FOUR MINUTES TWELVE SECONDS

James Fritz

Playwright

James Fritz is a multi-award-winning writer from South London, whose plays for stage and radio include Four Minutes Twelve Seconds, Parliament Square, Ross & Rachel, Start Swimming, The Fall, Comment Is Free, Death of A Cosmonaut and Lava. He has won the Critics Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright, a Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting and the Imison and Tinniswood BBC Audio Drama Awards, the first time a writer has won both in the same year. He has also been nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre, a BBC Radio Award for Best Single Drama, and was named runner-up in the 2013 Verity Bargate Award. He is a graduate of both the Channel Four Screenwriting Program and the BBC TV Drama Writers Program and has a number of original television series in development.

Mark McGrinder

Director

For Studio 180: (as an actor) The Laramie Project, Stuff Happens, Our Class, Parade, Clybourne Park, You Will Remember Me, The Nether & Oslo. Mark is the Artistic Director of Studio 180 Theatre. His Studio 180 performing credits include Oslo, The Nether, You Will Remember Me, Clybourne Park and Stuff Happens. He has been a director and/or dramaturg(e) for many of Studio 180’s IN DEVELOPMENT projects and, as the program’s coordinator, has worked to connect creators with the appropriate collaborators required to bring their visions to the stage. He adapted and directed Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish for PANAMANIA, directed Standing on Ceremony: The Gay Marriage Plays and worked as Associate Director for Blackbird, God of Carnage and Studio 180’s 10th Anniversary reading of The Laramie Project. Mark was a member of the acting ensemble at the Shaw Festival for five seasons and he performed in several reviews with The Second City’s National touring company. He has been head or co-writer on several collective creations (Single and Sexy, That Artz Show and The Berlin Show) and his play MacHamlet was presented as part of the Alumnae Theatre’s New Ideas Festival. As an artist educator he has worked with high school, college and university students in and beyond the GTA and is continually inspired by the passion and vision of the young artists he has had the good fortune to connect with.

Chantelle Han

Assistant Director

For Studio 180: debut. Directing: The Fall of the House of Atreus: A Cowboy Love Song (Stratford Festival DWP); Freaky Green Eyes (Punctuate Theatre/Edmonton Fringe); Shark Bite (Lunchbox Theatre); Peppergrass (BLS Prod.); The Strid (Downstage Theatre); Master Oogam’s Blessing (Jupiter Theatre). Assistant Directing: Wedding Band (Stratford Festival); Benefit (Downstage); Waiting for the Parade (Alberta Theatre Projects); Polonius and His Children (Sage Theatre). On Stage: Post-Democracy (Tarragon Theatre); Strangers on a Train (Vertigo Theatre); Smoke (Downstage); Kim’s Convenience (Soulpepper/MTC/Arts Club/Citadel); Slipper (Alberta Theatre Projects); Medea (Chromatic Theatre). Film/TV: Murdoch Mysteries (CBC); Peppergrass (BLS Prod.); Black Summer(Netflix), Departure (Global); Circle of Steel (Kino Sum); Hell on Wheels (AMC). Training: Mount Royal University – Theatre Performance. Awards: Guthrie Award – (Stratford Festival); Nightmares Film Festival Award: Best Lead Actor in a Feature – Peppergrass (BLS Prod.); Stinger Award: Best Long Form Performance – Circle of Steel (Kino Sum). Upcoming: Gangrene, USA: The Musical (Barbet Theatre).

Megan Follows

Di

Megan Follows is an award-winning actress, director and producer. She recently produced and directed the feature film, Stealing the Sky, and stars in the upcoming Crave Original series My Dead Mom. Follows won the 2020 DGC award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Family Series and the 2020 CSA award for best direction of a children’s or youth program. Her stellar performances have also earned her two Gemini Award wins and six nominations for the internationally acclaimed Anne of Green Gables and its sequel, as well as three CSA nominations for best actress for her portrayal of Queen Catherine de’Medici in the CW Network/CBS Studios series Reign.

Follows received the Stratford Legacy Award in 2018 and has appeared on stage in Uncle Vanya at the Geffen Playhouse, The Seagull at the Old Globe Theatre, and Soulpepper Theatre’s ’night, Mother, Top Girls, The Real Thing, Fool For Love and Three Sisters, which earned her Dora Award nominations. Other credits include This at the Vancouver Playhouse, Othello at the National Arts Centre, her critically lauded performance in the Mirvish production of Cloud 9, and the titular role in Nightwood Theatre’s The Penelopiad which won the 2012 Dora Award for Outstanding Performance in a Featured Role/Ensemble. Follows then directed The Carousel for Nightwood Theatre and the Grand Theatre’s spectacular 2019 production of the Penelopiad.

Sergio Di Zio

David

Theatre: Rockabye (Arc Theatre Company) Detroit, Between Riverside and Crazy, The Motherfucker with the Hat (Coal Mine Theatre) This is War, Scorched, Léo (Tarragon Theatre). Selected Film/TV: I Will Bury You (YouTube), Georgetown (Paramount), The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix) , Miss Sloane (EuroCorp) The Walk (Sony Pictures), Flashpoint (CTV/CBS/ION), Cinderella Man (Universal). This is Wonderland (CBC). Awards: 2019 International Christian Film and Music Festival (Best Lead Actor-Feature Film: The Root of the Problem), 2015 Dora Mavor Moore Award (Outstanding Performance-Male Independent Theatre Division; The Motherfucker with the Hat), 2011 Gemini Award -Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Supporting Role; Flashpoint). Upcoming: Law and Order Toronto: Criminal Intent (CityTv).

