Past Instructors

Courses

• Television

Aidan Cosgrave is the founder and President of J.S.T. Productions, an event and television production company with over 30 years of experience in national and international project creation and management with a client base that includes the NHL, CBC, Sportsnet, the Caldwell Partners, and numerous not for profit and registered charities (The Grocery Foundation, Kids Help Phone, Daytrippers Children’s Charity).

Aidan has worked as a Stage Manager, Production Manager and Technical Director for various theatre companies and since 1991 he has worked with Tapestry Opera on a variety of productions including their upcoming world premiere of Oksana G. As a television Producer, Aidan has worked on multiple productions including the Canadian Country Music Awards, The Giller Awards, the Canadian Screen Awards, and music specials featuring artists including Paul Anka, and the Guess Who.

There are surely more qualified television floor managers / associate directors who could lead this seminar. However, there are very few of them who have an understanding of the role of a theatrical stage manager.  It is Aidan’s combined understanding of live television production and theatre production that he hopes will make this seminar a compelling and unique 3 hours.

Courses

• Canadian Theatre Agreement (CTA) – Session 2 (2023)
• CAEA SM Advisory Committee Panel (2019 – 2023)

Allan Teichman is an active professional stage manager, with experience ranging from collectives to major opera and commercial theatre. He lives in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and has worked at the Shaw Festival for almost four decades. Along the way, Allan has also had the good fortune to be associated with a wide range of exciting projects, including work with Canadian Opera Company, Canadian Stage, Factory Theatre, The Globe Theatre, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Mirvish Productions, GCTC, National Arts Centre, Opera Hamilton, Sudbury Theatre Centre, Carousel Players and Essential Collective Theatre. Allan served on Equity Council for fifteen years, including eleven as President, and has been a member of the national Stage Management Committee for twenty-five years. He is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada.

Courses

• Reading Plans / Taping a floor

Alexis attended production programs at the Humber School of Creative and Performing Arts and the National Theatre School of Canada. Upon graduation, she worked as a freelance technician and technical director in the Montreal area, enjoying stints with the Centaur Theatre, the Saidye Bronfman Centre and the Just for Laughs comedy festival. In 2005, she moved to London, Ontario to be the first, full-time “Apprentice Technical Director” at the Grand Theatre. She spent an incredibly formative year apprenticing under the unsinkable Andrea Surich. Following her time at the Grand, Alexis spent two glorious summers as PM of the Blyth Festival before accepting a position as Production Manager with York University’s Department of Theatre. Returning to her passion for technical direction, Alexis accepted the position as Technical Director with Young People’s Theatre. Now in her 6th year as TD there, she is very proud to have helped them with their 50th Anniversary Season.

Courses

• Career Transitioning

Amanda has worked as a dancer and actress across Canada. For the past 13 years she has been the Executive Director of the Dancer Transition Resource Centre.

Courses

• Scheduling and Planning

Andrew is currently the Academic Production Manager for the School of Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Calgary.

Before coming to Calgary Andrew worked for 13 years at Globe Theatre in Regina.  During those years he was (at different times) Globe’s Artistic Associate, Executive Director, General Manager, Planning Manager and Production Manager. Andrew directed five productions there – Rage, Doubt, A Parable, Tuesdays with Morrie, Having Hope at Home, and Living In the Spaces (World Premiere). He also created, along with choreographer Johanna Bundon, Rael’s Journey; a contemporary dance piece. Andrew oversaw the Shumiatcher Sandbox Series for a number of years and was heavily involved in the creation and planning for Globe’s biannual Conservatory Program for Actor Training.  He served as the Conservatory’s Director in 2014.  Andrew stage managed Proof and Wingfield On Ice and was as a technician on many productions.

While in Regina Andrew was the Production Manager for the opera Eos: The Dream of Nicholas FloodDavin, Vice-Chair of the Founding Board of Directors of the Saskatchewan Association of Theatre Professionals, on the Board of Directors of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres (PACT), a member of the Board of Directors of the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance and a juror for the Saskatchewan Arts Board.

