, Girl In The Goldfish Bowl, Earshot, The Road to Hell (Tarragon Theatre); Unity 1918, Blood (Theatre Passe Muraille); He teaches at the university of Toronto.
