PROGRAM C

PLAYS in this set: Peaches, Losing Ground, Ladies Night, emergence sea (dot) calm

BIOS: In the order of the plays in the set, playwright, director(s) and actors.

PEACHES

MICHAEL P NORTHEY- Peaches – Playwright

Michael P Northey graduated acting from the Studio 58 acting program in Vancouver in 1995. Since then he has acted in many theatre productions, including Mojo, (Jessie 1999), for Western Theatre Conspiracy, The OverCoat, (Jessie 1999) for The Vancouver Playhouse, and Problem Child, for Greenthumb Theatre. Other notable theatre credits are: The Odd Couple, at The Arts Club, Basically Good Kids (Jessie 1997), for Carousel Theatre, The Crucible at The Vancouver Playhouse and Samaritan (Jessie 2001), for Solo Collective.

Michael has also written many stage productions, which include: Cranked!, (Best Original Script, Jessie Richardson Award 2007), for Greenthumb Theatre, Reservations for four, Chiarelli Productions (At The Havana), Masculinity In The Fields Of Clover Green and It’s Not The Size (At The Beaumont), Rocket’s Red Glare, (at The Beaumont) & A Dog Called Bitch, Young Offenders – Vancouver Fringe Fest 2004, Reservations For Two, Chiarelli Productions, Stuck!, This Fringe Venue Is now Being Held Hostage & This Fringe Venue Is Now Being Held Hostage… Again, all produced by his own company Young Offenders. Currently Michael has three completed stage plays in the works: I Love You Tattoo, Offspring, Holiday House, and Girlz On Film.

Michael also acts in Film and Tv and is a well established voice over artist. He has also written the feature screenplays: “Gay Like Me”, (Currently optioned by L’Étranger Films) and “A Dog Called Bitch”, based on his play. Other film scripts are: “North Of Hollywood”, “Squeegee Kings”, “Night of the Living” and “Girlz on Film”.

RAPHAEL KEPINSKI– Peaches- Director

Past theatre acting credits: Choices (Scene First, Gateway Theatre) Kindertransport (Meta.for Theatre) Albino Squirrel (Solo Collective) Revenge (Felix Culpa) Life of Galileo (An Intelligent Ape Co-op) The Lady is Not for Burning (No Bells and Whistles Theatre) Spank! (The Virtual Stage). With Studio 58: A Perfect Wedding, Outside the Gallery, Versus Reality, What We Want, Six Miniature Tragedies, You Can’t Take it With You, A Short Visit. For film and television Raphael has appeared in the show Aliens in America and the movies Fido and The Delicate Art of Parking. His one man show This Office Has No Window was showcased in the Solo Collective Emerging Playwrights Competition. Raphael is thrilled to be directing this extremely talented cast. He is a graduate of the Studio 58 Theatre Arts Conservatory and carries a Bachelor of Science in Cellular Biology and Genetics from the University of British Columbia.

CASEY MANDERSON- Peaches- Assistant Director

Casey has gone to school, performed on some stages, danced on some floors and acted for some cameras. He loves Bob Dylan and ballet and has most recently re-connected with an old friend who reminded him of the importance of vulnerability, laughter and dedication.

ANGELA DYKE - Peaches-Violet

Thrilled to be a part of the Walking Fish Festival, Angie hails from Saskatoon, SK. Previously, she has turned Manitoba with Bethany Theatre’s dinner theatre success, “Shut and Bar the Door” and her own solo show “Gilbert and Me” through Albert and Sask. An avid writer, Angie has written several screen plays and teaches writing at York Studios. She wishes to thank her partner.

EMMELLIA GORDON- Peaches- Katherine

Emmelia is thrilled to be a part of the walking fish festival. Since moving over from Vancouver Island 5 years ago, she has been in a number of Studio 58 Productions. Some highlights have been A Short Visit by James Fagan Tait, A Risky Night creation; Rita in You Cant Take It With You directed by Robert McQueen; Gretchen in 6 Miniatures Tragedies by Jean-Paul Wenzel (a studio 58 co-pro with Push festival) and Tessa in A Perfect Wedding, directed by Sherry J. Yoon. Recently she has been involved with No Bells and Whistles, performing the show Mums the Word on Gabriola Island. Emmelia is the recipient of the Antony Holland Scholarship for dedication and outstanding ability in Theatre Arts. Thanks to all the crazy folks i call my friends and family! HIGH FIVE !