Jadyn Nasato

Cara

Jadyn is thrilled to debut in Studio 180’s 2024 Mainstage production. Selected Theatre: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Canadian Stage). Film/TV: Desync (Reelworld Film Festival). Jadyn is inspired to step into the world of Cara and is eager to share such a relevant story.

Tavaree Daniel-Simms

Nick

For Studio 180 Theatre: debut. Selected Theatre: The First Stone (New Harlem Produtions); Levels The Play (Capital Sound Collective); Wishful Seeing (4th Line Theatre). Film/TV: Coroner (CBC); Frankie Drake Mysteries (CBC); Murdoch Mysteries (CBC); Grand Army (Netflix); Ghostwriter (Apple TV); Night Raiders (Crave); Christmas in Toyland (Hallmark Channel); I’ll Take Your Dead (Apple TV/Prime Video). big love and warm hugs to my peers, family, agent, and the world…sometimes <3

Jackie Chau

Set and Costume Designer

For Studio 180 Theatre: debut. Selected Theatre: Electric Messiah (Soundstreams); Sexy Laundry, The Hours That Remain, Serving Elizabeth, The Gig (Theatre Aquarius); Annie Mae’s Movement, Almighty Voice and His Wife, Tombs of the Vanishing Indian, From Thine Eyes, HUFF (NEPA); Antigone Insurgency, Talking Masks, Charge of the Expormidable Moose, Ubu Mayor, S/W (One Little Goat); Gas Girls, The First Stone (New Harlem Productions), Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Nights Dream (Dream in High Park/Can Stage); Zadie’s Shoes, Lady Sunrise, Wildfire, The Waltz (Factory Theatre); Brown Balls, Mixie and the Halfbreeds (Fu-Gen); The Swearing Jar (Prairie Theatre Exchange), Fish Eyes Trilogy (GCTC); Twist Your Dickens (Second City Chicago/Toronto), Mini Me Makeover – Designer and Co-host (CBC Kids/Expect Theatre); Moment, Dissidents, Oil, Gloria, Martyr, Rockabye (ARC Theatre); Cowboy Versus Samurai, 39 Steps, Oraltorio (Soulpepper) and The Komagata Maru Incident (Stratford Festival). Film/TV: Production and Costume Design selected – One Small Visit (Coffee Partners); Lune (Open City Works); The Trip (Ethereal Films); The Beard (Rabid Films); The Ache (Wonderous Ligth) Other: Jackie was named in NOW magazine’s Top 10 Theatre Artists of 2009, nominated for 3 Virginia and Myrtle Cooper Award in Costume Design, nominated for a Saskatoon Area Theatre (SAT) award, 2 Broadway World awards and has received 9 Dora nominations for outstanding set and costume design. She has taught set and costume design at the University of Toronto and is currently teaching at York University.

Logan Raju Cracknell

Lighting Designer

For Studio 180 Theatre: debut. Selected Theatre: Heroes of the Fourth Turning (Crow’s/Howland), Fairview (Canadian Stage/Obsidian), Dixon Road (Musical Stage/Obsidian), Shirley Valentine (Theatre Aquarius), Alice in Wonderland (Bad Hats/Soulpepper), Midsummer Night’s Dream (Canadian Stage), William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, A Radical Retelling by Cliff Cardinal (Crow’s Theatre).

Lyon Smith

Sound Designer

For Studio 180 Theatre: Clybourne Park. Selected Theatre: The Donnelly Trilogy (Blyth), Pipeline (Soulpepper), In 7 Days (The Grand). Upcoming: Witness for the Prosecution (Shaw Festival).

Ellie Koffman

Assistant Costume Designer

For Studio 180: debut. Ellie is a Toronto-based Costume Designer and Wardrobe Manager. She currently serves as the Head of Wardrobe at Soulpepper Theatre Company. A BFA graduate from York University, her work has been featured in several productions in Canada and abroad. Recent theatre credits include; As Designer, A Little Night Music (The Royal Conservatory of Music), Rock of Ages (More Entertainment). As Assistant Designer, The 39 Steps (The Grove Theatre), Ghost The Musical (Starvox Entertainment), and, as Head of Wardrobe, Bad Roads (Crow’s Theatre), Dragon’s tale (Tapestry Opera), The Cave (JMAR Electric), Wildfire (Factory Theatre), among men (Factory Theatre), Year of the Rat (Factory Theatre), Rinaldo (The Royal Conservatory of Music), Forever Plaid (Starvox Entertainment), Magic Immersive (Lighthouse Immersive), Jamie Allan’s Illusionarium (Lighthouse Immersive).

Sandi Becker

Stage Manager

For Studio 180: debut. Selected Theatre Credits: A Poem for Rabia, Our Fathers, Sons. Lovers and Little Brothers (Tarragon Theatre), The Waltz (Factory Theatre), Maggie (Charlottetown Festival), A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Twelfth Night (Canadian Stage), 10 seasons with Eldritch Theatre, 7 seasons with Driftwood Theatre Upcoming: Hurry Hard (Port Stanley Festival Theatre).

Charissa Wilcox

Production Manager

Charissa spent the last couple decades working at the Iconic Queer Canadian Art Organization, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (BIBT) as the Head of Production. Throughout her freelance career she has worked with such companies as Aluna Theatre, Tapestry, Modern Times, New Harlem Productions and Nightwood Theatre. Charissa is also the Artistic Producer and co-founder of FLYING SOLO and the lead designer and fabricator of FLYING SOLO’s cutting edge circus apparatuses.