Current Instructors

Alison stage managed for the better part of 30 years. She’s worked for The Shaw Festival, Soulpepper, Tarragon, Stratford and Canadian Stage and many others. After receiving her CHRP designation in Human Resources, Alison is currently the Labour Relations Manager for PACT.

Courses

• Job Interviews & Contract Negotiations
• Workplace Harassment and the Rehearsal Hall

Originally from Tiohttià:ke/Montreal, Alix has been calling Tkaronto/Toronto home for the past 9 years. Alix has performed in many productions and also assisted in developing new works at The National Arts Centre, Mirvish, Opera Lyra, Theatre Calgary, Crows Theatre, The Great Canadian Theatre Company, The St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival and The Stratford Festival, to name only a few. Some favourite productions include The Cherry Orchard (Modern Times), Metamorphoses, The Changeling (National Arts Centre), Pride and Prejudice (Theatre Calgary), As You Like It, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival). Alix was a resident actor in the National Arts Centre’s English Theatre Ensembles. Recent Film/TV include Better Days (Apple/Prime), Matchmaker Mysteries (Hallmark): Assassins Creed: The Odyssey, Valhalla (Ubi Soft). Recent Intimacy Direction credits include Rent, Wedding Band, Much Ado About Nothing (Stratford Festival). More on Alix online: alixsideris.com.

Courses

• Giving Notes (2024)

Anna is a Toronto based multidisciplinary Stage Manager with experience working in Theatre, Opera, Musical Theatre, and Film Festivals.

Past Credits include: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead (Neptune/ Mirvish) Emma Bovary (National Ballet of Canada); La Boheme (Canadian Opera Company); Detroit: Music of a Motor City, A Christmas Carol(Soulpepper); Women of the Fur Trade, The Crucible (Stratford Festival); Vierge (Factory Theatre); Flight (Glenn Gould School); The Rocky Horror Show (Neptune Theatre) Entrances & Exits (The Howland Company); Gould’s Wall, Hook Up, Oksana G. (Tapestry Opera); Juno’s Reward, Cabaret, Prom Queen (The Grand Theatre); The 39 Steps (Capitol Theatre); The Hound of the Baskervilles, Kingfisher Days, Stage Kiss(Festival Antigonish)

Anna is a graduate and Instructor for TMU’s Theatre Production Program. Currently you can find Anna SMing The Hobbit with the Canadian Children’s Opera Company.

Courses

• Effective Communication and Paperwork

Arden R. Ryshpan has worked in the industry for over 40 years in a variety of capacities, with production credits on over 30 feature films and televisions projects. Ryshpan was on the Board of Directors of the Dome Theatre of Dawson College and was a faculty member in the drama department. After some years at both ACTRA (as Eastern Regional Executive Director) and the National Film Board of Canada (as Assistant Director General of the English Program, she moved to Toronto to become the Executive in Charge of Directors Affairs for the Directors Guild of Canada, where she was responsible for negotiations, lobbying and international representation for Canada’s film and television directors. She has been Executive Director of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association since 2007 where she is chief negotiator, responsible for lobbying and advocacy activities, as well as the day to day operations of the organization.

Courses

• Joining Equity

Cheryl Francis is former Equity Stage manager with more than a decade long experience working in theatre, festivals, and large scale sporting events. She has stage managed at various theatres including Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, and Nightwood Theatre. She has coordinated and managed various events for TIFF, Major League Baseball, National Hockey League, NCAA Women’s and Men’s Final Four tournaments and the National Basketball Association.

She is currently a Production Coordinator and Set Decoration coordinator in film and television with over twenty five years experience working on small independent productions to big budget large scale feature films.

Selected film and television credits include: IT Chapter 2, American Gothic, Falling Water, and Y: The Last Man.

She served on the IATSE 411 executive board for a total of three terms first as Treasurer and then finally as Vice President .

Courses

• Film (2024)

Christine (she/her) is a stage manager based in Kjipuktuk/Halifax.

Over the past twenty five years she has worked on over 100 productions.

As an apprentice she attended the second ever SM Arts conference which sparked the career long desire to talk about the how and the why of what we do. She is thrilled to be participating in this year’s hybrid conference as an instructor.

