24/25 Season Company

Marion Adler - The Spanish Tragedy

MARION ADLER is an actor and award winning lyricist whose work has been seen and produced across North America and Europe.
For the Stratford Festival of Canada: Grandma (Billy Elliot), Lady Markby (An Ideal Husband) Gabrille (The Mad Woman of Chaillot), Goneril (King Lear). For The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey: Hermione and Paulina in The Winter’s Tale, Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. For Shakespeare Santa Cruz: Princess of France (Love’s Labour’s Lost), Emilia (Othello) Mistress Quickly (Henry IV Part 2, Henry V) and the Queen (The Man in the Iron Mask). T.V. : Speaker of the House in “CROSS”

Mairi Babb - The Man of Mode

Mairi is so happy to be back with BASH'd for another exciting reading at the Monarch Tavern! Frequent Bash'd-ers may remember her from Arden of Faversham (Alice), King Lear (Kent), and Cymbeline (The Queen). She has played lead roles at theatres all over Canada including: War Horse (Mirvish/North America/Tokyo), In Seven Days (Grand/Harold Green Jewish Theatre), The Great Divide (Harold Green), Spider's Web (Aquarius), Our Town, Educating Rita, The Tempest (RMTC), Brief Encounter (VP/RMTC), Guys and Dolls (MTC/Citadel/TC), The Rocky Horror Show (Canstage/RMTC). Directing credits include: Two Weird Tales (Eldritch), february - a love story (Sudden Spark), Early August (Lighthouse), Diminished (Driftwood's Trafalgar 24). Mairi has appeared in Ruby and the Well, Run the Burbs, Good Witch, What We Do In The Shadows, Aunty B's House, Alice, Darling, and the upcoming Mistletoe Murders for Hallmark. She is also a voice actor and director for Audible Canada.

Ori Black - The Merchant of Venice

Richard Alan Campbell - The Spanish Tragedy

Ori Black is a Toronto-based Jewish French-Canadian actor/playwright with a BFA from York University. He is honoured to have recently had the world premiere of his first play, ‘Summer of Semitism,’ at the Winnipeg Jewish Theatre. Ori continues to be inspired by the contemporary Jewish experience, and is motivated to carve out a true space for new Jewish perspectives in the industry. Also, he is a loving father to his cat Tommy Blue. Selected credits: Morris/Teddy in 'Bobbie' (TBTB); Ohbee in ‘Summer of Semitism’ (WJT); Izzy in ‘Forever Young: A Ghetto Story’ (GCTC); The Security Guard in 'The Spectators' Odyssey’ (DLT& TOLive); Orpheus in 'The Curious Voyage' (DLT & TIFT); Emmett in 'rochdale' (SummerWorks, Theatre@York). @oriwilliamblack.

Richard is delighted to be working with Shakespeare BASH’d at last!
Recent credits: The Real McCoy (Blyth Festival); King Henry V (Driftwood Theatre); The Cold War Part One (VideoCabaret)
Selected credits: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theatre Rusticle); Confederation Parts One and Two, The Great War (ensemble Dora award), Trudeau and Levesque (Video/Cabaret/Soulpepper); The War of 1812 (VideoCabaret/Stratford Festival/Soulpepper-ensemble Dora); Art (Theatre North West); Ruined (Obsidian/Nightwood); Miracle on 34th Street, It’s A Wonderful Life (Theatre New Brunswick/Sudbury Theatre Centre); King Lear, The Tempest, Hamlet, Comedy of Errors (Driftwood Theatre) The Taming of The Shrew, The Tempest (Theater By The Bay); Audience Unveiling Protest, Waiting For Lefty (The CO); The Graduate (The Grand Theatre); Measure For Measure, Othello, Titus Andronicus and many more for the original Shakespeare In The Rough. Film and TV: Workin’ Moms; Suits; Reign; Murdoch Mysteries, Charlie Bartlett.

Tristan Claxton - The Spanish Tragedy

Sofia Contal - The Merchant of Venice

Tristan is honored to be joining BASH’d for another season, and is thrilled to be a part of his second reading. Tristan earned his MA in Classical Acting form LAMDA in the U.K. and is a three time DORA award nominee. Credits include: Company Member: Two Noble Kinsmen (BASH'd) Oswald/King of France: King Lear (BASH'd) Michael Schwerner: Three Ordinary Men (Cahoots Theatre); Gerald Harvey: Taking Liberties (TL Collective); Jeff: The Rear Window (Bygone Theatre); Hamlet: Hamlet(s) (Skipping Stones Theatre); Ferdinand: The Dutchess of Malfi (Shakespeare BASH'd); Rowan: Living With Olivia (RedWit Theatre).

