Stars on Her Shoulders
Team
Bios
STEPHEN MASSICOTTE
(Playwright)
Stephen Massicotte’s play Mary’s Wedding premiered in 2002 at the Alberta Theatre Projects’ playRites Festival and was the winner of the 2000 Alberta Playwriting Competition, the 2002 Betty Mitchell Award, and the 2003 Alberta Book Award. His play The Oxford Roof Climber’s Rebellion premiered as a co-production between the Tarragon Theatre and the Great Canadian Theatre Company and was a hit off Broadway. His play, The Clockmaker, premiered at the Alberta Theatre Projects’ 2009 playRites Festival and won the 2009 Betty Mitchell Award for Best New Play and the 2011 Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best English Language Play. Stephen wrote the feature films The Dark and Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning, the award winning short film June and, Historica Canada’s Winnipeg Falcons and Nursing Sisters Heritage Minutes. Most recently, he wrote and produced the feature film How We Ended Us.
HEATHER INGLIS
(Director)
Heather Inglis took the helm of Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre as Artistic Producer in November 2019. A graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada, Heather is an award-winning director, producer, and dramaturg whose career has taken her across the country. Heather has directed and assistant-directed over 40 productions, many of which have been new Canadian works. Credits include: The Shaw Festival, Citadel Theatre, Workshop West Theatre, Northern Light Theatre, Azimuth Theatre, Theatre Junction, Gordon Tootoosis Nikaniwin Theatre (SK), Live Five (SK), The Doppler Effect Productions (NS), Alberta Playwrights Network, Saskatchewan Playwrights' Centre, Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre, The Notable Acts Festival (NB) and Universities in Edmonton, Calgary and Saskatoon. 13 of Inglis’ productions have been nominated for 21 Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Awards, including 7 nominations for Outstanding Independent Production and nominations for Outstanding Director and Outstanding Fringe Director. In 2019, and 2020 Heather was nominated for the Playwrights’ Guild of Canada’s Bra D’Or Award, recognizing her support and promotion of Canadian women playwrights. Heather has received a Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Award (2014), the Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund (twice), the Celebration of Women in the Arts Award (twice), the Telus Courage to Innovate Award, an Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award for Outstanding Innovation in Theatre (2014). In 2022 she received the Queens Platinum Jubilee medal for her contributions to Alberta’s literary community. At Workshop West Heather has directed The Enchantment, The Laws of Thermodynamics, Metronome, Tell Us What Happened, Unsung: Tales from the Front Line, Mob, and Dead Letter.
HAYLEY MOORHOUSE
(HELEN GARDINER)
Hayley (she/they) is a queer actor, playwright, dramaturg and producer. She is grateful to be living and working on Treaty 6 territory in Amiskwaciwâskahikan, colonially known as Edmonton. Select acting credits include Robot Girls (Shadow Theatre), Hecuba (Bleviss Laboratory Theatre), Smoke (Tiny Bear Jaws), Slight of Mind (Theatre Yes) and The Bully Project (Concrete Theatre). Hayley’s first play, Suspension, premiered at the 2019 Edmonton Fringe Festival. The script was later adapted into a podcast version for the Alberta Queer Calendar Project with Cardiac Theatre. Their latest play Tough Guy was a part of RISER Edmonton’s Development Stream in 2023/2024. Later this season, you can catch Hayley performing in Little Women at the Citadel Theatre. Thank you for being here, enjoy the show!
MEEGAN SWEET
(EMMA ROSS HALL)
Gabby (she/her) is an actor residing and creating in amiskwaciwâskahikan, colonially known as Edmonton. She was most recently seen on Workshop West's stage as Rachel in Subscribe or Like and Piper in Tell Us What Happened. Other select credits include Stone and Soil (Nextfest), Love, Kurt (MAA and PAA Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Carter-Ryan Productions) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare by the Bow/Theatre Calgary). Gabby is a graduate of both University of Alberta's Acting program and MacEwan University's Theatre Arts programs, and is especially passionate about the intersections of mental health and art-making in her current professional practice. It's a thrill to be part of this generous team and gorgeous production!
