Jenny has been teaching private voice lessons for over 20 years, specializing in musical theatre, integrated audition preparation and musicianship skills. Several of her students have appeared in professional musical theatre productions across Canada. Her own career has incorporated several facets of the performing arts: as an Equity actor (Gateway, Axis, PSP), choral musician/conductor (Vancouver Chamber Choir, musica intima, Zing!), music/theatre director (Gutenberg, Titus, [title of show]), producer (Impromptu Cabaret Festival), composer (Titus, Where I’m At), freelance singer, accordionist and pianist. She holds a B. Mus. in Voice Performance/Minor in Drama from the University of Calgary and a Diploma in Music Performance from Mount Royal College. Jenny is passionate about fusing together the elements of interpretation, musicianship and vocal science/technique into an authentic, integrated performance.
Cande is a video editor and media designer born and raised in Mexico and based in Vancouver. As a multimedia designer, Cande has collaborated with many companies in Vancouver like Theatre Replacement, Conspiracy Theatre, Electric Company, Firehall Arts Centre, The Frank Theatre, etc. Recent theatre design credits include Mom’s the Word Talking Turkey (Arts Club); White Girls in Moccasins (The Frank); Six of One: New Play Festival (Studio 58); White Noise (Savage Society/Firehall); Clean/Espejos (Neworld); DYMISH (Theatre Replacement) and Pathetic Fallacy (The Chop). During the pandemic years, Cande edited several productions for Bard on The Beach, The Belfry Theatre as well as the Vancouver International Children’s Festival, Misko Way, Mortal Coil/Coastal Wolf Pack, SFU and Tara Cheyenne Performance. Cande is co-artistic director of Rough House Productions, where he has designed several multimedia plays.
Halla has worked in communications and marketing at various arts organizations including Bard on the Beach and SFU Woodward's Cultural Programs. She has also been involved at CiTR Radio 101.9FM & Discorder Magazine, UBC's campus and community radio station, for seven years. She currently co-chairs the board of directors.
David Bloom is a playwright, director, dramaturg, producer, actor and fight choreographer.
He has run the Solo Show program at Studio 58 since 2001, overseeing the creation of more than 300 one-person shows. He has taught Stage Combat, Improvisation, Shakespeare, Scene Study and New Play Creation for educational programs including Theatre at UBC, Studio 58, The Art Institute, Carousel Theatre, University of Victoria, Magnus Theatre, Caravan Stage Company and the Playhouse Acting School. He spent 3 years co-teaching and co-developing Studies in Interdisciplinary Creation and Performance for the Bachelor of Performing Arts program, a program co-created by Langara College, Capilano University, Douglas College and VCC.
Directing work for his company Felix Culpa includes co-direction of Palace of the End for Touchstone Theatre/Felix Culpa/Horseshoes & Hand Grenades (Jessie Richardson award, Outstanding Direction, Small Theatre), the North American premiere of Howard Barker’s Und, The Monument (Jessie Richardson Award nomination, Outstanding Direction, Large Theatre) and his play Two in The Morning which was produced in Vancouver and London, England. He has directed shows in Vancouver, Winnipeg, Calgary, Kamloops, Thunder Bay, Whitehorse and London.
Bloom’s play Revenge was produced by Felix Culpa, under the direction of James Fagin Tait and was nominated for a Jessie Richardson Award for best original play. His plays have also been performed by Green Thumb, Studio 58, Felix Culpa, Carousel, Axis Theatre, Canadian Phoenix and the University of British Columbia.
Most recently, he performed in The Turn of the Screw (Aenigma Theatre), Blackbird (Kestrel Solutions), This, Here (Babel Theatre) and King Charles III (Arts Club Theatre). He is currently involved in two collaborative creations 3WM and Next Door To The Butcher Shop (both with Butcher Shop Collective). Other performance highlights include his own one-person show My Holiday Photos from Afghanistan, appearing in Three Sisters with The Only Child Collective, Transmissions for Chrysalis/Proximity Arts, Fragments of a Farewell Letter Read by Geologists for Screaming Flea, The Designated Mourner for Felix Culpa, Apple and the premiere of Governor-General’s Award-winning play Unity 1918 for Touchstone Theatre. Acting and fight choreography have taken him across the country, including work at The Theatre Festival of the Americas, The Shaw Festival, Manitoba Theatre Centre, The Citadel and almost every company in British Columbia.
