Happy Birthday Rabbit April Happy Birthday Rabbit April Old Fashioned

Jocelyn Adema (Assistant Director and Playwright)

Jocelyn Adema is an honor winning actor, creator and manager, and is the Intern Artistic Director with Carousel Players in their 50th Anniversary flavor.  Contempo artistic projects include co-adapting and banana directing The Velveteen Rabbit for Carousel Players; creating the interactive sidewalk run a risk Sidewalk Stories  in downtown St. Catharines, and developing a remote-creation experiment with Lost Mail Collective.  Her directing credits include Eastward of Berlin with Essential Commonage Theatre, Molly Zoom with NAC's #CanadaPerforms, Molly Bloom and PIPPI: The Strongest Girl with Gorgon Theatre.  As an actor, Jocelyn has originated roles for multiple new Canadian theatre productions, and performed with companies like Bad Hats Theatre, Soulpepper Theatre, Theatre Directly, Essential Collective Theatre, and Manitoba Immature People'southward Theatre.  Jocelyn is a candidate for a BA with a major in Geography, and is a graduate of George Chocolate-brown College's Performing Arts program.  She lives and works between Montreal, Toronto, and Regina, SK.

Sara Allison (Stage Director)

Sara Allison (Stage Managing director) is a local St. Catharines Stage Director and Scenic Creative person, and currently the Production Phase Managing director at Carousel Players. The Velveteen Rabbit is Sara's 9th production with Carousel Players! Other credits for Carousel Players include; Popular! Pop!, Meet Chloe, Mask Minis, HBD2Me, Lig & Bittle, Water Wonder, Whole Globe, Hare & Tortoise. Contempo credits elsewhere: This Is How We Got Here (Native Earth Performing Arts @ The Shaw Festival), Erstwhile Love, Lunenburg, Fair & Square (Lighthouse/ Showboat Festival Theatre), Due east of Berlin (Essential Commonage Theatre), Fair & Square (Bluewater Summer Playhouse), Becoming Dr. Ruth (Harold Green Jewish Theatre Co.), Bad Jews (The Segal Centre/Harold Greenish Jewish Theatre Company), Master Harold and the Boys (Obsidian Theatre Company) Dracula, Chitra (Director'south Project), Me and My Daughter (Shaw Festival). Thank you lot to all my family and friends who keep to encourage me while I fulfill my theatre dreams.

Monica Dufault (Managing director)

Monica Dufault has been Artistic Director of Carousel Players since January 2018. Previously she performed with The Shaw Festival, The National Arts Centre, Theatre Aquarius, Royal Manitoba Theatre Eye and other companies across Canada. Shehas acted in many plays for young audiences and was nominated for a Dora Award for her performance in Where the Wild Things Are. Monica was the Artistic Manager of Essential Commonage Theatre from 2014 to 2018, where she directed twelve productions. For Carousel Players, she has created alive and digital productions, including Tomson Highway'due south The Incredible Adventures of Mary Jane Mosquito, whichtoured to Vancouver and Saskatoon in 2019. Ms. Dufault was selected equally the Canadian delegate to the 2019 ASSITEJ Germany Directors in TYA Briefing in Berlin, and is now a member of the board of ASSITEJ Canada. She holds a BA in Theatre, MA in Comparative Literatures and Arts, and is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada. Monica is thrilled to be directing this vibrant new accommodation of The Velveteen Rabbit with this fabulous grouping of artists.

Rachel Forbes (Fix Designer)

Rachel is an award-winning ready and costume designer creating for theatre, dance and pic. Her work has been seen across the country on stages including at the Shaw Festival, Buddies in Bad Times, Neptune Theatre, YPT, Centaur Theatre and many more than. Rachel is on the lath of directors of the Associated Designers of Canada. She is especially interested in the development of new works, interdisciplinary explorations and integrating pattern into the text cosmos process. She received a Dora Mavor Moore award for costume blueprint for The Brothers Size (Soulpepper 2019) and a Merrit Award for set up design for The Bridge (2B/Neptune 2019).

Aisha Jarvis (Performer)

Aisha is a Toronto born and raised singer, dancer, and thespian and graduate of Sheridan College's Bachelor of Music Theatre Plan. Her career has taken her through many parts of Canada and internationally working in theatre, in television set/motion-picture show, and as a backup singer. Her select theatre credits include 'Velma Kelly' in Chicago, 'Silly Girl/Enchantress' in Dazzler & The Animal (World Theatre); 'Bird Woman' in Mary Poppins (Young People's Theatre); 'Jan' in Grease (Irregular Amusement); Fundamental Change (Earth Theatre); 'Dom' in The Law of Gravity (Youtheatre); 'Prissy' in Anne of Green Gables, 'Lisa' in Mamma Mia (Charlottetown Festival); 'Snow White' in Snow White (Solar Phase); 'Annette' in Brantwood, 'Vanessa' in In The Heights, 'Sonia/Aisha' in Godspell (Theatre Sheridan). Select Film/TV credits include ET Canada (CTV), Private Eyes (Global Tv set) and an upcoming prove on Apple TV. Final fall, she too toured in Europe with the band Samantha Martin & Delta Carbohydrate as a backup vocaliser and is office of the development of a new trip the light fantastic musical with Monster Collective! Instagram: @aishaljarvis

Raha Javanfar (Music Director)

