Pre-Professional 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.
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.
Sylvia Larrass
Sylvia Larrass grew up in France and Germany where she began her music education in piano and voice. She is a graduate of the University of British Columbia and holds a diploma in vocal performance, as well as the Silver Medal of excellence from the Royal Conservatory of Toronto. Over the past few years Sylvia has developed special techniques to bring out the best in the voice, sung and spoken and has coached over a thousand people in France, Germany, the US and throughout Canada, helping them to gain success in performing and speaking in public. Sylvia also performs actively as a soloist, as well as with the Opera Lyra Chorus and Tourmaline vocal ensemble. Recent credits include a performance at Carnegie Hall in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the New York Metropolitan Opera.
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 a 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.