'Tis Pity She's a Whore - Cast & Crew

'Tis Pity She's a Whore
Cast & Crew

Daniel Briere - BERGETTO / CARDINAL

Daniel is an Associate Artistic Director of Shakespeare BASH’d. His work has been seen at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre in Winnipeg, Watermark Theatre in PEI, over 3 seasons at the Stratford Festival, and he has performed Shakespeare in parks and bars all over. You may have just seen him as Cornwall in King Lear, and for Shakespeare Bash’d he has also played Iachomo in Cymbeline, Duke Senior/Ferdinand in As You Like It, Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night, and Polonius in Hamlet. Daniel is also an ambitious musician who plays many instruments, having just finished composing music for an action packed web series with ActionCAN Films called BRAWL*STARS. He’ll be helping to lead a number of upcoming workshops in the spring with Class BASH’d and Scansion BASH’d, so keep your eyes peeled!

Joshua Browne - DONADO

Josh somehow survived growing up a ballet dancer in small town Alberta and started acting in his teens while in high school (with director James Wallis) in Newmarket. He has been seen on many stages and screens over the past two decades, most recently in The Antipodes at Coal Mine Theatre. He is thrilled to be working with Bash'd again, and to chew on such juicy words. Josh has introduced dozens of people to D&D and the world of TTRPGs through his gaming company Dungeoneering Inc, which can be found at www.dungeoneeringinc.com. <3

Soykan Karayol - GRIMALDI

Soykan Karayol is thrilled to be making his debut with Shakespeare BASH’d and joining the company of ‘Tis Pity. He is currently a PhD student at the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies (CDTPS). He is a graduate of Sheridan College and the University of Toronto’s joint four-year acting program and holds an M.A. from CDTPS. Born and raised in Türkiye, his theatre training and practice spans across the two countries and since graduating, Soykan has been working as an actor, playwright, and translator based in Toronto. Soykan is passionate about theatre that critiques local and global oppression caused by the exploitative profit-based systems humanity has been forced to live in. He would like to congratulate the company for finally getting to share this work after three years.

Tim MacLean - FLORIO

Select Theatre: “Hamlet(s)” (Skipping Stones Theatre) “Break of Noon” (Triple ByPass Theatre), “Wake Up and Smell the Coffee” (LowDown Theatre Company), “Midsummer Night’s Dream” (Humber River Shakespeare), “Hamlet” (Shakespeare BASH’d), “Peter Pan” (Stage West) “Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding” (Second City)
Select TV: “The Boys” (Amazon Prime)
“See” (Apple+TV)
“Mrs. America” (FX),
“Killjoys” (Space),
“The Strain” (FX),
“The Listener” (CTV),
“Murdoch Mysteries” (CBC)
Etc: Tim is the co-Artistic Director of LowDown Theatre Company and a graduate of George Brown Theatre School.
Twitter: @thetruetmac
Instagram: @timkmaclean

Breanna Maloney - FRIAR

Breanna is an actor, writer and arts educator based in Toronto. She is thrilled to be making her BASH’d debut with this wonderful team. Breanna earned her MFA in Acting at East 15 School in the UK and is a graduate of the University of Windsor’s BFA in acting program. Recent theatre credits include Iphigenia in Splott (Toronto Fringe/Skipping Stones Theatre), Cooking for Grief (Vancouver Fringe/Alma Matter Productions), A Christmas Carol, Ether (White Mills Theatre Co.) and The Dutch Courtesan (Poculi Ludique Societas). A few of her favourite writing credits include Cooking for Grief, contributions to The Tank NYC Theatrical Productions and poetry contributions to The Nature Poetry and Environmental Zine, curated by Alley Biniarz (Windsor, ON). Upcoming: catch Breanna at the St. Lawrence Shakespeare Festival in Prescott, Ontario.

Kate Martin - ANNABELLA

Kate is Saskatchewan-born, Toronto-based. She was a part of Crane Creation Theatre's Summer Ensemble, has acted in workshop productions for Bad Fox Collective and Young People's Theatre, and was in the Dora-nominated ensemble of YPT's A Million Billion Pieces. Most recently, Kate assistant-directed for BASH'd's King Lear. Kate looks forward to finally letting this reading fly after three years of brain-percolation.

Julia Nish-Lapidus - CO-FACILITATOR

Julia is an actor, director, and producer, as well as a Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Shakespeare BASH'd. For Shakespeare BASH'd, Julia has directed Cymbeline, Richard III, The Comedy of Errors, and The Duchess of Malfi (staged reading). She has also performed in many BASH'd productions, including The Tragedy of King Lear, 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).
She was a member of the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Directing, 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 Mix-Tape.
Selected Additional Credits: 3Tempests (Shakespeare In Action), The Tom & Gertie Letters Project (Co-Director), Modern Love (Co-Creator, Canadian Stage), 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.

