Alex is an Alberta-based artist and is so excited to be working on one of his favourite plays, with such an amazing and talented group of artists and creators! Previous Citadel credits include: CLUE & Peter Pan Goes Wrong (Citadel Theatre/The Arts Club). Other selected credits include: The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, Othello, Twelfth Night, and Winter’s Tale (The Shakespeare Company); Might As Well Be Dead, Murder On The Orient Express (Vertigo Theatre); Listen Listen (Teatro La Quindicina). Film & Television: Fortunate Son (CBC). In 2024 you can catch Alex down in Calgary starring in Vertigo Theatre’s premiere of Heist! Alex dedicates each performance to his Mom and Dad.

Julien Arnold is an Edmonton-based actor and director. Previous Citadel Theatre credits include: Clue, A Christmas Carol, Ring of Fire, Once, Sense and Sensibility, Spamalot, Beauty and the Beast, The Wizard of Oz, Servant of Two Masters, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Other Edmonton credits include: Two (Atlas Theatre); The Finest of Strangers (Teatro La Quindicina); The Taming of the Shrew (Freewill Shakespeare Festival); The Wrong People Have Money (Shadow Theatre); Spelling Bee (Mayfield Dinner Theatre); A Skull in Connemara (Theatre Network); and Suburban Motel (Punctuate! Theatre). Much love to S & E.

Helen Belay (she/her) was born in Bedford, England and raised in Edmonton, AB. Graduate of the UofA’s BFA Acting. Select credits include: Jane Eyre, The Fiancée, Heaven (Citadel Theatre); The 39 Steps (County Stage Company); Heaven (National Arts Centre); The Wonderful (Caravan Farm Theatre); King Lear, Queen Goneril (Soulpepper Theatre Company); Here There Be Night (WWPT); The Blue Hour (SkirtsAFire Festival); …Titus Bouffonious (Theatre Network); Cinderella (Globe Theatre); Vidalia (Teatro Live!). Thanks and love to the team, my loved ones and anyone and everyone that’s ever plucked up the courage to tell a story.

Nadien Chu is a theatre artist who resides on Treaty 6 Territory. She is thrilled to be involved in this fantastic piece with this amazing team. Special thanks to KS and Jempa. Select theatre credits include: Pretty Goblins/ Sterling Award (Workshop West); The Thin Man (Vertigo Theatre); All the Little Animals I have Eaten (One Yellow Rabbit); Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike (Alberta Theatre Projects); Macbeth, Titus Andronicus/ Sterling Award (Freewill Shakespeare Festival); Pride and Prejudice, Network, Jane Eyre, The Garneau Block, The Tempest, The Penelopiad, August Osage County (Citadel Theatre); Pig Girl, Palace of the End (Theatre Network).

Born and raised in Alberta (though likely too far to the south to be considered of good society), Jeff is elated to be making his Citadel debut. He’s performed across North America with such companies as Soulpepper (23 productions), Signature Theatre Center (NYC), Chicago Shakespeare Theater, The Shaw Festival (5 seasons), The Stratford Festival, Canadian Stage, Crow’s Theatre, Tarragon Theatre, Factory Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Studio180, The Musical Stage Company, Theatre Calgary, & Alberta Theatre Projects. In Toronto, Jeff has won one Dora Award & been nominated for five others.

Doug Mertz is thrilled to return to the Citadel where he was Director of Education and Outreach for over eleven years. He is currently an Assistant Professor in Music Theatre Performance at MacEwan University. Previous credits include: Clue, Peter and the Starcatcher, Clybourne Park, August: Osage County (Citadel); Lenin’s Embalmers, Or the Whale, Doubt (Studio Theatre); Civil Blood, Much Ado About Nothing (Thou Art Here); Witch Hunt at the Strand (Workshop West); The Long Weekend, Driving Miss Daisy (Mayfield); 10 Funerals (Shadow Theatre).