Alan Brodie’s varied and longstanding relationship with Studio 58 began in 1994 when he designed the lighting for Becoming Memories. In all he has designed lighting for 12 productions over the years (including Cabaret, Spring Awakening, Julius Caesar, The Company, Grease, King Lear, Anon(ymous), The Doll’s House Project, 6 Miniature Tragedies, Hair and The Cradle Will Rock), scenery for Lysistrata and directed 2BR02B (Risky Nights, Fall 2017). Prior to joining the Studio 58 faculty in January 2020 as Vectorworks and Lighting Design instructor, Alan has taught at the Banff Centre for the Arts, the University of British Columbia and the National Theatre School. He has been recognized with awards for lighting design across Canada (Jessie, Dora, Sterling and Betty Mitchell Awards), as well as a Bay Area Critics Circle Award, San Francisco. Alan has been instrumental in a number of significant Canadian theatre productions, most notably The Overcoat in all of its iterations, including the Vancouver Playhouse world premiere, tours across Canada, international festivals, the CBC film for their “Opening Night” series and most recently on the premiere of the opera The Overcoat: A Musical Tailoring. Alan has designed for almost all of Canada’s English language regional theatres in addition to many of Vancouver’s independent theatre companies. He spent over 15 seasons designing at the Shaw Festival and has worked at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, the National Ballet of Canada, the Canadian Opera Company, Vancouver Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria, as well as international ballet companies that include Scottish Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Zürich Ballet and Nederlands Dans Theater. A BFA theatre production grad of UBC (1989) and an MFA directing grad of UVic (2016), Alan is a member of the Associated Designers of Canada. www.alanbrodie.ca
Ruth has worked as a professional stage manager, set designer and production manager all across the Vancouver theatre community. She has worked on stage management teams for companies including Bard on the Beach, Neworld Theatre, Theatre Replacement, Carousel Theatre for Young People, Full Circle First Nations, Gateway Theatre and Green Thumb Theatre. Ruth was the production manager at Green Thumb Theatre from 2017-2021. She graduated from the Production Program at Studio 58, where she was awarded the John F. Parker scholarship for Demonstrating Exceptional Promise. She was also awarded the Mayors Art Award for Emerging Theatre Artist in 2016.
A prolific writer, Aaron Bushkowsky is a Vancouver-based playwright, film-writer, poet, novelist, and educator. His plays have been produced across Canada, the US, and Europe, and have received 9 Jessie Richardson Theatre nominations, more than any other Canadian playwright, winning two for Outstanding Original Play. He has been a resident playwright at The Vancouver Playhouse, Rumble Theatre, and Touchstone Theatre. Aaron has written over 20 plays and received many more professional productions across Canada, the US, and Europe. Aaron also spent a year at the Tarragon Theatre playwrights unit in Toronto and is a graduate of the prestigious Canadian Film Centre in film-writing. Aaron’s short film The Alley was nominated for five Leo awards and won the National Screen Institute’s Drama Prize.
Aaron teaches writing at Studio 58, Kwantlen University, Langara College, and Vancouver Film School. He has several published works, including two books of poetry Mars is for Poems (Oolichan Books) and ed and mabel go to the moon (Oolichan Books) which was nominated for a BC Book Award for Poetry. His published drama includes Strangers Among Us, The Waterhead and other plays, and My Chernobyl all published by Playwrights Canada Press. His first book of fiction was a collection of short stories The Vanishing Man published by Cormorant in 2005. Curtains for Roy, his first novel, was published in August 2014. It's a dark comedy about the Vancouver theatre world which garnered rave reviews from critics and made two Top Ten Book (2014) lists for Vancouver novels and was subsequently nominated for the Stephen Leacock Award – Canada’s oldest literary award and only award for humour writing.
Aaron is currently finishing an adaptation commission of The Murdoch Mysteries for the stage and a new novel Waterproof soon to be published by Cormorant Books of Toronto.
Aaron has been an influential dramaturge, mentor, and teacher to hundreds of new West Coast writers and students. Aaron is represented in theatre by Marquis Entertainment, Toronto. For more information: www.aaronbushkowsky.com
Raes Calvert is a multidisciplinary Métis theatre artist living and working on unceded Coast Salish Territories. After graduating from Studio 58, he became Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Hardline Productions. As a performer he has toured nationally and internationally with such companies as Axis Theatre, Green Thumb Theatre, Manitoba Theatre for Young People, Urban Ink and Presentation House Theatre. He is a five-time Jessie Richardson Theatre Award nominee and two-time recipient. Raes received a REVEAL Indigenous Art Award from the Hnatysyn Foundation in 2017. He also has a BPA degree from Capilano University. Raes looks forward to continuing his work as an A Term Acting Instructor after teaching first term students at Studio 58 back in 2018.