Sofía is a storyteller, a jazzer, a mover, and an empanada baker. Their craft is incredibly important to them - it is the playground in which they find expansiveness, unbound curiosity, and connection to an inner sense of Earth. They love working with Shakespeare BASH'd; Julia and James create such a nurturing environment, and Sofía is grateful to be a part of a show that is so near and dear to the company. Some dreams Sofía holds is one day getting to write and direct their own Spanglish play, releasing a jazz cover album, and building a community of loved ones with whom to host elaborate and flavourful monthly dinner parties! They are a firm believer in the power of representation and would also find it a dream come true to have been able to inspire other young, queer, Latinx individuals along the course of their career; Sofía’s parents gifted them rich Argentine traditions, but by coming here, have also gifted them the opportunity to live fiercely unabridged. As they continue to grow their artistry, they continue to explore just how far they can blur the limitations and dive head first into imagination. Other credits: Into The Woods (Ovation Productions), The Tempest and She Stoops to Conquer (SLSF), 33 1/3 (Theatre Aquarius), Cabaret (Ovation Productions), 9 to 5 (Capitol Theatre).

Isabelle Ellis - The Man of Mode

M Fera - The Merchant of Venice

Isabelle Ellis (she/her) is an actor, playwright, and director based in Toronto. Recent theatre credits include: Horseplay (Paprika Festival), ECHO (A Front Company/Edmonton Fringe), as well as several appearances with Panoply Theatre Collective. Film/television credits include: Gen V (Amazon/Sony Pictures) and Haunted Museum (Discovery+). Upcoming: Cruel Intentions (Amazon/Freevee). She is thrilled to be making her BASH’d debut as a longtime admirer of James and Julia’s work. She loves scary stories, knitting sweaters, and telling tall tales.

M is a Toronto-based artist and producer. She is the Co-Founder of A.C.T. Productions. She has been stage managing in Toronto for over 10 years. M is thrilled to return to Shakespeare BASH'd for her third consecutive year as Stage Manager.
Some of her recent credits include: The Second City; (as Stage Manager) Don Pasquale (Canadian Opera Company); (as Apprentice Stage Manager) TIFF; (as Stage Manager) The Two Noble Kinsmen, The Tragedy of King Lear (Shakespeare BASH’d); (as Stage Manager).

James Graham - The Man of Mode

Cameron Grant - The Man of Mode

JAMES GRAHAM
For Shakespeare BASH’d: Othello, King John
Selected Theatre: Casimir & Caroline, Punk Rock, Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons, The Glass
Menagerie, 52 Pick-Up (Howland Company) Out the Window (Luminato
Festival/Theatre Centre), Mockingbird (NSTF, Dora Nominee), NSFW (Studio 180), Titus
Andronicus, As You Like It (Canadian Stage), New Jerusalem (Harold Green Jewish Theatre).
Selected Media: Murdoch Mysteries (CBC)
Awards: Dora Award winner, two-time Dora Award nominee

Cameron has worked across Canada as an actor, director and playwright. Recent acting credit include Controlled Damage (Grand Theatre), The Fiancée (Persephone Theatre), Kim Convenience (Thousand Islands Playhouse), 1851: Spirit & Voice (Soulpepper), Serving Elizabeth (Stratford Festival), Getting Married, SEX, Henry V, Hound of The Baskervilles, The Madness of George III, Dracula (Shaw Festival), Happy Birthday Baby J (Shadow Theatre), Alice The Magnet (Theatre Animal). Directing credits include The Assembly (Crossroads Theatre) and Twelfth Night (Theatre Erindale) as well as assistant directing productions at Bard of the Beach, Factory Theatre and Theatre Erindale. As a playwright, Cameron’s first play Meet Chloe, received its premiere at Carousel Players in 2021 and continued to tour virtually for 3 years to schools across Canada. Cameron was the artistic director of Crossroads Theatre (formerly Shakespeare in Action) from 2022-2023.