Amelia is a Montreal-born actor, playwright, mentor and co-founder of Ground Floor, and very excited to be at The Citadel for the first time! Previous credits include: Paradise Lost, The Comedy of Errors, The Front Page, Othello, Hamlet 911 (Stratford); Red Velvet (Dora Nomination), Seeds, The Watershed (Crow’s); All I Want For Christmas, The 39 Steps (META Nomination), The Madonna Painter (Centaur); La Bête, Amadeus (Talk Is Free); Lear, Twelfth Night (Canadian Stage); If We Were Birds (META Nomination), down from heaven (Cartes Premières Award) (Imago). Heartfelt thanks to J², Andy, Dylan, & Troy!

Davina is an award-winning actress, improviser, director and graduate of the U of A BFA Acting program. Previous credits include: Collider Festival – Broadway Heist, An Ideal Husband, Hello Dolly, Suddenly Last Summer (Citadel Theatre); Cottagers and Indians, Vanya, Sonia, Masha and Spike (Shadow Theatre); Squeamish, Something Unspoken (Northern Light Theatre); Pia & Maria (Concrete Theatre); Cocktails At Pam’s, Pith, & Evelyn Strange (Teatro Live!); Marion Bridge, A Beautiful View (Theatre Network); Woman Caught Unaware (Uno Festival); Sexy Laundry (Mayfield Dinner Theatre) Unsung (Workshop West Playwrights’ Theatre).

Born in Dublin in 1854, Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Willis Wilde proved to be a brilliant scholar at Oxford, winning the Newdigate Prize for his poem, Ravenna.  He published two collections of children’s stories and his first and only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890’s. Lady Windermere’s Fan opened in 1892, and he went on to write A Woman of No Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband (1895), and The Importance of Being Earnest, which opened on February 14, 1895, in St. James Theatre in London. That same year, Wilde’s relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas (“Boysie”) became a source of controversy. A quarrel with the Marquis of Queensberry, Boysie’s father, who strongly disapproved of their relationship, led to Wilde’s trial and imprisonment for “gross indecency”. Upon his release from jail two years later, Wilde moved to France and wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol, a response to the agony he experienced in prison. He died in exile in 1900.

Jackie Maxwell is one of Canada’s most celebrated artists—well-known as a director, Artistic Director, dramaturge and teacher. Jackie served as Artistic Director of The Shaw Festival from 2002-2016 and as Artistic Director of Factory Theatre from 1987-95. She has directed for theatres across the country including The Stratford Festival, Tarragon Theatre, The Citadel, Soulpepper Theatre Company, Mirvish Productions, Theatre Calgary, Canadian Stage and Arena Stage DC and has taught at the National Theatre School, The University of Toronto and more. Jackie was recently honoured with the Order of Canada and has also received two Dora Mavor Moore awards, two Honorary Doctorates, The Order of Ontario, and the Herbert Whittaker Award for Distinguished Contribution to Canadian Theatre.

Michael’s designs for theatre, musical theatre, opera and dance have been seen across Canada, in Europe and the US. Previous Credits Include: 19 seasons at the Stratford Festival, 10 seasons at the Shaw Festival, Jasper (Signature Theatre NYC); Frame By Frame (costumes-National Ballet of Canada / Ex Machina); Ricciardo e Zoraide (costumes-Rossini Festival-Italy); and productions for Canadian Opera Company, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, Opera Atelier, Canadian Stage Company, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Centaur Theatre, The Grand Theatre, Tarragon Theatre, Mirvish Productions, The Segal Centre, and Théâtre du Nouveau Monde.

www.michaelgianfrancesco.com

Patrick Beagan (he/him) is a proud halfbreed of Nlaka’pamux and Irish Canadian descent. He is General Manager of Concrete Theatre and a co-contributor to the 35//50 Initiative, whose community call to action is due for evaluation at the end of this season. Recent works include lighting Clue, The Fiancée, Mary’s Wedding: a Métis Love Story, A Brimful of Asha (Citadel Theatre); Hansel & Gretel, Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio (Alberta Musical Theatre Co); Honour Beat (Theatre Calgary). He looks forward to revisiting Songs My Mother Never Sung Me with Concrete this season.