Courtenay has been teaching at Studio 58 since 2017 and has been Artistic Director since 2021. Before that, she was the Artistic Director of Caravan Farm Theatre from 2010-2017. For Caravan she commissioned, created, developed and directed 15 original, world-premiere Canadian and classic productions. Courtenay has performed, directed, choreographed or created for many theatre companies in Canada such as Green Thumb Theatre, Theatre Melee (of which she is co-founder), Arts Club Theatre Company, Vancouver Playhouse, Belfry Theatre, Axis Theatre, Neworld Theatre, Touchstone Theatre, Carousel Theatre, Great Canadian Theatre Company, Magnetic North Theatre Festival, Electric Company Theatre, Globe Theatre, Vertigo Theatre, Persephone Theatre, Studio 58 and UBC. She is a graduate of the acting programs of Mount Royal College and Studio 58. She holds an M.F.A in Directing from the University of British Columbia.
Malcolm is an award-winning composer and sound designer working primarily in theatre and film. His work has been seen and heard on stages all over Canada and he has been fortunate enough to work with some of Canada’s top directors and designers. Specializing in cinematic style composition, unique world building and immersive sound design, Malcolm’s work spans the technical and creative horizons, with an emphasis on collaboration, storytelling and seamless technical integration. In his time away from theatre, Malcolm works recording sound on set for commercials and independent films, mixing and mastering podcasts, projecting films for festivals as well as writing and producing his own music.
Malcolm studied music production and audio engineering at Douglas College. He has received one Betty Mitchell award (Calgary) and three Jessie Awards as well as several nominations for his work in the Vancouver theatre community.
Select credits include: Harlem Duet, Pericles, Comedy of Errors (Bard on the Beach); Beneath Springhill, Perestroika, The Graduate (The Arts Club); Strangers on a Train, Murder in the Studio (Vertigo Theatre); Equivocation (Persephone Theatre); S’effondrent les vidéoclubs, Le Soulier, (Théâtre la Seizième); Starman (Sound the Alarm); Angels in America, Mortified (Studio 58); After Jerusalem (Solo Collective).
Brad Gibson is a voice and speech teacher at Studio 58, Langara College, and founding faculty of the Moving Voice Institute (previously Canada’s National Voice Intensive). Brad also works as a professional voice and dialect coach for theatre, film and TV. Recent projects have included: Godzilla (Legendary Productions), Warcraft (Legendary productions), The Stand (Vertigo Entertainment / CBS), Never Steady, Never Still (Christie Street Creative), Anywhere But Here (Electric Company), Unrinetown and Tomorrow Love. In recent years Brad has voice coached or designed and coached dialect for approximately 10 shows per year on stage and in film and TV. Research interests include: the neurobiology of emotion and embodied experience applied to creating trauma informed practice and emotional first aid from studio to stage; a Taoist approach to Shakespeare’s humours and contemporary type theory; and the development of a practice that explores voice, movement, text and the actor’s process based in neurobiological realities and somatic principles.
Wendy teaches physical theatre at Langara College’s Studio 58 and is passionate about guiding young Canadian theatre artists. She was featured in the book Theatre Without Borders as a master teacher.
Wendy is an actor, choreographer and teacher, garnering six Vancouver Jessie Awards. She co-created, with Morris Panych, The Overcoat, which toured internationally. She has choreographed movement for Moby Dick, Trojan Women (Stratford Festival), Equus (Vancouver Playhouse), Verdi’s Macbeth (Pacific Opera and Opera Quebec), Suzannah, Sweeney Todd, The Overcoat – A musical Tailoring (Vancouver Opera), Pericles, Antony and Cleopatra and The Winter’s Tale (Bard on the Beach), The Waiting Room (Arts Club) and Bad Hat Theatre’s Peter Pan (Carousel Theatre). A graduate of École LeCoq, she was inducted into British Columbia’s Entertainment Hall of Fame.
A regular faculty member at Studio 58 since 2006, Mara is a co-founder, resident costume designer and Artistic Associate at Vancouver’s Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival where she has designed over 75 productions since its inception. Her designs have graced the stages of numerous Canada’s independent theatres and various opera and dance companies. Besides winning multiple national awards for “excellence in costume design”, her costumes have been featured internationally at several World Stage Design exhibitions. Her work has also appeared in several of Robert Lepage’s productions for Ex Machina, including Le Rossignol co-produced by Lyons Opera/ Aix en Provence Festival/Canadian Opera Company (staged internationally); La Tempête co-produced with the Huron-Wendat nation (Quebec City, Canada); Coriolanus at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival (Stratford, Canada); and Coriolan at Théâtre de Nouveau Monde (Montreal, Canada).
