Recently finished Theatre School but still trying to find your way in the industry?
About
Are you wondering how and when you should get an agent? Where and how to get you and your work seen? Or maybe you are considering further training and education. We can help with all these questions and queries.
Join us on Wednesday, July 27th from 7 - 9 pm and gain valuable insight from our panel of industry professionals featuring Actor/Creator Augusto Bitter, Agent Stephanie Clement and Theatre Designer Melanie McNeill. We will discuss how and when to join the union, theatre festivals and networking opportunities, and places to look for your next theatre gig.
We look forward to seeing you in person and back inside Hart House this July! This workshop is free and open to all with registration.
Panelists
-
Augusto Bitter
Augusto Bitter (they/she/he) is a Venezuelan-born, Dora Award-winning performer, writer, facilitator, and producer for stage and screen based in Toronto. With artistic residencies at Factory Theatre, Canadian Stage, Aluna Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, and hub14, Augusto’s first play, CHICHO, is also a short film embarking on a festival circuit, while Reina, a dance-theatre hybrid, is in development with musician Y Josephine. Augusto participated in BIPOC TV & Film’s Kids TV Writing Intensive and has made audio- and video poems like Reina (in Isolation), cannibal, golden girl, and for this child I prayed with the support of TO Live, Toronto Queer Film Festival, Glad Day Lit, and Montréal Pride. Augusto has been an artist educator with Soulpepper and the Paprika Festival, and facilitates creative-writing workshops across the GTA with Story Planet.
Website -
Stephanie Clement
Stephanie (she/her) has always had a love for the arts. Performing for years as a dancer and Rhythmic Gymnast, she eventually found her way behind the scenes. Stephanie has had a successful career in the entertainment industry for the past 20 years. While still studying at University, she began her career as a Stage Manager for Theatre and Dance. After graduating from Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) with a BFA in Theatre Production, she continued to thrive as a sought-after Stage Manager in the city.
After international tours and many award-winning productions later, she started looking for opportunities to continue to hone her management skills within the industry.
Stephanie dabbled in Producing and Production Coordinating for a couple of short films before joining AMI as an agent in 2010. Her performing, production and agency experience makes her a well-rounded agent who understands the business from all angles.
-
Melanie McNeill
Melanie (she/her) is a Toronto-based set and costume designer with over 20 years of experience. She was one of those overachiever kids in high school who was interested in everything, until one day she volunteered as running crew on a community theatre production of West Side Story and realized “oh, THIS is what I’m supposed to do with my life". After attending Ryerson Theatre School, where she focused on set and costume design, she got very lucky with two key gigs: being hired as a stitcher with Seamless Costumes, and becoming Astrid Janson’s assistant. Everything more or less sprang from there.
Over the years Melanie has worked with many companies, on productions ranging from tiny Fringe shows that 10 people have seen, to world premieres of new musicals on a Mirvish stage, and everything in between. Select companies include: Second City, Soulpepper Theatre, Young People’s Theatre, Obsidian Theatre, ProArte Danza, Hart House Theatre, Theatre 20, and many more. Her most extensive collaborations have been with Eldritch Theatre (12 years), Théâtre français de Toronto (10 years), and Videocabaret (20 years). Melanie also supplements her theatre career with film and tv work, mostly as an Art Director for various French kids' tv shows. She is mostly interested in working on shows with a creative and playful sense of collaboration, where the audience is allowed to use their imagination and go on an awesome journey.
Melanie has received three Dora awards (plus seven more nominations), a Prix Rideaux Award, and various other award nominations. Her designs have been described as “simple yet striking, highly evocative and enough skank to be interesting but not pornographic''. Melanie is a member of ADC 659, and a permittee in both Iaste 873 and Nabet.
