Playwright Jane Martin is a mystery. There has been speculation about her identity ever since her play Talking With . . . premiered in Louisville, Kentucky at the prestigious Festival of New American Plays (now the Humana Festival of New American Plays) in 1981. Despite having won the American Theatre Critics' Association New Play Award four times, and been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize (Keely and Du, 1993), she has never been seen, photographed or interviewed. Rumours persist that 'Jane Martin' is a pseudonym for Jon Jory, founder of the Festival and the director of all her Louisville premieres, which he refuses to confirm.

Criminal Hearts fascinates director P J Hammond because “it's a comedy driven by women. And it's exciting to watch people coming together rather than splitting apart, even though the characters spend most of the play lying to each other.” For Alumnae Theatre, PJ directed Lanford Wilson's Talley's Folly, a critical and audience favourite in 2000, and earlier this year she directed the critically praised Los Angeles premiere of Elaine Feinstein's Lear's Daughters.

Alumnae Theatre Company's production of Criminal Hearts features Emily Sanford (Summer And Smoke) as Ata the agoraphobe, Shannon McDonough (Every Night's Hot At The Va Va Voom) as Bo the cat burglar, Paul Hardy (The Luminous Veil) as Robbie the getaway guy, and Brian Barker (Toronto Playback Theatre Project) as Wib the ex.

Set designer Robyn Burnett (Scotch On The Rocks) has created a luxury Chicago apartment in Alumnae's intimate Studio space, aided by Ben Sanford's (The Dead) lighting design and Karen Huybers' (Alumnae debut) city soundscape. Dorothy Wilson's (Absurd Person Singular) costumes run the gamut from burglar garb to designer gowns and tuxes.

BIOGRAPHIES

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CRIMINAL HEARTS Cast Biographies

BRIAN BARKER (Wib)
Brian is pleased to be returning to Alumnae Theatre after his last performance here in Touch, a New Ideas play of years gone by. His former theatre company, Electric Dog Productions Inc., was involved in promoting youth empowerment to high school audiences across Canada and to making Shakespeare more accessible to teens. As an actor, Brian trained primarily at Queen's University and Ryerson Theatre School. He has enjoyed playing a wide variety of roles, including Friar Laurence in Romeo and Juliet, Sgt. Troughton in the British farce Run For Your Wife!, Capt. Breen in the 2004 SummerWorks show Borderline, as well us numerous comedic improv performances with Theatresports Toronto. His most recent film appearance was as Det. McGregor in The Absence of Emily. As a writer, Brian's credits include the story and script development for the live theatrical component of the Royal Ontario Museum's 2001 exhibit Gift of the Gods - Wine and Revelry. Brian holds a B.A. in Creative Arts (Theatre) from York University and is the recipient of the 2004 International Fellowship from The School of Playback Theatre in New York. Brian is also a current/original company member of Toronto Playback Theatre Project www.torontoplayback.com. Extra love to J/M/P.

PAUL HARDY (Robbie)
Acting credits include: The Luminous Veil (Real Live Theatre, Fringe 2004), Showdown/How Can You Tell (Mixed Co.), A Midsummer's Night Dream (Allegoria Productions), Marvin's Room and 1949 (Amicus Productions). Paul has also designed lighting for Praxis Theatre's Eugene and Steel; Gizmette for Theatreworks; Portrait for Allegoria Productions; and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, A Lie of the Mind, The Real World?, Amy's View and Collected Stories for Alumnae Theatre. He has directed productions including The Evil That Men Do (Alumnae Theatre's New Ideas Festival 2002), Northern Lights (staged reading, New Ideas 2003), and Sam Shepard's A Lie of the Mind (Alumnae mainstage, 2004); Lanford Wilson's Burn This (Tuesday Prod.) and Sam Shepard's Geography of a Horse Dreamer for One Man Tag Productions, a company of which he was co-founder.

