MAINSTAGE Cymbeline

About the Play

Shakespeare's CYMBELINE is set in Ancient Britain, against the backdrop of the Roman invasions of the first century. Innogen, the daughter of King Cymbeline, defies her father and marries her childhood sweetheart, setting into motion a chain of events where painful secrets from the past must be faced, deep injustices rectified, and betrayals atoned for before reconciliation and forgiveness can ensue.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE

  • Saturday, November 13, 2021, 7:30 PM
  • Tuesday, November 16, 2021, 7:30 PM
  • Wednesday, November 17, 2021, 1:30 PM
  • Wednesday, November 17, 2021, 7:30 PM
  • Thursday, November 18, 2021, 7:30 PM
  • Friday, November 19, 2021, 7:30 PM
  • Saturday, November 20, 2021, 1:30 PM
  • Saturday, November 20, 2021, 7:30 PM

LOCATION
Youtube Live Broadcast

RUNNING TIME
~2:45 (165mins) including intermission

COST
Free Admission, donations to our COVID19 Student Emergency Fund accepted

Get your tickets

DIRECTED BY AARON WILLIS*

Aaron Willis is a Dora nominated director and actor, as well as a sought-after dramaturge. He is the co-Artistic Leader of Convergence Theatre, with Julie Tepperman.

Aaron’s interest as a director is focused on text-based work—from Shakespeare to twentieth-century classics, and on working dramaturgically with playwrights on the development of new Canadian plays. He has directed plays that have appeared on mainstages with 1,000 seats, as well as plays for much smaller audiences in a myriad of surprising venues. He particularly enjoys creating site-specific work for intimate audiences.

Read more of Aaron Willis' bio

Aaron co-edited The Canadian Theatre Review issue on Immersive Theatre in Canada (Volume 173, Winter 2018), served as the Associate Artistic Director and Manager of New Play Development at the Musical Stage Company, was a Metcalf Foundation Producing Intern at Canadian Stage, and was the artistic producer for Theatre Passe Muraille’s “Beyond Walls” season. Aaron was elected second vice president at Canadian Actors’ Equity Association for a three year term, having been on the advisory council for the previous three years. He was also a proud co-producer for the political pop-up event The Wrecking Ball. 

Aaron continues to be a teaching artist with The Stratford Festival (where he was also a member of the inaugural Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Theatre Direction), and is a regular arts educator with the Luminato Festival, Ryerson University's ACT II Studio, Humber College, Sheridan College, and George Brown Theatre School, where he himself is a graduate. Aaron holds a BA Honours Drama from The University of Alberta in Edmonton, where he was born and raised. 

DIRECTOR'S NOTES on the play

CYMBELINE is one of the later "romances"; a sequence of plays written towards the end of Shakespeare's career that include PERICLES, THE WINTER'S TALE and THE TEMPEST.  All of these plays, coming after the series of famous tragedies that are so familiar to us, have a dramatic arc that resolves in forgiveness and reconciliation rather than catastrophe.  They're distinct from many of Shakespeare's plays in that the tone of the story is often comic and light, and yet the pain and anguish the characters suffer would seem more in line with the tragedies.  Cymbeline, in particular, is set in a mythic version of Ancient Britain that seems to speak to a hope that Jacobean English society, if it could only reconnect with the inherent goodness at the heart of itself, could somehow transcend and vanquish the dark forces that are trying to rip it apart from inside. 

Working on this play at a time when our society is confronting widespread and painful traumas both immediate and long-buried, reminds me of this:  as atrocious and as cruel as we have been to one another and continue to be, the possibilities of repentance, atonement, reconciliation, and forgiveness are always within reach if we are willing to open ourselves to it.   

