Bruce Bissonnette, Director of Ottawa Theatre School
Bruce is a Professional Actor, Director, and Teacher in the Performing Arts. He is the 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 à 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.
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.
Mary Ellis
Mary has worked extensively as an actor and teacher for many years in the Ottawa area. Some favorite roles include Theresa in Marion Bridge, Rose in Unity 1918, Helen the social worker in Problem Child and Martha in Waiting for the Parade, all at the GCTC. Mary also teaches theatre at Algonquin College. She is delighted to be teaching at the OSSD, sharing her passion for theatre with these wonderful students.
Scott Florence
Scott Florence is the artistic director of a Company of Fools, an Ottawa based Shakespeare and Physical Theatre ensemble. He works as an actor, clown, director, creator and teacher all across North America.
As an actor and clown, Scott has worked with a Company of Fools, Caravan Tall Ship Theatre, Eddie May Mysteries, Metaphysical Theatre, National Arts Centre, and Odyssey Theatre. As a director he has worked with a Company of Fools, University of Ottawa, Arts Court Foundation and Algonquin College. He teaches workshops all across North America for groups like the Vancouver International Improv Festival, the Moncton Comedy Festival, and at the University of Regina. He is an associate professor at Algonquin College and a resident trainer with the Canadian Improv Games. He sits on the board of directors of the Canadian Improv Games and the Algonquin College Theatre Arts Advisory Board. He is the curator for WestFest Theatre and also for ism(e):
performance cabaret.
Ken Godmere
Ken studied improvisation in Toronto at The Second City with Allan Guttman and at Theatresports with Mark McKinney. He has been performing for over 30 years in more than one hundred stage, corporate video and television productions for companies including Stage Centre, Theatre 48, Invisions, Kevin Sullivan Productions, the New RO, and Mountain Road Productions. He also produced and directed a short independent film, The Fantom of the Firehall with Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie. His directing credits here in Ottawa include On The Spot Improv, Laff Lines, and Capital Indiscretions (The Institution); I Love You You’re Perfect Now Change – for which he earned the Capital Critics Circle award for best professional director, and The Last Five Years (Zucchini Grotto Theatre Company); and assisting Marti Maraden with Love’s Labour’s Lost (N.A.C.). Ken has been teaching in Ottawa for ten years including Improv workshops at The Institution; Theatre and English Communication courses at Educarium; and Open Acting, Improvisation, and Acting for the Camera at The Whitham School for the Performing Arts.
Barry Karp
Barry Karp began his acting career in Toronto with “The Studio Lab Theatre” over three decades ago. Since then he has conceived and produced a number of successful theatre training programs for young adults in Canada and the USA. He was the artistic director of The Studio Children’s Theatre which represented Canada at the Venice Biennale. And he has explored the creative aspects of conceiving, directing, writing and producing in the worlds of theatre, Native education and dance. More recently he has been heavily involved in directing the multidisciplinary works of R. Murray Schafer in Canada and Brazil.
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.
James Richardson
James is the founder and Co-Artistic Associate of Third Wall Theatre Company. A graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland’s theatre department in 1998, he put his dreams of becoming an actor in Scotland on hold to try and give a boost to Ottawa’s theatre community. Eight years later and he is still here. He has worked in many aspects of the theatre in Newfoundland, where he was a founding member of the Gros Morne Theatre Festival, as well as working in Paris, Brockville and of course Ottawa. His hobby is Orienteering.
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.
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.