SHANNON McDONOUGH (Bo)
Shannon's thrilled to be back at the Alumnae. After performing in a couple of New Ideas Festival shows - Mark McGrinder's MacHamlet (1998) and her own Talking To Mom In Colour (2004), she's excited to be a part of Criminal Hearts. An actor since the age of 5, she's performed on stage, in film and television and as a voiceover artist. She's most recently performed in the SummerWorks production of Every Night's Hot At The Va Va Voom, a musical that she wrote, on Pridevision's travel series BUMP and in Second City's Tony 'n' Tina's Wedding.

EMILY SANFORD (Ata)
Emily is delighted to be returning to the Alumnae to play neurotic Ata in Criminal Hearts. She was last seen on the Alumnae stage in the Toronto Irish Players' production of James Joyce's The Dead, where she earned an ACT-CO Thea award for her portrayal of Miss Molly Ivors. She also appeared last season as Rosa Gonzales in Alumnae Theatre's Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams. Other notable roles include Sister-woman Mae in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (MLT), Gertrude in Allison Williams' Hamlette (ORF), and Mosca in Ben Jonson's Volpone (ORF). Emily has just completed her sixth season at The Ontario Renaissance Festival, where she plays a surly pirate.

CRIMINAL HEARTS Creative Team Biographies

ROBYN BURNETT (Set Designer)
Robyn is a professional writer whose recent book “Uncovering Alias: an Unauthorized Guide” has just hit the shelves in a store near you. She dabbles in art whenever she can and is a founding member of Integrity Entertainment; their next production is the comedic murder mystery Word Games. Catch it in this very theatre, December 8 - 18.

JUSTIN DEVEAU (Lighting Operator)
A graduate of the Second City Conservatory, Justin's recent performances include An Inspector Calls (Amicus Productions) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Right Off The Farm Productions). He is extremely pleased to work in the booth with his best friend Fiona (yes, Fiona wrote this!), and I'm sure he also thanks Debbie, Danielle and Shaun.

P J HAMMOND (Director)
PJ was once an actor, but she yearned to direct. Her directorial debut was Phantom of Graceland in the New Ideas Festival 1997, and went on to direct Lanford Wilson's Talley's Folly (an audience favourite and critics' pick in 2000) and The Attic, the Pearls and Three Fine Girls (2001) for Alumnae Theatre Company, as well as several other shows in subsequent New Ideas Festivals, including Beans 'n' Butts (2000). PJ is proud to have directed the recent critically-praised Los Angeles premiere of Lear's Daughters by Elaine Feinstein earlier this year. Thanks go to friends and family for their continuing support and patience. Thanks to the cast and crew for their dedication.

KAREN HUYBERS (Sound Designer)
Karen has spent the last 5 years editing television commercials and music videos for the likes of Lindy, Emm Gryner, The Salads and Metric. She aspires to ride her bike at least once a day for the rest of her life.

JANE MARTIN (Playwright)
Jane Martin's collection of monologues, Talking With . . . premiered at the 1981 Festival of New American Plays (now the Humana Festival of New American Plays) at the Actorsí Theatre of Louisville (Kentucky). Ms. Martin's other collected works include Vital Signs and What Mama Don't Know. Her full-length plays include Cementville; the Pulitzer-nominated Keely and Du, which won the 1994 American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award; Middle Aged White Guys and Anton in Show Business. Talking With . . ., Jack and Jill, Keely and Du and Anton in Show Business have all been honored by the American Theater Critics Association, but Martin did not appear to receive the awards. This mysterious writer is referred to as “America's best-known unknown playwright” - no biographical details are known about her; she has never made any public appearances, given an interview, or been photographed. Many in the theatre community believe Jane Martin is a pseudonym for Jon Jory, the founder of the Humana Festival, and director of all her Louisville premieres. Another theory is that Martin's work is a collaboration between Jory and his wife, costume designer Marcia Dixcy Jory. The mystery endures . . .