Kevin Hammond - The Spanish Tragedy

郝邦宇 Steven Hao - The Spanish Tragedy

Kevin is an actor/director, living in Toronto, where he has been the Artistic Director for both Humber River Shakespeare and Shakespeare in the Rough. He has directed or performed in over 30 Shakespeare productions. Guest director credits include Othello and Hamlet for the Arabian Shakespeare Festival (San Francisco), Richard II for Perspective Theatre (San Jose) and The Taming of the Shrew for the Cincinnati Shakespeare Company. In the spring of 2025 he will be returning to California to direct Henry V for Pear Theatre. Kevin is also a member of the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction at the Stratford Festival where he spent two seasons as an Assistant Director. While there he also directed workshop productions of Double Falsehood and an original Shakespeare mash-up entitled A Most Unnoble Swerving. Since the pandemic he has been the Development Manger for The Actors’ Fund of Canada and – most importantly - proud puppy dad to Zoe.

郝邦宇 Steven Hao is a Tkaronto-based director, actor, and writer passionate about creating work that breaks the boundary of theatre-making. He is thrilled to be returning to work with Shakespeare BASH'd on another brilliant endeavour! He knew nothing about the play and has never even heard of it prior to signing on to read it, but hopefully by the time of the reading, he will have fully mastered the words of Thomas Kyd. See you in Spain. His selected theatre credits include: For Directing: Assistant Director, CRAZE (Tarragon Theatre); Director, Death to the Prometheans (Studio 180); Director, life and death and life and death and life and death and life. (CCTA/ACMJIS); Assistant Director, Rocking Horse Winner (Tapestry Opera/Crow's Theatre); Director, Ordinary Days (Shifting Ground Collective); Assistant Director, Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Howland Company/Crow’s Theatre); Assistant Director, Dragon’s Tale (Tapestry Opera); Assistant Director, The Chinese Lady (Crow’s Theatre/Studio 180 Theatre/fu-GEN Theatre); Director, A Perfect Bowl of Pho (Toronto Fringe Festival/Kick & Push Festival); Director, I and You (Precipice Productions); Director, Constellations (Precipice Productions). For Acting: Two Seasons at the Stratford Festival, Anne of Green Gables, Forgiveness, Romeo & Juliet, Salesman in China (Stratford Festival); Pirithous/Wooer, The Two Noble Kinsmen (Shakespeare Bash’d); Puck, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Canadian Stage); Cockroach, Cockroach (Tarragon Theatre). For More: @steven_haoby

Madelaine Hodges(賀美倫)-
The Man of Mode

Brittany Kay - The Merchant of Venice

Madelaine Hodges (賀美倫) (she/her) is a Chinese-Canadian queer artist from Scarborough. This past year she has had the privilege of participating in workshops of new work at theatres including Crow's, Tarragon, Talk Is Free, Fu-Gen, Mixtape Projects, and Highland Arts. Last spring she originated the role of Iris in Woking Phoenix (Theatre Passe Muraille/Silk Bath Collective) which later won the John Kaplan Audience Choice Dora Award. When she's not in class, you can find her at the gym, at dance, sharing a yummy meal with her loved ones, or at book club with her besties. She is beyond excited to be working with the incredible BASH'd team again! For BASH'd: The Two Noble Kinsmen (Dora Award Nom. for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble, Indie 2024), and The Tragedy of King Lear. Recent Film/TV credits: The Boys (Sony Pictures), BÖRJE (Warner Brothers), and Cruel Intentions (Amazon Freevee). Insta: @maddy_hodges_11

Cameron Laurie - The Merchant of Venice

Cameron has been a long time fan of Shakespeare BASH'd and is excited to be part of the The Merchant of Venice team. He recently completed his 4th season at the Blyth Festival where he has appeared in Saving Graceland, The Trials of Maggie Pollock, The Donnelly's Trilogy, The Drawer Boy and Our Beautiful Sons. Cameron is also a Founder and Artistic Leader of The Howland Company, where he has performed in a number of shows including Heroes of the Fourth Turning, Prodigal, Three Sisters, Punk Rock and Casimir & Caroline, for which he won a Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding Ensemble. He will appear in Theatre Aurinko's production This Feels Like the End, this October as part of the Next Stage Festival.

David Mackett - The Man of Mode

David most recently appeared in The Tempest and She Stoops to Conquer at the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival. His past credits with Shakespeare BASH’d include: The Tragedy of King Lear, Cymbeline, Othello, The Taming of the Shrew, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Comedy of Errors, and staged readings of The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Edward ll, and Gorboduc.
His other theatre credits include Arcadia (Citadel Theatre); The Good Thief, Dublin Carol, Port Authority, Cold Comfort (Fly on the Wall); Titus Andronicus (Hart House); After the Fall (Equity Showcase); The Weir (MacKenzieRo); Aftershock (SummerWorks); Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Touchmark Theatre); Half Life (Rose Theatre); Lucrece (Willow Cabin Theatre); Peter Pan (TheatreWorks/USA); Candida, Of Mice and Men (Kentucky Rep); A Christmas Carol (Arts Trust).
David is a graduate of the Citadel/Banff Centre Professional Theatre Program, Circle in the Square Theatre School (NYC), and he completed his Classical Theatre Training at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He is the Co-Artistic Producer of Fly on the Wall Theatre.

