JULIE MARTELL (Eve)

This is Julie’s first Fringe experience and she is very pleased to be sharing it with such a talented group and to be working on this new project. Last season she made her Shaw Festival debut playing the title role in the musical Gypsy and Sister Jane in the remount of Happy End. She was also the recipient of the Tony Van Bridge Award which is presented to the most outstanding new company member. Before settling into the town of endless fudge factories she called Manhattan home; there she made her Broadway debut in the Sam Mendes revival of Gypsy – where she understudied the role of Gypsy Rose Lee and had the pleasure of calling Bernadette Peters her mother on many occasions (pinch me). From there she moved to the pre-Broadway workshop of the Beach Boys musical Good Vibrations singing the songs of Brian Wilson for Brian Wilson (pinch me again). Before NYC she lived in Toronto where she played Sophie in Mamma Mia opposite Camilla Scott (1^st company). Other favourite credits include Grease (Marty), Stage West; St. George (Kezia), New York Music Theatre Workshop; You Can’t Take It With You (Essie), Animation; Odd Job Jack, Comedy Network; Broadway Cares – Carols for a Cure 2003-2004; Grammy-winning recording of Gypsy. Julie was born and raised in Cape Breton and is a proud graduate of the University of Windsor.

MARK ALLAN (Adam)

Mark is excited to be a part of this years Fringe!  Welcome to the Garden everyone!!  Pull up a rock, stump, or a soft spot of grass...and enjoy the show! Ummm...don't eat the apples, I think these ones are a little off.  Mark grew up in Ottawa listening to his father preach on Sundays in the local church.  Well... he pretended to…  mostly he read the Archie digests he kept hidden in his bible.  If Sunday School was more like this, he might have paid closer attention!! Maybe.  Past Credits include: Forever Plaid (Stage West), Sound of Music (Theatre Aquarius), Fiddler on the Roof (Drayton Ent.), Three Penny Opera (Persephone Theatre), Don't Tell Mama (Tallulah's), Vampire Lesbians of Sodom (Tallulah's), Tent Meeting (Station Arts), Pelagie (CanStage), Anything Goes (Reprise),The Wizard of Oz (Ont.Tour), Oedipuss n' Boots (Actors Lab), The Mousetrap (Toronto Truck), Girl Crazy (Smile Theatre) and George Dandin & the Sicilian (Persephone).  Thanks for coming! Don't trip on that snake on yer way out!

ROBERT LAUGHTON (Lucifer)

When Robert first found out he was going to be playing Lucifer this summer, a friend commented “That's type casting for ya.”  This however, could not be further from the truth!  Could such a person spend two summers with The Charlottetown Festival playing a child of Avonlea?  Sure he worked on Dracula, but he was one of the good guys. Robert also had the chance to play Charlie Brown's good buddy Schroeder and The Secret Garden's Dickon in his home town of Victoria.  A graduate of The Canadian College of Performing Arts, Robert is thrilled to be taking part in his second Fringe Festival.  Anyone for an apple?

BRETT MCCAIG (The Voice of God)

Brett finds himself typecast once again...as the voice of God.  Born and raised on a Buffalo farm, he naturally went on to study Music Theatre at both the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York, and the University of Windsor.  Escaping the Great White North, he wisely spent 3 winters in Miami playing ‘The Beast’ in Beauty and the Beast, and ‘Hysterium’ in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.  Brett most recently stepped back into his Tartan Tuxedo to reprise his role as ‘Smudge’ in Forever Plaid.  He has also been seen lately playing ‘The King’ himself in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Vince Fontaine in Grease both for Stage West. Before that he was playing Off-Broadway in the smash hit Top Gun! The Musical.  Some of his favourite roles include:  ‘Jerry Allison’ (the Cricket’s drummer) in The Buddy Holly Story, Nick in The Last Resort, and just about everybody in The Complete Works of Shakespeare.  To date though, his most artistic challenge has been playing a singing Cow in Jack’s Giant Adventure.  A comedian, a musician and an all round nice guy, he co-wrote 2004’s Fringe hit Waiting for Trudeau: The Return of the King with his lovely and talented wife, performer, composer and playwright Racheal McCaig.  They have two children, Molly and Fergus, and spend waaay too much time watching Dora the Explorer.

ALLISON MCWOOD (Writer)

Allison is a full-time playwright and librettist who takes a particular interest in farce and satire.  Allison holds an honours degree in English Literature from York University with a specialization in Renaissance Drama.  She also studied Playwriting and Dramaturgy through York's Department of Theatre.  Allison completed her honours thesis on the subject of Playwriting under the supervision of Professor Derek Cohen.  Aside from her theatre studies, Allison also holds a diploma from the Institute of Children's Literature.  Selected playwriting credits include Understudying Wilk Scheissenberger (Planet Productions and Theatre Brantford); Margo the Nut Lady (Resurgence Theatre Company); The Lyfsux Theatre (Theatre in the Raw and A Monk Walks By Productions); Bentley Burnout (Between Shifts Theatre); Auntie Francis and Her Henchmen (New Ideas Festival); Bless Me Father, For I Have Sneezed (Cabbagetown Theatre, Slaw Festival); Sludge (Theatre Hybrid); Death of a Vacuum Cleaner Salesman (Cinnebar Productions); and Be Kind To Mimes (New Ideas Festival).  You can also catch Allison's play It Was Kit: The TRUE Story of Christopher Marlowe at this year's Toronto Fringe Festival and Be Kind To Mimes at the Hamilton Fringe this August.  Allison has also written an anti-racism book for children called Scribble Guys which was endorsed by the ERACE Foundation and featured at the 2005 Martin Luther King Day Celebration in Tennessee. For more info, visit www.allisonmcwood.com.

