Founding Artists
ALISON WOOLRIDGE
For over forty years Alison has performed in theatres from Vancouver Island to her native Newfoundland and in the US and Ireland. A Shaw Festival company member for six seasons (1993-98), in the Toronto company of Mamma Mia for three years (2001-2004), Alison has also originated several new Canadian musicals. Her selected stage
credits include Richard III, Henry V, Merry Wives, When We Were Singing, Jacques Brel, Educating Rita, Trafford Tanzi, The Winslow Boy, 1949, Artistic Fraud’s Oil and Water, The Colony of Unrequited Dreams (national tours) and has directed Girl Meets Tuba and Garden by Mattel. Alison was a member of the National Arts Centre 2015/16 English Acting Ensemble, appearing in Adventures of A Black Girl in Search of God (Centaur), Anne and Gilbert, Twelfth Night. She was also in the NAC’s 2017 provincial tour of Tartuffe.
Selected screen credits include Street Legal, Republic of Doyle, PSI Factor, Danny, Crawlspace, Away From Everywhere, Newfoundland at Armageddon, Sex in Cars, Malignant, C Sharp, Audience of Chairs, Little Dog, Body and Bones, Hudson and Rex,
Under the Weather, Ennis Sisters video “California Wine” for Alzheimers Society, Little Orphans and the CBC Gem pilot The Existence of Magic. Most recently Alison had a recurring role in the Scyfy series, SurrealEstate.
ALEXIS KOETTING
Alexis has been working as a professional actor for almost thirty years since graduating from Concordia University in 1995 with a BFA – Specialization in Theatre Performance. She was a company member of the Stratford Festival for two seasons in 1997 and 1998 and has appeared at The Sudbury Theatre Centre, Stage West Dinner Theatre, The Lighthouse Festival, Ujima Theatre in Buffalo, NY, and The Montgomery Theatre (now the Watermark) to name a few. Newfoundland audiences know Alexis from her work during four seasons with Perchance Theatre at Cupids where she appeared as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Kate in The Taming of the Shrew, Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Polina in The Seagull. She was also seen in Poison, The 39 Steps, and Noises Off at the LSPU Hall, The Cut of It for White Rooster Theatre, The Valley for New Curtain Theatre, and Three Days of Rain for Sweetline Theatre.
In the spring of 2000, Alexis traveled to the Middle East to play Gertrude Bell in an installment of the History Channel's Women Adventurers Series and went on to appear on TV in Orphan Black, Frontier, Hudson and Rex, Astrid and Lilly Save the World, Surreal Estate, and Burned By Love and in the films Black Conflux, An Audience of Chairs, Casey, and Skeet.
Alexis is also the author of the Bella James Mystery series which currently sits at three books: ENCORE (published in 2015, a finalist for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel, and the Body Blithe Award), TRIPLE THREAT (published in 2018), and REVIVAL (published in 2020 and recently named as a finalist for the Indies Today Awards.)
BRIAN MARLER
Born in Alberta, 15 year old Brian Marler began his acting career in multiple productions at the Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival. These experiences led to his co- founding the still extant, social-issue-mandated Azimuth Theatre for which he performed, wrote, produced (in affiliation with the RCMP and Alberta Health and Family Services)
various original works that won national recognition for promoting awareness of domestic abuse, teen suicide, impaired-driving prevention and dating violence. During this time he was honoured with an Edmonton Theatre Sterling Award for his portrayal of an isolated teen enduring his step-father’s abuse in the one-man show The Dungeon Master’s Handbook, and an Alberta Film&TV Awards Best Actor nomination for the docu-drama Avalanche: Beating the Odds.
By 1995 Brian had graduated with distinction from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting and become an ensemble member of the world- renowned Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. He spent three illuminating seasons there, appearing in Marsh Hay, Hobson’s Choice, Cavalcade, The Seagull, and
revelling in the top-tier professional experiences and mentorship. Then came a decade based in Toronto where Brian’s theatre credits include Jaques in As You Like It and Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Theatre by the Bay); lead role Theo Maske in Steve Martin’s The Underpants (Theatrefront); A Short History of Night and Toronto the Good (Factory Theatre); Harold Pinter's Betrayal (Theatre&Company); Canada House (Theatre Passe Muraillle) and Canada Steel (Tarragon Theatre); with return trips west to appear in Cosi (Globe Theatre); Weather and The Aberhart Summer (Alberta Theatre Projects); and to play Cliff in Cabaret and Romeo in Romeo and Juliet(Citadel Theatre).
