Playwright
Stephen Massicotte

Stephen is a Calgary-based writer and actor. In recent years his acting credits include several episodes of Disney's Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and CBC's Tom Stone as well as many stage appearances including roles in Ground Zero Theatre's Shopping and F***king, Eugene Stickland's The Hockey Pool for Alberta Theatre Projects playRites '99 and A Boy's Own Jedi Handbook and A Murder is Announced for Pleiades Theatre.

His plays have been performed nationally on the Canadian Fringe Circuit. The last few seasons have seen his plays A Farewell to Kings: A Banger Play and Looking After Eden produced by Ground Zero Theatre in Calgary and at the NeXtFest Next Generation Arts Festival in Edmonton. His play Mary's Wedding premiered at the 2002 playRites Festival at Alberta Theatre Projects and was the winner of the 2002 Betty Mitchell Award for Best New Play. His play The Emperor of Atlantis was the winner of the 24 Hour Playwriting Competition at playRites 2000 and was featured at the National Arts Centre On The Verge Theatre New Works Festival in Ottawa in the Spring of 2002.

Stephen is presently the Writer in Residence at Theatre Calgary. He is a member of the Alberta Playwrights' Network, the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers and the Playwrights' Union of Canada. He has a Diploma in Graphic Design and Advertising from Cambrian College, a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Drama from the University of Calgary and a black lab named Agnes.

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Director
Burton Lancaster

Burton brings a wealth of experience to TheatreOne, having worked in the professional theatre for over forty years. In his native England, he worked with such companies as The Royal Court, The Old Vic, and New Shakespeare Company, as well as on several West End productions. Since coming to Canada to work at Expo ’67, Burton has been employed across the country from Newfoundland to BC as Artistic Director/Director/Producer. Burton is the founder of six professional theatre companies in Canada – four of which he is happy to say – continue to thrive! “I am extremely happy to become an integral part of TheatreOne’s team and look forward to many exciting, creative, and productive times”, comments Burton.

Burton will be directing two wonderful plays for TheatreOne’s 2006 Mainstage Series at The Port Theatre - Mary's Wedding and If We Are Women, and will be guiding the development of a new play based on the life of Nanaimo’s very own Frank Ney. He is already planning some exciting things for next season!

Burton shares his life in Cedar with wife Sylvia – an avid gardener – their two dogs, Tony & Cleo, and two cats, Woofy and Lady Marmalade. He is also a writer and has five granddaughters.

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Charlie
Martin Happer

Martin is happy to be back in British Columbia for his first TheatreOne experience. He most recently played the role of Bo Decker in Bus Stop and Jo in You Never Can Tell at the Shaw Festival.

Other Shaw credits include Ah Wilderness, Man and Superman, Shakespeare in the reading of Dark Lady of the Sonnets, and the reading of The Weather Breeder (also for CBC radio). He played the title role of Vincent van Gogh in the Canadian premiere of Vincent in Brixton at Theatre Network (Edmonton); Blooms at Nakai Theatre (Yukon); Language of Angels at Northern Light Theatre (Edmonton); Merry Wives of Windsor, The Tempest, Richard III, and As You Like It at the River City Shakespeare Festival (Edmonton).

He was last seen in B.C. playing Henry Harry in Brilliant Traces with InAFit Theatre, and Herman in Stage Struck for the Theatre B.C. Vancouver Zone Festival, for which he won a Best Supporting Actor Award.

Film and television credits include Sue Thomas F.B. Eye, The Eleventh Hour, Breaker High, Anglo World U.K., and he recently hosted an educational backstage video for the Shaw Festival. Radio and voice over credits include speech software for the Canadian Language and Literacy Network, Luck for CBC, and Xenomorph for Electric Playground.

Martin is a graduate of the University College of the Fraser Valley, and the University of Alberta's B.F.A in Acting program.

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Mary
Jessica Lowry

Jessica Lowry is an actor with roots on Vancouver Island. Born in Tofino and raised in Nanaimo, Jessica has been part of the Shaw Festival Theatre in Niagara-on-the-Lake Ontario for the past two years. There she has enjoyed performing in productions of Ah! Wilderness, Man and Superman, You Never Can Tell and Belle Moral. Most recently Jessica played Frau Holenrauch in a co-produced Shaw/Tarragon workshop of the new musical Tristan. Last winter Jessica performed Jewel, a one women show with C2C Theatre in St.John's NFLD. Jessica has performed with The River City Shakespeare Festival in Edmonton in productions of King Lear and Much Ado About Nothing. Directing credits include Possible Maps for the Edmonton Fringe Festival and Talker's Town for Western Edge Theatre in Nanaimo.

Jessica has enjoyed working on Vancouver Island and has performed here with TheatreOne, Western Edge Theatre, Kaleidoscope Theatre and co-created Rhapsody with cellist Amy Laing.

For film and T.V, Jessica has appeared on Da Vinci's Inquest, No Night is Too Long ( BBC), and Croon ( May Street Productions).

Jessica will be returning to the Shaw Festival for the 2006 season and will be playing Marian Almond in The Heiress and Helen Carver in Design for Living.