BYRON NOBEL – Peaches- Eddie

Byron is a long time advocate of civil rights for everyone in this play. He describes himself as being like a recurring character on The Rockford Files television series.

A Studio 58 acting student/waiter by profession, Byron divides his time between eating food scraps and producing guttural noises while rolling on the floor. He can also be seen near Commercial Drive at his home, gardening in neutral mask.

Byron is a little bewildered by his cast mates and by acting in general, but ultimately he is quite happy playing with these people.

Byron is no longer listed as being in a relationship and is looking for friendship, random play, a relationship, and more random play. He has recently removed Paramahansa Yogananda’s, The Yoga of Jesus from his favorite books list.

Come and see him in his next role where he plays somebody in something. It should be good.

LEE VINCENT- Peaches – Brad

Lee is happy and honoured to be included in this production with these great people. His favourite recent roles include: Various Roles in Mud Island for Exit Left; Operator in Skydive for Realwheels in the 2007 PUSH festival. Volumnious/ Plebeian in Killing Caesar (remounted as a satellite show for the 2007 PUSH Festival); Henry Stipple in Terrible Things for Section 8 Theatre, presented by Rumble Production’s Young and the Restless series; the Second SS Officer in The Diary of Anne Frank for The Arts Club Theatre; the forklift driving, wig wearing, dock jumping Commissionaire in Other Freds for The Only Animal. Lee is a graduate of Studio 58.

LOSING GROUND

JOHN MAVIN- Losing Ground – Playwright

John is surprised to discover he’s a playwright. Originally a fiction writer studying in the creative writing MFA program at the University of British Columbia, he enjoyed his stage play class so much he jumped ship and switched his graduate thesis from a novel to a full-length stage play. Being new to the theatre, his past production list is limited to one play, Daguerreotype (Brave New Play Rites), although he has published the script of a second, Der Terrorflieger, in Wreck, UBC’s in-house literary anthology. He’s very excited to be a part of Walking Fish this year.

TODD TOMPSON- Losing Ground – Director

Todd is thrilled to be making his directorial debut at The Walking Fish Festival.

Todd wishes to thank the festival for providing this opportunity and for creating a platform from which emerging artists can engage in further explorations of

their chosen crafts. Todd has been an actor in the Vancouver theatre community for over ten years. Selected theatre credits include; A Doll’s House (Chemainus Theatre), The School for Scandal (Arts Club Theatre), Homeward Bound (Gateway Theatre), The title role in Macbeth (Pound of Flesh Theatre Company), The Bond, for which he received a Jesse award (Pound of

Flesh Theatre Company), Espresso (Pacific Theatre), The Shape of Things (Manitoba Theatre Centre), Kilt (Belfry Theatre) and four seasons with Bard on the Beach. Thank you for coming and supporting Vancouver theatre.

CHRIS BAKER- Losing Ground – Assistant Director

After spending seven years in Toronto, Chris is excited to be a part of the Walking Fish Festival here in Vancouver. A graduate of the Ryerson University BFA Acting program, Chris has acted, produced and directed his own productions back in Toronto with Theatre Distilled, a company he co-founded. Selected theatre credits include: Albee’s Bench for Theatre Distilled, Jelly Belly Makes Garbage Delight of Alligator Pie: The Poems of Dennis Lee Recycled for Carousel Players, and 42^nd Street for Drayton Entertainment. Film and TV credits include: Psych

(NBC Universal), The Triumph of Dingus McGraw (Village Idiot Productions) and the Canadian indie feature Rock, Paper, Scissors: The Way of the Tosser (Lucid Limbo Productions). This past year Chris finally booked his first beer commercial too!