 

photo of Aaron Willlis

Creatives

Photo of Sarah O'Brien
Sarah O'Brien*, Stage Manager

Sarah is delighted to be back at George Brown. Her last sortie here was in March 2020. It didn’t end satisfactorily. This year’s adventure is a great way to bring the students back to the stage, and an opportunity to visit a less well-known Shakespearean creation. Sarah recently completed an outdoor romp in the woods of north eastern Nova Scotia with Festival Antigonish’s Robin Hood: The Great Escape, as well as a filmed performance of Guillaume Coté’s exquisite +(Dix) for Fall For Dance North at Harbourfront Centre. Upcoming adventures include more filmed dance, and great new Canadian scripts.

 

Jackie Chau
JACKIE CHAU, SET & PROPERTIES DESIGN

Jackie has worked as a set and costume designer and her work has toured internationally. In addition, she is a production designer and art director for film and television. Selected theatre design credits include: Sexy Laundry (Theatre Aquarius) Annie Mae’s Movement, Almighty Voice and His Wife, Tombs of the Vanishing Indian, From Thine Eyes, HUFF (NEPA), Antigone Insurgency, Talking Masks, Charge of the Expormidable Moose, Ubu Mayor, S/W (One Little Goat), Gas Girls (New Harlem Productions), Romeo and Juliet (TD Dream in High Park/Can Stage), Zadie's Shoes, Lady Sunrise (Factory Theatre), Brown Balls (Fu-Gen), The Swearing Jar (Prairie Theatre Exchange), Fish Eyes Trilogy (GCTC), Canada 300 (Watermark Theatre), Cannibal the Musical (Starvox Entertainment),Twist Your Dickens (Second City Chicago/Toronto), Mini Me Makeover – Designer and Co-host (CBC Kids/Expect Theatre), Moment, Dissidents, Oil (ARC Theatre), Cowboy Versus Samurai, 39 Steps, Oraltorio (Soulpepper) and The Komagata Maru Incident (Stratford Festival). Jackie was named in NOW magazine's Top 10 Theatre Artists of 2009, nominated for the Virginia and Myrtle Cooper Award in Costume Design, nominated for a Saskatoon Area Theatre (SAT) award, 2 Broadway World awards and has received 8 Dora nominations for outstanding set and costume design. This is Jackie's 14th year designing for the George Brown Theatre.

 

MEREDITH HUBBARD, COSTUME DESIGN

Meredith Hubbard is excited to be back at George Brown Theatre School for a fifth year. She graduated from George Brown College for Fashion Design and from Humber College for Theatre Production and works as a costume designer and assistant in Toronto. Costume Designs includes: You Never Can Tell, Fear and Misery of the 3rd Reich, Jacobean Period Study (George Brown Theatre School) Carmel, Bloom: A Rock N’ Roll Fable, The Other: A Strange Christmas Tale, Crow Hill, Who Killed Snow White?, A History of Drinking in Cavan,The Shadow Walk of Millbrook, Wounded Soldiers Tour (4th Line Theatre); Sabrina Fair (Amicus Productions); Telepathy 13 (Parahumans).

 

Photo of Siobahn Sleath
SIOBHÁN SLEATH, LIGHTING DESIGN

Siobhán is happy to be back at George Brown Theatre to design Cymbeline.She’s also worked with the School on 3 Sisters & Co.,The Learned Ladies, Caucasian Chalk Circle, Machinal, Calvalcade, Lady Windermere’s Fan and three Munsch Shows.

Other recent shows include: Ann (Arkansas Rep Theatre);The Horse and His Boy,Wilde Tales (Shaw Festival); Miracle on 34thStreet, A Year with Frog and Toad, Shrek and The Addams Family (Neptune Theatre); Steel City Gangster andOn a First Name Basis (Theatre Aquarius);Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Avenue Q (Sudbury Theatre Centre; and Elegies: A Song Cycle (Acting Up Stage). She is the Associate Lighting Designer on the Canadian production of Come from Away.  

More information can be found on her website: www.siobhansleathdesign.com

 

STEAFAN HANNIGAN, VIDEO DESIGN

Steafan was born and raised in Belfast, Northern Ireland and moved to Canada nearly 12 years ago with his wife Saskia and 3 children Oisin, Eile and Ayisha.

