Rebecca Northan: Improviser, actor, director

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Rebecca is an innovative artists and a creative entrepreneur.

I interviewed Rebecca in July, 2016 after a performance of her show “Blind Date,” an improvisational performance unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.

We talk about how Rebecca’s 10 minute theatre experiment, “Blind Date,” evolved into a full-length show that played off-Broadway and London’s West End.

These days she’s improvising in iambic pentameter with her company Spontaneous Theatre.

Keep an eye out for Spontaneous Theatre’s next production. I saw a production at The Stratford Festival and highly recommend it!

Show Notes:
Rebecca Northan on Twitter
Rebecca’s company Spontaneous Theatre on Twitter
Loose Moose Theatre Company
Kevin McCollum’s theatrical and media producing company Alchemation
The Dora Mavor Mooore Awards
The Betty Mitchell Awards

Check out my interview with Spontaneous Theatre company member Raoul Bhaneja.

Nicky Guadagni: Actor, playwright

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Nicky Guadagni, podcast, interview, hookedNicky Guadagni has been nominated for five Gemini awards and won two for her roles in “Major Crime” and “Blue Murder.”

Her one woman show “Hooked” started as a private performance in people’s home and eventually made its way to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh.

“Hooked” won the SpringWorks’ 2016 People’s Choice Award.

In the podcast we talk about acting, producing at festivals, her training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and of course our lives as parents.

I don’t know what part of our conversation I enjoyed most: Learning about her youth in Montreal, the creative process behind her hit show “Hooked,” or how she and her husband dealt with their teen aged son who spent way too much time playing video games, and online poker, but then turned that into a career.

Show Notes
Hooked The Play
Sweeney Todd at The Shaw Festival with Nicky’s daughter Tess Benger in the ensemble.
Griffin Benger, Nicky’s son & poker player/commentator on Twitter
“First Person Shooter” documentary film from Cogent Benger Productions
Improvisation instructor Kate Ashby
Donna Eden Energy Systems
“Hooked” at the SpringWorks Festival in Stratford.

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Brooke Johnson: Trudeau Stories

Brooke Johnson, Trudeau Stories

In 1985 Brooke Johnson met Pierre Elliott Trudeau at a gala event at the National Theatre School where she was an acting student.

It had been a year and a half since he’d stepped down as Prime Minister.

Brooke is an award winning actor who, when she was in her teens, launched her career by working as a production assistant at the Shaw Festival, often driving actors to and from Toronto.

Brooke has an expansive career, but I decided to focus our chat on her solo performance “Trudeau Stories.”

When she met Trudeau at the National Theatre School of Canada they shared a dance and their cheek to cheek moment sparked a relationship that lasted years. Brooke documented the relationship with Trudeau in a journal and in 2007 created the solo performance “Trudeau Stories” for Toronto’s SummerWorks Festival.

We talk about her time with Trudeau and how she developed the solo show.

Show Notes
“Trudeau Stories” on Amazon
“Trudeau Stories” Website
National Theatre School of Canada

Upcoming Performances
April 28-30th, 2016, The Rose Theatre, Brampton
January 10 -29, 2017, Great Canadian Theatre Company, Ottawa