DAYNA LEA HOFFMANN
(GEORGIE)
Dayna Lea Hoffmann is a multidisciplinary artist and actor currently based in amiskwaciwâskahikan where she learns, works, performs, and produces shows with her company Batrabbit Productions. Currently, she is working with Thou Art Here Theatre as their Artistic Leadership Mentee for their 2024/2025 Season. She is a graduate of the U of A’s BFA Acting program and holds a diploma in theatre from Douglas College. Additionally, She is a former performer, student and teacher of the Vancouver Circus School, and an alumni of Canada’s National Voice Intensive. Recent acting credits include Pillowman (Theatre Yes), Mermaid Legs (Skirts-a-Fire Festival), Rat Academy (Batrabbit Productions), A Hundred Words for Snow (Northern Light Theatre), and All the Little Animals I Have Eaten (Shadow Theatre). Dayna identifies as a bi-racial settler from the unceded territories of the Coast Salish people and would like to acknowledge that she is currently living and working on stolen land in Treaty 6 Territory. Big love to Ben.
DANA WYLIE
(MAUDE URQUHART)
Dana Wylie is a singer-songwriter, a mother, a side musician, a music teacher, and a theatre artist. In an eclectic 25-year career, she has released seven albums, written and presented three original music-storytelling theatrical pieces, and played in numerous wildly varied musical ensembles on three continents. She is a Canadian Folk Music Award nominee and a four-time Sterling Award nominee. Her latest project, soul-roots supergroup Secondhand Dreamcar, just released its debut album Answer the Call.
BRIAN BAST
(Set & Costume Designer)
Brian Bast is an award-winning set and costume designer, having designed throughout Edmonton and Alberta.
Selected design credits include a Sterling award for Ten Times Two - The Eternal Courtship (Shadow Theatre), and nominations for The Colour of Flesh (Shadow Theatre), Cinderella (Alberta Musical Theatre), My Name is Rachel Corrie and The List (Theatre YES! under the direction of Heather Inglis).
Past productions with Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre include: Unsung - Tales from the Front Line, Tell Us What Happened, and Dead Letter.
DARRIN HAGEN
(Sound & Composition Designer)
DARRIN HAGEN is an award-winning playwright, author, composer, performer, and Queer historian, and is also the artistic director of Guys In Disguise. He has created over 40 plays, and dozens of published essays and articles, many dealing with the history of sexual minorities in Alberta.
In addition to the full-length documentary Pride vs. Prejudice: The Delwin Vriend Story, he has created and directed the award-nominated music video for Only Here on Loan by King of Foxes, the dance film Shadow of a Doubt with Gerry Morita, the silent experimental short Presence in the Third Space, and the comedy short The Foxy Lady Disco Dancing Lounge Rhinestone Turkey Baster Relay Marathon. He also hosted the web series Queer Places, produced by TelusOptik.
Plays by Darrin include his award-winning 1996 debut, The Edmonton Queen (published by Brindle & Glass Publishing, now in its fourth printing). Other published work includes Tornado Magnet: A Salute to Trailer Court Women. More plays include the Sterling-nominated Buddy, Witch Hunt at the Strand, The Empress & The Prime Minister, Metronome, 10 Funerals. as well as the international hit BitchSlap!, and With Bells On which was adapted into a musical by New York City’s Live & In Color.
He has received 7 Sterling awards for his work in Edmonton theatre, and the AMPIA for Best Male Host for the series Who’s On Top? In 2005 he was named one of 100 Edmontonians of the Century. In 2013 he was inducted into the Q Hall of Fame Canada for his contribution to Queer Canadian culture, and was named by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts as one of the 25 Most Influential Alberta artists in the last 25 years.
ALISON YANOTA
(Lighting Designer)
A graduate from the Mount Royal University Diploma in Technical Theatre and the University of Alberta MFA and BFA in Theatre Design, Alison Yanota is an artist who believes in the performance space as a form of interactive sculpture.
