Download Festival Adjudicator: Debbie Barton-Moore

CIS Ontario Drama Festival Workshop Leader Biographies
Festival Adjudicator: Debbie Barton-Moore
Debbie Barton-Moore has had a diverse career in the Dramatic Arts for 35 years. During
her teaching career she was the department head of Dramatic Arts at Northern Secondary
School for 19 years. In addition she acted as the Drama Consultant for the Toronto
District School Board and taught Drama and Education courses at the University of
Toronto.
Through a Playwriting course she developed,Debbie has supported and guided the
writing of hundreds of one-act plays and the directing of many more. Numerous
graduates from Northern's Drama program have gone on to successful careers in theatre
and film.
To broaden her theatrical experience, Debbie performed with Blackwater Productions
Theatre Company and directed at the Toronto Fringe Festival and the Courthouse Theatre
in PEI. She has served on the Boards of Theatre Columbus and Equity Showcase Theatre.
She has also served on the Provincial Committees for both The Council of Drama in
Education and the Sears Ontario Drama Festival. Currently she is a member of the
Programming Committee for Prologue to the Performing Arts.
Debbie has delivered over 80 workshops to teachers, student teachers and drama students
on various aspects of theatre and drama-in-education. She has been an adjudicator for the
Sears Ontario Drama Festival for the past ten years, at both District and Regional
Festivals. She has also adjudicated for a number of in-school drama festivals throughout
the GTA and sat on the selection panels of Performing Arts Schools. In 2004 she was
awarded the OSSTF Women in Leadership Award for her active role as a leader in drama
and teaching.
Since retirement, Debbie has become a certified Bikram Yoga teacher. Helping people
improve their flexibility, strength and overall health through regular yoga practice is
proving to be a rewarding second career. Debbie knows that drama-in-education helps
young people develop life skills and insights into the “human condition” that will benefit
them on whatever life path they choose. She is delighted to continue her work with young
people involved in creating theatre
1. Collective Creation: Autumn Smith
Autumn is a Toronto based theatre director and artist educator. For the past 8 years she
was the Artistic Director of MacKenzieRo: The Irish Repertory Theatre Company of
Canada. With MacKenzieRo, Autumn directed several plays including the Dora Award
winning The New Electric Ballroom and the Irish Tour of Enda Walsh’s acclaimed
play bedbound. Other directing credits with MacKenzieRo include: the world premieres
of The Rake’s Progress: Do You Know Where Tom Rakewell Is? (NextStage Theatre
Festival, CanStage Festival of New Ideas, Druid Theatre) and Teacht I dTir: Voices from
Ireland Park, in collaboration with Diageo Canada and the Ireland Fund of Canada.
Autumn has also directed for The Shaw Festival as part of the Neil Munro Director’s
Project in 2010, where her production of Riders to the Sea was featured in the Studio
Theatre. Autumn’s other directing credits include: Theatre 20, StageWest as the Resident
Director of Youth Programming, Roseneath Theatre, Carlos Bulosan Theatre Company,
Stagedoor Manor in association with the American Theatre Wing and the Jermyn Street
Theatre in London England. In conjunction with her work as a director, Autumn is also a
sought after Artist Educator having worked with The Ontario Arts Council, The Toronto
and Durham District School Boards, The National Ballet/Stratford Project, The Shaw
Festival, The Stratford Shakespeare School, Theatre Passe Muraille, The Tarragon
Theatre, George Brown Theatre School, MacKenzieRo and Equity Showcase Theatre.
Autumn is also currently in her 4th year as an adjudicator for The Sears Drama Festival,
and has taken on adjudicating other festivals such as the ACTCO Festival and the Paprika
Festival.
