2007 SEASON    

DAVID FERRY
2006-07 CONSULTING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

David is a Director - Dramaturge - Actor and Teacher. David was the 2006-07 Consulting Artistic Director of Resurgence Theatre Company and the York Shakespeare Festival. He directed Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream and Lanford Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize winning Talley’s Folly for the 2006 season. He also directed the hit productions of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing and The Compleat Works of Wllm Shakspr (abridged) in the summer of 2004.

Directing credits include: 36 Views for Actors' Rep Company (2007 DORA nomination Best Production); the acclaimed Canadian premiere of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot for Toronto’s Birdland Productions in Toronto’s Gooderham Worts Distillery district (which won five DORA awards including best production, best lighting and best director (David) in 2006) and a commercial production of Fully Committed starring Peter Kelleghan for Mayfair Productions. David directed the premiere of a new Canadian play Alias Godot by Resurgence acting company member Brendan Gall, in an Italian translation for the prestigious Festival InterCity in Florence Italy in September of 2006. He has been invited back in September 2007 to remount this production. (David will also act in this play in the Canadian premiere at Tarragon Theatre in 2008.)

David is slated to direct the Toronto premiere of The Pillowman for Birdland Productions and CanStage in September 2007.

Other Recent productions: The Taming of the Shrew for ShakespeareWorks in Toronto. Hank William, the Show He Never Gave for Lonestar Productions in Toronto (2006 Best production DORA nomination). Rodeo Star at the Phoenix Theatre in Victoria. Lobby Hero (Canadian premiere) at Berkeley Street Theatre, Toronto. Listen to the Wind by James Reaney for Phoenix Theatre in Victoria. James Reaney/John Beckwith's piece 12 Letters for the Guelph Spring Festival. Power of the Unemployed (premiere) for the Resource Centre for the Arts, St. John's (also dramaturge). Hold Fast for Rising Tide Theatre (Newfoundland); Dusa, Fish, Stas and Vi (Arts Club - Van.); 27 Wagons Full Of Cotton (Shaw Directors Fortnight); Talley and Son (Theatre Plus); Blood at Factory Main Stage, Mini Bugs and Micro Chips for YPT. Billy Bishop; Cheatin Hearts; Melville Boys; Hot Flashes (co-produced with Blyth and Lighthouse Festivals); alterNATIVES; The Drawer Boy; Perfect Pie; Hank Williams - The Show He Never Gave and FIRE - all for Bluewater Summer Playhouse. St. Nicholas Hotel by James Reaney; Orpheus Descending; Blood Wedding; Balm In Gilead (George Brown); Alice Through the Looking-Glass by James Reaney; Twelfth Night; Midsummer Night's Dream; Road; Albertine In 5 Times; Camino Real (Humber Theatre); Goodnight Desdemona, Good Morning Juliet at Theatre Humber. He directed James Reaney's new play about the Bronte children, Zamorna for George Brown Theatre School. David participated in the prestigious 1998 Master Class for Directors at World Stage at Harbourfront, with international Master Directors Max Stafford-Clark, Deborah Warner, Joseph Chaikin, Declan Donlan, Simon McBurney, Bea Lessa, and Katey Mitchell.

David was Artistic Director of Bluewater Summer Playhouse in Kincardine, Ontario from 1998-2002.

As a dramaturge David has worked with a number of writers. Most notably Florence Gibson on her new play Missing; Brendan Gall on Alias Godot; Fides Krucker on Yours to Break (produced 2005 Theatre Passe Muraille); Kelly McIntosh on Auction; Paul Ledoux and David Smyth on Walk Like a Man; and Ledoux and John Roby on the musical Hot Flashes; Preface Theatre on its adaptation of James Reaney's famous short story The Box Social; Reaney on Zamorna; Robert Priest on the play for young people Minibugs and Microchips (1998 Chalmers $25,000 Playwriting award); Drew Hayden Taylor on alterNATIVES, as well as Drew's Baby Blues; and Tom Walmsley's BLOOD (Chalmers nomination).

