THE CAST
Amanda - Rebecca Gibian
Musician - Jack Nicholsen
Musician - Laska Sawade
ARTISTIC CREDITS
Writer - Jim Garrard
Director - Aviva Armour-Ostroff
Executive Producer - Layne Coleman
Producer - Anthony Chung
Props and Set Designer - Merle Harley
Sound Designer - Jack Nicholsen
Lighting and Technical Designer - Andrew Dollar
Stage Manager - Farnoosh Talebpour
Running Time: Approximately 60 minutes
Content Advisory: Some course language and mature/sexual related subject matter.
A message from our Interim Artistic Director Layne Coleman.
Thank you for coming to Dear Robert and supporting Canadian culture. You are about to see a theatrical presentation about the dying art of writing letters.
Jim Garrard is remarkable. Dear Robert is distilled essence of his house style - it features his ability to write monologues that capture the feeling of living in a vast and lonely country. I heard Jim read this play in his car while we were waiting for a train in Kingston. I knew Rebecca Gibian was the actor to bring it alive. Rebecca makes a walk to the convenience store memorable. I know you are going to enjoy her. Who wouldn't want to receive a letter written by Rebecca playing Amanda.
The woman who wrote, directed, produced, and starred in LUNE (a Canadian feature film), something special like LUNE comes along every decade or so - I was thrilled she agreed to direct Dear Robert. Aviva knows how to bring the groceries in.
Jack Nicholsen directed, curated, and performs in the second part of tonight's show. Jack is a Canadian treasure - spent years living down the hall from Deanne Taylor and Michael Hollingsworth, the founders of the legendary VideoCabaret. Jack has soaked up this city and has the special bandwidth, music and acting. Jack has found a way of framing Dear Robert with ideas. He brings the authentic flavours of Kingston with his magnificent voice and words.
Laska Sawade is a country singer - I don't know if she was born in an Appalachian shack down in a holler, I kinda doubt it. But when I first heard her sing I wanted to pull my chair up and warm my spirit around her fire. This show shares some of that with you.
I want to thank Farnoosh Talebpour for stage managing and Andrew Dollar for his exquisite lighting and house tech, along with Merle Harley who is an all around talent in media, set design, props and poster making.
Anthony Chung is behind the curtain, but very much a growing pivotal force at VideoCab.
Anand Rajaram is an associate VideoCab director and made the teaser video and is doing a lot of helpful things.
Number 10, Busy Street, The Deanne Taylor Theatre, is a wonderful place to work. I encourage you to come back many times to enjoy all the offerings that will be happening here.
Sincerely,
Layne Coleman
Interim Artistic Director
VideoCabaret
Rebecca Gibian
Rebecca Gibian is a bilingual actor and director who splits her time between Quebec and Ontario. She is also a twin—maybe doubles are in her genetic fabric. Recent acting credits include Halfway There (Drayton Entertainment); Open House (Infinitheatre); Perfect Wedding (Drayton Entertainment); Paradise Lost (Centaur Theatre); Clean Slate (Talisman Theatre); and two seasons at the Shaw Festival. Directing credits include The Flick at Centaur produced by Persephone Productions; How to Survive in the Wild and multi meta-nominated Pool No Water at the Segal Studio produced by Persephone Productions; All Shall Be Well, Repercussion Theatre; Indecent, Studio 180/Mirvish (assistant dir.) Rebecca was also awarded the 2020 RBC Emerging Director Prize through Studio 180, and is a graduate of the National Theatre School’s acting program. Film and TV credits include: Indéfendable (Pixcom, TVA); Sex/Life (Netflix); Le Purgatoire des Intimes (Cormier Productions); Blue Moon (Canal Illico.) Rebecca was recently appointed artistic director of Pesephone Productions, a company dedicated to emerging artists with an over 20 year legacy, and is also Associate Artist at Centaur Theatre.
J.D. (Jack) Nicholsen
Jack is an award winning Actor/musician with a professional career spanning almost 40 years in theatre, film, television, sound design, audiobooks and music recording. He has appeared in live productions at theatres across the country including The Belfry Theatre, Caravan Theatre, Theatre Calgary, The Citadel, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Manitoba Theatre Centre, Tarragon Theatre, Blyth Festival, 4th Line Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, Tarragon Theatre, Theatre Aquarius, Neptune theatre and the National Arts Centre. He has toured with productions to Edinburgh, Africa and New York City, as well as touring extensively across North America with the Juno Award winning band The Leslie Spit Treeo. Jack currently sings and plays guitar for the Cameron Family Singers and Regal Road and is honoured to be sharing the stage with Laska Sawade at VideoCab.
