Michael Rubenfeld, Co-Creator and Performer
Michael Rubenfeld is an acclaimed theatre artist originally from Winnipeg and now residing in Toronto. He is a dora-nominated performer and has worked on stages across the country and in parts of the United States. He is also a dora-nominated playwright, and frequent theatre director, including directing his dora nominated play, My Fellow Creatures for Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, and the premiere of Hannah Moscovitch’s Essay for the Factory Theatre. In 2008, Michael became the Artistic Producer of the SummerWorks Festival. Here, he began the SummerWorks Music Series, now a cultural staple of downtown Toronto, The Live Art Series, as well as intiatied the SummerWorks Leadership Intensive Program, a training intensive for emerging theatre-arts professionals with a focus on the business of the arts. Michael has been called ”one of Toronto’s most interesting men of the theatre” by Paula Citron, reviewer for the Globe and Mail. He is blog contributor for Huffington Post Canada, and a 2001 acting graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada.
Sarah Garton Stanley, Co-Creator and Director
Sarah is a Montreal born and raised theatre-maker and director, now living in Kingston, Ontario. She is a champion of new plays and new voices, and has made work right across Canada in pursuit of this passion. Sarah founded her first theatre company, The Baby Grand, in Kingston, in 1985 and went on from there to co-create Women Making Scenes, in Montreal and onto Die in Debt in Toronto, a company that became synonymous with groundbreaking, large canvas site-specific work. Sarah is a founder of The Harold Awards and went onto become the first and only female Artistic Director of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto. She continues on to become Associate Director at The Factory Theatre and the inaugural Associate Artist at The Magnetic North Theatre Festival. Sarah has been nominated or won several awards including four Dora Mavor Moore Awards and The Siminovitch Award for Directing. Sarah teaches at several places including Concordia University and the National Theatre School. She is also studying for her MA in Cultural Studies at Queen’s University in Kingston, training for marathons until she can run longer and is the creator of failurefarms.com.
Andrew Penner, Composer
Selected Theatre: The Grapes of Wrath (Stratford Festival), As You Like It (Soulpepper Theatre), The Book of Judith (Absit Omen/Die in Debt), Reesor, Pelee, Petrichor (Kitchenband), Macbeth, The Tempest, Pericles (RBC Festival of Classics), The Unforgetting (Belltower Theatre), The Beard of Avon (CanStage). Film/TV: Small Town Murder Songs (actor/composer), Cooking With Stella (composer), One Week (composer), This Beautiful City (composer), Who is KK Downey (composer). Training: Ryerson Theatre School (Acting), Theatre Ontario (Professional Theatre Training Program – Sound Design). Et cetera: Andrew has released two albums with his band, Sunparlour Players: Hymns For the Happy (2007), Wave North (2009) and has performed across Canada. Their third record will be released fall 2011. Andrew also is member of the art band, Detroit Time Machine who records music made from junk and recycled materials. Their debut record will be released in December of 2011.
Evelyn Tauben, Producer
Evelyn Tauben is a producer, curator and writer based in Toronto and originally from Montreal. With an MA in Art History from the Tyler School of Art, she has worked at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the National Museum of American History. For nearly a decade, she has produced a range of multi-disciplinary performances and arts happenings ranging from literary events, theatre, screenings, cultural conversations, and major world music concerts featuring internationally acclaimed musicians. Having collaborated with an impressive slate of arts luminaries from around the world, Evelyn is especially committed to promoting the work of emerging artists, supporting daring art that sparks conversation and bolstering innovative culture in Canada. Evelyn also serves on the board of acclaimed Toronto contemporary dance company, Kaeja d’Dance.
Caitlin Murphy, Associate Producer
Caitlin is a Montreal-based writer, director and filmmaker. She has written numerous plays, several as commissions and others that she has self-produced. These include two successful one-woman shows that she also performed in – The ‘O’ Show and Meconium / Montreal – as well as other plays Civil, Fruits Unheard Of and Ladies Room. Her first film, Flushing Lacan, won the Jury’s Award at the Montreal ACTRA Short Film Festival in 2010, and her second, TOAST, won the same award in 2011. Caitlin has served as playwright-in-residence at the Grand Theatre, and has a Master’s Degree in English from the University of Western Ontario. She writes for a film review blog (www.fruitsunheardof.blogspot.com) and is currently directing and producing a documentary called, Good Hands: the story of Copper’s Guitar.