He has a background in theatre and has held many interesting positions: Technical Director, Musical Director, Head of Props, Head Carpenter, Lighting Designer, Sound Designer, and actor. Previously he worked as a Technical Director for many companies including Jumblies Theatre, Education Arts Canada and Festival Players.

He has also had an interesting career as a musician having composed the music for a 24-episode animated series which aired worldwide in 2015, worked with a diverse range such as Bjork, Depeche Mode, Loreena McKennitt and AfroCelts He has also appeared on MTV, BBC and CBC. Along with his wife Saskia, he was hired to work on developing the hit theatre show “Come from Away”.

And yes rumours are true, he arranged music for and appeared on the hit T.V. series “Friends” – the one with Ross’s wedding, acted in Canadian show “Coppers” and been a session musician on “Black Harbour”, “Relic Hunter ” and “Earth Final Conflict”.

He has played or produced over 200 albums, toured in over 30 countries and still has a recording studio and a collection of over 800 musical instruments. He is an author of “The Bodhran Book” and “The Low Whistle Book” both best sellers in their genre. He and his family also formed a band called Clan Hannigan

He regularly volunteers for ArtsCan Circle, working with Indigenous communities in Northern Ontario, specializing in working with the Pikanjikum First Nation and Project Journey.

 

Cast

Photo of Aaron Clapperton
Aaron Clapperton - Cymbeline / Jupiter

Aaron Clapperton (he/him) is a gay multidisciplinary actor and creative hailing from Newmarket, Ontario.  Aaron’s highlight GBTS Scene Study credits include: Dunois in Saint Joan (dir. James Simon); Playwright in An Octoroon (dir. Kwaku Okyere); Simon in Scorched (dir. Ali Momen).  Other highlighted theatre: The Snake in The Trouble in the Garden (The New Ideas Festival); Male Ensemble Swing in The Producers (The LOT).  Previous training: Bravo Academy, Sheridan College’s Performing Arts Preparation Program.  Aaron enjoys tapping, practicing his penmanship and snuggling with his cat, Suzette, in his spare time. 

Photo of Lucy Ellis
Lucy Ellis - INNOGEN

Lucy is thrilled to be given the emotional challenge of playing Innogen in this production of Cymbeline!

Her favourite roles at George Brown include The Countess in Marriage of Figaro and Blanche in Widower’s Houses. Alongside three years of training at GBTS, Lucy has also done courses on classical and contemporary performance at Stratford and Shaw, and in London at RADA, and LAMDA. She also recently appeared as Irene Robbins on Murdoch Mysteries. 

Lucy has been playing piano since she was six, and especially loves classical and jazz standards. In her spare time, she also sings, composes, and posts the music she makes on her youtube channel.

 

Photo of Rashaun Ellis
Rashaun James Ellis - Arviragus / Posthumus Brother 2

Rashaun James Ellis is a Third year student who’s excited to be taking part in telling this incredible story. He hopes you enjoy the show!

 

Photo of Nate Iwanochko
Nate Iwanochko - Cloten / Sicilius Leonatus

Nate Iwanochko (he/him) is a multidisciplinary artist who is resoundingly excited to be part of the George Brown Graduating Class of 2022’s production of Cymbeline. Before attending George Brown, he spent 2 years attending York University in their Devised Theatre Program, and brings that same mindset of collaborative creativity to his work here at the school. Nate likes to spend time enjoying his favourite TV Series’, going for adventures with his dog and spending quality time with friends; including the never ending impromptu comedic routines with friends that bring people together.

When outside of the theatre, Nate loves to get lost in spending time at his home studio playing with sound design, experimenting with and creating soundscapes as well as hybrid orchestral “mock ups”. He also loves creating characters that come from all walks of life through the endless possibilities he finds with recording his own voice acting. Nate hopes you enjoy the show and have as much fun enjoying it as we, the ensemble, did bring it to life!