Laska Sawade
Born and raised in Toronto, Laska Sawade has been performing music and theatre for the past two decades. After graduating from Sheridan College’s Musical Theatre Program, she acted in various musical theatre productions touring North America as well as shows close to home. Mostly, she loves writing and collaborating with friends. These days she manages to find time to make music in between running a popular Toronto restaurant and raising her son Porter.
Aviva Armour-Ostroff
Aviva works as an actor, director, writer, dramaturge and producer. She has been developing new Canadian work for over twenty years, most significantly byfounding The Lab Cab Festival, a multi-disciplinary arts festival which she ran for thirteen years in Toronto. Aviva is the co-director of the film adaptation of The Drawer Boy. She wrote, co-directed, and starred in the feature film, Lune, which gained her a Canadian Screen Award nomination for her performance, and honoured her as the first Canadian to win The Micki Moore Award for BestFeature at TJFF. @lunethefilm
Jim Garrard
Jim is best known as a playwright: Bondage Plays for My Country (Dead Heat, Getting Even, Cold Comfort, Spencer’s Mom and Big Ticket), Peggy’s Song, Fourteen, Sir John, Eh? (with Grant Heckman) and a new play, Deep Water Dreams, about the life of Florence Nightingale. Cold Comfort was also an award-winning feature film. His short film, Touch My Lips, produced by the Canadian Film Centre, has played at festivals worldwide. He is the founding artistic director of Theatre Passe Muraille, SALON Theatre, Kingston Summer Festival and The Macdonald Festival.
Anthony chung
Anthony is an emerging arts administrator and theatre producer. He is a graduate of the Humber College Arts Administration and Cultural Management program. He is happy to be making his producer debut in Dear Robert & Special Delivery. He would like to thank Anne Frost from Humber College for her ongoing support and guidance; Aaron Rothermund for the opportunity to join VideoCabaret and to learn the ropes of arts management; and Layne Coleman for the opportunity to produce this show. He would also like to thank everyone else who had helped and supported him along the way including his parents.
Merle Harley
Merle Harley creates continually building alternate visual realities. A chaos-creature with no fixed medium, works often include illustration, watercolour, textiles, comics, installation and creation for theatre and TV. Merle has been published in many online and print publications and exhibited work across Canada and beyond. Recent projects in the Theatre and TV realm include: Cliff Cardinal’s A Terrible Fate and The Cold War (VideoCabaret), Runway Installation (Indigenous Fashion Arts), Little Shop of Horrors (Capital Theatre), As You Like It (Canadian Stage), Nanalan’ (Puppet Island), Can You Read My Hands (Undivided Productions), Tallboyz (CBC) and alongside Abby Ernesto and Astrid Janson won the Dora for Outstanding Costume Design for Mad Madge (Nightwood).
Andrew Dollar
Andrew has been a longstanding member of VideoCabaret. Andrew’s recent Stage Management credits include: Dissonant Species with Theatre Gargantua (upcoming), Every Brilliant Thing with the Orillia Opera House, Unwritten – The improv Show with Yonge People’s Theatre, Metamorphose With Theatre Smith Gilmore at Crows Theatre, Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, and 15 Dogs with Crows Theatre.
Farnoosh Talebpour
Farnoosh was born in Tehran, Iran but has now spent most of her life in Toronto. She primarily works as an independent artist in live performance but sometimes dabbles in film. She would like to thank all the people around her who have helped keep her feet grounded, joined her in laughter. Select credits SM: Let Me Explain (Green Light Arts), seven methods of killing kylie jenner (Obsidian Theatre Company), Lessons in Temperament (Outside the March), No Save Points (Outside the March), Iphigenia and The Furies (Theatre Passe Muraille/Saga Collectif). ASM: Bittergirl the Musical (TIP), English (Soulpepper/Segal Centre), Red Velvet (Crows’s theatre), Dido & Aeneas (Opera Atelier), Queen Goneral, King Lear (Soulpepper), Dixon Road (Musical Stage Company/Obsidian Theatre Company), Orphans for the Czar, (Crow’s Theatre), Serving Elizabeth (Stratford Festival).
VideoCabaret thanks our in-kind sponsors for Dear Robert & Special Deliver:
VideoCabaret thanks our government funding partners below for their ongoing support as well as our loyal donors and sponsors from over the years.