Augusta "Gus" Monet - The Spanish Tragedy

Augusta “Gus” Monet (any pronouns) is an interdisciplinary theatre artist and drag performer (@kingcoyoteugly)based in Toronto. Gus enjoys a wide variety of theatre practices but finds themself most drawn to the edges of the spectrum. She equally enjoys classical, new, and experimental theatre. He loves clowning and comedy, and is interested in exploring developments in interdisciplinary and intermedia performance arts. Gus Monet is a formally trained actor from the Toronto Metropolitan University School of Performance. Other credits include: Mephistophilis, “Doctor Faustus”, Apothecary Theatre (2023-24); Lavinia, “Who’s Afraid of Titus, Eldritch Theatre (2022); Writer/Director/Dungeon Master, “The Role Play”, Hamilton Fringe (2022); Conrad/Margaret, “Much Ado About Nothing”, Brampton’s Own Shakespeare Show (2022); Goose, “Goose’s Valentines Day Extravaganza” (2021); ; Ensemble, “Les Gars”, (2020); Playwright, “Dead Funny”, Super Wonder Gallery (2020); Miss Shields, "A Christmas Story", Lower Ossington Theatre (2019-20); Playwright/Raccoon, "Equinox", Dark Crop Theatre Festival (2019).

Alon Nashman - The Merchant of Venice

Alon Nashman is an award-winning performer, director, creator, and producer of theatre. Selected acting credits include: The Breathing Hole (National Arts Centre), Birds of a Kind, Hirsch (Stratford Festival), I send you this cadmium red (Art of Time Ensemble), Much Ado About Nothing, Forests, Scorched, Democracy, Remnants, Alias Godot (Tarragon Theatre), Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well, Botticelli in the Fire/Sunday in Sodom, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, THIS (Canadian Stage), The Wild Duck (Soulpepper), Hedda Gabler(Volcano/Buddies in Bad Times), If Jesus Met Nanabush (De-ba-jeh-mu-jig Theatre), and Tales of Two Cities (Tafelmusik). Alon established Theaturtle in 1999 to create and tour essential, ecstatic theatre that touches the earth and agitates the soul. Projects include Wajdi Mouawad’s Alphonse, Kafka and Son (with Mark Cassidy of Threshold Theatre), and The Snow Queen, scored for string quartet and narrator. Alon wrote the libretto for Charlotte: A Tri-coloured Play with Music which premiered at Toronto’s Luminato Festival and toured to Taiwan and Europe, including the Czech National Opera.

Jesse Nerenberg - The Merchant of Venice

Jesse is thrilled to return to a BASH’d stage, performing Shakespeare’s timeless words for an audience for the first time in nearly five years.

For Shakespeare BASH'd: Cymbeline, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, Macbeth, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Much Ado About Nothing, The Duchess of Malfi.

Selected Theatre: A Christmas Carol (Three Ships Collective), The Golem’s Mighty Swing(Winnipeg Jewish Theatre/Outside the March), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea(Kidoons/MTYP/Persephone/Ohio Theatre); The Winter’s Tale, Julius Caesar, Antony & Cleopatra, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, The Taming of the Shrew, Cyrano, The Three Musketeers (St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival); Perfect Wedding (Magnus Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Chekhov Collective); The Whipping Man (Winnipeg Jewish Theatre); Twelfth Night (Repercussion Theatre); Romeo & Juliet (Citadel Theatre); Casimir & Caroline (Howland Company); Birth (Pandemic Theatre); Journey's End (Empty Room); The SantaLand Diaries (Frosty Co-op); Equus (Hart House); Mary's Wedding (Brantbury Fair); Serious Money (RTS/Nightwood).

Film, TV, Voice-Over: Mayday (Cineflix), Murdoch Mysteries (CBC), Fare Trade (Bell Media), Slasher (Shaftesbury), Private Eyes (Global), Touring T.O. (Bell Media), Warehouse 13 (SyFy), The Transporter (HBO Canada), Canadian Made, Storming Juno (History), Trust, INC. (CBC Radio).

