Artistic Team 2023
Danielle Irvine
Artistic Director, Perchance Theatre / Director: The Tempest/ Director: The Flying Doctor
Artistic Director, Perchance Theatre / Director: The Tempest/ Director: The Flying Doctor
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Danielle Irvine is a proud Newfoundlander who has had to travel a lot for her
work. Highlights of her career include teaching and directing at the National Theatre School of Canada (most recently as the leader of their second year Shakespeare Project) ; Assistant Directing at the Stratford Festival of Canada (including being the first director to study in their Birmingham Conservatory); and winning such awards as the Canada Council for the Arts prestigious John Hirsch Prize for Directing, the ArtsNL BMO Artist of the Year, and the ArtsNL Artist’s Achievement Award 2019. Danielle was also a participant in the World Stage Festival 2000’s Masterclass for Directors; where she was honoured to study with such theatre greats as Peter Brook, Yoshi Oida and Polly Teale. In the fall of 2016, she was invited to participate in the inaugural Stratford Festival’s International Classical Directing Intensive. For 30 years, she has been directing theatrical productions of all sizes and types in all manner of venues. Her love and passion for NL culture combined with her theatre training inspired Danielle to co-develop a show with Anna Stassis which brought audiences through a theatrical experience on a bus, a ferry, around Bell Island and culminated 650 feet underground in a mine. This was listed by the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres as a Landmark Theatrical Event in 1997. She was one of the founders of the Shakespeare by the Sea Festival in NL, as well as the founding artistic director of Sweetline Theatre Company. She has also been a keynote speaker and workshop leader at various conferences over the years and is also a casting director for television and film. Credits include: CBC’s Republic of Doyle; the Netflix series, Frontier; the CBC Series, LittleDog; the CBC mini- series, Caught; the Citytv Series, Hudson and Rex; and the feature film, Maudie. Recently, she has been nominated a YWCA Woman of Distinction for Arts and Culture and a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Excellence in Casting for Frontier. Since 2014, Danielle has been bringing her love of Newfoundland culture and community, together with her passion for Shakespeare and other timeless theatre in her role as the Artistic Director of Perchance Theatre. |
Mary Walsh*
Director and co-writer: High Steel
Director and co-writer: High Steel
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Mary Walsh created and starred in This Hour Has 22 Minutes, CBC’s wildly popular take
on current affairs. The series earned her many of her numerous Gemini awards and showcased her dynamic range of characters, including the flagrantly outspoken ‘Marg Delahunty’. Walsh wrote, produced and starred in the Gemini award winning series Hatching, Matching and Dispatching, which returned to CBC in 2017 as a feature length presentation called A Christmas Fury, with Walsh and the original cast reprising their roles. In 2017 she released her debut novel, a Canadian best-seller, Crying For The Moon. Walsh’s recent TV credits include CBC’s Hudson & Rex, Global’s Rookie Blue, HBO Canada’s Sensitive Skin, CBC’s Little Dog for which she was nominated for a 2020 Canadian Screen Award, and numerous guest appearances on This Hour Has 22 Minutes.In 2022 Walsh wrote, directed, and produced the second season of The Missus Downstairs, a webseries for Bell FibeTV1, with season 3 currently in development. Select feature film credits include The Grand Seduction and Closet Monster (Official selections at TIFF 2014 and 2015, respectively), Mambo Italiano and Terror Train. In 2020 she appeared in a leading role in Helen Shaver’s first feature film Happy Place, for which she won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Supporting Actress. In 2021 Walsh wrote directed and produced her first short film, Dad and the Fridge Box, which can be found on CBC Gem. Outside of the film, TV and theatre world, Mary is an outspoken advocate for mental health and addiction awareness as a spokesperson for Bell Let’s Talk. Among her many awards and doctorates, Mary is the recipient of the Order of Canada, the Governor General’s Lifetime Achievement Award in the Performing Arts, and the CSA’s Earle Grey Award for lifetime achievement in television acting. |
Alison Helmer
Costume Designer: High Steel / Set Design: The Tempest
Costume Designer: High Steel / Set Design: The Tempest
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Alison Helmer is a multidisciplinary artist who has been deeply and continuously influenced by her studies and experience working on the east coast. Born and raised on the prairies, she began her theatre education with the Stagecraft program at Grenfell college before completing the Scenography program at the National Theatre School of Canada. She approaches the world of both set and costume design through a lens of fantasy, history, and the tradition of storytelling. She is excited by Theatre that pushes the boundaries between conventional and experimental, and that seeks to fulfil our human search for truth, escape, and shared connection.
