JO WALTON

(Writer)

Jo Walton is a fantasy and science fiction writer. She has published fifteen novels, most recently Or What You Will (2020). She has also published four poetry collections, two essay collections, with a third coming in 2023, and a short story collection.

Jo won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2002, the World Fantasy Award for Tooth and Claw in 2004, the Hugo and Nebula awards for Among Others in 2012, and in 2014 both the Tiptree Award for My Real Children and the Locus Non-Fiction award for What Makes This Book So Great. Her poem Nidhog won the Canadian Aurora Award in 2021, and Or What You Will won the Mythopoeic Award in 2022.

Jo’s first three novels, The King’s Peace, The King’s Name, and The Prize in the Game (2000-2002), were fantasies set in the same world, based on Arthurian Britain and the Táin Bó Cúailnge’s Ireland.  She comes from Wales but has made her home in Montréal since 2002. Heart’s Home is her first play to be professionally produced.

LAURIE STEVEN

Laurie is an award-winning director, writer, dramaturge, and the founding Artistic Director of Odyssey Theatre.

Laurie’s productions of over 30 original plays and adaptations of classics have incorporated masks, puppets, dance, bouffon, and Commedia dell’Arte. She has pioneered collaborations with artists practicing international forms of masked theatre including Peking Opera, Kathakali and Wayang Wong. These collaborations led to productions including The Wedding, for which she received a Capital Critics Best Director Award. Her original plays include the Commedia farce, Moonlight Mischief, the epic, Kamalay, and the social satire, A Guy Named Joe. She is currently writing The Blue Demon for a co-production with the Sri Lankan State Dance Company and an adaptation of the folktale The Handless Maiden.

In 2017, Laurie received a Chalmers Arts Fellowship to further explore folklore-inspired theatre. In 2020, she launched Odyssey’s Digital Theatre program.

WILLIAM BEDDOE

(Anoon)

William Beddoe is an Ottawa actor, who has performed in several Odyssey Theatre productions: The Bonds of Interest, The Things We Do For Love, The Illusion and False Confessions. He was heard in the podcast play Strata, Inc.(Undercurrents) and, pre-COVID, appeared in 2084 and as Dr. Faustus in #faustus (Plan B Productions); Lysistrata and Othello (Theatre Kraken); Cymbeline (Bear & Co.); The Home Show (Evolution Theatre); and Novel House (Black Sheep Theatre). He recently returned to live theatre, directing Plan B’s The Proposal & The Ring. William is an Artistic Associate of Plan B Productions.

ANURAG CHOUDHURY

(Paul)

Anurag Choudhury is a multidisciplinary performer residing in Toronto. His stage credits include Leandro in The Bonds of Interest (Odyssey Theatre), Jidu in Blissful State of Surrender (Great Canadian Theatre Company), Dancer/Chorus in Otello (Canadian Opera Company), Will/Banksy in Becoming Banksy (Redwood Theatre), Borachio/Friar in Much Ado About Nothing (Repercussion Theatre), and Calchas/Menelaus in Troilus and Cressida (Théâtre Sans Argent). He was a nominee for the 2017 Montreal English Theatre Award for Outstanding Emerging Artist. He has also appeared in films, such as The Fall of the American Empire, directed by Denys Arcand. He completed his theatre training at McGill University.

ERIN ELDERSHAW

(Kigva)

Erin Eldershaw is an Ottawa-native actor, dancer, and fight choreographer currently residing in Toronto. Her previous credits include: Silvia in The Bonds of Interest (Odyssey Theatre), Laertes/Player King in Hamlet(s) (Skipping Stones Theatre), Verges in Much Ado About Nothing (Dauntless City Theatre), Beatrice-Joanna in The Changeling (Shakespeare BASH’d), Julius Caesar Project (Spur Of The Moment Shakespeare). She has also had roles in television episodes of Murdoch Mysteries, Nurses, Reign, Baroness Von Sketch Show, and All For One, along with co-starring in the short film The Witness Box.

ALIX SIDERIS

(Rhiannon)

Alix is a professional actor, intimacy director, movement director, theatre creator, and educator. Some recent performance credits include Room (Mirvish Productions/understudy); The Cherry Orchard (Modern Times Theatre); Pride and Prejudice (Theatre Calgary/National Arts Centre); Metamorphoses (NAC); and, Like Wolves (GCTC). Alix was a resident actor in the National Arts Centre’s English Theatre Ensemble in their 2012/13 season. For Odyssey Theatre, Alix has performed in: The Fan, A Curious Mishap, Bungsu and the Big Snake, Scaping, The Wedding, The Illusion, and The Raven.

Selected Intimacy and Movement Direction credits include Hamlet (Stratford Festival); Sin and Sorrow are Common to All (Talk is Free Theatre); Salome Learns to Dance (Hawkeye Pictures); Dominatrix on Trial (Windsor Feminist Theatre); Pomegranate (Buddies in Bad Times); The Monkiest King (Movement Direction, CCOC/TCPA).  Her short film, chemography: a study in light debuts on CBC Gem this August.  alixsideris.com

BRUCE SPINNEY

(Mannie and Series Host)

Bruce was raised in the Ottawa area and received his theatre training at Bishop’s University. He has appeared onstage for Odyssey Theatre in The Mandrake, Turandot, and The Bonds of Interest, and in Lazzi Lazzi’s The Audition.   He is thrilled to be voicing Mannie in Heart’s Home and to have the privilege of hosting the series. He has acted with several companies, including the Great Canadian Theatre Company’s critically-acclaimed production of Angel Square.

JANET IRWIN

(Co-dramaturge and Features Producer)

Janet Irwin is an award-winning theatre director, playwright, and dramaturge. She is a recipient of the prestigious Victor Tolgesy Award for her outstanding contribution to the arts in Ottawa. She has written plays for the Great Canadian Theatre Company, Upper Canada Playhouse and the National Arts Centre. Her connection with Odyssey goes back many years. She has been a playwright in residence, during which she wrote They All Do It, produced in 2010.  She has also directed The Barber of Seville and was dramaturge for Lysistrata and the Temple of Gaia and The Game of Love and Chance. In 2012, she was Acting Artistic Director.  Janet is a dramaturge in Odyssey’s New Play program.

VENESSA LACHANCE

(Music Supervisor and Editor)

Venessa Lachance hails from a small French community in Northern Ontario and launched her musical career in Ottawa, where she has worked as the music director for several theatre productions. Among these are Turcaret and The Financier (Odyssey Theatre), Prosodie in Le promenoir (NAC’s Théâtre français), La fille d’argile and Le long de la principale (Théâtre la Catapulte), and On verra (Théâtre du Trillium). Venessa composed for Théâtre Tremplin for six years. She was nominated for a Rideau Award in 2015 in the Emerging Artist of the Year category and for a Trille Or Award in the Discovery of the Year category (2015). In addition to theatre work, Venessa runs Lachance Music School and teaches music to children from under-served communities as the director of Orkidstra’s KiddlyWinks program.

DAMIAN KEARNS

(Supervising Sound Designer)

Damian Kearns is a sound recordist, editor, mixer, and designer with over 27 years of experience. A graduate of the Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Technology (OIART), Damian spent his early years working for Canada’s top post-production facilities before landing a job as Post-Production Audio Engineer with CBC Toronto. After spending more than a decade and a half working for the national broadcaster, Damian left to build a successful home studio, specializing in post-production audio recording, editing, design, and mixing. For the past 9 years, his studio, 217 Audio, has serviced a wide variety of creative clients.