Johnny Salib // Creator & Performer
Johnny is a multidisciplinary artist from Toronto, Ontario. He studied at Humber College for Theatre Performance and George Brown College for Playwriting. Johnny began his theatrical career in musical theatre and appeared in shows such as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat (Lea Polson’s Theatre), Noye’s Fluude (CBC Television), and starred as Harry Potter in A Very Potter Musical (CCAA). As Johnny grew older he began distancing himself from musical theatre and joined DCYT, a theatrical troupe established in Toronto, touring Ontario as Peter Pevensie from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Johnny, also being a sound designer and composer, has designed/composed for shows like Jamie’s Gone (Broken Soil Theatre) which received Best of Venue (Hamilton Fringe Festival 2013, The Citadel Theatre venue) & Best of Hamilton Fringe (Hamilton Fringe Festival 2013), Deficiency Syndrome (The ITP) and A Drop Of Water (Slice of Pi). To this date he has released three soundtrack albums and one full length album titled Distant Star. Johnny is currently the Artistic Director of Sisyphean Productions, a Toronto based theatre company that is focused on the development and creation of new works. He has been part of the creation of their projects: Mirror, Mirror; Invisible; and Oasis Love (second runner up at the Hamilton Fringe Festival New Play Contest 2015). Johnny is not only an artist, but also runs queerdeer media, an organization that provides services for queer events, artists, news, and more. He founded four projects with queerdeer: Our Queer Art, a website that features LGBT and queer artists as well as the art pieces that they create; Our Queer Stories, a website that features stories on coming out, overcoming obstacles, self-exploration, etc; Our Daily Queer, a website that provides news articles about LGBT related issues; and Our Queer History; an educational website created to help you learn more about the events, people and places that make up the LGBT and queer historical past. More about Johnny at www.johnnysalib.com
Franny McCabe-Bennett // Director & Dramaturge
Franny McCabe-Bennett, originally from Oakville, is a director, producer, actor, singer, storyteller and comedian working in the GTA. She co-founded the award-winning feminist comic theatre duo Two Juliets where she co-wrote, co-directed and co-starred in XOXO: THE Relationship Show. Franny wrote and directed “Birthday” in the inaugural Theatre Relay project, directed the sold-out run of Zombie Prom at the University of Guelph and was the Assistant Director for Sky Gilbert’s The Shakespeare Experiment: As You Like It and Reconciliation (The Cabaret Company/Buddies In Bad Times Theatre). Her new one-woman-show was recently featured in a workshop at Buddies In Bad Times Theatre, Toronto. Franny is a multidisciplinary artist and has trained in physical theatre, clown, improv (Second City Toronto), classical text and more. She played Pheobe in The Beaver Den, participated in the inaugural Theatre Relay project and appeared as The Nun in Hush, part of the 2013 Gay Play Day Festival at Alumnae Theatre, in Kitchen Party Nervous Breakdown (The Cabaret Company) and as Bad Idea Bear/Mrs Thistletwat in Hammer Entertainment’s production of Avenue Q. As a member of the Monday Funday Creation Group, she has workshopped the roles of Phebe in As You Like It, Malvolio in Twelfth Night and Baptista in The Taming of the Shrew. Favourite acting credits include: We Walk Among You workshop (Artichoke Heart Collective), Gulliver’s Travels (Humber Theatre, dir. Tatiana Jennings), Catherine in Proof*+ (BurlOak Theatre Group), Jeanie in Hair* (West End Studio Theatre), and Julie in Perfect Wedding** (West End Studio Theatre). She has been studying singing with acclaimed Broadway and cabaret veteran Judith Lander for over 10 years. Franny also works as a vocal coach and vocal director for musical theatre. Training: University of Guelph graduate, Humber College drop out. *Oakville Drama Series, Best Female Performance: Nominee. +Theatre Ontario, Association of Community Theatres (Central Ontario): Honourable Mention, Acting. **Oakville Drama Series, Best Female Performance: Recipient. More about Franny at www.frannymcb.com
Jazz Kamal // Lighting Designer