In 2009 Brian moved to St. John’s with Newfoundlander spouse (and fellow actor at the Shaw Festival) Alison Woolridge. Brian and Alison started a renovation and remodelling business, MarlerWorks Inc., which still operates successfully and specializes in revitalizing heritage properties. Brian joined Big Brothers Big Sisters and his acting
work continued with theatre roles in Falling Trees, the first play in Megan Gail Coles’ trilogy; Artistic Fraud Theatre of NL's adaptation of the novel The Colony of Unrequited Dreams; Ed Riche’s play Hail at the LSPU Hall; Caliban in The Tempest, Monsieur Loyal in Andy Jones’ adaptation of Tartuffe, and Henry in Henry V for Perchance Theatre in
Cupids where Brian also sat as Chair of the Board and over-saw the ongoing maintenance of the company’s wooden amphitheatre.
Brian’s selected Atlantic screen credits include TV series Republic of Doyle, Little Dog,
Hudson & Rex; web series Sex in Cars; films Newfoundland at Armageddon, Cardboard Junction, Touch, Waste It and voice for the animated Impromptu; feature films Black Conflux and Maudie.
JEANNETTE LAMBERMONT-MOREY: Founding Artist Emeritus
Jeannette Lambermont-Morey (BFA) has directed for theatres across Canada and the United States, from the Stratford Festival (8 seasons), to the Virginia Stage Company (twice); including such theatres as The Citadel (Edmonton), The Great Canadian Theatre Company (Ottawa), Atlantic Theatre Festival (Nova Scotia),
Manitoba Theatre Centre (Winnipeg), Festival Players (Prince Edward County), Theatre Aquarius (Hamilton), the Thousand Islands Playhouse (Gananoque), Talk is Free Theatre and Theatre by the Bay (Barrie), Theatre on the Ridge (Port Perry), the New World Theatre Project/Perchance Theatre (St. John’s, NFLD), YES Theatre
(Sudbury); and Toronto area theatres, Factory Theatre, Canadian Stage, Harbourfront Centre, The Guild Festival Theatre, and The Toronto International Fringe Festival, etc.
Jeannette has worked extensively in college and university theatre programs as a director and Master Teacher. She was Artistic Director of the New World Theatre Project in Newfoundland 2012/13 and served as Executive Director of the Shakespeare Globe Centre of Canada from 1999 to 2015. As a director/dramaturge, Jeannette has developed a number of works including an adaptation of Goethe’s Faust with music by Leslie Arden, several independent new musicals with YES Theatre (Sudbury), and numerous plays by up-and-coming Canadian and American writers in various stages of development.
RHONA BUCHAN: Founding Artist Emeritus
Rhona is a graduate of Ryerson Theatre School (1988 – 1991), where she was first directed by Jeannette Lambermont-Morey in Dr. Faustus. A notable Ryerson role was Florinda in the first Canadian production of Into The Woods, directed by Kelly Robinson. She has worked in Ontario summer theatre & and toured Newfoundland and Labrador with Rising Tide Theatre’s Nothing Else To Do (1991). Favourite roles have included the Prosecutor, In Your Dreams Freud, Artistic Fraud’s inaugural show; Portia in Julius Caesar (1995), also directed by Jillian Keiley; Anne Langton in This Beggarly Wooden Country at Alumnae Theatre; Blanche in Tarragon Spring Tonic’s Streetcar Named Desire ; 4 episodes of The Great Eastern for CBC Radio; Narrator of the series The Horse, & Sunny in Mickey, season 1, for Best Boy Productions; and various commercials.
For 18 years Rhona’s performances were limited to the courtroom in her other role as a family & criminal lawyer. She remained engaged in professional theatre as a
Director of Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland’s Board (5 years as Chair, 4 as Director) during Jillian Keiley’s tenure as Artistic Director. Rhona returned to professional theatre in 2017 to play Arkadina in Chekov’s The Seagull at Perchance Theatre under the direction of Thomas Moschopoulos, and was last seen as Phillip the Bastard from King John, in Perchance’s video solo series “The Power of One.”