Prior to life in Saskatchewan, Andrew worked for 11 seasons at the Stratford Festival, primarily as the Production Stage Manager at the Festival Theatre.  He stage managed The Two Noble Kinsman and served as ASM on many productions during those years.

Andrew is originally from Toronto and a graduate of Ryerson’s Technical Theatre program.

Courses

• ASL Interpreted Shows

Anita Small, MSc, EdD is a sociolinguist, educator and researcher. A specialist in social dynamics, she connects sdifferent worlds through communication, arts, language, culture and strategic design. Co-Founder and past Co-Director DEAF CULTURE CENTRE, Canada, Dr. Small is Founder/Owner, small LANGUAGE CONNECTIONS, consulting to theatre companies, museums, broadcast companies, non-profit organizations, educational and arts institutions. She engages diverse communities to co-create empowering award-winning organizations, productions, programs and resources – recipient of a United Nations WSIS + 10 Champion, Best of the Best Award/UNESCO (2013) International W3 Award (2012), Best of Canada Design Award (2007), World Summit Award (WSA) (2005) and International NHK Japan Prize (2004) for creativity and inclusive design in educational TV and digital content (eg. Deafplanet, ASL-phabet animated dictionary).

Selected Theatre Credits: Stratford, Soulpepper, Opera Atelier, Theatre Passe Muraille, Cahoots, Canada; Festival Clin d’Oeil, Comedie Theatre, France.

She has obtained over 15 million dollars in cultural program grants, mentors Deaf artists and organizations in grant writing. Dr. Small was grants writer and Director, Cross-Cultural Interaction and Research, The Black Drum, first feature signed musical production (Canada and France, 2019 and Virtual Tour 2021). She was cross-appointed, Hogeschool Utrecht University, Netherlands (5 years) national Deaf performing arts researcher and is program evaluator for Sign Language Institute Canada instructor training and accreditation for theatre interpreters. She is author/content manager, Deaf Artists and Theatres Toolkit (DATT) (Cahoots, 2016) Deaf Arts Handbook Series: Signed Music: Rhythm of the Heart and documentary (2015), Showtime: Deaf Theatre in Canada (2019), The Black Drum Signed Musical: Behind the Scenes Youth Activity Guide (2021), Mentorship for Canadian Deaf Artists: Fostering Deaf Performance Arts Excellence, Research Report (2021) among her numerous publications. Anita has provided cross-cultural interaction training and mediation for Deaf and hearing personnel for 30 years in Canada, the U.S.A., Netherlands, Italy and Japan. She is recipient of the Kathy Dolby Award, singular national award from the Canadian Deaf community (2006) given to a hearing individual.

www.anitasmall.com

Courses

• Repertory Theatre: The Stratford Model

This will be Ann’s 36th season with the Stratford Festival when she will be Stage Manager for Twelfth Night directed by Martha Henry. At Stratford she has stage managed over 35 productions, assistant stage managed over 25 productions and worked in all four of the Festival’s theatres. She won the Artistic Director’s Award and an unsolicited Tyrone Guthrie Award for her backstage photography wihich was also exhibited at the Festival Archives. For nine seasons she worked as Coordinator of the Festival’s Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre under the direction of Martha Henry. In addition, Ann has stage managed at Hart House Theatre, the Robert Gill Theatre, Canadian Stage, the National Arts Centre, Tarragon Theatre, the Grand Theatre, the Globe Theatre (Regina) & the Haymarket Theatre (London, England). This will be Ann’s 9th time as an instructor with S.M.Arts.

Courses

• How to be a Good Apprentice

Arwen has been stage managing professionally for 17 years. Although she works mainly in Toronto theatres, she has also worked seasons at the Shaw and Stratford Festivals. Her extensive work with Opera Atelier has taken her to Japan, Singapore, Korea, and various cities in Europe. Favourite credits include: Eurydice, Angels in America Parts I & II, Parfumerie, Ghosts, The Glass Menagerie, Salt-Water Moon (Soulpepper); I Claudia (Crow’s Theatre/Edinburgh Fringe); The Africa Trilogy (Volcano/Luminato); The Dishwashers, Rune Arlidge, The Domino Heart, Side Man, The Good Life, Midnight Sun (Tarragon Theatre); Vida!, The Drowsy Chaperone, Disgraced (Mirvish Productions).