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Tucker Ellis
Costume Designer: The Tempest and The Flying Doctor
Costume Designer: The Tempest and The Flying Doctor
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Tucker Ellis is a costume and clothing designer based out of St. John’s, NL. Tucker grew up in a small community in central Newfoundland, and has had an active interest and training in
musical theatre from an early age. After wandering from home and eventually landing permanently in St. John’s, Tucker attended the Textile and Apparel Design program at the College of the North Atlantic and graduated with first class honours, returning for a third year of extended study focusing on pattern construction. Since leaving the program they have played an active role in the St. John’s theatre, fashion and craft communities. Tucker is excited to return to the Perchance Theatre team for their sixth summer with the tempest and some proper newfie nonsense with one flying “doctor.” |
Jodee Richardson*
Season Sound Design and Composition
Season Sound Design and Composition
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Jodee Richardson is one of Newfoundland and Labrador's most diverse and dynamic performers. A renowned singer/songwriter/actor as well as playwright and sound designer, Jodee enjoys traveling the province writing about the people he meets (or wishes he had). He is thrilled this summer to be reprising his performance as Prospero in Perchance Theatre's production of The Tempest with some brand new cast (and crew!) members and all the returning hooligans! High Steel and The Flying Doctor round out his season with Perchance so no rest for the deadly wicked. Mostly though, he is honoured to be treading the boards of their interim stage as Perchance lays down roots in beautiful Conception Harbour for the company's flourishing future. Here's to it!
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Nicole Hand
Music Composition and Arrangements
Music Composition and Arrangements
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Nicole Hand (B. Mus) is a woodwind instrumentalist from CBS, Newfoundland. You might spy her in the back row of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, at a wedding with special event band 709 or downtown with ECMA-award winning saxophone group Ouroboros. A big believer in school music programs, Nicole also works as Executive Director of the Rotary Music Festival, the largest non-competitive band, choir and strings festival of its kind in Atlantic Canada. Nicole is thrilled to be returning for her second season with Perchance, cooking up arrangements and performing live with their exceptional artistic (dream) team.
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Lynn Panting
Choreographer, High Steel
Choreographer, High Steel
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Lynn Panting is a Newfoundland-based artist, arts educator, and arts advocate known for creating innovative and accessible dance works. She is noted for creating pieces that appeal to a wide audience and often works with artists from other disciplines to generate a theatrical yet lyrical movement. This is Lynn's sixth season with Perchance and she couldn't be happier to "build the storm" with this team.
Lynn is deeply committed to the growth of creativity and self-confidence through movement and holds a Master of Arts in Philosophy from Memorial University as well as a Master of Humanities concentrating in performance, dance and the body. In 2022, Lynn published her first book, “We Dance High Low Fast & Slow” an illustrated introduction to dance and creative movement for children. Lynn is the owner and Artistic Director of Lynn Panting Dance, the Artistic Director, Producer of Untellable Movement Theatre, and a founding member of Ladies Who Lunch Productions. Lynnpantingdance.com |
Evan Mercer
Assistant Director, The Flying Doctor
Assistant Director, The Flying Doctor
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Evan Mercer is an actor, writer, and musician from Shearstown, Newfoundland. He has been working with Perchance since 2017, and is thrilled to be here at the new location. Highlights at Perchance include Truffuldino in The Servant of Two Masters, Hank in Our Eliza, and Matthew in Bernice Morgan's Area of Uncertainty. Evan has worked for theatre companies around the province, such as Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador, Rising Tide, and Poverty Cove. Television credits include Spam in CBC's Little Dog, and appearances on Son of a Critch and Frontier. He is a recent graduate of the Acting Program at the National Theatre School of Canada.
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Aurora Judge
Set Designer: High Steel and The Flying Doctor
Set Designer: High Steel and The Flying Doctor
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Aurora Judge is an artist and designer currently based out of St Catharines, Ontario. She made her way to the rock for the very first time to join Perchance for their 2023 summer season. Her recent work has taken her from theatre to film and back again, including several seasons at the Shaw Festival in a variety of roles.
She's a Certified Arts Weirdo and has the BFA to prove it, but won't, because that would mean digging it out from under the project pile. When not dreaming up big new worlds for the stage, you can find her curled up in a blanket nest, making small cardboard worlds for her pet rats. |
*The participation of these Artists is arranged by permission of Canadian Actors’ Equity Association under the provisions of the Dance-Opera-Theatre Policy (DOT).
