In 1973, as the Big O was being built, the Catherine Booth Hospital in NDG was the only place where the father was allowed in the delivery room; so, my folks decided to get the job done there. The West Island of Montreal (Pierrefonds) was where we lived, and where I was raised. First I attended Thorndale Elementary, then John Rennie High School, and then on to John Abbott CEGEP, in Health Science. Concordia University was next, and I actually did a B.Sc in Biology in 1995 before heading over to acting, attaining a B.FA in Theatre Performance and English Literature in 1999. Accepted to the only Masters Acting program in Canada, I completed my M.FA at York University, Toronto in 2001.
Teaching/Consultancy
Over 10+ years, my teaching experience spans many levels of education. While at York, I taught undergraduate acting for non-majors. Later, I taught high school English and Drama at Trafalgar School for Girls, John Rennie, and at the Cartier Adult Education Centre in Beaconsfield. For many years I was also a substitute teacher in elementary and high schools on the West Island. Recently, I taught workshop classes on acting and improvisation at McGill University.
In 2008, I founded I.O. Acting Studio. Since its inception, the school has taught hundreds of students from wide-ranging backgrounds. In addition to the many students who have taken Acting, Voice, Writing, and Film classes, I have assisted applicants to audition successfully for agencies in Montreal and Toronto, and I have helped auditioners gain admittance to Theatre programs in Canada and the UK. On an individual basis, I have coached actors for feature film auditions, and for starring roles in Canada, the US and abroad.
As a script consultant, my very first project was the feature film Polytechnique, directed by Denis Villeneuve. Later, I consulted on several play, short film and feature film projects, both in English and in French.
My acting workshops have been appointed by the Quebec Drama Federation (QDF) and by the Quebec Writer’s Federation (QWF). It has also been a great honour to be a guest speaker: at York University, Ryerson, Concordia, McGill, and at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) (for International Women’s Day).
Performance
As a performer, my stage career began at the age of five and I have acted ever since. In 1992 I co-founded the Wahoo Family Theatre Company with my fellow thespians and friends Donovan King and Matthew Legault. We mounted classical productions, children’s theatre and mummery (which I was too chicken to take part in).
In 1998, I wrote and directed my first full-length play, Periostracum: a site-specific work (set in a bar) for the Montreal Fringe Theatre Festival.
After a multitude of other independent and university productions, my professional stage career began at the Factory Theatre Toronto, where I landed the title role in Necessary Angel’s production of The Piper by Colleen Murphy, directed by Richard Rose. Later, I went on to play the role of the American soldier Luke O’Connor in Ota, an adaptation of Robert Lepage’s Seven Streams of the River Ota. I also played in a number of indie-produced and Fringe productions, including Harold Pinter’s One for the Road and John Osbourne’s Look Back in Anger.
On camera, I drew experience from a number of commercial and made-for-tv projects. My first was a bit part in Canada: A People’s History playing an Irish upstart. For many years I was featured in a British internet commercial (for Anadin, an Aspirin-like product) on their homepage, playing a submarine crew member with a headache.
In 2003, I acted in my first feature film, playing the role of Reese in Remembering Moore, directed by Peter Cho.
My IMDB info page.
The Anorak
Developed as a graduate performance assignment, my play The Anorak–a 90 minute monologue about the life and death of Marc Lépine (perpetrator of the Montreal Massacre at l’Université de Montréal)–debuted in 2000 at York University.
The Montreal premiere took place in September 2004 at Zeke’s Gallery. In March 2005 the show was performed at the Queen’s University Engineering Department in Kingston. Additional Montreal productions have taken place at McGill University, Ryerson and Concordia.
Reviews of The Anorak:
montreal.com
Montreal Mirror
Hour Magazine
La Presse
French language TV interview:
Anorak sur TVA
In 2007 the play won the Montreal English Critic's Circle Award (MECCA) for Best Script, also garnering Best Actor and Best Overall Production nominations. The play was listed in 2006 for Best of the Year in the Montreal Mirror, as well as in La Presse. In 2004, The Anorak was named in the Montreal Gazette’s Best Plays of the year. The French version L’Anorak, translated by Genevieve Charbonneau, premiered in Quebec City in Fall 2008.
After seeing the play at McGill University in 2006, Executive Producers Karine Vanasse (Pan-Am, Ma Fille-Mon Ange) and Max Rémillard (Remstar) hired me as Script Consultant for the feature film Polytechnique. Working closely with director Denis Villeneuve, I helped integrate the character of The Killer (Marc Lépine) into the film.
My final performance of The Anorak took place, in French, on the 20th anniversary of the massacre at l'Université de Montréal, December 6, 2009. The play continues to run, most recently with my former student J.S. Elie in the performing role.
Comedy and Film
To balance the tragic subject of Anorak in my performing life, I co-founded the sketch comedy troupe The Dancing Cock Brothers in 2005. Over a five-year span, the DCBs brought nasty sketch comedy to Montreal and Toronto with performances at both Fringe Festivals and Sketchfests, Main Hall and Petit Campus, to name a few.
In 2010, the DCBs disbanded and made the move into film, where I served as the show-runner and lead actor for Montreal Hearts, a comedy series by the newly formed Gung Horse Productions. The show ranked on Indie Soap of the Week charts for 8 weeks and was nominated for an ISOW Viewer’s Choice Award. Montreal Hearts was also featured on ABC news via a profile on Funny or Die, where it was nominated in the Top Comedy Videos of the Year for 2010.
In 2011, I made my first short film, Communication Policy, in collaboration with Ciudad Films, where I wrote, directed and edited the film, with students of I.O. Acting Studio being cast in the principal roles. Communication Policy was an Official Selection at the Moving Image Film Festival of Toronto.
My next short film, Foreign Language, is in post-production, to be completed in 2012.
Writing
In addition to several feature length screenplays, dozens of scenes for film and scores of sketches for comedy, I have written a volume of poetry, short stories and several articles (see below).
Currently, I am working on three novels: the first, collection of drinking memoirs called In the Soft, is complete (first draft); the second, a work of fantasy fiction entitled A Most Ignoble Dread, is nearly complete; the third, in development, is tentatively entitled The Manual of Lust.
Publications
Here are links to some of the stuff I’ve written, including my first published work, “Alcoholism is Volitional”:
If I ever decide to serialize some work,
(Cult)ure Magazine, March 24, 2010. “Alcoholism is Volitional”
Encore Literary Magazine, January 23, 2011. Interview/Review, Elise Moser: Because I Have Loved and Hidden It. “An Emotionally Loud Debut”
The Rover. Several, including my now infamous review of the film Inception, “If It Only Had A Heart”
NOW - Concordia. Several.
After being away since birth, NDG is now home.
