Welcome to our New Board Members

Theatre Ontario is pleased to welcome the new members of our Board of Directors for 2011-2012 elected on May 21 at our Annual Meeting.

Dr. Barry Freeman is an Assistant Professor in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto—Scarborough whose research involves Canadian theatre, drama-in-education, and ethics and interculturalism. Barry is a regular contributor to national and international theatre journals and is the Executive Editor of Theatre Research in Canada, Canada’s only peer-reviewed theatre journal. Barry is a member of the Board of Directors of the Paprika Festival and has worked for Theatre Ontario in the past, as Summer Courses Youth Counsellor in 1999 and as Summer Courses Coordinator in 2000.

Emma Mackenzie Hillier is an emerging theatre artist, practitioner and administrator living in Toronto who originally hails from Niagara-on-the-Lake.  Since graduating the University of Windsor’s BFA—Acting program in 2008 she has been quite busy establishing herself as an actor. On the other side of the “table”, Emma has been quite busy assistant directing, her favourite credit so far has been in assisting Ted Dykstra on the acclaimed Soulpepper production of Jitters, however she has also traveled out of Toronto to St. Catharines to assist for Lyndesfarne Theatre Projects on both Shakespeare’s Villains and Sexy Laundry. She is also interning with Iris Turcott at Factory Theatre and spends part of her days working for STAF (Small Theatre Administration Facility) where she both writes grants and helps with publicity.

Ken Stephen grew up in Toronto and settled in Elliot Lake in 1978 to teach high school.  He became involved in the local Ptarmigan Players group as an actor, lighting operator, stage manager, director, and served on the Executive, and later joined the new Elliot Lake Amateur Theatre Ensemble (ELATE).  He was a delegate to the QUONTA Drama Region and served as President and Treasurer, and was Festival Chairman for three QUONTA Festivals held in Elliot Lake in 1999, 2004, and 2008.  The first of these was a co-production with the Elliot Lake Entertainment Series, a producing organization for which Ken held a board position for over 10 years.  For over 25 years he adjudicated semi-annual presentations of original one-act plays at ELSS.  In 2007 Ken received the Michael Spence 35th Anniversary Award from Theatre Ontario, upon the nomination of QUONTA, for “a sustained contribution to theatre in Ontario.”

Deb Sholdice spent “many happy years in my youth” as a volunteer usher at the Blyth Festival.  In 2000, she went with her son to a volunteer orientation session and became fixtures ever since, first as a member of the community company for all three productions of The Outdoor Donnellys and as a member of the Board of Directors. In 2007, the organization was searching for a General Manager and Deb was ultimately selected for the position.  Since that time, she has worked closely with many organizations and businesses to promote arts and culture in their rural region.

We will also be welcoming new appointees from QUONTA (northeastern Ontario) and Northwestern Ontario.