Deanna H. Choi (she/her) is a theatrical sound designer and composer based in Tkaronto/Treaty 13 Territory. She has designed soundscapes and sound systems for over 80 theatrical productions from coast to coast. Her Dora Award-winning cabaret show, Love You Wrong Time, will tour in the spring of 2024. Recent credits include A Wrinkle in Time (Stratford Festival), The Darkest Dark (YPT), Things I Know to Be True (Company Theatre/Mirvish). For Film & TV: Relax, I’m From the Future (Universal); The Nature of Things (CBC).  www.splitbrainsound.com

Brett is a queer writer, performer, drag artist and director and they are thrilled to be working with Jackie Maxwell and such an incredible team. Selected Directing credits: Strange/Familiar and Pretty Ugly (Theatre Outré); Hecuba, This Property is Condemned (UofA). Assistant Director credits: Rochdale (Studio Theatre); Cymbeline (UofA); Men Express Their Feelings, rihannaboi95 (Downstage); and King Lear (The Shakespeare Company). Brett is about to graduate from the U of A MFA-Directing program and is the incoming Artistic Director of Theatre Outré. Brett is a recipient of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Award.

Tori Morrison is an award-winning theatre maker, composer, video designer, production manager, and producer. She is 1/2 of the producing team for Tiny Bear Jaws and she makes work with writer David Gagnon Walker as Strange Victory Performance. She is an alum of the Slaight Family Music Lab at the Canadian Film Centre. Selected previous credits include: No Save Points (Outside the March), Gender? I Hardly Know Them, Smoke, I Don’t Even Miss You (Tiny Bear Jaws); This Is the Story of the Child Ruled by Fear (Strange Victory Performance/SummerWorks/High Performance Rodeo/In the Soil/ Theatre Projects Manitoba/Pi Theatre/Found Festival).

Maddy (she/her) is excited to be kicking off the season with this incredible team. Much gratitude to Daryl, Cheryl, and Jackie for having her, and endless thanks to Lore, Tim, and Stacy for their work (and fun!). Select credits include: Deafy, Jane Eyre (Citadel Theatre);  Network (Citadel Theatre/Royal MTC); Gaslight (Chemainus); Hey Viola! (Charlottetown Festival); The Wizard of Oz, Chelsea Hotel, The Sound of Music, A Christmas Carol (Western Canada Theatre); The New Canadian Curling Club, The Buddy Holly Story (Thousand Islands Playhouse); Silent Light (Banff Centre).

Lore is thrilled to be back at the Citadel doing what she loves! Selected credits include: A Christmas Carol, West Side Story, Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Sense & Sensibility, Hadestown, Silver Arrow, Peter Pan Goes Wrong, Clue and Jersey Boys (Citadel Theatre); Timothy Findley’s The Wars, Mamma Mia! and Titanic (Grand Theatre); Barvinok, Michael Mysterious and Alina (Pyretic Productions); and First Métis Man of Odesa (Punctuate! Theatre). Lore is the resident stage manager for Pyretic Productions and holds a BFA in stage management from the University of Alberta. Slava Ukraini!

Stage Manager previous credits: The Hydrofoil Mystery, Half-Cracked, the Legend of Sissy Mary (Theatre Baddeck); A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Freewill Shakespeare); The Magic Flute, The King and I, Don Carlos (Hawaii Opera Theatre/ Opera Hong Kong); Aida, La Traviata, Carmen, Les Feluettes, (+30 for Edmonton Opera); Macbeth (Calgary Opera); Amadeus, A Streetcar Named Desire, Uncle Vanya (The Atlantic Theatre Festival); Pelagie (Canstage and NAC). Founder/Actor/Manager (The Leave It To Jane Theatre); Production Stage Manager (2005 Queen’s Commonwealth Visit). Tim makes his home in Edmonton with his wife Jocelyn and three dogs.

Stacy is thrilled to be making her Citadel debut! Born and raised in Lethbridge, Alberta, Stacy graduated with a BFA in Stage Management at the University of Alberta. Previous credits include: Badlands Passion Play 2023, Badlands Passion Play 2022 (Badlands Amphitheatre); London Road (Tim Ryan Theatre); Chrysothemis, Richard III (U of A Studio Theatre); and Dead Man’s Cellphone (Blevis Laboratory Theatre). Stacy would like to thank her family and her fiancé Matthew for consistently supporting her.