Other: A graduate of Ryerson Theatre School and participant in the 2014 Citadel/Banff Professional Theatre Program. In addition to his work on stage, Jesse is a licensed Speech Pathologist, helping adults to improve their speech, voice, and communication. His keenest interests lie in the realm of voice therapy and stuttering therapy.

Matt Nish-Lapidus - The Merchant of Venice

Matt Nish-Lapidus is an artist and musician based in Toronto. His varied practice includes publications, recordings, installations, performances, software, and objects. Recent projects include Romeo and Juliet (YES Theatre), The Tragedy of King Lear, The Two Noble Kinsmen (Shakespeare BASH’d), the EDAA award winning Finger Plays, and Only the Dreamer Knows It at MOCA Toronto. Matt has performed and exhibited with The Power Plant (Toronto), INDEX Biennial (Braga), ACUD Macht Neu (Berlin), Electric Eclectics (Meaford), InterAccess (Toronto), ZKM (Karlsruhe), The Plumb (Toronto), and more, including many DIY community spaces.

Adriano Reis - The Merchant of Venice

Adriano Reis is a Dora Award nominated actor raised in a
Brazilian-Portuguese home. After graduating from George Brown Theatre School, he has performed on stages across Toronto and the GTA. Selected credits: Romeo and Juliet (YES Theatre), MARTYR (ARC Stage), Shanty Show (The Lakeside Players), Cyrano de Bergerac (Theatre on the Ridge), Cowgirl of Suburbia (Theatre by the Bay), A Midsummer, Night’s Dream (Theatre Orangeville). Adriano also works as a flooring installer, bartender and furniture mover - young in limbs, in judgement old.

Neta J. Rose - The Merchant of Venice

Neta J. Rose (they/them) is an actor, writer, and visual artist based in Tkaronto. Selected theatre credits include The Penelopiad (Hart House), The Omnibus Bill (TACTICS), The Bonds of Interest (Odyssey), Heart of a Dog (Nowadays/Next Stage), 1184 (Phoenix Arts/Aga Khan), The Garden of Alla (Minmar Gaslight), and I Love You & It Hurts (Canadian tour - Theatre of the Beat). This year they appeared in a number of short films, and will next be seen onscreen in the feature-length thriller, Violence. Neta is a graduate of the Claude Watson Arts Program and the Centre for Drama Theatre and Performance Studies at University of Toronto, and is a founding member of Create! Youth Theatre in Scotland, now in its 15th year. In addition to acting, Neta makes paintings, zines, poems, and short stories. Find out more at www.netajrose.com or @neta.j.rose

Hallie Seline - The Merchant of Venice

Hallie is a Jewish Québec-born, Toronto-based actor, and one of the Founding Artistic Leaders of The Howland Company. She is beyond thrilled to make her return with the wonderful folks at Shakespeare BASH'd. BASH'd audiences may have seen her most recently as Rosalind in their As You Like It, or in earlier productions as Olivia in Twelfth Night, a Witch in Macbeth, the Princess of France in Love’s Labour’s Lost, and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. Hallie has won a Dora Mavor Moore Award and a Toronto Theatre Critics Association Award and has acted in many critically acclaimed shows in Toronto and throughout Ontario. Selected Theatre Credits Include: The Farm Show: Then & Now, Resort to Murder (Blyth Festival); Heroes of the Fourth Turning (The Howland Company/Crow’s Theatre); The Donnellys: A Trilogy - Sticks & Stones, The St. Nicholas Hotel, Handcuffs (Blyth Festival); Prodigal, Three Sisters, Casimir and Caroline, The Wolves, Punk Rock, 52 Pick-Up (The Howland Company); Prairie Nurse (Lighthouse Festival); Stag and Doe (Bluewater Summer Playhouse); Oliver! (Capitol Theatre Port Hope). Selected Film/TV Credits: Fellow Travelers (Showtime), Everything's Going to Be Great (Lionsgate Productions), Mayday(Discovery).

Breanne Tice - The Man of Mode

Breanne is glad to be working with BASH’d once again. For BASH’d, she performed in The Tragedy of King Lear and The Two Noble Kinsmen. Other credits include: The Tempest & She Stoops to Conquer (St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival); Romeo & Juliet (YES Theatre); The Ghost Watchers (Theatre by the Bay); The Huns & Pine Grove Plots (Theatre on the Ridge). She also works as a choreographer, intimacy coordinator, and arts educator. Breanne is the co-creator of The Assembly, an interactive board game show (www.theassemblyexperience.com), and the Associate Producer of CBC’s PlayME theatre podcast (www.cbc.ca/playme).