J-C ROY – Losing Ground-

JC graduated from Algonquin College in Ottawa in 2001 and then moved to Vancouver in the fall of that same year. He has since worked in several short films and plays. Most notably, his work with Spectral Theatre has brought about a gamut of characters ranging from 50’s macho man Dick Pistol to an alien probe loving man named Wilbur. He is ecstatic to be fishing in this year’s festival. A decided departure from the regular comedy in his life, he hopes you will all enjoy this journey through the peace of a decided mind.

ELIZABETH- Losing Ground-

Elizabeth moved to this wonderful city about a year ago and is happy to be on a Vancouver stage. She has a BFA from U of C where she studied theatre and dance. Selected credits include Cardboard Sign Brigade, in which she was a collaborator and performer, Downstage

Performance Society/Theatre Junction Random Acts Festival 2006, Amadeus, Alberta Theatre Projects, A Christmas Carol, Theatre Calgary. In the near future Elizabeth has many adventures planned. In just a few months she will be getting married to a fine gentleman named Shaun Jackman and heading to south-east Asia for 10 weeks. Afterward, she gets to celebrate 2 months of Christmas when she returns to Calgary for her third season of A Christmas Carol at Theatre Calgary.

LADIES NIGHT

JEFF GLADSTONE AND RYAN GLADSTONE- Ladies Night- Playwrights

Jeff and Ryan started creating theatre together almost 30 years ago.  Their first projects included a circus featuring the world tallest toddler, a short film entitled ‘Kids in Space’ heavily influenced by Star Wars, and their traveling reptile show in which they toured other elementary schools with their Green Iguanas named Houston and Spatz.  In adulthood Jeff and Ryan have created numerous plays with ‘Monster Theatre’ including THE BIG ROCK SHOW: The Complete History of the World and The History of the Future, and are currently co-Artistic Producers of the ‘Here Be Monsters Collective’ which produces an annual festival called ‘A Carnival of the Arts’ which this fall will feature ‘Monster Theatre’s’ production ‘JESUS CHRIST: The Lost Years’

Ladies Night began on a night where Jeff and Ryan’s girlfriends went to the male strippers.  Alone and bored, the brother decided to improvise a play.  Two years later, they pulled the unfinished script out, added an ending and submitted it to Walking Fish.  We hope you enjoy the show as much as we enjoyed creating it.

QUINN HARRIS- Ladies Night- Director

Quinn is delighted to be returning to Walking Fish after directing Oedipus Butchers the Classics at last year’s festival. She is a recent graduate of the BFA Theatre Program at the University of Victoria with a specialization in directing. Quinn’s favourite UVic projects includedirecting her fellow students in This Property is Condemned, the Festival of Innovative and New Drama, and Heiner Müller’s Hamletmachine. This year she co-founded GasHeart Theatre, and will be directing the company’s first production, The Mechanical Bride, at the Victoria and Vancouver Fringe Festivals this summer.

SARA BYNOE – Ladies Night- Carol

Actor, Writer, Poet, Host, Painter, Commedianne, Publicist, Whatever. Creator of TeenAngstPoetry.com, Editor of Teen Angst: A Celebration of REALLY BAD Poetry (St. Martin’s Press- in book stores now!), Host of Teen Angst Nights at The Railway Club the second Tues. of every month (next up June 10, July 8, Aug 12), den mother of Dance Dance Party Party Vancouver. Sara has two solo shows; Sparkle Bunny: The Last Raver Dancing (videos on youtube!) and F*ck Off and Die: Tales in Teen Angst Poetry. Sara just featured at the Uno Festival in Victoria and will feature at the Vancouver Poetry Slam, Latitude Festival (UK) and Bumbershoot (Seattle) this summer. Sara also has done some film and tv stuff… like Reaper and The Hour (CBC Newsworld). Sara is a graduate of Studio 58. www.SaraBynoe.com for full info and some pretty funny songs.

PETER CARLONE- Ladies Night- Wilma/Ken

Peter has just graduated with his BFA from the University of Victoria’s Phoenix Theatre program. He is honoured to be taking part in the Walking Fish Festival. Previous works from the Phoenix Theatre include: Ratty from’Wind in the Willows’, Macduff from The Scottish Play, Catesby from ‘Richard the Third.’ Catch him this August in Itsazoo’s award winning production of Grimm’s Tales!