Christine is one of the CAEA Apprentice Advisors, and is part of the working group  Collective Noun of Stage Managers. She is also a production coach and stage management instructor at the Fountain School for Performing Art at Dalhousie University.

Christine is a graduate of the University of King’s College in Halifax and the National Theatre School of Canada, and has twice received the Merritt award for Best Stage Manager, most recently in 2014.

Courses

• How to be a Good Apprentice

Daniel Levinson is happy to return to his annual participation at SMArts. Daniel has been performing, directing, and teaching stage combat professionally since founding Rapier Wit in 1991. Rapier Wit is Canada’s oldest stage combat school and production company. Daniel is proud to be counted among Fight Directors Canada’s Fight Masters. Daniel has created fights for companies such as The Stratford Festival (5 seasons), Canadian Stage, Jesus Christ Superstar on Broadway, Volcano Theatre, Actors Repertory Company, Second City, A.C.T. Productions, Shakespeare In the Square, Factory Theatre, Shakespeare in the Rough, Theatre Aquarius, The Actor’s Repertory Company, Theatre Passe Muraille, The Tarragon Theatre and The Guild Festival Theatre

Courses

• Foundations of Stage Combat
• Firearms Best Practices
• Blade Best Practices

David has been an actor, director and educator in Canada for the last
25 years. Selected acting credits include: The Music Man
(Thousand Islands Playhouse); Guys and Dolls, Fiddler of the Roof,
My Fair Lady (Port Hope); Prairie Nurse (Lighthouse
Theatre); Vigilante (Catalyst, National Tour); Baskerville (Stage West);
One For The Pot, Run for Your Wife, Perfect Wedding (Drayton); It’s A
Wonderful Life (Theatre Aquarius, Persephone, Chemainus); Art, Billy
Bishop Goes to War, The Girl in The Goldfish Bowl (Theatre
Northwest); The Comedy of Errors, The Importance of Being Earnest,
Miracle on 34th Street (Neptune Theatre); A Few Good Men (Citadel/
RMTC); The 39 Steps, Cinderella (Globe Theatre); Little Women, The
Three Musketeers (Citadel Theatre); Guys and Dolls (Chemainus);
Little Shop of Horrors (Persephone); An Ideal Husband, The
Fantasticks (Theatre Calgary); MMLJWW (Mirvish); Hamlet, The
Taming of The Shrew, All’s Well That Ends Well (Stratford Festival);
seven seasons with the Shaw Festival, favourites include The
Importance of Being Earnest, Major Barbara and Happy End.
Directing credits include: She Kills Monsters (University of
Waterloo); Artistic Director of the Souris Valley Theatre, directing I
Love You…Now Change, A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline; If I Weren’t
With You (Lunchbox Theatre, Calgary Critics Award nomination).
Selected Film and TV: Murdoch Mysteries, In the Dark, Star Trek:
Strange New Worlds.

David is part-time faculty at both Sheridan College and Randolph
College, where he teaches acting, script analysis and acting through
song. He has been a lecturer at the University of Waterloo and
Western University, teaching acting and script analysis. He has taught
workshops for The Stratford Festival, the University of Regina and
directed for Calgary Actor’s Studio. David holds a BFA from the
University of Regina, a Certificate in Arts Education from York
University/Stratford Festival, and was a participant in the Banff/Citadel Program, 2011.

Courses

• Giving Notes (Toronto 2023 – 2024)

Janelle began her relationship with the stage at the age of 3, in the traditional blue tutu & sequins – unfortunately it doesn’t fit anymore. Janelle has had the opportunity to stage manage for a variety of genres over the past 19 years including theatre, musicals, tours and special events, though the bulk of her time is spent working in the realm of dance. She has stage-managed for over 40 dance companies and independent choreographers including Fall For Dance North, National Ballet School, CORPUS, Tiger Princess Dance Projects and Peggy Baker. She has toured Malaysia & Singapore with the Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre as well as across Canada with Kaeja d’Dance. She spent 4 seasons with the National Ballet of Canada as ASM and SM for YOU Dance.