Scott Wentworth - The Spanish Tragedy

In addition to 28 seasons at the Stratford Festival, Scott has appeared on and off Broadway and in theatres across the US and Canada. He last worked with Shakespeare BASH’d om the 2023 King Lear.

Jeff Yung - The Spanish Tragedy

Jeff Yung (he/him) is a Tkarón:to based actor, martial artist, and sometimes poet. Most recently he played Theseus as part of the Dora nominated cast of Two Noble Kinsmen also with BASH’d. Other credits include: Prodigal (Howland/Crow’s), Trojan Girls (OtM/Factory), Monday Nights (PuSh/LUMINATO/TC), Antigone (YPT), Vietgone (MTC/fu-Gen), and Banana Boys (Factory). This year, Jeff made Cannes & TIFF debuts playing Dr. Rory Zhao in the film The Shrouds directed by David Cronenberg. On TV he portrayed Monk Tsutop in Netflix’s live action remake of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Jeff is also a part of the Shakespeare in the Ruff Artistic Leadership Collective that produced A Witch in Algiers, a new adaptation ofShakespeare’s The Tempest, written by Makram Ayache and directed by Kwaku Okyere this summer. Thanks for supporting indie theatre!

For BASH’d: Phoebe in As You Like It
Selected Theatre: Madame Minister (TIFT), Those Movies (OOH & Upper Canada Playhouse), Where You Are, Our House, Book Club (Port Stanley Festival Theatre), Forever Young: A Ghetto Story (GCTC), This was the World (Tarragon Theatre), Doll Play (Bloodpact/Witchboy), Asking for It (Thousand Islands Playhouse), The Wolves (Howland Company/Crows), Mikveh (HGJT), Fitz Happens! (Lighthouse Festival Theatre), Romeo & Juliet Chainsaw Massacre (Toronto Fringe), 9 Parts of Desire (Seventh Stage/Theatre Centre), The Lion King (Mirvish)
Selected Film/TV: Night Shift (Rapid Eye Movement), The Umbrella Academy (Netflix), Taken (NBC/Universal), Dance Together (Amazon Prime), and Hemlock Grove (Netflix)
Other: Brittany is also an OCT teacher and arts educator with her MEd from OISE. Love always to my Buddy and my two Js.

Kate McArthur - The Man of Mode

KATE MCARTHUR is a Mad (Bipolar 1 Disorder)/ Queer actor/theatre artist and is a Co-Artistic Leader of Skipping Stones Theatre, a Toronto based company whose mandate is to tell stories through the lens of mental health or stories that centre around it.. Selected credits: Macbeth, The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, As You Like It with a Company of Fools; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Gorboduc, The Changeling with Shakespeare BASH’d; Hamlet(s), Laughing Wild, 4.48 Psychosis with Skipping Stones Theatre; The Rear Window, The Yellow Wallpaper with Bygone Theatre

Kate Martin - The Spanish Tragedy

Kate is an actor and arts educator. With Shakespeare BASH'd: Emilia in The Two Noble Kinsmen, Assistant Director and swing for The Tragedy of King Lear, Annabella in 'Tis Pity She's A Whore (staged reading). Elsewhere: A Million Billion Pieces (Young People's Theatre), Twelfth Night (Crane Creations Theatre). Twice Dora-nominated within Outstanding Ensembles. Kate holds her BFA in Acting from Toronto Metropolitan University; Kate's classical training was with Ian Watson at TMU and David Latham at YPT. You can find her face on gas pumps, subway posters, and romance novels. Instagram: @katemartin___

Muhaddisah - The Spanish Tragedy

Muhaddisah is a Dora nominated actor and writer/director with a focus on contemporizations of the canon. She is currently working on a feature film adaptation of Euripides’ Medea. Most recently, she portrayed Sycorax in the world premiere of THE TEMPEST: A WITCH IN ALGIERS adapted and written by Makram Ayache (Shakespeare in the Ruff). Coming up, you can catch her as Pari in Anusree Roy’s TRIDENT MOON (Crow’s/NAC). She is elated to make her BASH’d debut with such a stunning and influential play.