 

Photo of Naomi Jijina
Naomi Jijina - BELARIUS / THE FRENCHMAN

Naomi Jijina (she/her) is a Persian-Canadian multidisciplinary actress and performer based in Milton, Ontario. Growing up, Naomi enjoyed participating in performance classes, workshops, and showcases including the International Presentation of Performers in Los Angeles, California. Naomi’s favourite GBTS Scene Study credits include: Jennifer Dubedat in The Doctor's Dilemma; Lady Wishfort in The Way of the World; Janine in Scorched. Throughout her GBTS training, Naomi had the pleasure of working alongside directors such as Ali Momen, Jeannette Lambermont-Morey, and Kwaku Okyere. In her free time, Naomi enjoys dancing carefree around her house, painting, playing with her dog Zeus, and spending time with her loving family.

 

Photo of Billy Keefer
Billy Keefer - Guiderius / Posthumus Brother 1

Billy made his first debut in Oshawa Little Theatre’s production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest during the winter of 2019 and continued to pursue his career in theatre working as an actor and stage manager for 2 years at Theatre On The Ridge, working on productions such as Wind in the Willows & Peter Pan. Billy is currently cultivating his own art dipped in surrealist and absurdist themes and now tries his hand in classical theatre having played the lead role of Mirabell in The Way Of The World during his second year Period Study and now in this year’s production of Cymbeline as part of his classical theatre training.

Grace Lamarche
Grace Lamarche - CAIUS LUCIUS / HELEN / BRITISH CAPTAIN 2

Grace is thrilled to be kicking off the GBTS 2022 season. Her favourite roles played during her time at GBTS include Millamant in William Congreve’s Way of the World and Gloria from George Bernard Shaw’s You Never Can Tell. She is excited to utilize her final year of theatre school to focus on building her skills/exploring the universe of directing and playwrighting and would like to give a special thanks to her mother, who continues to inspire her creative work every day.

 

Photo of Eōin J. Leahy
Eōin J. Leahy - Posthumus

Eōin J. Leahy is a mixed (Indian-Canadian), queer artist from Sault Ste. Marie, currently in his third and final year at George Brown Theatre School. He has played notable roles such as Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, and Simon in Scorched, and has also had the opportunity to create and direct projects, like an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, and That Sweet, Thin Line - an original Dadaism piece showcased during the Third Year Test Piece. Eōin’s goal as an artist is to help tell stories- through acting, through writing, through directing, and everything in between.

Photo of Sophie Lefebvre
Sofie Lefebvre - PHILARIO / CLOTEN LORD 2 / ROMAN CAPTAIN

Sofie Lefebvre (She/Her) is a queer actor, singer, and dancer from Toronto Ontario. Sofie’s highlight GBTS scene study credits include Mrs. Higgins in Pygmalion (dir. James Simon); Zoe in An Octoroon (dir. Kwaku Okyere); Foible in The Way of the World (dir. Jeannette Lambermont-Morey). Other highlighted productions include Purgatory, a short thriller film releasing this October. Sofie has been acting since she was thirteen years old when she was cast as Tinker Bellin her school's production of Peter Pan. In her spare time Sofie enjoys sewing, painting her nails, reading, and dancing like nobody’s watching.

 

Photo of Mya Leworthy
Mya Leworthy - Pisanio

Mya Leworthy is excited to help bring Cymbeline to the stage alongside the class of GBTS22. Some of her favourite roles over the past two years have been Susanne in the marriage of Figaro, and  Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion. Now you can catch her on stage playing the ever loyal and creative Pisanio. She hopes to see you in the audience. 

 

Photo of Julian Murphy
Julian Murphy - Iachimo

Julian Murphy is an actor with a long standing love of the theatre. He has come a long way from the community theatre pantomimes he once performed in, and is excited for what the future beyond school holds. He is a stage combatant with a passion for martial arts from around the world, and throughout history; from Muay Thai and Jiujitsu, to longsword and rapier. Julian is also a writer and musician, where he channels his creative drive when it isn't occupied by the theatre. Julian is honoured to work with such engaging artists, and looks forward to the opportunity to create more art as an ensemble.

