BUTCHER by
​NICOLAS BILLON
OCT 26 - NOV 11
BABY GRAND THEATRE
218 Princess Street, Kingston, On
TICKET LINK

​www.kingstongrand.ca

BUTCHER REVIEW

THE PLAYWRIGHT:

Nicolas Billon writes for theatre, film, and television. His plays have been performed in multiple languages around the world. His first play, The Elephant Song, was made into a feature film starring Xavier Dolan, Bruce Greenwood, and Catherine Keener, for which he won a Canadian Screen Award and a Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Award. His latest play Butcher, is produced across Canada and is in development as a feature film for Rhombus Media. Nic has won over a dozen awards for his work, including the Governor-General’s Award for Drama.

THE DIRECTOR:

Kathryn MacKay*, Director.  Kathryn’s long association with Theatre Kingston includes recently serving as Artistic Produceras well as directingHothouse, How I learned to Drive, Perfect Pie, The Passion, Shape of a Girl, andVigil for them. She is a founding member and served as Associate Artistic Director of the Thousand Islands Playhouse until 2012. Favourite directing credits there include: The Clockmaker, The Drowning Girls, The Russian Play/Essay, The Girl in the Goldfish Bowl, The Drowsy Chaperone, Trying and Half Life.Other directing credits include: The Revolutions (Spiderwebshow Performance), Women Who Shout at the Stars(Summerworks), and RareandDown Syndrome by the Dozen for PeerLess Productions, where she is currently the Artistic Director. ​

THE CAST:

Doug Harmsen*, Performer Doug returns to his hometown of Kingston after 27 years of acting in the USA at venues including Lincoln Center, Williamstown, The Seattle Intiman, The Pittsburgh Public, Portland Center Stage, and as a company member at the Denver Center, where he appeared in thirty productions.  Doug toured the U.S with Angels in America and his Broadway credits include The Visit with Jane Alexander and King Lear with Christopher Plummer. Kingston audiences may remember him in Theatre Five productions such as The Man Who Came To Dinner, Queen's Drama productions including The Trojan Women, as one of the original Baby Grand company in Bent and American Buffalo and later with David Fox and Jackie Burroughs in The Strangest Kind of Romance. 
 
Jacob James* Performer A graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, Birmingham Conservatory and The Second City’s Conservatory, Jacob’s past credits include 7 seasons at the Stratford Festival in The Tempest, Love’s Labor’s Lost, Noises Off and As You Like It. Jacob originated the role of Clown #1 in the Canadian premiere of The 39 Steps. Other companies include Thousand Islands Playhouse, VideoCabaret, Theatre Aquarius, Neptune Theatre, Drayton Entertainment, New York Shakespeare Exchange, Cleveland Play House, Theatre Kingston, Globe Theatre Regina. Film, television and voice credits include TURN: Washington's Spies(AMC), The Martian Chronicles(BBC), Fireman Sam andThe 99(animated series). 
 

​Zoë Sweet* Performer Zoë is a performer, theatre maker, producer, movement coach and co-Artistic Director of FeverGraph Theatre Company and Co-Artistic Producer of The Dead Roads Collective. Most recently, her play Dead Roads was in residency at The Factory Theatre and part of Why Not Theatre’s RISER Project.Recent acting credits include: The Red Horse is Leaving (Erika Batdorf - Summerworks '18), It’s Your Funeral (Upper Canada Playhouse), Brave New World (Litmus Theatre) - best ensemble winner, best actress nominee for My Entertainment World, Dead Roads (Dead Roads Collective – Why Not Theatre’s RISER Project) Objections to Sex and Violence (Praxis Theatre/Fevergraph), Look Back In Anger (Fevergraph), Enough Rope (Fevergraph).Upcoming: Mara in Behaviour (Great Canadian Theatre Company)Zoë has an MFA in Acting from York University.

