LULU v.5 // and nothing could ever be the same

michael ayres

performer (schwarz)

michael ayres is an actor and writer. he also makes websites for cash, if you need one. theatre: we are proud… (the theatre centre – dora nomination, outstanding performance ensemble) / film&tv: dark matter (syfy/bell), shoot the messenger (cbc/usa), hemlock grove (netflix). he lives in toronto.

john cleland

performer (dr. schöning)

selected credits:  the colonel in a line in the sand (factory theatre), bill in late company (theatre centre), david in the world premiere of george f. walker’s we the family (hart house),verges in much ado about nothing and zen in a god in need of help (tarragon), hughes in this is war (tarragon/pte), bottom in a midsummer night’s dream and ian in indian ink (canstage), edward in edward the crazy man (workman arts – dora award),  tom in tough case and buddy in wrecked (roseneath – dora nomination), roger in and up they flew (theatre columbus), 3 seasons at shaw festival, 2 seasons at nippissing stage.

film & tv: murdoch mysteries, rogue, degrassi, republic of doyle, the listener, etc.

voice: cbc (6 seasons as lte. petrovsky on afghanada), various radio dramas, cartoons and campaigns including being the voice of ford canada for 10 years.

for more about john please check out his website at johnnycleland.com.

alanna dunlop

production assistant

alanna dunlop is a dramaturg, director, stage manager and occasional performer. she is the co-founder of raw matter, an interdisciplinary performance collective based in the city. recent credits as performer/writer include hot kitchen/SECOND SHIFT (raw matter/filament incubator 2016). stage management credits include trompe-la-mort, or goriot in the 21st century (live lobster theatre/summerworks 2016) and LULU v.4 // but you are not a dead woman (red light district/rhubarb 2016). alanna is a graduate of york university where she studied devised theatre and dramaturgy. she lives and works in toronto.

susanna fournier

co-creator

susanna fournier is an award-winning feminist theatre maker.  her writing interrogates socio-economic-gender power relations and their perversions. her work has been seen across toronto, dublin, ireland, and berlin, germany.  her writing is supported by the toronto and ontario arts councils, the national arts centre of canada and the banff centre for the arts. her company, paradigm productions, develops and produces large-scale, expressionist performance texts. www.susannafournier.com

kerry freek

producer

kerry freek has a formal education in cultural management and in past years has worked for not-for-profit arts organizations and arts-focused consulting firms.

by day, kerry edits magazines and writes in toronto. she is not an actor, but has a tendency to be melodramatic.

kyle gatehouse

performer (alwa)

theatre: breath in between (crow’s), stones in his pockets (centaur), haunted hillbilly (segal), whiteman’s whiskey (sidemart), trying for the kingdom (summerworks). film: white house down, source code, i’m not there, trotteur, the forbidden room, on the road, the wild hunt. television: the expanse, reign, anne of green gables, 19-2, being human, the plateaus.

mel hague

dramaturge

mel is a proud queer woman of jamaican-canadian heritage. mel is the rhubarb festival director and company dramaturge at buddies in bad times theatre, and the artist development coordinator and company dramaturge at obsidian theatre company. previously, mel has worked with factory theatre, banff centre playwrights colony, bcurrent performing arts,fu-gen asian canadian theatre, eastern front theatre, queer acts festival, the paprika festival, and mulgrave road theatre. mel was invited as a guest panelist and workshop leader at the national theatre school of canada’s fromwhere i stand: canadian theatre in context conference.

wesley mckenzie

audiovisual design

wesley mckenzie is a lighting, sound and video designer in toronto. previous sound and video design credits include: LULU v.4, the marquise of O—, and LULU v.2 (the red light district); intangible trappings and the misunderstanding (lester trips); trompe-la-mort (live lobster); take rimbaud (howland company); a line in the sand (factory). previous lighting design credits include: tales of hoffman (wilfred laurier university); an ode to nativity, elijah and l’enfance du christ (pax christi chorale); orpheus in the underworld and the fatal gaze (university of toronto opera); the rape of lucretia (MYOpera); an inspector calls, arms and the man, i ought be in pictures, wait until dark, and barefoot in the park (classic theatre festival); three women mourn the apocalypse (old norman productions)

mayko nguyen

performer (lulu)

select theatre — tomorrowlove (outside the march), the unending (convergence theatre), salt water moon (factory theatre — dora nomination), LULU v.2 (the red light district), helen lawrence (canadian stage), passion play (OtM/convergence theatre/sheep no wool — dora nomination outstanding performance ensemble), carried away on the crest of a wave (tarragon theatre); offensive fouls (hustle n’ bustle theatre – dora nomination best TYA production). select film/tv — save me; killjoys; slasher; buckout road; cracked. mayko is a three time gemini award nominee.

sarah orenstein

performer (dr. goll, casti-piani)

sarah has been working professionally on canadian stages for 45 years — in classical, new works, comedy and tragedy. it has been very busy. and vastly satisfying.