Courses

• Company Management

Barry has recently taken on the role as the first ever Company Manager at Shaw Festival where, previously, he spent ten seasons as Assistant Stage Manager.

Credits for the Shaw include, In Good King Charles’s Golden Days, Ways of the Heart, Belle Moral (tour), Mrs. Warren’s Profession, An Inspector Calls, The Circle, The Philanderer, High Society, The Invisible Man, The Constant Wife, Journey’s End, Ah, Wilderness! and Harlequinade.

Barry’s professional career began at The Great Canadian Theatre Company in 1988. Since then he has Stage Managed and Assistant Stage Managed for theatres across Canada. Selected credits include: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for the National Ballet, Barrymore starring Christopher Plummer, Hal Prince’s Phantom of the Opera, Show Boat and the First National Show Boat Tour for Livent, Cats for The Marlene Smith Group, Cirque du Soleil’s Mystere at Treasure Island, Las Vegas. In addition Barry has stage managed for the following theatres and producers: The National Arts Centre, Ottawa, The Globe Theatre, Regina, The Stratford Festival, The Vancouver Playhouse, The Gateway Theatre, Expo ’86, (Vancouver,) The Canadian Native Arts Foundation.

Courses

• Working with QLab

Ben Chaisson is an award-winning Sound and Projections Designer, design consultant and technical director, born in Halifax now working in Toronto. He is the 2010 Laureate of the Pauline McGibbon Award for Design, and the Co-Creative Director of Playground Studios. Ben has been nominated for multiple Dora Mavor Moore and Betty Mitchell Awards. He received the 2015 SATA Award for Projection Design for his work on The Highest Step in the World.

Ben designed the projections for Tafelmusik’s Galileo, Soulpepper’s Antigone, Theatrefront’s The Mill, and the world premiere of LuminaTO and Tapestry New Opera Works’ epic oratorio Dark Star Requiem and was the Associate Projection Designer for Charlottetown Festival’s Anne of Green Gables. At the Shaw Fesitval, he co-designed Ragtime, Pygmalion, Light Up The Sky and Alice in Wonderland with Beth Kates. Their company, Playground Studios, has created several installations (The ToyBox and Night Light Travels, and Lightspan)

Currently a Media Server Specialist at FMAV Toronto, working on large scale projection installations, Ben has also taught at the National Theatre School, York and Ryerson University. He is a certified Montessori Classroom assistant, and a dad.

Courses

• Working with QLab

Links

Beth is a self-taught, award-winning Lighting, Projection, Set, and Costume designer who started working in rock and roll at 14. She is the co-creative director of Playground Studios, whose interactive installations include LightSpan (Nuit Blanche North), Night Light Travels (Nuit Blanche Toronto); and The ToyBox. They also created projections for Ragtime, Pygmalion, Light up the Sky, and Peter Hinton’s Alice in Wonderland at the Shaw Festival, and for all the Ross Petty pantomimes since 2011, including 2016’s Sleeping Beauty. At The Blyth Festival in 2016, Beth co-created The Last Donnelly Standing with Gil Garratt and Paul Thompson, for which she also was the production designer. Other Highlights: Truth Be Told, SEEDS (Blyth), MacHomer, Bigger Than Jesus, (Wyrd), The Road to Mecca (Soulpepper), SPIN (Buddies in Bad Times); Vigilante (Catalyst); Dora the Explorer (Koba); Yichud (Theatre Passe Muraille); Brimful of Asha (Tarragon). Upcoming: Mr. New Year’s Eve (Blyth), Silence (The Grand). Her best production to date is her 4 ½ year-old son Aaron.