Emma Nelles - The Man of Mode

Emma Nelles is a Toronto-based actor and director with a passion for Shakespeare and classical text. A graduate of George Brown Theatre School, Emma has also trained with Shakespeare BASH’d, Karen Kohlhaas, Atlantic Acting School, Canada’s National Voice Institute, and the Soulpepper City Youth Academy. With a strong background in dance, Emma has performed and competed internationally as an Irish dancer at world-championship level. Selected theatre credits include: Sister James (Doubt, BNE Theatre), Cassia (Fatal Charade, Elkabong Theatre Projects), Northumberland (Richard II, Theatre Foolscap), Olivia de Havilland (Joan & Olivia: A Hollywood Ghost Story, Ebb & Flow Theatre), Lily Wilson (Janet Wilson Meets the Queen, The Disruptors), Cunégonde (Candide, GBTS), Heavenly Critchfield (Spring Storm, Atlantic Acting School). Selected film and TV credits include: Matlock (CBS), A Higher Loyalty (CBS), Search for My Daughter (CME), The Boys (Amazon). Emma is thrilled to be joining this company of knowledgeable and passionate artists, and exploring this gem of the Restoration!

Julia Nish-Lapdius - The Merchant of Venice

Julia Nish-Lapidus is a director, actor, and producer, as well as a Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Toronto’s Shakespeare BASH'd (Best Site Specific Theatre Company, NOW Magazine Readers’ Choice 2018, 2019). She is also the Co-Artistic Director of the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival in Prescott, ON.

She was a member of the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Directing in, acting as the Assistant Director on Private Lives and Associate Director on All's Well That Ends Well, and as co-facilitator of the WordPlay series in the Forum. In the Festival's 2021 season she was Co-Director and Co-Curator of Play On! A Shakespeare-Inspired Mixtape.

For Shakespeare BASH'd, Julia has directed Cymbeline, Richard III, The Comedy of Errors, and the staged reading of The Duchess of Malfi. She has also performed in many BASH'd productions, including A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, and Volpone (staged reading).

Selected Additional Credits: Romeo and Juliet (George Brown); She Stoops to Conquer, Play On! (St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival); Romeo and Juliet (YES/STC); The Duchess of Malfi, The Revenger’s Tragedy (Co-Director, Toronto Metropolitan University); The Tom & Gertie Letters Project (Co-Director, SpringWorks), Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen, This Property is Condemned (Director, The Playwright Project), Modern Love (Co-Creator, Next Stage), As You Like It (Text Coach, Theatre By the Bay), Titus Andronicus (Text Coach, Hart House), and as an actor OVER, See Bob Run (Theatre Caravel), reasons to the pretty (The Labute Cycle), The Forest (Red One Theatre Collective), Dublin Carol (Fly on the Wall).
Julia is a graduate of the joint acting program at UofT and Sheridan College.

Keshia Palm - The Spanish Tragedy

Keshia Palm (they/them) is a storyteller seeking to spark connection and conversation through live, shared experiences in thoughtful and inclusive art/spaces — as Actor, Director, Dramaturge, Producer and Playwright, depending on the day. They have developed and performed new works from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland, and are particularly interested in developing queer-feminist work in collaborative, joyful spaces. You would have seen them last on stage as Anya in The Cherry Orchard (Modern Times Stage Company), Wen’s Understudy in The Year of the Cello (Theatre Passe Muraille + Music Picnic), or giving a preshow speech for the Paprika Festival, where they played Artistic Producer for 3 seasons. They spend a lot of time on zoom supporting emerging playwrights — as a freelance dramaturge, and as the Interim Program Director of Nightwood Theatre’s Write from the Hip. Productions they recently helped get onstage from offstage include dramaturging WHITE MUSCLE DADDY by Raf Antonio (Buddies in Bad Times Theatre + Pencil Kit Productions), directing Radium Girls (York University), and SEPH (RISERx Why Not Theatre + Toronto Metropolitan University). @keshiapalm // keshiapalm.com

Lesley Robertson - The Man of Mode

Lesley Robertson is an actor and comedian based in Kitchener. As an actor, Lesley has enjoyed playing a wide range of Shakespearean roles including King John, Feste, Pompey, Touchstone (Shakespeare BASH’d), Dogberry, Cordelia, the Nurse (Hart House), and Julia in Two Gents (Shakespeare in the Ruff). As a comedian, Lesley developed and performed her first solo sketch show "Birdie" at the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival in 2023. She also co-created and performed musical sketch comedy shows for the Toronto Fringe Festival (won Patron's Pick in 2017), and the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival in 2018, 2019, and 2020. She is a graduate of George Brown's theatre school and The Second City Conservatory.