In the past 12 years, Janelle has been working more intensely as a production manager, working with Le Théâtre français de Toronto, DanceWorks (Toronto), ProArteDanza, IMPACT Festival (Kitchener) and the Magnetic North Theatre Festival (Ottawa).

She is currently the Production Manager/Theatre Manager for the University of Waterloo Theatre and Performance program, where she also teaches courses in stage management and managing the arts. In her “spare” time, Janelle has taught dance stage management at Ryerson School of Performance and York University as well as stage management workshops for community theatres.

Janelle joined S.M.Arts in 2006 as Co-Director to Founder, Winston Morgan. In 2008 they started a sister organization called P.M.Arts, which Janelle administrated with Peter Fleming. In 2010 she took over the role of Director of S.M.Arts when Winston stepped down. The organization has continued to grow and is now a not-for-profit organization with 4 – 5 projects occurring each year.

But her favourite project thus far has been her son, Hunter – the first ‘S.M.Arts’ baby.

Courses

• Giving Notes
• Scheduling and Planning
• Calling a Show
• Reading Plans / Taping a Floor
• Town Hall: OK Stage Managers – What now? What do YOU Need?
• Dance

Janet Sellery CRSP, CHSC, is one of Canada’s leading experts in health and safety and the arts, entertainment, and live events. She started in stage management and, after a critical injury involving an actor, she pioneered the health and safety program at the Stratford Festival, Canada’s largest repertory theatre.

Janet is an active volunteer with Event Safety Alliance Canada (Board Chair), Event Safety Alliance U.S. (Director), the Ontario Ministry of Labour Live Performance Health & Safety Advisory Committee, the Scott Johnson Working Group and the Event Safety Working Group. She has been awarded the “Jack McAllister Award” (Toronto Metropolitan University), the “Ron Epp Memorial Award for Professional Achievement” (Canadian Institute for Theatre Technology) and “Canada’s Safety Manager of the Year” (Canadian Occupational Safety Magazine).

As a consultant (Sellery Health + Safety), Janet focuses on customizing programs, training, and resources to reflect the constantly evolving and unique demands of the arts, entertainment, and live events.

Courses

• Health & Safety

Jeff Morris studied technical theatre production and administration at Ryerson’s Theatre School (1987 – 1990), pursuing a growing interest in stage management for dance. After leaving Ryerson, he worked as Production Stage Manager for Toronto Dance Theatre (1990 – 1995, company debuts in Warsaw, Berlin, Tokyo, New York’s Joyce Theater), Production Manager for Dancers for Life (AIDS Committee of Toronto, 1991 – 1997), Stage Manager for Theatre Passe-Muraille (Never Swim Alone, Metamorphosis of a Shadow), and Stage Manager for the Fringe Festival of Independent Dance Artists (fFIDA). In 1995 he joined the National Ballet of Canada, and has been Stage Manager for a wide range of the company’s unique classical and contemporary repertoire, including company premieres of Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Winter’s Tale, and world premieres of The Four Seasons, Cinderella, and An Italian Straw Hat (Kudelka), Emergence and Angels’ Atlas (Pite), Romeo and Juliet (Ratmansky), Orpheus Alive (Binet), and Frame by Frame – a collaboration between the National Ballet’s Guillaume Côté and Robert Lepage/Ex Machina. In addition to his work with the National Ballet of Canada, Jeff is an adjunct faculty member with The School of Toronto Dance Theatre, a Festival Co-Director for dance: made in Canada/fait au Canada, and he taught and mentored stage managers at the Banff Centre for the Arts and SMArts.

Photo credits to Karolina Kuras.

Courses

• Calling a Show Part 2: More Moving Parts
• Reading Plans / Taping a floor
• Reading Music

Jennifer joined Equity’s Business Rep team in 2009. She handles Canadian Theatre Agreement (CTA) and Independent Theatre Agreement (ITA) contracts for western Canada. Before working for Equity, Jennifer worked in Stage Management, Company Management and General Management in Opera, Theatre, and Musical Theatre in Toronto. Jennifer is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada.

Courses

• Canadian Theatre Agreement (CTA)