2. Shakespeare and Classical Text: Edward Daranyi
Stratford Shakespeare Festival - Resident Teaching Artist. Edward has recently returned
from El Salvador after creating and directing Voces de los Cerros a collectively written
new work, and directing Fuente Ovejuna for Es Artes theatre in conjunction with the
Stratford Shakespeare Festival and CUSO-VSO. In his past 12 seasons at Stratford,
Edward has served as Assistant Director for a variety of plays including: West Side Story,
Oklahoma!, A Delicate Balance, and King Henry VIII. Acting credits include roles in
Cyrano de Bergerac, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Goodnight Desdemona-Good
Morning Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and West Side Story. Other directing
credits include Sonno Nocturno, Romeo and Juliet, (Shakespeare Link Canada); Julius
Caesar, (In the Blink Prod. Canada/Wales); Nunsense, Little Shop of Horrors, and On
Golden Pond (SummerStage Theatre, Boulder, Colorado). Edward recently co-created a
landmark multi-disciplined adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and
Juliet in Mozambique with Shakespeare Link Canada and Montes Numuli. Edward is a
BFA acting graduate of the University of Windsor and has taught acting at the University
of Guelph, Michigan State University, and the National Theatre School of Canada he has
taught Shakespeare workshops for Humber College, George Brown College, The Centre
for Indigenous Theatre, Cawthra Park School for the Arts and the National Ballet School
of Canada. His production company, In the Blink, produces youth-oriented theatre in the
Toronto area and he regularly voices characters for the TVO/Treehouse series Might
Machines.
3. Commedia dell’Arte: Alaine Hutton
Alaine is a performer, devisor, and co-Artistic Director of Lester Trips (Theatre) - an
independent Toronto-based collective of emerging new-generation theatre artists
dedicated to the creation of original Canadian work in bold, visceral forms of physical
theatre. After gaining a foundation in theatre at the University of Toronto; Centre for
Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies, she travelled to Amsterdam for a 10-day
winter intensive with Teatro Punto where she participated in daily 9am to 6pm physical
training in Modern Commedia dell’Arte. She found Teatro Punto’sapproach to mask
work, with their relentless and invigorating emphasis on continuous physical engagement
and musicality, to be an enlightening experience applicable to a variety of theatrical
disciplines. Wanting to share this training with her company members and colleagues,
Alaine and Lester Trips organized two successful workshops in Toronto with the support
of the Drama Centre: a 3-day introductory workshop in 2011 followed by a 5-day
intensive withTeatro Punto in 2012. To advance her research and training in physical
theatre she continued her education at École International de Theatre Jacques Lecoq, in
Paris France. There she was also able to study design and mise en scène with Pascale
Lecoq in the Laboratoire d’Etude de Mouvement (LEM). Alaine has studied Mask and
Clown at theManitoulin Conservatory of Creation and Performance with John Turner of
Canadian Clown duo Mump and Smoot. She is also the 2013-2014Fujiwara Dance
Inventions scholarship recipient where she studies Butoh-based Embodiment with Denise
Fujiwara.!
4. STOMP: Troy Sexton
From Toronto, Troy is a high-energy dancer, drummer, beatboxer, Stomper, teacher,
motivational speaker and performer. Troy has performed with the international
percussion sensation STOMP all over the world for the past 10 years. At age 19 Troy
joined the cast of STOMP and was the youngest cast member and only Canadian to ever
perform with STOMP. He has played the lead cast member along with other roles in the
show and has been rehearsal director for the company. TV credits include: Dancing with
the Stars (Poland), So You Think You Can Dance (Australia), Much On Demand
(Canada), We Day 2010 (Canada) and Zoinked (Canada), to name a few. Troy has also
danced and drummed in many music videos for artists such as “Rich Kidd” and “The
Used” and has choreographed stepping and hip hop pieces for many of the arts high
schools in the GTA and in Calgary, and has done work with "Blue Print for Life: Social
Work Through Hip Hop" in schools and in youth corrections facilities. Troy is back and
forth from overseas “Stompin” and living in Toronto where he runs his own company
“Rhythm Works” performing at schools, teaching and motivational speaking all over
Canada. Troy loves to share his passion for dance and performance and inspire people to
listen to their gut and follow what they love.
