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BLOOD RIVER

Shannon Donnelly

Shannon Donnelly is thrilled to be a part of the incredibly beautiful and relevant new Canadian play: Blood River. As a graduate with honours of St. Lawrence College's Musical Theatre Performance program, Shannon has appeared in productions all across Ontario. Some of her favourite roles include Sarah (Company), Ulla (The Producers), Baroness Schroeder (Sound of Music), and Jane (Babe Ruth Comes to Pickle River). She loves bringing her passion to the stage and being able to portray strong, confident women for her two young daughters. Shannon couldn't be happier to be a part of this amazing cast. Shannon always has several creative projects on the go but her true passion is and always has been the theatre

Kay Vukelic

Kay Vukelic is a Toronto-based, Kingston-trained actor and dancer. They graduated from the Drama program at Queen’s University in 2021, and spent most of the quarantine era with 6 AM Productions, performing improvisational comedy and hosting online corporate team-building events for major companies across the world, such as Google, Snapchat, Meta, Coca-Cola, Amazon, McDonald’s, Nike, and many more. Post-lockdown, Kay has been seen in various productions across the Kingston theatre scene, appearing in "Harmonia", directed by Nigel Shawn Williams (Grapevine Theatre), and as Maureen in “The Time of Our Life” by Alan Ayckbourn (Domino Theatre). Most recently, she acted in the Summer Ensemble, a professional training program with Crane Creations Theatre Company, and partook in the Sooth Shivers Residency with the Kick and Push Festival. 
Some of the theatre experiences that have shaped Kay's craft and which they treasure dearly are playing Joan from ‘Fun Home’ (Queen’s Musical Theatre), Soccer Mom from ‘The Wolves’ directed by Brenda Bazinet (Dan School of Drama and Music) and taking Chick Reid's acting class! Lastly, Kay Vukelic wouldn’t be anywhere without the support of her friends, and thanks them endlessly

​​Brayah Pickard

Brayah Pickard is a Kingston-based performer and a graduate of the St. Lawrence College + Queen’s Bachelor of Music Theatre. She is currently studying at Queen’s to be a drama and music teacher. She has most recently performed the principal role of Christabel in the debut production of The Lancashire Lass at the Grand Theatre. Other theatre credits include Greta in Murder on the Orient Express at the Domino Theatre, Andrina in SLC’s Little Mermaid, and performing in The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane for Kingston Fringe 2021. She is also a Launchpoint Academy instructor at Blue Canoe Productions, where she teaches vocal lessons and theatre classes. Brayah is thrilled to be making her Theatre Kingston debut with such a brilliant and thoughtful script, alongside such talented people. ​

OUR CREW

Chloe Whitehorn - Playwright
Described as “Dorothy Parker meets Neil Labute”, Chloe Whitehorn is an award-winning playwright, novelist, and underwater photographer. Born in California, Chloe's hippie-artist mother raised her in a world of circus artists, puppeteers and activists (she frequently attended protests in a stroller) until moving to Canada where she spent her days figure skating, writing short stories, and developing a love of acting. After writing her own one-woman show, Chloe shifted her focus from acting to writing for the theatre. Her plays have been performed across Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Chloe recently returned to Kingston with her husband and two sons after living in South Carolina.

Seymour Irons -  Costume Design
​Seymour is an interdisciplinary Queer Black artist situated in Kingston Ontario. Since completing his undergraduate degree in Media and Performance Production at Queens University, Seymour has been building an entertainment company called See More Wake Up. His creation work focuses on the intersections between the mystical and the mundane, and what we could learn from these discoveries. Seymour has always loved to perform and create, from sound design, to dance, to theater. His most recent project was called "Sooth Shivers", a Site-specific movement performance, which was produced by his company. He can also be known for previous roles as Cadmus in Grapevine Theatres “Harmonia”, and  as Lucy in Queens University's “Not Wanted on the Voyage.” Recently Seymour has completed the PXR IBPOC fellowship where he practiced and performed Virtual Reality Theatre. During this experience, he had the opportunity to produce sound for Tactics Theatre’s “Anasi V. God(s)”. Seymour continues to refine his skills and is glad to be costume designer for Blood River.

Rosemary Doyle - Director
Rosemary Doyle was born and raised in Kingston, starting her theatre career here on the Grand Theatre stage and with Theatre 5. In her forty year career she honed her skills at AMDA in NYC, with Mirvish in Toronto, at the Shaw Festival, always returning frequently to work for Theatre Kingston, Salon Theatre and The Thousand Islands playhouse. In 2011 she founded the Red Sandcastle Theatre in Toronto’s Leslieville neighbourhood, an independent theatre venue that hosts over 42 different companies a year, and in 2018 she  returned to Kingston as the Artistic Producer of Theatre Kingston. Rosemary is an Actor, Playwright, Director, Lighting and Set Designer and Carpenter, in no particular order.