Acting Credits: David has worked as an actor at the Stratford Festival and in most theatres across the country as well as on and off Broadway in New York. He works as frequently in film, television, and radio as he does on stage. In 2006 he starred in The Gambler at ArtWord Theatre in Toronto. He played Rolly in the acclaimed and held over George Walker hit Escape from Happiness at Factory Theatre and in the Canadian premiere of David Mamet’s Romance at the Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs for Pilot Theatre Projects. In 2005 he received rave reviews for his work in two George F. Walker plays (Adult Entertainment and End of Civilization). He was nominated for a 2004 DORA best acting award for his performance as Teddy in Hockey Mom, Hockey Dad at Toronto's Factory Theatre (and the resulting tour). The summer of 2003 he scored a huge success for his Prospero in The Tempest at the Festival of Classics in Oakville. He played Dogberry and The Actor in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui in Victoria, 2003. He played in the North American premiere of Tilsonburg for Canadian Stage for which he was nominated for a DORA award. He also performed as Stanek in Havel's Protest, Audience, Unveiling with The Co. at the Toronto fringe; The Man in For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again for Bluewater Summer Playhouse. He played Peter in SchumannBrahmSchumann for RCA in St. John's; and Reuban in Dogpatch at Factory Theatre, for which he also received a DORA Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Actor. He played Sledge in Seaside Dive in Toronto, and in the New York showcase of that play. He played Martin Claymore in the hit Norm Foster play Ethan Claymore at London's Grand Theatre and Iago in Othello for Toronto's Lovers and Madmen Company. He played Leontes to critical acclaim in Shakespeare's (Masque Award) Winter's Tale at the Centaur Theatre.

He played John in the (Masque Award) Canadian premiere of Oleanna. Other stage roles include Leontes for Toronto's Oracle Theatre; The Old Man's Band at Harbourfront's DuMaurier Theatre; Ubu in Paul Ledoux's musical adaptation of Jarry's Ubu plays; and Fair Liberty's Call at the Stratford Festival; Max in Eclectic Theatre's Bent; Our Country's Good in Montreal and Halifax; Pale in the Canadian premiere of Burn This at Edmonton's Citadel Theatre.

Film work includes: Man of the Year with Robin Williams; Boondock Saints with Willem Dafoe; Night of the Twister; Darkman 2; Strange Horizons; The Last Winter; Smoke; Hounds of Notre Dame (GENIE nomination); White Room; Glory and Honour and The Stupids

TV work includes: Ken Finkleman’s At the Hotel; This is Wonderland; Paradise Falls (five episodes); Prom Queen; The Associates; Blue Murder (two episodes); Doc; John Woo's Once a Thief; Jules Verne; Due South; PSI Factor; Real Kids, Real Adventures; Goose Bumps; Evidence of Blood; Family of Cops II; Nikita. A series lead in CBC / YTV’s - Daring and Grace; the A&E movie The Crossing with Jeff Daniels and Roger Rees; Ruby's Bucket of Blood with Angela Bassett for Showtime; The Jinker for Bravo opposite Gordon Pinsent; Thin Air for A&E with Joe Mantegna; the Steven King series Storm of the Century. He was submitted for a Gemini Award for his work as Stuart McCrae in the last season of Road To Avonlea.

Radio: He has won the Nellie Award for best Radio Performance, and David's 35 episodes of the Radio Drama series Midnight Cab on The Mystery Project are gradually coming out on CD here and in the United States.

Teacher: David has taught acting at theatre schools such as George Brown College, Humber College, National Theatre School, Canedore College; University of Toronto/Sheridan, University of Victoria (BC), University of Western Ontario and Equity Showcase.

David has published an internationally recognized CD collection of Canadian dialects for the actor (Canadian, Eh?).

His collection of monologues for men from Canadian plays (He Speaks) for Playwright’s Canada Press was releases in May 2006.

David has served as Vice-President External of Canadian Actors' Equity Association. He has also served as National Chair of ACTRA Performers' Guild. He currently is serving a three-year term on the Board for ACTRA Fraternal Benefit Society.

David was a graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada (1973) and has his Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Directing (MFA) from the University of Victoria (2003), where he focused on the work of James Reaney. He has received a Canada Council grant to research a book on Reaney's theatre theories. He has presented various academic papers and has been published.

David serves on the Board of Directors of ACTRA Fraternal Benefit Society (an insurance company providing insurance, RRSP/RRIF investment management and fraternal benefits to members of the Canadian arts community) and has recently been nominated for Chairman of that board.

Associations:

• Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA)
• Canadian Actors' Equity Association (CAEA)
• Actors' Equity Association (U.S.)
• Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers (US) (SSDC)

November 2007

2007 SEASON