Cheerleader!

Cheerleader!

by Morgan Smith

January 15–25, 2015

Cheerleader!

So you think being a cheerleader is easy? Try keeping your boyfriend the star quarterback sober and out of jail. Try keeping your best friend from holding your hand in the locker room. Try keeping the jealous wide receiver from ruining EVERYTHING. Human Loser’s fringe hit is back. RAH!

CLICK HERE: Cheerleader! Photo Gallery


January 15–25, 2015

Times
Previews January 13–14, 2015
Opening January 15

Tues-sat @ 8pm, Sundays @ 2pm

CAST & CREW

PLAYWRIGHT/PRODUCER

MORGAN SMITH

Morgan Smith is an Edmonton-based theatre artist who has been creating new work since graduating from MacEwan’s Theatre Arts Program in 2002. She started out as first a writer, then curator, of the Nextfest shorts. Her writing has been described as “pitch black” and “sexist and generally offensive” and includes Cheerleader!, Pulling Down, Breaking Face, Game Face, Electra, and Faraday Cage, all with her company Human Loser Theatre. She’s also an actor, appearing in several of her own productions, and with other companies. Select credits include Ligature Marks (What It Is Productions), The National Elevator Project: Parts 1 & 2 (Theatre YES/Workshop West Theatre), Tudor Queens: A Burlesque (Send in the Girls Burlesque), Echoes (Floating Stones Theatre), and The Kitchen Sink Project and Dead Centre of Town (Catch the Keys Productions).  Watch for her this spring in Blarney Productions’ Mote.

SOPHIE

JOLEEN BALLENDINE

Joleen is thrilled to be part of such an important show like Cheerleader!  Joleen Ballendine is an actor, improvisor and instructor.  You see her weekly at the Citadel Theatre performing as a senior cast member of Rapid Fire Theatre, or hosting her very own comedy show Dr. Jokes, bi-weekly at Wünderbar. Recent acting credit includes Real Time, which will be touring with Theatre Alberta in 2015, as well as Rapid Fire Theatre’s Off Book the Musical. Joleen is also looking forward to a European tour with her show DotDotDot in the spring. Joleen would like to thank the cast and crew of Cheerleader for being so wonderfully talented and supportive, as well as her loving partner Luke Thomson. She would like to dedicate her performance to the loving memory of her Aunt Brenda. Enjoy the show!

BOBBY

PATRICK LUNDEEN

Patrick is thrilled to have had the opportunity to direct Pyretic Production’s The Other, as part of the Roxy Performance Series. This production marks his professional theatre directorial debut. Past directing experience includes three festival renditions of Matthew Mackenzie’s hit The Particulars, he was a directing consultant on last season’s production of Bears, he programmed and directed six renditions of the Edmonton Show involving hundreds of Edmonton artists, and he has directed several productions for young actors. Patrick Lundeen is a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada and the Citadel Banff Professional Theatre Program. He is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Common Ground, the organization also behind Edmonton’s annual “Found Festival”. In 2014 he received the Enbridge Emerging Artist Award through Nextfest. Patrick is also an Associate Director of Outreach at the Citadel Theatre, facilitating the Student’s Club and Senior’s Club. Patrick is a sterling nominated actor, accomplished teacher, acting coach, and arts manager. He would like to thank his family, friends, Matt Mackenzie for trusting him to direct his plays, and his partner in life and art Lianna.

TINA

LIANNA MAKUCH

Lianna Makuch is thrilled to have worked alongside the amazing collaborators of The Other! Lianna is a graduate of the BFA Acting program at the University of Alberta. In addition to acting, she is a producer, administrator, and educator. Lianna has produced two other productions with Pyretic, including Bears (2015) and Sia (2013), and has worked for the SkirtsAfire Festival and Thousand Faces Festival. She is currently the Promotions Manager for the Found Festival. As an educator, Lianna has taught drama at the Foote Theatre School, as an Outreach instructor with the Expanse Festival, and with Three on the Tree on Pender Island, BC. Lianna is one of the founders of, as well as the Performance Instructor with, Spark! Youth Camp, a two week collective creation camp for youth in the Alberta Avenue Neighborhood. Select acting credits include No One Showed Up for the Anarchist Rally (Nextfest Anniversary Showcase), Bears (Pyretic Productions), Scars are Healing Wrong (Punctuate! Theatre), Boogie Monster Club (Promise Productions), Excuse me… This is the Truth! (Break the Wall Productions), and the performer apprentice with Mump and Smoot CRACKED. She wishes to thank Theatre Network, the Good Women, her ever supportive family, her loving partner, Patrick, and the rest of her furry family.

BURT

MATT MCKINNEY

Matthew McKinney is a Calgary based artist and is excited to be back working in the talented Edmonton arts community. He is the owner of 2150 Creative, a boutique video production company, and is a graduate of the University of Alberta’s BFA Acting program (2009). After Cheerleader! Matthew will be back in Calgary working on The Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst with Ghost River & Alberta Theatre Projects. His short film Maz will also be coming out in 2015. Past theatre credits include: The Passion of Sergius & Bacchus, Third Street Theatre, Tom Form and the Speed of Love – Broad Horizons, Snow Angel & For Art’s Sake – Quest Theatre, Hideout – Next Fest, Clean Slate – Theatre Transit, Castle in the Sky – Ignite Festival, Speech and Debate – NLT, Heterophobia ­– Beyond Closed Doors, Bull Skit!, and the Improv Guild. Past film credits include: Three Colours & A Canvas – Vision 10 Prod., The Takeaway– Polyscope Prod. DocuDramaRomCom & Francesca – Graeme Black.

DIRECTOR

CLINTON CAREW

Clinton is beside himself to be working on this project with Human Loser Theatre and Morgan Smith. Previously, he directed Morgan’s play Electra at the Edmonton Fringe. In 2013, he directed and translated Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters for Broken Toys Theatre. This is his first time directing for the Roxy stage, but not his first time integrating cheer routines into a theatre show.

CHOREOGRAPHER

TESSA STAMP

Tessa Stamp is an Edmonton born theatre professional, entrepreneur, and found object artist.  A dancer first, Tessa has made her career in technical theatre.  She has traveled the world as a pirate, ran away with the circus and in 2008 landed back in Edmonton to play with these clowns.  Tessa works in set, lighting and costume design and stage management.  Recent credits include BED AND BREAKFAST, Theatre Network (Costume Design), SLIGHT OF MIND, Theatre Yes (Stage Management and Set Design), LAKE OF THE STRANGERS, Naheyawin (Set Design and Production Management), WHAT A YOUNG WIFE OUGHT TO KNOW, Theatre Network (Set and Costume Design) METIS MUTT, One Little Indian Productions (Set and Lighting Design and Stage Management).

STAGE MANAGER

ERIN VALENTINE

Erin Valentine is a recent graduate of the U of A BFA Stage Management program. Recent credits include Proud (theatre no. 6), Beware Beware (Edmonton Fringe – DuckRabbit Theatre), When the Rain Stops Falling and Love’s Labour’s Lost (ASM) at the U of A’s Studio Theatre, Three Sisters (Broken Toys Theatre), The National Elevator Project Part 1 (Production Assistant – Theatre YES), an apprenticeship on the Edmonton Opera’s Eugene Onegin, and dance performances with CRIPSiE and the Usha Gupta Dance Entourage.

Drag