David Hudgins is a founder of the internationally acclaimed Electric Company Theatre in Vancouver. After more than two decades with this innovative company he has won numerous Jessie Awards. David received his BA Honours in English Literature at McGill University, a diploma in Acting from Studio 58 and a PDP Diploma in Education from Simon Fraser University. He teaches acting at Studio 58 and has directed nine shows there, including two Ovation-Award winning productions: Guys & Dolls (2007) and Spring Awakening (2012). The homegrown musical The Park (2010) which he directed and helped to dramaturge, garnered it five nominations. His 5-year orchestral/physical-theatre hybrid experiment odyssey called Flee, with composer Peggy Lee, found its legs at the Fox Cabaret with Electric Company and Studio 58 in 2016. He has written song lyrics for a variety of Hollywood movies. David is also a father, musician and sailor.
Rachel Kane is an internationally recognized experiential designer, with a focus on live events. She has designed exhibits, festivals and events across North America, and has worked on live and televised productions for over twenty-five years. Her expertise is in Vectorworks, which she relies on to provide the visualization and communication tools necessary to accomplish these projects. She is a graduate of the Design Formation program at Langara College, where she was first introduced to Vectorworks, and credits that education with a significant advantage in her field. She is pleased to bring her experience back to the classroom, where she can share her knowledge with new generations.
Over the years, Kevin has worked as an actor, designer, producer and technical director. He has acted for companies across the country ranging from The Playhouse, Rumble, Pi Theatre, Neworld, Bard on the Beach, Arts Club Theatre Company, Alberta Theatre Projects (ATP), NAC, CanStage and Soulpepper, among others. Often involved in new work, Kevin has participated in more than 60 workshops/readings of new work at The Playhouse, The Banff Centre, Tarragon and ATP. Kevin was co-artistic director of Section 8 (with Craig Hall), was a member of the inaugural Soulpepper Academy and a member of the Actors Conservatory at the Canadian Film Centre. He has appeared in a number of indie films and in a few television series. He has also been nominated a number of times for his work as both an actor and a designer but never won a damn thing! He was Assistant TD at Theatre Under the Stars and has worked as a freelance set carpenter for many years. Kevin is a graduate of the acting program at Studio 58.
From 1990 to the present Kathleen has been a performer, teacher and choreographer within the Vancouver dance community. As an independent dance artist she worked with Anatomica, Battery Opera, Cori Caulfield, Dancecorps, DanStaBat, EDAM, Holy Body Tattoo, Jumpstart, Karen Jamieson, Lola Dance, Crystal Pite, Olivia Thorvaldson and Trial & Eros. From 1995 onwards Kathleen has been teaching dance to the professional community. In addition she was a faculty member of Main Dance, Ballet B.C. Mentor Program, guested at UBC and a sessional at S.F.U. In 1999 Kathleen opened a studio to teach the Gyrotonic® Method, a practice she was introduced to in 1995 and through study abroad became the first certified teacher in western Canada. Kathleen has presented her work locally and last year in St. John’s Nfld.’s New Dance Festival. Kathleen is the 2003 recipient of the Isadora Award that recognizes an outstanding contribution to the art form of dance. She is also a founding member of the Canadian Alliance of Arts – B.C. Chapter.
Born and raised in Vancouver, Andrew McNee has been working in theatre, film and television for the past 20 years. Theatre has taken him across Canada, to Europe and the UK. Some recent theatre credits include Buffoon, Noises Off, Taming of the Shrew, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Boeing Boeing, One Man Two Guvnors, Misery and Mustard. Select film and television credits include being murdered and blown up in all sorts of locally filmed shows and movies. Your kids may have heard him as some pony, robot or alien in one of their cartoons. Andrew is a graduate of Studio 58.
Michelle Olson is a member of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation and the Artistic Director of Raven Spirit Dance. She studied dance and performance at the University of New Mexico, the Aboriginal Arts Program at the Banff Centre and was an Ensemble Member of Full Circle First Nations Performance. Michelle works in areas of dance, theatre and opera as a choreographer, performer and movement coach and her work has been seen on stages across Canada. Selected choreography/theatre credits include Gathering Light (Raven Spirit Dance), Salmon Girl (TYA - Raven Spirit Dance),Shawnadithit (Tapestry Opera), Map of the Land, Map of the Stars (Gwaandak Theatre), Frost Trees Exploding Moon (Raven Spirit Dance), Mozart’s Magic Flute (Vancouver Opera), The Ecstasy of Rita Joe (Western Canada Theatre/National Arts Centre), Death of a Chief (Native Earth Performing Arts/National Arts Centre) and Evening in Paris (Raven Spirit Dance). She was the recipient of the inaugural Vancouver International Dance Festival Choreographic Award. She graduated as a Certified Movement Analyst from Laban/Bartenieff and Somatic Studies International.