Cameron Scott - The Merchant of Venice

Cameron Scott is a Toronto-based actor and singer, born and raised in Port Perry, ON. Cameron is a 2024 graduate of Randolph College for the Performing Arts, where she performed in productions of 12 Angry Jurors and Crazy For You. Most recently, Cameron has worked with Smile Theatre, as a member of their Fall Serenades. Cameron has also Vocal Directed for Vocally Inspired Performers, a youth theatre group in Uxbridge, ON, and spends time as a princess with Enchanted Princess Parties. Cameron is thrilled to be joining the cast of The Merchant of Venice and beyond grateful to be making her BASH’d debut!

Deivan Steele - The Man of Mode

Deivan Steele is a Dora award-winning actor, writer, and director born and raised in Halifax. Past work with Shakespeare BASH’d: King Lear, and readings of Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Knight of the Burning Pestle. His other work has taken him to theatres including: Manitoba Theatre for Young People (Narnia); Tarragon (Behind the Moon); YES Theatre (Romeo & Juliet); Neptune (When Two Stars Collide); Theatre Direct & Eastern Front Theatre (The Assembly); St Lawrence Shakespeare (Tempest, She Stoops to Conquer); Shakespeare by the Sea (Hamlet, Henry V, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Cinderelly, Wizard of Oz); Crossroads Theatre (3Tempests, Romeo and Juliet and Action); Unwrap Theatre (rihannaboi95); Villains Theatre (Knight of the Bat) Outside the March (Rainbow on Mars, programsound); and Driftwood (Froxeaglousey), as well as projects in Ireland, Czechia, and South Africa

John Wamsley - The Man of Mode

John Wamsley is of Anishinaabe-Ojibwe and British descent, and a member of the Alderville First Nation. He is an actor, dancer and theatre creator. Theatre credits include: Jean Delorme in 1939 (Canadian Stage/Belfry Theatre),Richard II, Grand Magic, Love's Labour's Lost, 1939 (Stratford Festival); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare BASH'd); Timothy Findley's The Wars (Grand Theatre); The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (Hart House Theatre); The Importance of Being Earnest (Theatre Erindale). Other credits include: Doomlands (Roku), Save the Date (Watersign Productions); Revenge of the Black Best Friend (CBC Gem). John is a graduate of the Theatre and Drama Studies Program at the University of Toronto Mississauga and Sheridan College. For more: www.johnwamsley.ca

Kiana Woo - The Spanish Tragedy

Kiana Woo (she/her) is a Dora Award winning Chinese-Canadian actor, mover and creator with a special love for clown, physical theatre, and classical works. She attained her BFA in Acting from the University of Alberta and has since worked across Canada, spending time in Edmonton, Calgary and Toronto. Previously, Kiana was a member of the Soulpepper Academy and a member of the acting ensemble for the Shaw Festival. Some of Kiana’s creation works include her long-form clown solo, Inga and the Date and Hello Chinese, an exploration of mixed-race identity through the lens of mahjong, which is currently in development. Up next, you can catch Kiana acting in French in Les Zinspiré·e·s : le nombre sublime for Théâtre français de Toronto. She is thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the amazing team at Shakespeare BASH'd again. Love to Alex, the most supportive partner, who inspires Kiana daily.
Selected credits include: Insert Clown Here (Parlous Theatre), Prince Caspian, The Playboy of the Western World, A Christmas Carol (Shaw Festival), King Lear, Peggy Picket Sees the Face of God (Soulpepper Theatre), The Fiancée (Citadel Theatre), Alice in Wonderland (Guild Festival Theatre), Cymbeline (Shakespeare BASH’d), E-Day (Serial Collective/Theatre Network), That’s Danger! (Alberta Workers Health Centre), The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Theatre Calgary/Shakespeare by the Bow), Doll House, The Lower Depths, and The School for Scandal (Studio Theatre).

Arielle Zamora - The Merchant of Venice

Arielle Zamora (she/her) is a queer, Jewish performing artist, theatre maker, educator, and prospector of language. She is buzzing with gratitude to be making her Shakespeare BASH’d debut. Selected credits: Capulet & Friar John in the Dora Award-winning ensemble of Romeo and Juliet. And Action. (Shakespeare in Action), Keeper in Worry Warts (Convergence Theatre/SummerWorks), Odysseus in The Penelopiad (Hart House), Exeter in Henry V (The Edge Productions). Arielle is an Education Associate at the Stratford Festival and sends endless thanks to Sweet Action Theatre Company for providing a place to fail gloriously.