ROBYN LEIGH KATZ- Ladies Night- Debbie

This is Robyn’s first time participating in The Walking Fish Festival and she is super excited to be a part of it. As a local singer, songwriter and actor Robyn is accomplished at balancing her time between music and theatre. She was last seen in a remount of Side By Side by Sondheim (a Fighting Chance production). Some of her favorite local credits include Fiddler on the Roof (Footlight Theatre/06 – Vancouver Playhouse/02), Man of La Mancha (Pipedream Productions) and The Laramie Project (Studio 58). Currently, Robyn and a few of her fantastic friends are in the process of creating a new theatre/production company called FemmeFierce. Their first production will be Neil Simon’s saucy Comedy Last of The Red Hot Lovers taking place early in 2009. Robyn is also working on an album of original music (sample songs and view upcoming gigs at Myspace.com/robynleighkatz). Robyn is a graduate of Studio 58.

ALICIA NOVAK- Ladies Night- Angie

Alicia is happy to be back for a second round of The Walking Fish Festival. Her recent credits include: Myco in The Error of Love (Ignite), Lisa in Second Sister (No Bells and Whistles), Varvara in Summerfolk, Agatha in Guys and Dolls, Maria in A Perfect Wedding, Liddy in Comdey, Satire, Irony and Deeper Meaning, Dana in Outside the Gallery, Jeffery in Other People’s Pain (all at Studio 58). As well as Woman in The Baggage (Walking Fish) and Annabelle in Where’s the Fire (BC Buds). Alicia is currently writing her third one woman show and will be performing it at the 2008 Vancouver Fringe Festival. She is a graduate of Studio 58.

DEVAN VANCISE- Ladies Night- – Announcer/Jésus

Devan Vancise has been acting in Vancouver for the past 8 years, 4 of which were in school. He has done many independent theatre shows and indy films. His film and TV Credit is on Flash Gordon. He has enjoyed this festival in the past and is proud to now be in it. Thank you for coming out and being part of the theatre scene. Cheers.

emergence sea (dot) calm

Mind of a Snail Puppet Co. are a shadow puppet duo from the Sunshine Coast of B.C. Since 2003, Jessica Gabriel and Chloé Ziner have been developing a multilayered style of visual storytelling using an overhead projector as their main light source. Their performances combine originally crafted puppets, music, masked characters, recycled waste, and eclectic experimentations in lighting and timing. Mind of a Snail colorfully expose cultural quirks by developing simple stories around ideas that represent human’s interconnectedness with what is natural, what is artificial, and where everything blurs in between. This “compost~modern” approach unique to Mind of a Snail has developed into a mesmerizing art form that dazzles audiences of all ages.

JESSICA GABRIEL- emergence sea (dot) calm

Jessica is a snail; often seen crawling the ground with her many feelers, while collecting and layering debris onto her homemade shell.

JACK GARTON- emergence sea (dot) calm

Jack has been performing music from the age of 5, finding every opportunity to blend study with spontaneity, exploring and marrying genres along the way. He is also a growing presence in the Vancouver performing arts stagescape, while co-producing Thundering Word Heard with the late T. Paul St. Marie (voted the city’s best open mic four years running) Jack’s genre-bending performances are steeped in the spirit of multimedia collaboration.

CHRISTACHE ROSS – emergence sea (dot) calm

Christache is a physical actor, dancer, puppeteer and fool. Most recently he wrote and directed a satirical musical production ‘the Church of Pointless Consumerism’ and is an ensemble player in the current production ‘the Valley of Ashes’. He loves interactive theatre, public bufoonery, improvised theatre, and cooperative play.

CHLOE ZINER- emergence sea (dot) calm

Chloe is interested in exploring the link between sound, light and movement. Her current preoccupation is with form, the shape of an idea in time and space, and how the spaces between (silence, darkness) can define a form. She is a multi-instrumentalist musician, a visual artist, and a clown, and she sees puppetry as the ultimate combination of all art forms.