5. Stage & Screen Make-up: Christina Spina
Ever since she was a little girl, Christina Spina has been infatuated with the art of
disguise. Introduced to horror and gore films at a young age by her two older brothers,
she adored Lon Chaney’s Phantom & Boris Karloff as Frankenstein. It was only natural
that Christina would grow up to be a make up artist, practicing the technique of special
effects.
With a Fine Art background in Sculpture, Christina has found a happy balance between
her two passions; beauty and gore. As an established artist living in the city of Toronto,
the OCAD Alumni has had several art shows, produced memorable sculptures and
installations, leaving her crowds thoroughly entertained. As an artist in the film,
television, and theatre worlds, her theatre credits include Evil Dead The Musical, and
Makeup Designer for Night of the Living Dead Live.
6. Improvisation: Aaron Stern
Aaron is an actor/improviser based in Toronto. Selected theatre credits include shows
with Studio 180 theatre (NSFW), YPT (Blue Planet, Pobby and Dingan),Theatre
Aquarius (For this Moment Alone), Theatre Calgary (Jake and the Kid), Carousel Players
(Danny, King of the Basement, Spelling 2-5-5) Theatre North West (Privilege) and
Citadel Theatre (Peter Pan). As an educator, Aaron teaches workshops (Shakespeare,
Improv, Character, Audition) across Ontario to various age groups. He has received
funding from the Ontario Arts Council through their Artists in Education program and
can be seen performing Improv regularly at the Bad Dog Comedy Theatre as a member
of the Rat Pack.
7. Dialects For The Stage: Leah Holder
Like Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion, learn how to speak like a proper British lad or lady!
Learning speech and dialects can be quite complex and open up a world of study. In this
workshop, students will be introduced to how to study dialects for the stage and learn the
main sound shifts and dialectal placement for Standard Received Pronunciation (RP).
Students are asked to bring a pencil.
Leah Holder is a New Brunswick born, classically trained actor and singer and emerging
director and dramaturge. She has begun to develop a significant resume of site-specific,
immersive, and small space work. She has been featured in such productions as Much
Ado About Nothing (Margaret, Single Thread), Desperately Seeking
Something (Borderline/T.O Fringe), turtleneck (safeword),Antigone (Soup Can), and she
was one of the co-creators of Nine Mile Portage for Theatre By the Bay. In
May, Leah will appear in Theatre Double Take’s The Land of Promise and a new
work The Cousins of Corsica at Stratford’s SpringWorks. She has assistant directed for
Blair Williams, Stewart Arnott, and Alisa Palmer. Leah was awarded the inaugural
Theatre New Brunswick Bud Bird Award and is a graduate of George Brown Theatre
School.
8. Funky Puppetry: Tom McGee
Tom is a dramaturge, playwright, producer, puppeteer, and performer based in Toronto,
Ontario. A self-taught puppeteer and puppet builder, Tom believes in learning by
doing...or in this case, by puppeting! In 2011, Tom founded Shakey-Shake and Friends
Puppet Theatre company with the goal of presenting accessible, fun, and engaging
adaptations of classic shows for young audiences. Playing to sold out audiences and
critical acclaim, Shakey-Shake and Friends has quickly become a much-beloved fixture
of the Fringe Festival with their shows Romeo and Juliet... A Puppet Epic!, The
Tempest...A Puppet Epic!, and A Midsummer Night's Dream...A Puppet Epic!. This year,
he will be premiering Hamlet...A Puppet Epic in the Toronto a Fringe and As You Like It.
A Puppet Epic in Barrie's Theatre By The Bay. He is also the Associate Artistic Director
and co-founder of Theatre Brouhaha (where he primarily works as a dramaturge and
producer) and has been involved in over one hundred productions on all levels from
producing to directing to marketing.