Adult Acting Instructors
Bruce Bissonnette, Director of Adult Programs
Bruce is a Professional Actor, Director, and Teacher in the Performing Arts. He works for OSSD as our Director of Adult Programs/Summer Camp Director. We are thrilled that Bruce has taken on this position. Bruce oversees the Pre-Professional Program and helps to develop 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.
Paul Dervis
Paul returns to OSSD after a year's sabbatical in the States. He spent the season writing film reviews for the Somerville (Mass) News, directing the New York premiere of Michele Markarian's "PARENTS OF AVERAGE CHILDREN" at the American Globe Theatre in Times Square, and finishing his latest play "THE LAST DISCIPLE OF ABRAHAM'. Paul's plays have been produced throughout the US and Canada. "MAKING TRACKS" was awarded "Best Plays" at the 1986 New York One-Act Play Festival on Theatre Row. Other New York credits include "POKEY" which had an extended run at the Paul Mazur Theatre in 1990. "ON ANY MONDAY NIGHT" was listed on the Ottawa Sun's "Best Plays" list in 2000. As a director, Paul has won numerous awards, including "Best Play" 1980 from the Boston Herald for the world premiere of Peter Parnell's "SCOOTER THOMAS", Boston Magazine's "Best Play" in 1986 for David Mamet's "EDMOND", the Boston Globe's "Best PLays" in 1988 for Tom Eyen's "WOMEN BEHIND BARS" and 1998 for Israel Horovitz's "FREE GIFT". He is the artistic director the New Ottawa Repertory Theatre.
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.
Natalie Fraser Purdy
Natalie Fraser-Purdy has a degree from Concordia University in Theatre Performance and has had specialized training in directing, English literature and technical theatre. She has been performing, teaching and coaching professionally in Ottawa since 1995, working for companies all over the city. Trained in voice, dance and emotional development, Natalie also utilizes theatre to teach workshops on leadership, professional development and anger management.
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.
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.
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.