Select Design credits include: MOB (Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre - Lighting Design), Empty The House (Ammolite Opera - Set and Costume Design), One Hundred Words for Snow (Northern Light THeatre - Production Design), Deathtrap (Teatro - Lighting Design), Misery (Keyano Theatre - Set and Costume Design), Measure for Measure and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Freewill Players Festival - Set and Costume Design), Every Brilliant Thing (The Citadel Theatre - Production Design), The Wedding Party (Alberta Theatre Projects - Lighting Design), A Christmas Carol (Keyano Theatre - Lighting and Costume Design), Seussical the Musical (Storybook Theatre - Set Design), Crime Does Not Pay (Downstage - Lighting Design), Wait Until Dark (Vertigo Theatre Lighting Design).
STEFANO MUNERONI
(Production Dramaturg)
I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Drama at the University of Alberta where I teach theatre history, theories of adaptation, and dramaturgy. I also hold a cross appointment with the Department of Modern Languages & Cultural Studies.
My most recent dramaturgical credits include Hecuba, A Slight of Mind, Boundless Border, Yerma, Angels in America, The Mill on the Floss, and The Toxic Bus Incident. Recent staged translations include Xavier Villaurrutia’s The Absent One, and Osvaldo Dragún’s A Toothache, a Plague, and a Dog. I have published articles on Latin American theatre, religion and drama, and translation. My book Staging Sainthood in the Early Modern Period was published by Palgrave in 2017, and my translation and critical edition of Sforza Pallavicino’s Martyr Hermenegild came out in 2019 with the Center for Reformation and Renaissance Studies Press. I am now working on a new book project titled tentatively Mediterranean Migration in Italian Theatre and Performance.
KIRA FRANCHUCK
(Production Manager/Technical Director)
Kira Franchuck (they/them) is a lifelong resident of the prairies and the current in-house Technical Director for Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre. Leveraging a history of using technology creatively in a diverse range of contexts, from high performance computing to “new media” and professional videography, they are excited to facilitate another bleeding-edge season at The Gateway. You’ve assuredly seen or heard of their handiwork on any number of occasions including Workshop Wests’ Mob, Dead Letter, Tell Us What Happened, Unsung, and Subscribe Or Like, among many other credits. Outside of the theatre, Kira has built experiences for and with organizations such as Apple, Grainger, the Edmonton Valley Zoo (in collacoration with Toy Jackson), and MacEwan University. They still collect CDs (vinyl is too heavy!) and greatly enjoy working at a theatre so close to bike lane access. You can check out what they’ve been hearing lately at http://hhhpccc.ca
ANDREA HANDAL RIVERA
(Stage Manager Oct 1 - Nov 10)
Andrea Handal Rivera (she/they | ella/e) is a Salvadoran stage manager currently based in Amiskwaciwâskahikan in Treaty 6 Territory. They are passionate about facilitating the creation of live performance art as a medium to connect cultures, voices, and lived experiences. They are delighted to be making their Workshop West debut with Stars on Her Shoulders!
Select credits: A Christmas Carol, Peter Pan Goes Wrong, The Garneau Block (Citadel Theatre); The Hooves Belonged to the Deer (In Arms Theatre Collective), The Spinsters (Small Matters Productions), El Funeral (Diaspora Diaries Collective), Boy Trouble (Amoris Projects); ASMR, Convergence (Good Women Dance Collective); The Magpie Collection (Mile Zero Dance); Grand Ghosts (Grand Theatre); I Don’t Even Miss You (Tiny Bear Jaws).
TIM YAKIMEC
(Stage Manager Nov 9 - Nov 17)
Tim has enjoyed stage managing various productions ranging from grand opera to performance art with children’s theatre. Some of his favorite challenging productions include: Filumena, Robert Lepage’s Bluebeard’s Castle / Erwartung, Turandot, Of Mice and Men, Rigoletto, Tales of Hoffman. Tim has stage managed for Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Opera Hong Kong, Toronto’s Canadian Stage (Toronto), and The Atlantic Theatre Festival (Wolfville, Nova Scotia), and as Production Stage Manager for the 2005 Queen’s Commonwealth Visit. He had the privilege of being part of The Hydrofoil Mystery, Half Cracked – The Legend of Sissy Mary, The Fly Fisher’s Companion and The Company Store with Theatre Baddeck. Recent work has been with Calgary Opera (Macbeth), Theatre Network (Innocence of Trees) and the Mayfield Theatre (First Date and Grease) and Manitoba Opera.
