Bruce Bissonnette, Artistic Director
Bruce is a Professional Actor, Director, and Teacher in the Performing Arts. He is the Artistic Director of The Ottawa Theatre School as well the Director of Adult Programs for the Ottawa School of Speech & Drama where he develops the curriculum and course content for all adult courses. He started his career in 1986 studying Acting at George Brown Theatre School and Directing at The Canadian Film Institute. His selected Directing credits include: Spider Juice, Work! Jobs in Progress, Our Town, The Duplex, 7 Stories, Blade and An Acre Of Time. His selected Acting credits include: Bordertown Cafe (Gryphon Theatre), Transit of Venus (Magnus Theatre), East of Elvis (Sudbury Theatre), The Mousetrap (Showboat Festival), Aladdin (Limelight Theatre), The Best Present (Carousel Players), Patria 1 (Canadian Opera Company). Bruce's Film and Television credits include: Jake and Phyllis (Canadian Film Centre), Street Legal (CBC), Kids in the Hall (Broadway Video), and Family Passions (CBC).
Barry Blake
TSTW Instructor Barry Blake: Barry is the senior instructor for The Screen Training Works’ Acting for the Camera programme, and teaches the Acting for the Camera series offered in association with TSTW. Between 1998 and 2009, Barry taught Acting for the Camera at the Canadian Screen Training Centre’s (CSTC) Summer Institute of Film and Television (SIFT) and Taking it to the Screen (T2S) Film and TV Training Workshops. He has also taught Acting for the Camera at the Ottawa School of Speech and Drama, and ACTRA Ottawa’s Acting for the Camera Master Class.
Barry has been acting in the Canadian and international film and television industries for more than 30 years. With hundreds of roles to his credit, he is best remembered as the President in the long-running and highly successful Fido cellular advertising campaign. His recent film and television credits include The Border, The Debbie Smith Story, Challenger: Countdown To Disaster, Indian Summer: The Oka Crisis, Mind Over Murder, Live Once, Die Twice, Platinum Rush, Dr. Bethune, Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Varian’s War and Wrong Number. Fluently bilingual, Barry is also well known for his work in such French language productions as Elvis Gratton II: Miracle ŕ Memphis, André Mathieu, Urgence, Lance et Compte, FranCoeur, Asbestos and Le Sorcier.
In 2006, Barry was named the first recipient of ACTRA Ottawa’s Award of Excellence (the Lorraine Ansell Award) for his distinguished contribution to Ottawa’s film and television community.
Kristine Karpinski
Kristine Karpinski is a certified Yoga & Yogadance teacher, trained in numerous traditions, and is a member of both Yoga Alliance and the International Association of Yoga Therapists. In addition to teaching movement methods based in somatic approaches, she is the owner of The Clinic Upstairs - Massage Therapy and Wellness Centre – where she practices as a registered massage therapist and yoga therapist with a specialized interest in body dynamics for the performer. She studied theatre and psychology in university and has collectively trained in, and taught various healing modalities, movement methods and dance styles for over 30 years.
Andy Massingham
Andy Massingham has performed across Canada at such venues as the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, West Vancouver Cultural Centre, the Yukon Arts' Centre, the National Arts' Centre, Odyssey Theatre, LKTYP, Tarragon, Soulpepper, the Banff Centre and many others. His most recent roles in Ottawa were the title role in "Peer Gynt" (Third Wall/Ottawa Theatre School) and Frank Foster in "How the Other Half Loves" (Gladstone Theatre), for which he received a Rideau nomination. His wordless, solo play "Rough House"(commissioned by nightswimming Theatre) was nominated for five Dora Mavor Moore Awards, receiving two, including Outstanding Performance. The play subsequently toured Canada in 2008. Andy has been teaching acting, movement, voice and physical theatre for twenty years to actors of all ages and experience.
Charles McFarland
Charles McFarland has completed an award-winning season as one of Ottawa’s leading theatre directors: Capital Theatre Awards Best Production for Caryl Churchill’s A Number (Great Canadian Theatre Company) and two Rideau Awards for Top Girls (Third Wall Theatre). Ottawa audiences flocked to his GCTC hit productions of The Optimists, Wit (2003 Capital Critics Circle and SAW awards), The Faraway Nearby, Feelgood and the world premiere of The Last Liberal, as well as, for Third Wall, The Real Inspector Hound (named in the Ottawa Sun’s ‘best of 2005’ as “the rarest of treats”), Dangerous Liaisons and Doctor Faustus in 2006. Charlie has directed over 50 stage productions at major theatres across Canada, including the Manitoba Theatre Centre, Halifax’s Neptune Theatre, London’s Grand Theatre, Theatre New Brunswick and Manitoba Theatre for Young People. He spent three seasons at the Stratford Festival, directing its Young Company in The Beaux’ Stratagem and Shakespeare’s last play, The Two Noble Kinsmen, was the first stage director to be a member of the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble and is a former Artistic Director and Managing Director of several theatres across Canada. He is now the Artistic Producer of Theatres for the City of Ottawa. He grew up in Stratford-upon-Avon, England (attending Shakespeare’s school) and has an M.A. in English Literature from Cambridge University. Upcoming: Henry V, Third Wall Theatre, 2008-09 season.