Jazz Kamal is a Toronto based Lighting Designer and theatre collaborator, celebrating 10 years of working in theatre. She is known for her bold designs, live concert improvised and musically intuitive lighting. Her flare for dramatic lighting techniques, vibrant colours, and moody palettes comes through every show she designs. Jazz has designed for various independent, not-for-profit and commercial theatre and dance companies since 2008. As Jazz is also an artist, she always strives to heighten the visual experience of any show she designs, while bringing the performers’ worlds and visions to life. Her designs have been acclaimed by Michael Rudinoff the Dean for Visual & Performing Arts at Sheridan College and various loved directors and theatre practitioners in Toronto. Her credits include: Sheridan Pop Critiques Concert, Musical Theatre Program (December 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015), Rhubarb Festival; Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (February 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016), Femme Playlist, b-current’s AfteRock series (November 2014), Insatiable Sisters (formerly known as Strange Sisters), Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (November 2014), Do I Have To Do Everything My F***ing Self?, Summer Works 2014, Lower Ossington Theatre, Rock.paper.sistahz Festival, b-current, Wychwood Barns (May 2016)
Claudia Carino // Producer
Claudia Carino is a graduate of the Theatre Performance program at Humber College where she trained in physical, ensemble based theatre. She is a singer, a musician, an intermediate certified stage combatant, and an avid athlete. Her recent performance credits include Abbey in Invisible (Sisyphean Productions), Marianne Bachmeier in This Is For You, Anna (Hart House Theatre), Rachel Gold in Mother (Save Me A Seat Collective), Cook/ensemble in Caucasian Chalk Circle, Ippolit Terentyev in an adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot, Silvia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Humber Theatre), Mme. Giry in The Phantom of the Opera (St. Peter Music Theatre). Having always thrived in leadership roles, Claudia combined her passion for performance and keen interest in business administration to take on various theatre production roles while at Humber including Front of House Manager (Humber Theatre) and Head of Marketing for her final production with her graduating class (Mother) as well as being a core member of the acting ensemble. Continuing as a multi faceted theatre creator, Claudia appeared as a performer and a producer in the 2015 Toronto Fringe Festival, in a collaboratively created show entitled A Drop of Water with her Fringe company Slice of Pi, of which she is co-founder. Claudia is excited to bring Oasis Love to The Hamilton Fringe as part of Sisyphean Production
Molly C. Eskew // Apprentice Producer
Molly C. Eskew is currently finishing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre Arts at Boston University. She discovered her love of acting at a young age, actively participating in all types of shows, musicals and productions available to her. Upon entering high school, she found a love for directing and directed three shows before starting her training at BU. There she has been able to grow and cultivate herself as a multi-faceted artist and ensemble member by taking part in shows, writing projects and devised works. Her most recent directed work was part of Fools Fall In; The Directors’ Project where she directed a ten min piece and acted in another, working with 8 other directors to create a cohesive evening of theatre. Recently, she just completed a semester at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts where she studied classical acting and voice, historical dance and stage combat. While there, she was able to explore challenging Shakespearean roles like King Henry from Henry V and the lesser known Timon from Timon of Athens. Molly is incredibly excited to be joining the production team of Sisyphean Productions for Oasis Love and looks forward to the new adventure!
Wendy Miller // Stage Manager
Wendy Miller lives in Scarborough, and has stage managed for several community theatre groups over the past 16 years – Onstage Productions, Scarborough Theatre Guild, Scarborough Music Theatre, Stage Centre Productions and Scarborough Players. Her training has been both on-the-job – working with several very supportive and collaborative directors such as Lorraine Green-Kimsa, Dot Routledge and Larry Westlake, as well as through courses taken at Stage Managing the Arts (SMArts) with Janelle Rainville and Winston Morgan. She was delighted to win an ACTCO Thea in 2014 for stage managing The King and I for Scarborough Music Theatre and to be nominated in 2015 for stage managing for Anne of Green Gables (also for SMT). A background in computer science and 16 years of work in administration have provided many useful stage management skills. Wendy loves the process of theatre and helping to bring an idea to life. Thanks to Johnny for including her on this Fringe adventure!
*Oasis Love will be on stage at Theatre Aquarius from July 14-24, 2016. To buy tickets please visit the following website.