Will Smith-Blyth - Lighting Design, SM
Will  is a theatre tech, and aspiring lighting designer. Born and raised in Kingston
Ontario, he has always had a passion for entertainment, and originally thought studying film in Toronto would be the best way to fulfil it. However, during a summer break back in Kingston, he worked as a tech for Theatre Kingston’s Fringe Festival, and instantly fell in love with the unique thrills of live performance. Since then, he has continued to refine his technical skills in the theatre, working with Rosemary Doyle on subsequent Fringe Festivals. He is now dipping his toes into the larger world of Kingston Theatre, by taking on the role of Lighting Designer for “Blood River” (Theatre Kingston, 2023). Will strongly believes in the idea of variety being the spice of life, and is determined to pursue the great variety offered by Canadian theatre as his calling in life.

Clelia Scala - Set Design
A visual artist whose work includes mask and puppet design, installations, collage, and illustration. Her explorations into the fantastic and uncanny stem from a lifelong engagement with tales and myths and her interest in the theme of human interaction with the natural world. 
As a designer and fabricator for theatre, Clelia has worked with theatre companies and institutions such as Bad New Days, Carousel Players, Geordie Theatre, Guilty by Association, Lemon Bucket Orkestra, Odyssey Theatre, Queen’s University, Suitcase in Point, Theatre Kingston, University of Missouri-St Louis Opera Theatre, Yale University, and Zacadia Circus.  Clelia’s visual art has shown in galleries in Canada and the United States and is in private collections across North America.

Taylor Moore - ASM INTERN
Taylor is  the assistant stage manager on Blood River, a third year Queen’s student in the concurrent education program with a major in drama Taylor has been involved in the theatre community for as long as she can remember. Some of her most recent work has been with Blue Canoe for Newsies and Fame JR. Taylor has also worked with the Thousand Islands Playhouse as an actor in Anne of Green Gables. A a dancer for 17 years, most of her life has been on stage. Recently Taylor has been learning more about what happens behind the curtains in the theatre world, and she has so much respect for all the hidden talents of the production team that don’t get enough recognition.

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BAKERSFIELD MIST

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Rosemary Doyle

Rosemary is the Artistic Director of Theatre Kingston, and has been performing since the tender age of eight. Recently you have seen her in Happy Days by Samuel Beckett, The Sylvia Effect by Peter Hinton for Theatre Kingston,  Athena in Grapevine's production of Harmonia.

Favourite Roles include Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe, Red Sandcastle Theatre, Janet in the Rocky Horror - and Fire, for Kingston Summer Festival, Jane in My Mother's Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding, and she met Cassel playing the Blonde in  Gentlemen Prefer Blondes at the Shaw Festival.

Cassel Miles

Cassel left Jamaica with his family to move to Canada in 1971. He was seven years old. At the age of nine he began taking tap dancing lessons inspired by Arthur Duncan who he would watch dancing on The Lawrence Welk Show.
At seventeen he watched the movie Fame, and found inspiration in the character of ‘Leroy’. Scholarships in Toronto and New York City led to his fist professional job in Canada’s Wonderland’s Best of Broadway and dance companies such as Judith Marcuse’s Repertory Dance Company of Canada, Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, and The National Tap Dance Company of Canada.
Musical theatre shows followed such as A Chorus Line, Crazy for You, and Sophisticated Ladies. At the Shaw Festival, On the Town and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and at the Stratford Festival, Kiss Me Kate. THEN came Canadian Stage’s Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika and, thereafter, the opportunity to play ‘Mr. Bojangles’ in the U.S. national tour of Fosse directed by Ann Reinking.
Cassel Now lives in the Kingston, Ontario area and has enjoyed playing with, and getting to know, the members of the artistic community; Theatre Kingston, Kingstown Players, Domino Theatre and Bottle Tree Productions. It was during the Bottle Tree production that he met writer/director, Charles Robertson, with whom he created a one person show, JOSIAH, about the early life of Josiah Henson. Throughout that collaborative period, Cassel was introduce to the Michael Chekhov acting technique and, as a recipient of The 2022 Ideal Theatre Grant, is now studying in a three year program with the Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium (GLMCC) to become an accredited teacher of the technique.
BREIF BIO