The Artists

Director and Producer

Playwright and Producer

Dramaturges

Production Crew

Performers and Musicians

Director and Producer

Andy Houston

Andy is the Views & Reviews Editor of the Canadian Theatre Review. In 2002, he and scenographer Kathleen Irwin started Knowhere Productions, a performance company that had its debut with a multi-disciplinary, site-specific performance in a disused wing of the Saskatchewan Mental Hospital at Weyburn, Saskatchewan, entitled The Weyburn Project. The company has since mounted several large-scale site-specific works, including Crossfiring / Mama Wetotan, a performance and installation which took place at the Claybank historical brick plant in southwestern Saskatchewan in August and September 2006 (see www.crossfiring2006.ca), and has been chronicled in Sighting/Citing/Siting, a publication just released by the Canadian Plains Research Centre (www.cpr.uregina.ca).

He has recently edited a collection of writings on environmental and site-specific theatre in Canada, published by Playwrights Canada Press, in their Critical Perspectives on Canadian Theatre in English series. Andy is a faculty member of the Department of Drama and Digital Arts at the University of Waterloo.

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Playwright and Producer

Lisa O'Connell

Lisa O'Connell is a Waterloo based playwright and the Artistic Director of Pat the Dog Playwright Development Centre.

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Production Crew

Jocelyne Sobeski

"There's a whole unknown world in EVERY person. Going through the chronicles of her life, so lovingly packed in the banker's box, brought so many mixed feelings. I felt like I was invading her privacy, but at the same time fascinated by her journey along so many different roads. I felt sad as well that her journey had come to an end. Her memories were so personal and yet so universal.

"A small town girl who believed in herself, and who followed her dreams. I am sure that she would be proud and flattered that you valued and honoured her life with this project. Somebody dishonoured her by discarding her life into a dumpster. You set things right. Because of your honouring her, she will live on in so many more hearts. Thanks for inviting me to be a part of your project."

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Scott Spidell

Scott is a local educator, actor, and designer. He didn’t know Edna, but visited many of the same places.

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Kaitlynn Ashley Tielemans

Kaitlynn Ashley Tielemans is grateful to be working on a show like Edna's Archive, which has broadened her horizons and shown her a different way of approaching theatre. Her credits include Stage Manager for As You Like It and Possible Worlds with Lost and Found Theatre, and also composer for Urban Bard Production's Twelfth Night.

"The way that I have connected to this piece is through the photographer. I am always watching the scene, but am never in the photograph."

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Mark Walton

SMark Walton is a Waterloo based photographer and bon-vivant. He enjoys the occasional glass of tomato juice but swears he has never been to the Esquire Café.

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Performers and Musicians

Rachel Barna

Rachel has just begun her fourth and final year as a drama major at the University of Waterloo. She has done theatre work with UW, KWMP, and what was Waterloo Stage Theatre. Love to family and friends for their continued, unconditional support.

"I was part of the dramaturgy class that began research on Edna in Fall 2009. At that point we knew barely anything about her. How her story has grown. I've come to connect to Edna in many ways as a performer, a person raised in KW, and as a woman. Truth is, she's a person like the rest of us. We probably won't have a production made of our lives, but that doesn't mean we're any less interesting. We have to remember that she went through all the same trials we do, and keep ourselves grounded when we think of her. I try to look at her the same way I would look at anyone else."

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Meghan Bunce

Meghan, a soprano soloist, makes her stage debut with Edna’s Archive , but has been engaged with theatre through music for many years. She is a recent graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University, Hon. BMus., Composition. Some incidental music credits include: University of Waterloo’s production of Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest (2009) and Lost and Found Theatre’s production of Twelfth Night (2007). Sorry!, a short vocal work, will be publically premiered by Kimberly Barber, Nadina Mackie-Jackson and the Penderecki String Quartet this month. Her choral composition is on-going.

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Elysia Cloet

Elysia Cloet is a UW student majoring in Drama and minoring in English and French. Elysia performed in the 2009 Woman's Upstart Festival as an anorexic, and most recently starred in The University of Waterloo's popular frosh hit, Single and Sexy. With her anorexic role and role as a sexually confident and dominating vixen, Elysia knows all about the different roads a woman can take.

