The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets is a self-billed "musical fable" in the avant-garde tradition created through the collaboration of theatre director Robert Wilson, musician Tom Waits and writer William S. Burroughs. Wilson, in the original production, was largely responsible for the design and direction. Burroughs wrote the book, while Waits wrote the music and most of the lyrics. The project began in about 1988 when Wilson approached Waits. The story is based on the German folktale "Der Freischütz", which had previously adapted as an opera by Carl Maria von Weber. It premiered at Hamburg's Thalia Theatre on 31 March 1990, and was performed at Paris's Théâtre du Châtelet on 9 October 1990. November Theatre produced its world English-language premiere in 1998 at the Edmonton International Fringe Festival in Canada. Det Norske Teatret in Oslo staged a Norwegian (Nynorsk) version in 1998, with Lasse Kolsrud as Pegleg. Only the dialogue was translated by the dramaturg and key collaborator of the entire creative process, Wolfgang Wiens; the songs were performed in English.
Brad Fraser is a Canadian playwright. He is one of the most widely produced Canadian playwrights both in Canada and internationally. His plays typically feature a harsh yet comical view of contemporary life in Canada, including frank depictions of sexuality, drug use and violence.
The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain (NYT) is a youth theatre and charity in London, created with the aim of developing young people's artistic skills via theatrical productions and other creative endeavours. Founded in 1956 as the world's first youth theatre, it has built a reputation for nurturing the early talent of actors such as Daniel Craig, Daniel Day-Lewis, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Colin Firth, Derek Jacobi, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane, Alfred Molina, Helen Mirren, Rosamund Pike, Kate Winslet and Daisy Edgar-Jones. Some former NYT members went on to pursue non-acting careers, such as musicians Sophie Ellis-Bextor and Ed Sheeran.
Bernard Irvine Nicholls is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre, who played over 1000 games in the National Hockey League (NHL). His junior career was spent with the Kingston Canadians, where he established himself as a dynamic scorer and a multi-faceted talent. He was selected by the Los Angeles Kings in the fourth round of the 1980 NHL Entry Draft, 73rd overall. Over his 17-year playing career, Nicholls played 1,127 games for the Los Angeles Kings, New York Rangers, Edmonton Oilers, New Jersey Devils, Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks, scoring 1,209 points. He is one of only eight players in NHL history to score 70 goals in one season, and one of six to score 150 points. However, he is one of eighteen eligible players with 1,000 points to not be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Nicholls was born in Haliburton, Ontario, but grew up in West Guilford, Ontario.
The Citadel Theatre is the major venue for theatre arts in the city of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, located in the city's downtown core on Churchill Square. It is the third largest regional theatre in Canada.
Mervyn Alexander Clifford Blake, was a Canadian stage actor.
The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre is a theatre located in Guildford, Surrey, England. Named after the actress Yvonne Arnaud, it presents a series of locally produced and national touring productions, including opera, ballet and pantomime. The theatre has two performance venues, the main auditorium and the smaller Mill Studio.
Jan Randall is a Canadian composer, singer songwriter and professional musician. He has had an extensive career composing sound tracks, performing original songs, and improvising music for comedy theatre.
Rapid Fire Theatre (RFT) is an improvisational theatre company based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Jonathan Lachlan Stewart is a Canadian actor and playwright.
Catalyst Theatre is a multi-award-winning theatre company based in Edmonton, Alberta. Founded in 1977 as a social action theatre, it was taken over by Artistic Co-Directors Jonathan Christenson and Joey Tremblay in 1996. Christenson and Tremblay drastically changed the company's mandate to focus on "creating original Canadian work that explores new possibilities for the theatrical art form and the process through which it is created, to exposing the work locally, nationally and internationally, and to challenging the artists and audiences who participate in the creation of that work.” Since 2002, Catalyst Theatre has been developing new work under the creative leadership of Artistic Director Jonathan Christenson in collaboration with Resident Designer Bretta Gerecke. Catalyst Theatre's artistic team has created original productions that have toured the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and the United States.
John Hudson is a Canadian theatre producer and director, and also a politician living in Edmonton, Alberta. He ran to represent the constituency of Edmonton-McClung for the Alberta Party in the 2012 Alberta general election and the 2015 Alberta general election.
She Has a Name is a play about human trafficking written by Andrew Kooman in 2009 as a single act and expanded to full length in 2010. It is about the trafficking of children into sexual slavery and was inspired by the deaths of 54 people in the Ranong human-trafficking incident. Kooman had previously published literature, but this was his first full-length play. The stage premiere of She Has a Name was directed by Stephen Waldschmidt in Calgary, Alberta in February 2011. From May to October 2012, She Has a Name toured across Canada. In conjunction with the tour, A Better World raised money to help women and children who had been trafficked in Thailand as part of the country's prostitution industry. The first performances of She Has a Name in the United States took place in Folsom, California in 2014 under the direction of Emma Eldridge, who was a 23-year-old college student at the time.
Norman Yeung is a Canadian actor, writer, filmmaker and artist.
James MacDonald is a Canadian theatre director, actor, and the artistic director of Western Canada Theatre. He was the first artistic director of Edmonton's FreeWill Shakespeare Festival(1997-2001). From 2006-2016, he was the associate artistic director of the Citadel Theatre.
Wendell Smith is a Canadian actor born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
Robert Kenneth Baker is a retired Canadian theatre director most known for his work as the artistic director of the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, Alberta, from 1998 to 2016.
Valerie Pearson is a Canadian actress from Calgary, Alberta. She is most noted for her performance in the 1991 film Solitaire, for which she received a Genie Award nomination for Best Actress at the 13th Genie Awards in 1992.
Guys in Disguise is an independent queer theatre company based in Edmonton, Alberta. It was founded in 1987 by Darrin Hagen and Kevin Hendricks when they took their first show, Delusions of Grandeur, to the Edmonton Fringe. Guys in Disguise is best known for comedic and drag-based shows and has been credited for "exposing the voices of the drag and queer community to a wider audience."