 A musician, lighting/projections designer, theatre performer, and educator, Raha is a multi-faceted creative person, born in Iran and raised in Toronto. She is the bassist/front-woman of Maple Blues Laurels nominee, Bad Luck Woman & Her Misfortunes. A classically trained violinist with a passion for roots music, Raha has played with such notable artists equally Stars, Peter Katz, Tom Wilson, Protest the Hero, and Daniel Romano. She was recently featured in Musical Stage Visitor's kickoff virtual concert, Uncovered, and is currently a Slaight resident creative person at Soulpepper. She was a featured performer at the 2019 Women's Dejection Revue at Roy Thomson Hall, and hosted the Maple Blues Awards at Koerner Hall in 2020. Raha was one of 6 co-creators of Dora-nominated and published play, Now You lot See Her. She was a cast fellow member of the world premier of Rose: A Musical at Soulpepper, and has toured globally with Toronto Baroque orchestra, Tafelmusik, for over a decade as projections designer. Her lighting design credits include Brothers Size (Soulpepper; Dora nomination), Trout Stanley (Factory Theatre) amongst others.

Lena Maripuu (Performer & Playwright)

Lena is a Dora Honor winning Toronto actor / theatre creator / artist-educator. She loves commonage creation and adapting classic stories. In add-on to The Velveteen Rabbit, she is a co-writer for Pippi: The Strongest Daughter In the World (Gorgon Theatre) and a co-writer / composer for MOBY: A Whale of a Tale (Pirate Life & Gorgon Theatre) in which she also played the office of Starbuck. Her other acting credits include: Wendy (Peter Pan, Soulpepper Theatre & Bad Hats Theatre); Molly ( Molly Bloom,  Gorgon Theatre) Shelley ( Moving On, Toronto Fringe); Mrs. Practise (Scott & Will, Solar Stage); Mary Snowfall (Table salt Water Moon, Quarter Century Theatre.) Lena is as well a drama teacher, director and choreographer for youth programs throughout Toronto and St. Catharines. A huge thanks to Carousel Players for making The Velveteen Rabbit go Real!!

Kara Pankiw (Associate Set Designer)

Kara is an emerging gear up designer originally from Winnipeg, simply now calling Toronto abode. Her previous credits include, only are non limited to: This is How We Got Hither (NEPA), The Killing / The Madness of Lady Bright / The Seagulls (Shaw Festival), La Liste (Théâtre Cercle Molière), Awaken (Shakespeare in the Ruins/ Zone41), Bar Mitzvah Boy (WJT), After Jerusalem (WJT) . She has worked as an assistant at the Shaw Festival Theatre and Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre. She received her formal training in design from the Academy of Winnipeg, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Film (Scenic Design). Every bit well equally a Bachelor of Environmental Design (Compages) from the University of Manitoba.

Reanne Spitzer (Performer & Playwright)

Originally from Ottawa, Reanne now resides in Montreal after a decade of working in Toronto in the professional theatre industry. She has fabricated contributions to the Canadian theatre industry as an role player, choreographer, musician and author. In 2020 she pivoted to watching Netflix, Crave, Disney Plus and Amazon Prime. Afterwards a coincidental ii twelvemonth hiatus, she is thrilled to be making her return to live theatre with Carousel Players!

Annie Tuma (Performer & Playwright)

Annie Tuma is a Toronto based actor, author & creator. Originally from Minnesota, she has performed in shows in Minneapolis, San Francisco, Winnipeg and across southern Ontario. Some fav credits:Midsummer Night's Dream (Theatre Rusticle),Boeing Boeing (Magnus Theatre),Peter Pan (Bad Hats/Carousel Players) and the feature pictureFlee The Lite (Mythic Trips Amusement) where she stars as Andra.

Writing credits includeMOBY: A Whale of a Tale,PIPPI: The Strongest Girl in the World (Pirate Life & Gorgon Theatre) and of formThe Velveteen Rabbit.All of which she has contributed to by writing, songwriting and performing in. She is so extremely grateful to Carousel Players for making this piece come to life!

Ming Wong (Costume Designer)

CAROUSEL PLAYERS: Debut. ELSEWHERE:Is God Is, Canadian Stage/Obsidian/Necessary Angel;Pipeline, Soulpepper;Orphans for the Arbiter, Crow'due south Theatre;Hamlet 911,Stratford Festival;Trouble in Heed, Shaw Festival;Hansel und Gretel, Canadian Opera Visitor;Julius Caesar, Crow's Theatre/Groundling Theatre;Every Day She Rose, Nightwood Theatre;The Colour Purple, Citadel Theatre/RMTC;A Beautiful Man, Factory Theatre;Girls Like That, Tarragon Theatre;hang, Obsidian Theatre;Life After, Musical Stage/Canadian Stage;The Wedding Party, Crow'south Theatre/Talk Is Gratis; Rocking Equus caballus Winner, Tapestry Opera. DIGITAL:Alice in Winterland, Ross Piddling Productions; New Monuments, Luminato/Canadian Stage; Savitri, Against the Grain;Alice in Wonderland, Bad Hats Theatre/Soulpepper. UPCOMING: Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad  Zoo , Crow's Theatre; Things I Know to be True, Company Theatre/Mirvish). AWARDS: 2021 recipient of the Virginia & Myrtle Cooper Laurels. ONLINE: www.mingwongdesign.com

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