Inspired by ongoing #theaTO conversations on social media, we’re featuring some of NOW’s and Soulpepper Theatre Company’s favourite theatre artists working in Toronto. Experience more of the company’s 20th anniversary season here.
What’s your favourite Toronto restaurant?
Noble Seafood. Best dim sum in TO. Unfortunately closing its doors due to the creep of gentrification into Kensington Market.
Where would we find you on a typical Sunday morning?
I can be found stretching and/or meditating on my roof.
Best place in Toronto for a post-show celebration?
Betty’s.
What was the last book you read?
Capitalist Realism by K-Punk (Mark Fisher).
Describe yourself in three words.
Logical, playful, dinosaur.
What travel destination is on your bucket list and why?
Istanbul. I want to see the Hagia Sophia and the walls that defended the last bastion of the Roman Empire, the safeguard of the Western World.
What are you looking forward to most in 2017?
2017, for me, is gonna be all about making and maintaining friendships. I’m finally just beyond being “new in town,” and it’s time my social circles reflected that. Who wants a friend?
What was your first professional role in theatre?
I’ve worked as a professional improviser since I was 18, but my first professional theatre contract was when I was 19. I played Martius in Titus Andronicus at the Freewill Shakespeare Festival in Edmonton.
Last great #theaTO show you saw?
Prince Hamlet was pretty stunning. Very fresh and interesting, especially considering that it’s a play that most theatre folk know very well. Passing Strange really blew my butt open.
What’s the strangest place you’ve ever rehearsed a role?
An abandoned orphanage. Yes, there were ghosts.
Do you have any backstage traditions?
Every show, I build a new routine, but mainstays in my pre-show prep are some sort of cardio exercise, a long stretch, vocal warm-up, and I touch every seat in the theatre before the audience comes in – marking my territory.
What are you working on?
Currently working with VideoCabaret on the Confederation plays. I also co-host a new political comedy podcast called Explain It To Jamie, a show in which I have the complicated happenings of the world explained to me in terms of understandable to a politically innocent but curious person.
NOW Digital Residency: Soulpepper Spotlight