sandy plunkett

stage manager

a champion of site specific theatre sandy often finds himself surrendering to various locales. sandy is the great-grandson of morley plunkett of the almost forgotten WW1 canadian vaudeville troupe, the dumbells.  selected credits: boys with cars, the fish eyes trilogy (nightswimming), same same but different (tpm/atp), the circle, the trouble with mr adams (tarragon) flood thereafter, this (canadian stage ), julius caesar, the comedy of errors, as you like it, titus andronicus, macbeth, a midsummer night’s dream, the winter’s tale, romeo and juliet (canadian stage dream and/or shakespeare in high park) public servant, tails from the city, the dog and the angel, weather the weather, (theatre columbus/common boots), la communion, madre (aluna) the test, through the leaves, festen (company theatre) gladstone variations, yichud (seclusion) (convergance), the silicone diaries (buddies in bad times), the turn of the screw (dvxt).

sabryn rock

performer (countess geschwitz)

selected theatre:  the last wife (globe theatre), passing strange, once on this island and caroline, or change (acting up stage company/obsidian theatre); waiting for the parade (atp), tease (crow’s east end performance crawl at jilly’s strip club); romeo and juliet, the three musketeers, the merchant of venice (stratford festival); ruined (obsidian theatre/nightwood theatre), obeah opera (nightwood/culchaworks for pan am). film and television:  has appeared on the strain, black mirror, saving hope,  eyewitness; recurring role on the first season of the acclaimed starz series the girlfriend experience produced by steven soderbergh. other:  sabryn is a graduate of the national theatre school of canada, the birmingham conservatory for classical theatre and more recently the actors’ conservatory at the canadian film centre.  she’s also an avid arts educator and has worked with youth around ontario with companies such as young people’s theatre, the stratford festival and shakespeare in action.

tim fitzgerald walker

performer (rodrigo quast)

tim was born in peterborough.  he studied classically at george brown, has studied comedy dell’arte in italy extensively at the international school for comedic acting.  theatre credits: twelfth night (theatre by the bay), help yourself (theatre brouhaha, toronto fringe / best of fringe / pick of fringe), savage in limbo (bob kills theatre) rock (theatre brouhaha), the skriker (storefront theatre), punch up (theatre brouhaha, toronto fringe pick of fringe/best of fringe), special constables (circle snake), sam and kate are not breaking up (cue6 productions), macbeth (the theatre machine), the bad luck bank robbers (4th line theatre), edmond (storefront/redone), the pitmen painters (peterborough new stages), the queen’s conjuror (circle snake).

oz weaver

lighting designer

oz is a toronto based lighting designer, production manager and producer, select credits include: freedom singer (project humanity/crows theatre); key change (globe theatre); the importance of being earnest, don’t dress for dinner & blythe spirit (thousand island playhouse); hamlet & all’s well that ends well (canadian stage); mamma mia! (drayton entertainment); lungs & soliciting temptation (tarragon theatre, co-LD w/ kim purtell); kitly bender, passage & idiom (kemi contemporary dance projects); glenn gould prize jury gala (the sony centre for the performing arts); and mozart’s don giovanni (koerner hall, co-LD w/ kim purtell). he has been nominated for a brickenden award, and has won two dish awards for his designs of into the woods & phantom of the opera. oz is currently the executive director & producer for the dietrich group with artistic director DA hoskins. www.ozweaver.ca

william webster

performer (schigolch)

born and raised in hamilton, ontario, william is a founding member and resident artist at soulpepper theatre.  for soulpepper: (selected): don carlos, hamlet, king lear, nathan the wise, awake and sing!, the dybbuk, the fantastics, phèdre, brief lives.  other theatre: (selected): 13 seasons (stratford); waste, camille (shaw); tartuffe (theatre calgary); the music man, beggars’ opera, the cherry orchard (citadel); galileo (vancouver e.c.c.); american buffalo (phoenix theatre); the handmaid’s tale (c.o.c); bach in leipzig (tafelmusik).  film & television: kim’s convenience, unless, my own country. other: has taught at soulpepper, NTS, NAC, equity showcase. two-time dora award winner. recipient of inaugural soulpepper artistic director’s award.

ted witzel

co-creator / director

(taedon witztl doesn’t live here anymore). ######## ted makes plays. usually they’re by dead people. not always. ######## this play he is making in toronto. he has also done it in berlin, paris, london, milan, stuttgart, vancouver, montreal, stratford, ottawa, ingolstadt, baden-baden, and bad hersfeld, which is a small town with a lot of sheep in it. well, near it. ######## he has a company where he makes plays with friends, called the red light district. those plays are usually about sex & ethics & sexual ethics.  that’s what you get with a name like that. ######## ted has a so-called spider-plant on his desk that is taking an awfully long time to make spiders.

helen yung

scenographer

helen makes installations, interactions & interventions. she designs environments and practices marginalia which is a research-y kind of way of doing art she made up about 5 years ago . she has been presented / programmed / invited to speak / invited to research and create in montreal, new york, syros, buenos aires, banff, charleville-mezières, marnay-sur-seine, sydney and in the bush of new south wales, australia. she doesn’t run much anymore. the tumblr things are still a secret. she threw away her spider plant after she read ted’s bio.