 

Photo of Sullivan Nash
Sullivan Nash - PHILHARMONUS / CLOTEN LORD 1

Proudly born and raised in Toronto, Sullivan is honoured to be a part of the GBTS 2022 graduating class, alongside fellow actors and creators. After developing a love for theatre and acting at a young age, Sullivan performed in Le Petit Prince and La Crèche in high school before studying at George Brown College.

George Brown scene study credits include: William de Burgh Cokane in Widower’s Houses, Captain Robert de Baudricourt in Saint Joan, Rolly in Criminal Genius, The Count in The Marriage of Figaro.

Sullivan would like to thank his friends and family who have supported him throughout his journey thus far.

 

Photo of Katie Pearson
Katie Pearson - CORNELIUS / BRITISH CAPTAIN 1 / JAILER

Katie is thrilled to perform as Cornelius in George Brown’s production of Cymbeline. This show will be Katie’s first show for George Brown. Some of their previous work includes Legally Blonde and the Who’s Tommy; both produced by Brock Musical Theatre. Katie has their Bachelor of Arts for Women and Gender Studies from Brock University, and their love for the stage brought them to George Brown where they have had the privilege to play characters like Dierdra in Dreary and Izzy, and Emmy in Shaw’s The Doctor's Dilemma. 

 

Photo of Marijke Reinink
Marijke Reinink - THE QUEEN / POSTHUMUS' MOTHER

Marijke Reinink is a Toronto born multidisciplinary artist. Throughout her training she has focused on acting, singing and dancing and choreography. Theatre highlights include Vivian in Legally Blonde, Wendla in Spring Awakening and Veronica in Heather. George Brown acting highlights include Vivie Warren in Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Dido in An African Cargo and Gina in Office Hours. For all their support, Marijke sends all her love and appreciation to her wonderful family and friends, especially those she’s made along the way at George Brown.

 

Credits & Acknowledgements

Production Staff​

  • Properties Master: David Hoekstra
  • Streaming Tech Coordinator: Steafan Hannigan
  • Set Carpenter: Andy DeVries
  • Set Painter: Paul Boddum
  • Stitcher: Victoria Banjavcic ​
  • Fight Director / Movement Coach: Jack Rennie
  • Voice Coach: Christina Pastor​
  • Speech Coach: Geoffrey Pounsett​
  • Alexander Technique Coach: Victoria Heart
  • Musical Coach: Stephan Ermel​​
  • Social Media Coordinator:​​ Naomi Jijina

Staff for George Brown Theatre

  • Chair: Trent Scherer​​
  • Program Coordinator: Sue Miner​​
  • Support Coordinator: Michael Longstaff​​
  • Production Manager/Technical Director: Scott Banks​
  • Head of Wardrobe: Ina Kerklaan

Special thanks to our generous donors​

  • The William & Nona Heaslip Foundation  
  • Sonja Koerner and the Women’s Art Association  
  • Loretta Bogert-O’Brien  
  • Esther Farlinger  
  • Larry LaForet  
  • Audrey J. Murdoch  
  • Ray Wares  
  • Lu-Ju Chou
  • George Brown Seniors’ Association  
  • Cindy Larable
  • Debbie Read 

Thank you to our friends in the community​

  • Megan Woods, Corey MacVicar, and Soulpepper Theatre Company​
  • Robert Scott (Canadian Actors’ Equity Association)
  • Ashley Harychan, Vibalin Padua, Yun Lin, and Arleen Prudenciado (George Brown College Accounts Payable)​
  • Cindy Bautista and the George Brown College Marketing Department​

*The participation of these Artists is arranged by permission of the Canadian Actors’ Equity Association under the provisions of the Dance.Opera.Theatre Policy (DOT).​