Pierre Brault
Pierre Brault is an Ottawa based Playwright, Actor and Comedian. He is perhaps best known for writing, performing and touring his multi-award winning solo shows, 5 O'Clock Bells (GCTC/Sleeping Dog co-production; national tour; Rideau Awards for Best Actor and Best New Creation), Portrait of an Unidentified Man (NAC English Theatre/Sleeping Dog co-production; Canadian and New Zealand tours), and Blood on the Moon (Sleeping Dog Theatre; Canadian and Ireland tours; Capital Critics Circle & Montreal English Critics Circle Awards for Best Actor). Recent credits include Twelfth Night (OTS) Macbeth (SLSF Prescott) The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (NAC/Western Canada Theatre), Macbeth (NAC/Citadel), The Man from the Capital (GCTC), A Night in November (Seven-Thirty Productions; Capital Critics Circle Award), Doctor Faustus (Third Wall Theatre), and The Barber of Seville (Opera Lyra Ottawa). Other acting credits include Stones in his Pockets, No Great Mischief, An Acre of Time (Capital Critics Circle Award) and The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (all GCTC); The Odyssey, Angel Square, Twelfth Night and The Secret Garden (all NAC); Kings of the Kilborn High Road (Seven-Thirty Productions), Vanya (NAC/Citadel), and An Acre of Time (Tarragon Theatre, Toronto). Pierre was GCTC's playwright-in-residence in 2007 and again in 2009. He has appeared in numerous films and has also worked extensively as a comedian touring regularly across Canada.
Chris Ralph
Actor/ playwright Chris Ralph trained at the National Theatre School of Canada, and holds an MFA in Acting from York University. In 2007 and 2008, Chris taught York University introductory voice and acting courses. As an actor and playwright, he has worked with some of Canada’s best-known directors, including Sarah Stanley (Theatre Passe Muraille), Lise Ann Johnson (Artistic Director, GCTC), Eda Holmes (Associate Director, Shaw Festival), and Jim Warren (Southpepper Theatre). Chris recently won a Capital Critics Award for Best Actor for his roles as Nathan Detroit in “Guys and Dolls” at Orpheus and as Rudy in “Wrong for Each Other” at OLT in 2007. As a playwright, Chris has served as playwright-in-residence at Centaur Theatre in Montreal, and won a Los Angeles Critics Circle Award for his black comedy “Doing Something for Sally.” Three of his plays have toured across Canada as part of the national Fringe Festival circuit, and won several Fringe awards. Chris recently appeared as Freddie in “Noises Off” at the Gladstone Theatre, directed by John P. Kelly, and is currently developing a solo show called “The Vanier Mouse” with the generous support of a GCTC / Ontario Arts Council Theatre Reserve Grant.
Peter Ryan
PETER RYAN has been involved in dance and theatre as a teacher, performer and writer since 1975. He has taught and performed across North America and Europe and was a founding member of EDAM, Vancouver's innovative dance and music collective. Currently, he teaches in the Theatre Department at the University of Ottawa, trains dancers and actors in improvisation for performance in Ottawa and Athens, Greece and teaches public classes in Improvisation at Ottawa's Dance Network. Peter also works extensively in the schools, teaching dance and movement. He is currently the Chair of Dance Ontario, has served on the board of the Council for the Arts in Ottawa, and was a member of the Arts Advisory Committee to the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board.
Alix Sideris
Alix Sideris is a professional actor who has performed in many wonderful productions in various theatres across Eastern Canada including several productions at the National Arts Centre, the Great Canadian Theatre Company, Odyssey Theatre and the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival. She is also a writer, contracted movement instructor/coach, Co-Artistic Director of Guerilla Heart Juice Theatre Lab, Artistic Producer of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival's Industry Series 2011, founding member and steering committee member of Les Prix Rideau Awards (Canada's only bilingual Professional Theatre Awards), community galvanizer and a mentor to many young artists. She has been nominated twice for ‘Best Actor’ for Les Prix Rideau Awards.
Doreen Taylor-Claxton
A competition winner in both Canada and England, soprano Doreen Taylor-Claxton is praised for the colour and clarity of her voice and the emotional investment of her performances. She has been heard in recital for CBC Radio; Jeunes Artistes, Artscape and Classical Encounters, as well as for the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, The Ottawa Chamber Music Society, Antigonish Performing Arts, Festival Antigonish and Vocalypse Productions. She has been a soloist with The University of Ottawa Orchestra and Choirs, The Strings of St. John’s, The Toronto Sinfonietta and the Impressions in Jazz Orchestra. Her discography includes, The Spinning Wheel, (2004) Inspiration 4, (2006) University of Ottawa Press, Hail, a critically acclaimed recording of Canadian art song, (2006) and Imprints a recording of the works of Ottawa composer Colin Mack (2009). She has worked with Opera Lyra Ottawa, ThirdWall Theatre, Deluxe Hot Sauce, Upper Canada Playhouse, Theatre Antigonish, The St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival and the NAC Pops.
Kristina Watt
Kristina relocated to Ottawa after training and working in the U.S, England and South America. She currently teaches at OSSD, has served as Director of The Young Actors' Space, and instructs both theory and practice at the University of Ottawa. She recently acted in Love's Labour's Lost (National Arts Centre), The Real Inspector Hound (Third Wall Theatre Co.), and Picking Up Chekhov (Magnetic North--On the Verge). A career highlight was working with Judd Hirsh and Eva Marie Saint in Death of A Salesman (North Carolina). Film/TV credits include One Life to Live, Bull Durham, and Rescue 911. She plays the flute, and loves dancing and horse-back riding.