Jessica Oostergo is a Set and Costume Designer from Vancouver, BC. She is a freelance artist with skills ranging from design to scenic painting, puppetry, hat and mask building and creative collaboration. She has had the opportunity to design for some of the top theatre companies in Western Canada including Bard on the Beach, The Arts Club, Citadel Theatre, Belfry Theatre, Theatre NorthWest, Neworld Theatre, Touchstone Theatre, Ruby Slippers, The Search Party and more.
Jessica worked on the hit tv show, The Magicians (SYFY/NBC), for various episodes of seasons 2-4, and recently built costumes for the following music videos: Black Licorice for Peach Pit, I Knew You When for Marianas Trench and Vessel for Royal.
Jessica is a three-time Jessie Richardson Award Winner and seven-time nominee. She is a graduate of Studio 58 and Emily Carr University of Art + Design, a member of ADC 659 and a sister status member of IATSE 891 Costume and Art Departments.
Shane Raman is a Leo Award-winning baritone, choral conductor, composer and music educator in Vancouver, British Columbia. Most recently, he wrote the score for the dramatic musical short film, Looking Back which premiered at the 2021 Vancouver Short Film Festival and garnered him a Leo Award for his musical composition.
Through Shane’s work as a Voice Teacher and Choral Conductor at the Sarah McLachlan School of Music and the Vancouver Bach Youth Chorus and Sarabande, Shane is enjoying new opportunities to speak about diversity and inclusion, focusing on choral classical music circles. He is excited to participate in ongoing discussions around diversity and inclusion in choral practice, and overall vocal culture.
After earning a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from The University of British Columbia, Shane was a member of the Juno-nominated professional vocal ensemble, musica intima, for ten seasons. Currently he sings with the queer choir Cor Flammae. He has also performed with Vancouver Cantata Singers, Vancouver Opera and the Vancouver Peace Choir.
Writing and creating music is a growing artery of Shane’s career. His arrangements and original compositions have been performed by Galakoor (Amsterdam), Central Bucks High School - West Choir (Pennsylvania), McGill Choral Society Chamber Choir (Montreal), Pro Coro Canada (Edmonton), Vancouver Cantata Singers, musica intima, Cor Flammae, Vancouver Bach Youth Chorus and Sarabande, Indiekör, Sarah McLachlan and the Sarah McLachlan School of Music Choirs and The Vancouver Pride Society.
Video recordings of Shane’s pieces can be found in this YouTube playlist. Shane’s pieces appear on the following recordings: UBC’s University Singers recording A Vancouver Christmas (2003), Vancouver Cantata Singers’ A Christmas Reprise: 10th Anniversary Album (2012) musica intima’s EP, song for a winter’s night (2018).
Shelley Stewart Hunt has been continuously active in the performing arts since childhood, with extensive television, film and theatre credits as an actor, dancer, singer, choreographer and educator. Shelley played the role of Rumpelteazer in the national touring production of CATS and had a featured role in ABC-TV’s Bye Bye Birdie. She is very proud to have tap-danced up a firestorm, literally, as a featured “Hero Tapper” in the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. Over the past 30 years, Shelley has become a sought-after choreographer and has dazzled audiences with her stage creations in dozens of acclaimed shows across the lower mainland and farther afield, including productions for the Arts Club Theatre Company, Gateway Theatre, Theatre Under the Stars, Western Canada Theatre Company, Thousand Islands Playhouse and numerous musicals at Studio 58 since 2004. She has worked for the USA Network; conceived dance sequences in Eve and the Firehorse, winner of the Sundance Film Festival special jury prize; set motion-capture choreography for Mattel’s animatronic feature, Barbie: The Princess and the Pauper; and choreographed the multimedia spectacle Winter Sport for the District of West Vancouver’s official Olympic celebration site. For the past 17 years, Shelley has been an esteemed faculty member in Capilano University’s Musical Theatre Diploma Program, where she serves as an instructor and choreographer. Shelley joined the faculty of Studio 58 at Langara College in 2016, teaching tap and movement. Recent projects include choreography for The Sound of Music for the Arts Club and Elf, the Musical for Persephone Theatre in Saskatoon. Shelley was thrilled to be a core ensemble dancer in the new Apple TV musical series Schmigadoon, in production for two months in fall 2020.