Jessica is a a graduate on the University of Alberta's BFA Acting program. She also studied English in the Honours English program at UBC.

Jessica extends warm hugs to her island home and family and is delighted to be working on this beautiful play in this beautiful place.

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Production Manager/
Sound Design & Technical Director
Robin Boxwell

Robin has been with TheatreOne since 1997. He has taken on many roles. Starting as Assistant Technical Director, then Technical Director and now Production Manager, Robin has also delved into the artistic side of theatre and also takes part sometimes in Sound Design, as with this production of Mary’s Wedding. Robin’s other work includes Technical Director for Theatre BC, Technical Director for Crimson Coast Dance Society, Production Manager for the Vancouver Island Children’s Festival as well as continuing to work on many other theatrical productions throughout the year.

Thank you for supporting TheatreOne and Robin also welcomes our new Artistic Director, Burton Lancaster to the team.

Have a great Show.

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Set Design
Sam Whittingham

Quadra Island is home for Sam, his wife Andrea and there two kids. This is Sam’s second show with TheatreOne after having such a great time designing for last years The Drawer Boy. It was an easy decision to come back and join the troupe. It is always nice to work on a truly brilliant script. It makes the design process truly enjoyable and every reading reveals a new, beautiful layer to sink your teeth into.

After graduating from UVIC, Sam spent the last 10 years working for many of Canada’s top companies such as the Stratford and Shaw festivals. He has designed great number of shows here on the island. His especially long list of credits for the Chemainus Theatre includes this season’s production of “She Stoops to Conquer” and “My Fair Lady”.

Sam has been featured on many TV documentaries for his other passion of making bicycles go very fast. He is in the Guinness book of world Records as the fastest man on a bicycle at 130kph.

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Lighting Design
Bruce Halliday

West Coast born and raised, Bruce Halliday has been lighting live performance for over 25 years. Bruce began his career in Victoria at the McPherson Playhouse/Royal Theatre where he designed the lighting for numerous local performance groups. After 8 years in Victoria, Bruce moved to Thunder Bay to open the 1700 seat theatre complex as Head of Lighting. Following that, Bruce spent 2 years instructing in the Lighting Dept. at the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts.

Bruce toured extensively throughout B.C., Canada, into the U.S.A and South East Asia with the Judith Marcuse Dance Co. as Lighting Designer/Production Manager. Bruce returned to Vancouver Island as Production Manager at the Belfry Arts Centre where he was lighting designer for a number of their productions. During this period, Bruce also took on the role of Senior Coordinator for Special Events with the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria.

Bruce’s lighting designs have been seen on Vancouver Island with the University of Victoria, The Belfry Theatre Co., Pacific Opera Victoria and “Dancers for Life”- an annual AIDS Benefit in Victoria, and recently with Theatre One’s production of The Concubines Children. Bruce is currently the Technical Director at the Port Theatre, living on Gabriola with his Stage Manager wife, Sandy and his two children Kate (12) and Will ( 10).

Bruce is extremely pleased to be working with Theatre One again on this production.

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Costume Design
Lisa Desprez

Lisa is from a big theatre family. Her parents, Barbara and Roger, were among a small group who started the Nanaimo Theatre Group over 40 years ago. Lisa’s first involvement was at age 11 in their production of Carousel.

As a teenager, Lisa started helping out with costuming and it eventually became her main focus. She has contributed to many of the group’s recent productions, including The Music Man (1999), Don Juan in Chicago (2002), and Robinson Crusoe (Christmas 2003) and she helmed the costume design teams for The Imaginary Invalid (2000), The Wizard of Oz (2001), Major Barbar (2003), Death &God (May 2004), 7 Stories (Oct. 2004), and most recently, their Christmas Pantomime, The Pied Piper.

Lisa has also coordinated costumes for Western Edge Theatre’s productions of Three Tall Women (2004), Boston Marriage and How I Learned to Drive (2005).

Last spring, Lisa worked on TheatreOne’s production of Shirley Valentine as Wardrobe Assistant and is excited to be involved again, working on this wonderful play.

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Stage Manager
Sandy Halliday

Sandy is very pleased to be back for her third season with Theatre One, most recently as Stage Manager for Shirley Valentine. She began her career many years ago as ASM for the National Ballet of Canada & the Royal Winnipeg Ballet.

After a season as stage manager for the Royal Winnipeg, she spent 6 years freelancing, stage managing for theatre companies all across the country. She was with the original Bastion Theatre, the Muskoka Festival, Theatre Passe Muraille and Stratford Festival before returning to her dance roots with the Judith Marcuse Dance Company and the Universal Ballet of Seoul, Korea. A move to Victoria prompted a seven year run as Pacific Opera Victoria’s stage manager.

Now, Sandy, her husband Bruce, and their two children are achieving an idyllic life on Gabriola Island. In recent years she has been on the Stage Management team for a wide variety of productions including Dancers for Life, Toyota Canada’s annual production, Crimson Coast, as well as special events at the Port Theatre.

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