Rianna Persaud - VASQUES

Rianna Persaud is a creator and performer from Ottawa, with a decade of training in a
variety of vocal and theatrical styles. Most recently, she played Hortensia in Matilda the
Musical and led the Bell Media web series Teenage Fever.
Rianna is a recent graduate of Randolph College for the Performing Arts, where her love for
Shakespeare and his contemporaries began upon studying with James Wallis. During her
time in school, Rianna performed in The Government Inspector and She Loves Me, honing
her physical comedy. Prior to Randolph, she trained in classical and jazz singing, competing
internationally.
Since graduating, Rianna has devoted her time to her writing. She relishes any opportunity
to collaborate with other queer, BIPOC artists and hopes to amplify the voices of
marginalised communities with her work.

Lesley Robertson - POGGIO / PUTANA

Lesley Robertson is an actor and comedian based in Toronto. 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 is a part of the comedy band “The Diddlin’ Bibbles”, which won Patron’s Pick at the 2017 Toronto Fringe Festival, and then performed at the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival in 2018, 2019, and 2020. Lesley recently performed a solo sketch show, “Birdie”, at the Toronto Sketch Comedy Festival (March 2023).

Sienna Singh - HIPPOLITA / PHILOTIS

Sienna is an actor/director and a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University’s acting program. She has spent the last few years dedicated to her theatre collective Panoply, which she runs with two of her former classmates. The collective has produced multiple shows, including adaptations of Shakespeare, a punk version of The Bacchae, and a radio drama of Peter Pan. Select theatre credits include: Apprentice Director for Things I Know to be True (Company Theatre/Mirvish); Mass Exodus (BadFox Collective); LoveSick, Macbeth, and Romeo & Juliet (Panoply Collective); Portia’s Julius Caesar (Shakespeare in The Ruff). Select Film/Tv credits: Fingernails (Apple TV); Locke & Key (Netflix); Grand Army (Netflix). Upcoming: Directing A midsummer Night’s Dream (Panoply Collective).

Deivan Steele - GIOVANNI

Deivan Steele (he/him) is a South African-Canadian actor, director, musician, and writer. His work has brought him to theatres like Tarragon, Neptune, Theatre Direct, Shakespeare by the Sea, Outside the March, Eastern Front, Driftwood, Shakespeare in Action, Bad Hats, Unwrap, Next Stage, Springworks, and Prague Shakespeare Co. The barroom spirit of Shakespeare BASH’d is a (sort of) return to his roots; his first paid acting gig at the age of 15 was in a blues bar and involved feeding donuts to a man doing push-ups.

James Wallis - RICHARDETTO / CO-FACILITATOR

James has been a Shakespeare fan all his life, having performed with Resurgence Theatre Company as a teenager and again as a professional later in his career.
In 2010, James co-founded Shakespeare BASH’d with his wife, Julia. For the company, James has directed staged readings of Romeo and Juliet (2010), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2011), Edward II (2015), Volpone (2017), as well as the full productions of Romeo & Juliet, Love's Labour's Lost, Macbeth, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Twelfth Night, Othello, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and The Tragedy of King Lear. He played Petruchio in the company's Best of Fringe winning production of The Taming of the Shrew in 2012 and the remount in 2015, played Benedick in their sold-out production of Much Ado About Nothing in the 2013 Toronto Fringe, as well as the title roles in Hamlet and Richard III. James participated in the Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Directing at the Stratford Festival, assistant directing Macbeth, Bunny, and Romeo and Juliet, as well as Julius Caesar in 2018. He returned to Stratford in 2021 as Co-Director and Co-Curator of Play On! A Shakespeare-Inspired Mix-Tape.

Jeff Yung - SORANZO

Jeff Yung (he/him) is a Tkarón:to based actor, martial artist, and sometimes poet and ¼ of the Shakespeare in the Ruff artistic leadership collective. He is delighted to be working with BASH’d again. Recently Jeff appeared in the world premieres Prodigal (The Howland Company & Crow’s Theatre) and Trojan Girls (Outside the March & Factory Theatre). For BASH’d Jeff has appeared in Measure for Measure, Gorboduc, Twelfth Night, King John, and Romeo and Juliet. Other theatre work includes: Monday Nights (PuSh & LUMINATO & Theatre Centre), Vietgone (Royal MTC/fu-Gen) Banana Boys (Factory Theatre) and Antigone (YPT). Jeff hopes that you are having a great day.