TINA McCULLOCH (Producer)
This is Tina's debut as a producer of a main season show, although she has produced in SummerWorks and Fringe Festivals. She has written several short plays, most recently the very brief Celebrity (New Ideas 2004) and the only slightly longer Life Drawing (Write Now! Alumnae's 24-hr playwriting competition), which received an Honourable Mention for Sexiest Use of a Naked Man. One of these days she will write a full-length play and surprise everyone, including herself. As an actor, she has been seen as Jane Eyre and in Moon Over Buffalo (Amicus Productions), The Mai (Toronto Irish Players), Summer and Smoke (Alumnae Theatre), and The View From Here (Toronto Fringe 2004). Tina is also Director of Marketing for Alumnae Theatre Company.

FIONA NEWMAN (Stage Manager/Voice of Mrs. Carnahan)
Hi, I'm Fiona. I live here. No, seriously. I'm here pretty much every day. People have told me that I should bring in a cot because I spend so much time here. I do everything from stage managing to writing to acting. Throw in managing the bar and helping to organize and run parties and membership meetings and I am just thisclose to world domination. Or the Betty Ford Clinic. Even though I've only been involved in the theatre world for a mere three years, I played the title role in Annie in Grade 4. Don't get too excited, though - we had only one set piece on stage: a high jump mat. And now, here I am 24 years later, and I'm working on a show with only one set piece: a mattress. I've come a long way, haven't I? Thanks, PJ. Thanks a lot.

NAOMI PRIDDLE HUNTER (Assistant Director/Fight Director)
Naomi has staged duels, brawls, murder and mayhem in over 40 productions, including The Mai (Toronto Irish Players), Fiddler on the Roof (York Minstrels), The Illusion and Orpheus Descending (Alumnae Theatre), and I Hate Hamlet (East Side Players). Her acting credits include Ten Lost Years and Jane Martin's Talking With . . . (Alumnae Theatre). She directed an early version of Alarums and Excursions, a collection of swordplay scenes from various Shakespeare plays, at Alumnae's New Ideas Festival, an expanded version of which was staged in the 1998 Toronto Fringe Festival. She first joined the Society of American Fight Directors in 1988, before the creation of Fight Directors Canada, whose work she enthusiastically supports. Naomi is currently appearing in The Second Shepherds' Play with U of T's medieval theatre company Poculi Lodique Societas (PLS). Next up: fight director on Dave Carley's After You (Alumnae Theatre, January 2005).

BEN SANFORD (Lighting Designer)
British-born Ben Sanford has been working professionally in the entertainment industry for almost ten years. Trained in lighting design, stage management, technical direction, and production management, he has worked across Southern Ontario and all over the United States. Winner of an award for “Creative Use of Light”, Ben has experience ranging from traditional theatre to live televised special events and from trade show booths to architectural installations. Recent lighting design credits include Electronic Theatre Controls' booth for the 2004 Entertainment Technology Show, the 2004 All-Canadian Jazz Festival in Port Hope, and James Joyce's The Dead for Toronto Irish Players (nominated for a Thea Award). He is currently the director of marketing for Cast Software, creators of the Emmy Award-winning Wysiwyg software.

SUZANNE TATTERSALL (Assistant Stage Manager)
Suzanne has worked as ASM on the Alumnae Theatre productions Wild Honey and Lettice & Lovage (in which she also played a tourist) and Play On! (Annex Theatre). She was a wardrobe assistant for Amy's View, and seamstress for Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Summer and Smoke (all Alumnae). Her costume designs have been seen on stage in George F. Walker¹s Better Living (Alumnae) and on screen in the independent film Nothing Touched.

DOROTHY WILSON (Costume Designer)
Dorothy has enjoyed a long and varied career in theatre in the Toronto area. She has done Props, Costume Design, and Set Dressing, recently for East Side Players and Scarborough Theatre Guild, and before that for a number of groups in the North end of the city. At the Alumnae, she has done props for Summer and Smoke and The Real World?, and costume design for The Attic, The Pearls, and Three Fine Girls, and last season's Absurd Person Singular.

2004/2005 Season Page

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