MARK SELBY (Composer)

Mark is making his stage composing debut with this production.  For the Toronto theatre scene, he has previously acted as Musical Director for Michael Rubinoff's Cityscapes Cabaret series, and as Associate Musical Director for productions of Evita, Side By Side By Sondheim, and Free To Be … You and Me.  He is also a sometime musical improviser and a frequent cocktail pianist for parties, benefits, and private functions across the city.  For television, Mark is currently the Production Coordinator for CBC's Royal Canadian Air Farce and the Audience Coordinator for the CTV-Comedy Network sketch series Comedy Inc.  A graduate of the Cinema Studies program at the University of Toronto, Mark directed an acclaimed UC Follies production of The Music Man at Hart House Theatre and performed in Fiddler on the Roof (Motel) and West Side Story (A-rab; also co-producer).  He has written a history of the controversial CBC late-night comedy Nightcap (1963-67), and hopes to one day have it published.  He also misses his Tiny Dancer.

GEOFFREY WHYNOT (Director)

On the fringe stage last summer with Welcome to Vaudeville, Geoff is back this year to direct Welcome to Eden. Sense a theme? Other festival credits include Relatively Speaking (Director, Fringe of Toronto), Shaky Grounds (Actor, Atlantic Fringe), and Unpossible Elevator and Shaky Grounds (Actor, SummerWorks). Other directing credits include Over the River and Through the Woods, Loud 'n' Queer, and assisting on Twelfth Night (Globe, Regina), Forever Plaid, Nunsense A-Men, and Pirates of Penzance (Weathervane Playhouse, Ohio), and Not in this Lifetime, Jean Harlow and Will he - nill He (Shaking Ground Productions, Toronto). Geoff's worked at the Stratford (Pirates of Penzance, Gondoliers, The Boyfriend, Alice Through the Looking Glass), Shaw (The Silver King) and Charlottetown (Gilbert in Anne of Green Gables ) Festivals, recently played Seymour in Little Shop of Horrors (STC), and is heading to cottage country for the summer to play a celestial contractor – another theme! Here's your chance to be a benevolent god – sign your organ donor card!

JULIA VANDERGRAAF (Lighting Designer)

Julia is a lighting designer based in Toronto.  She has designed for companies such as The Shaw Festival, The Charlottetown Festival, Neptune Theatre, Theatre New Brunswick, The Atlantic Ballet Theatre, Talk Is Free Theatre, Theatre Direct, George Brown College, Bard on the Beach, Uncle Randy Productions, Theatre Under the Stars, and Dance Arts Vancouver.  She has also enjoyed being an assistant lighting designer for Vancouver Opera and The Shaw Festival, and the lighting director for Ballet B.C. and Kaeja d’Dance.

DERRICK CHUA (Producer)

Derrick is an entertainment lawyer and an award-winning independent film and theatre producer.  Recent theatre credits include BoyGroove (Diesel Playhouse) The Arab-Israeli Cookbook (Berkeley Street Theatre); Family Stories: Belgrade (Harbourfront Studio Theatre); Lust’s Labour’s Lost: A Rock Musical (Toronto Fringe); the Dora Award winning Little Dragon (Theatre Passe Muraille); the Dora Award winning Poochwater (Theatre Passe Muraille); Matt and Ben (Poor Alex Theatre); the Dora-nominated Top Gun! The Musical both in New York City (off-Broadway, 47th Street Theatre) and in Toronto (Factory Theatre); This Is Our Youth directed by Woody Harrelson (Berkeley Street Theatre); Sleepless: A New Musical (Toronto Fringe); the Dora-nominated The Laramie Project (Artword Theatre and Buddies in Bad Times Theatre); the Dora-nominated (nod) written by Rick Roberts (Factory Theatre); the SummerWorks Award-winning idiot; the Dora-nominated Miss Orient(ed) (Factory Studio); the Dora-nominated The Teenage Girl Diaries (Factory Studio); and the Dora-nominated Snappy Tales (Factory Studio).  Derrick has been profiled in The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, The Lawyers Weekly, Now Magazine and eye Weekly.  He is currently President of the Toronto Fringe Festival, past-President of the Toronto Theatre Alliance, and sits on the Boards of Cahoots Theatre Projects and Shakespearience. 

He can be contacted at (905) 707-0090 or at dchua@pathcom.com.

MICHAEL HALTRECHT (Stage Manager; Webmaster)

Michael is delighted to be making his Fringe Festival debut with such a talented and merry group of sinners. At the University of Waterloo he studied Psychology and Drama during short breaks from stage managing, production managing, technical directing, and operating sound, lights, and special effects. He has returned to the theatre world having enjoyed a hiatus as The Computer Geek. Recent credits include Hair for CanStage (apprentice stage manager); Storm Warning (stage manager) for Out of the Norm; Gypsy, Journey's End, and Pasque Flower for The Shaw Festival (apprentice stage manager); The Laramie Project for Studio 180 (stage manager); Unbecoming for Summerworks (stage manager); and La Fille du Regiment, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Otello for Opera Ontario (apprentice stage manager); Toronto, Dubai, Sundance, and HotDocs Film Festivals. Also on his plate is developing software for stage managers. standbygo@computergeek.ca