In this our tenth anniversary year there is much to be grateful and thankful for. I’m sure we’re missing a lot of people here, but bear with us:
In this year alone, we celebrated hard with an anniversary tournament and then a big and (soon to be annual) symposium.
Thanks to all the Ten Til Ten teachers, participants, panelists, performers, audience members who made it work in March.
Special thanks to people that worked hard that weekend:
Lisa Merchant, Herbie Barnes, Jan Caruana, Ayaka Kinugawa, Kevin Whalen, Janet Van de Graaff, Paloma Nunez, Jane Luk, Garry Campbell and our own Gary Pearson, David Raitt, James Jeffers, Christine Pillman and Natasha Bromfield. Thanks to Hilary Hart for coming in to play for the show and all the volunteers that helped with logistics and meals – to Kim Beaune, particularly for “flying in” to help with setting up our Saturday performers supper.
Thanks to special guest teachers like Matt Folliott, Rob Norman, Herbie Barnes, Geri Hall, Ken Hall, Jeff Rosenthal, Bruce Hunter!, Alan Guttman, Jane Luk and most specially Lisa Merchant – and over the years: Nigel Downer, Jack Mosshammer, Kevin Matviw, Sage Tyrtle, Hayley Kellett , James Gangl, Carmine Lucarelli!!, AJ Vaage, Jan Caruana, Gord Oxley, Marcel St Pierre, and Ralph Macleod.
To Maureen Smithers – thanks for your grant writing expertise, consultation, Twitter feed, encouragement and wisdom.
To the Monday night drop in crowd – DUDES! We love you all.
To the Monday night show performers: Way to make your work sing by constantly practicing and making yourself better, learning the ropes, supporting your colleagues and saying YES.
To Lynnae Dudley, thanks for your friendship, your wisdom, your tenacity, your membership committee work and all things props and set.
Natalie Hoban for good taste and extraordinary box making (and more)
To Mariam Ben Belfadhel for faithful box office work, props and set and some improv now and then …
To Leila Ben Belfadhel for working her magical cosplay skills to our benefit and technically watching over our lights.
To Lori Lang for spending some time in the booth with us – and Nastazja for the same but also some cool direction. And Robin Sadavoy, who also employed her technical skill in the booth in for our comic book hero visual gags.
To Nash for car rides for Ken when we needed him so badly right on time at QEP!
To Ariana Bieg for Stage Managing her heart out for us, every time she came out to help.
To Taylor Sinstadt, Auggie, Joe, Erroll and Dan for tech help and consultation.
To Milan Rosen – our very first coop student who did everything (including filing) with gusto.
To Don Pangman and Gemma at Art House for collaboration and expansion of the work to students with barriers to access (and shout outs to many many compassionate teachers (the big-heartest of who is Kate St Onge).
To the entire cast of Superhero (James Jeffers, Iryna McCoubrey, Paul Muhleisen, Gary Pearson, Christine Pillman, Robin Sadavoy, Terri Skov, MD Hilary Hart), Geri Hall (consulting Director) Natasha Bromfield (original cast and sorely missed) and the staff (specially Lorraine and Robin) and tech at Oakville Centre. Brianne Gwartz the amazingly creative stage manager!
To the indomitable Gary Pearson, our recent but now past president of our board of directors, who sat at the table for the seven years we’ve actually been incorporated as a non profit. Gary has given his time freely, in performance, consultation, teaching and direction. His professional contribution has been invaluable and his new contributions (Gary Pearson Presents …) honour professional colleagues we’re eager to watch, and encourage newer ones in the comedy lab)
To Mary Coggins who checks in and works to make things perfect with the accounting books and her crazy good memory for numbers and flaws.
To David Raitt for upgrading (and continually working on) the website and marketing this past year.
To Catherine Henry for consultation on marketing and sponsorship and super positive attitude.
To David and James for directing the Holiday Countdown show – a Christmas miracle! Thanks for all that and more – for your abilty to drive all the way to Rhode Island and bring back the spicy goods for our fall workshop and more, and to play the arc like never before. For playing and playing hard.
To Christine Pillman for being a trooper and never saying no to anything we ask. To Natasha Bromfield for the same, but lets face it, Pillman’s in everything and you’re working with Matt Damon, now.
To our young volunteers including Audrey, Lisa, Kenneth, Joe, Johnnie, Sofia, Aidan, Rob (and past Patrick, Max, Rowan, Marina, Lachina, Natalie S and MORE …)
To Shann McGrail, for heading up the strategic planning committee and keeping us on track with good objective business eyes and no judgement
Marylou and all the staff of QEPCCC (specially Catherine, Cleopatra, Faraday), operators like Joe and all)
To John and Jane Marlatt of The Moonshine Cafe for taking a chance on some randos who offered some laughs on a handshake, and opened their doors to our nonsense allowing us to grow our local talent over time.
To various long running hosts we’ve had over the years, like Scott Meiklejohn, Cliff Murphy, Terri Skov, Shann McGrail, Bradley Ellis, Bob Kapur and more …
To our tweens and teens! Thanks so much for playing your hearts out for us this year – including Gary’s sketch class and Jane’s youth class. Instant Holiday was so fun to watch.
To our parents – of our students and our audience members that come out and support not only your kids but also our Theatre and the arts in general. You keep us alive.
To the Town and QEPCCC for allowing us to participate in the design of the Black Box and for taking a risk on our courses through the Town, building our company and now, letting us lease our first office space this year (thanks Susan Amaral!)
To the Bigger Bang crew for all the nights of laughing and learning, as well as interesting snacks, Scout sitting and characters development.
To Duncan McKenzie for his intelligent, encouraging teaching, inspiration, correction, design, writing and technical abilities.
To past members near and far who were instrumental or extremely encouraging at just the right time – helping us get where we are today. Special thanks to SL Brodie-Keys (photography, grant consultation and marketing ideas), Kevin Tinsley (sponsorship and patronage), Will Campbell (graphic design and social media consultation).
To ITI (most specially for us: Patti, Alana and Neal this year) for keeping the work of Keith Johnstone alive and relevant all over the world, and allowing us to be part of that family.
To Moist Theatre for always dampening our hearts whenever we seem to need your fan base.
To our wonderful pianists over the years, specially Jordan Armstrong, Hilary Hart and Jeff Rosenthal who came out the most, but also Joel Woods (gone too soon!), Adam Benjamin, Chris New, Nicola Dempsey (probably performing for royalty somewhere), Lee Cohen, Ayaka Kinugawa, Adam Gold, Paul Rosen, Emilee-Mae Feely and more!
THANK YOU ALL, and HERE’S TO TEN MORE. Happy 2020!