DAVID LEY
Vocal & Dialect Coach
David Ley holds an MFA in performance from York University with a diploma in Voice Teaching and is the creator of the Vibrant Voice Technique™.
David is also a registered massage therapist with a specific interest in vocal tension patterns. He is a Professor in the Drama Department at the University of Alberta where he teaches Voice and Speech, Dialects, and Acting. He spent ten seasons as a Voice Coach at Canada’s Stratford Festival and has 30 years of experience working as an actor in theatres across Canada and has acted in numerous film and television productions.
Meegan Sweet (they/them) is a queer multidisciplinary artist, and 2020 graduate of the University of Alberta’s Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting, as well as a 2016 graduate of the Theatre Performance and Creation Diploma at Red Deer College (now Red Deer Polytechnic). Since graduating, they have been working as a performer, creator, musician and florist in amiskwaciwâskahikan. When they’re not onstage, they are usually birdwatching or volunteering at WILDNorth as a Wildlife Rehabilitator and Helpline Operator or nannying baby squirrels. Recent theatre credits include, The S.P.O.T.T. (Performer & Creator - Edmonton International Fringe Festival), The Tempest (Ariel - Freewill Shakespeare Festival, OWEaDEBT (Director - Adelaide International Fringe Festival), Dvaita: Duality (Soul - Saraswathi Society for Dance and Music), Sublimity - A Love Supreme (#3 - Dancing Monkey Laboratories), The Games of Love and Chance (Silvia - Primestock Theatre Co.), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Puck - Freewill Shakespeare Festival).
GABBY BERNARD
(ENID BENNETT)
PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTES…
Without giving too much away about the plot, it should be said that Emma and Helen are based on two real Canadian Nursing Sisters and the event they endured on the night of 29th May 1918. In 2013 I had the good fortune to write two Canadian Heritage Minutes—-one of which was about the gallantry of Meta Hodge and Eleanor Thompson, both Lieutenants in the Canadian Army Medical Corps. Because of the limitations of the TV spot, I was only briefly able to touch upon their experience, so almost immediately I started working on a full length play version of the story. For the sake of dramatic freedom, I did only a little historical research into the lives of these women. So, the characters presented here are not meant to bear any strict biographical resemblance. Their personalities, relationships, opinions, and feelings are purely my invention. That said, I do very much hope that my Emma and Helen honor those actual women in the deeper sense—their compassion, tenacity, intelligence, and yes, their wit.
“Perhaps it will brighten the dark moments a little to think how you have meant to someone more than anything ever has or ever will. What you have striven for will not end in nothing, all that you have done and been will not be wasted, for it will be a part of me as long as I live, and I shall remember, always.”
― Vera Brittain, Testament of Youth
-Stephen Massicotte
DIRECTORS NOTES…
A century can be both an eternity and a heartbeat.
On one hand, the world of 2024 would have been entirely unimaginable to the characters in Stars on Her Shoulders, and indeed to anyone who lived the horrors and tumult of the First World War. On the other, we look back and find that the tensions and struggles of 1918 are not so different from our own and that ‘the war to end all wars’ was a calling card for what has become a state of constant war —where what is at stake, both here in Canada and abroad, are the most basic of human rights.
Emma and Helen live on the threshold of the modern world at a time when the abstract concepts of glory, honour, and courage became meaningless in the wake of the 40 million who died in the most horrific of circumstances. In the 2020s, we’ve seen values and freedoms we’ve come to take for granted eroded from underneath us, shattering what we may have thought our world to be. And so, we now sit at a new threshold facing unknown futures not so far away from the characters in a play, set in a time many of us have forgotten. Like them, we struggle with loss, resilience, and finding hope—our solace coming from the company of those who journey through this moment in history with us—and if not hereafter in ‘present mirth hath present laughter’.