​Greg Wanless*, Performer has performed in many regional theatres across the country from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Victoria, British Columbia. He joined the Stratford Festival Company in 1976 and performed in over 20 plays over five seasons. He returned to Eastern Ontario and founded the Thousand Islands Playhouse in 1982 where he appeared in or directed over 40 productions including My Fair Lady, Fiddler On The Roof, Anne And Gilbert, Les Miserables, Blood Brothers and the2012 production of Little Shop Of Horrors. Greg is a Professor in the Drama Department of Queen’s University, and has been teaching there since 1982. Among other awards, Greg is most proud of the 2003 ‘Her Majesty the Queen’s Jubilee Medal’.

Jane Marlo Nerenberg has been acting on stage and in front of the camera since she was a baby. Her first appearance was in the CTV documentary Laughology. Since then, she has performed in 13 plays and musicals. Most recently playing Winne Foster, the lead role in the musical Tuck Everlasting with Blue Canoe and Launch Point Academy. Jane has studied dance, piano and vocals for 4 years and hopes to continue in drama for many years to come.

THE DESIGNERS:

Steve Lucas(Set and Lighting Design)Since 1987 Steve has designed award winning sets and lighting for more than 500 productions of theatre, dance and performance art.His work has toured extensively and has been seen all across Canada, the United States, the UK, Europe, Scandinavia, Russia, Australia, and Asia. 25 countries so far! Steve’s work in theatre has mainly been focused on new and original plays; he has designed the world premieres of literally hundreds of shows, many of which have gone on to further acclaim. These include: 2 Pianos 4 Hands, Never Swim Alone, The Drowsy Chaperone, Time After Time: The Chet Baker Project, The Ballad of Stompin’ Tom, Stag and Doe, Revolutions in Therapy, 7 Important Things, and The Drawer Boy.
 
Andrea Robertson-Walker(Costume Design)  A Theatre Kingston favourite for: Armstrong’s War (Set & Costume), Hothouse (Costume), Shipwrecked (Set & Costume), Pippin (co-pro with Blue Canoe) (Set & Costume) She has busied herself from Ralph Roister Doister (Herstmonceux Castle, Sussex UK) to Private Lives, Death and The Maiden, The Importance of Being Earnest (Plosive Productions, Ottawa);  and As You Like It; The Merchant of Venice; Measure for Measure; The Taming of the Shrew; Trouble on Dibble Street; All’s Well That Ends Well; Twelfth Night; The Two Gentlemen of Verona (set only) and The Tempest. (St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival, Prescott.) Awards include thePrix Rideau Award for Outstanding Costume and Set Design for Twelfth Night– Prix Rideau for Outstanding Production of the Year.                                                                                                                                                ​

STAGE MANAGER:

Sarah O’Brien* (Stage Manager) Sarah is thrilled to join Theatre Kingston for this production. A native of Ottawa, and resident of Toronto (and occasionally Nova Scotia), Sarah spent four magical years at Queen’s Drama… quite some time ago. She has since brought a few shows through the Limestone City, notably I, Claudia(Crow’s Theatre, Toronto), Five Hole: Tales Of Hockey Erotica(One Yellow Rabbit, Calgary), and a showcase from ProArte Danza. Recent credits include Hope & Gravityfor Festival Antigonish Summer Theatre, the Spring Showcase for Canada’s National Ballet School, and Fear & Misery Of The Third Reichfor George Brown Theatre School.  Upcoming projects include Little Thing, Big Thingat Neptune Theatre.

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR:

Mariah Horner  (Assistant Director)  is a theatre artist based in Kingston, Ontario. She was the director of the Storefront Fringe Festival and is an Artistic Producer with SpiderWebShow. She was the 2017-18 Metcalf Foundation Intern in Artistic Directing with both SpiderWebShow and Theatre Kingston and was the inaugural winner of the Patrick Conner Ticket Award in 2018. Co-founding the Cellar Door Project in 2013, Mariah has since produced fourteen new works with the site-specific company in Ottawa and Kingston in cemeteries, record stores, bars, parks and the Diefenbunker.  Mariah played Kate Unger in George F. Walker’s HBO Canada Series Living in Your Car and recently graduated from uOttawa with an MA in Theatre Theory & Dramaturgy. www.cellardoorproject.com

*The participation of these Artists are arranged by permission of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association under the provisions of the DancežOperažTheatre Policy.”