"Connecting with the earlier periods of Edna's life, I see the life changing decisions Edna had to make, finding her choice to not have children most fascinating. Edna filled her life with vacations and pleasant memories, or so each album would suggest. But was something ever missing? I am curious and comforted by Edna's choices; her decisions are bold and brave. Holding onto Edna's story for my own personal guidance, I see the roads that lie ahead and feel more powerful than ever."

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Heather Hill

Heather pleased to be part of this project!
Currently, she works as a sessional lecturerer at UW, and has taught at Fanshawe college and U of Regina. She received her MA in voice studies from the Central School of Speech and Drama in London UK. Before embarking on teaching, Heather worked as an actress in theatre, film,television and radio drama for CBC.

"When I met Edna's archive in July I experienced different emotions; the other Ednas had already forged a relationship with her out of their class project. I admit there were times I thought, 'aren't we jumping to a conclusion?' What if she really had an ordinary life, and it was just the exceptional moments caught on film? The thing is, everyone's journey is exceptional and Edna has taught me that."

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Chai Lavie

Chai Lavie is currently a second year theatre student at the University of Waterloo. His experiences include the lead in musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof, Little Shop of Horrors and Grease. Theatre credits include: Henry Drummond in Inherit the Wind, Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire and Bogdan/The Dog in Caryl Churchill’s Mad Forest. Before attending Waterloo he studied scene, voice and movement at The Stella Adler Studio of Acting in NYC. He is excited to be more involved with site specific work.

"I came rather late in the workshop process and thus my connection to Edna is not as strong as some of the females. However, I feel that it is an extremely rewarding experience to be able to examine the life of a woman from birth to death from such a detached perspective."

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Miroki Tong

Miroki is a graduate from the University of Waterloo Arts and Business Program, BA (Hons) Drama, English Minor. She is interested in circus theatre, cinema/digital media, multicultural theatre and interdisciplinary theatre. Recent credits include Flavia’s Grandmother and Housepainter in Mad Forest (UW 2009), Mother in Surface Tension (Upstart Women’s Festival 2009), Woodcutter and Dwarf in Snow White the Remix (Sole Purpose Productions, Northern Ireland 2008) and two productions with the MT Space for its "Theatre for Social Change" projects, Volunteer Eh! and The Other End of the Line.

"I met Edna for the first time at the beginning of the workshop. Even throughout the process, I felt a disconnection from her with my original role as The Finder, an outside observer. The medium of the website opened doors to a different kind of relationship with her. It was one of which in the midst of organizing her photos and writing articles on her life, I felt nostalgic. By taking the shards and organizing them for the audience, I feel the role of the archivist, like a friend who scrapbooks her fond memories with Edna Bear."

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Amy Wells

Amy is a 3rd year student at the University of Waterloo, majoring in Legal Studies with a minor in Sociology and Drama. She was student of Andy Houston's 301 Dramturgy class with Rachel Barna and Elysia Cloet involving the project of Edna's Archive. Theatrical credits include: Annie,Bye Bye Birdie and Into the Woods.

"I was most interested by Edna's experiences in dance and performamce, having done the same since I was little. I related to her youthful ambition for performance, and was intrigued that my life might take a similar path. I am grateful for the chance to take part in this amazing workshop and explore a different outlet of performance. It has given me a chance to test my abilities and expand my interests in theatre! Hope you all enjoy this production!"

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Afendi Yusuf

Since beginning private lessons in clarinet in 2005, Afendi Yusuf has been involved in various ensembles in the Kitchener-Waterloo community. Afendi has performed with the National Concert Band at MusicFest, as well as having served as concertmaster for the National Youth Band of Canada under the baton of Colin Clarke. A winner of two concerto competitions, Afendi has performed as soloist with the KW Chamber Orchestra and the KW Symphony Youth Orchestra.

He has received numerous awards and scholarships including the RICO Golden Reed award, the Garfield Bender Award, and the Geraldine Kress-Schafer Memorial Scholarship for advanced studies in music. Afendi is currently in his second year at Wilfrid Laurier University in pursuit of a BA Music in Performance, studying with Ross Edwards, Principal Clarinetist of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony.

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