Company Bios

Keltie Brown – Director

Keltie is thrilled to be working with this amazing group on a project that has been haunting her since she first saw Nikolai push a chair across the stage with his head in 2006. Past Fringe credits include Going Down (Production Design), Lewis Lapham Live (Stage Management and Video Design), and Life After Hockey (Stage Management). This year, Keltie is also directing Bedlam in Venue 2. Keltie is the General Manager of Workshop West Theatre, and she would like to thank Michael and Neon for sharing her with this project. Huge thanks also go out to Ken Brown for the text, the venue and the love and support; Brendan Brown for his amazing eye; Michael Clark, for pushing her and believing in her; and the incredible cast, for their talent and their patience.

Kenneth Brown – Playwright

Kenneth Brown’s theatre career spans forty years.   He has acted across the country and abroad, written over thirty produced plays, several radio plays, one screenplay.  His productions have one Dora, multiple AMPIAs, multiple Sterlings, and he has been honoured with an Edmonton Excellence in the Arts Award.  He is a very proud member of MacEwan’s Theatre Arts staff, and an even prouder father of three terrific children.

Lester Lee – Sound and Lighting Design

Lester is a multi-disciplinary Canadian Theatre Artist who divides his time between Calgary and Edmonton.   Past credits include Dry the Rain and two years of Loud and Queer (Workshop West Theatre).  Other select credits, La Boheme, La Traviata, Rigoletto (Edmonton Opera), ONE (RedtoBlue Performance and Ghost River Theatre), Cyrano: A Puppet Show (Castaways In The Attic), Sandkeeper Canto and One World Song (Blue Mars Productions).

Stuart Hoye – Actor

Stuart Hoye is pleased as punch to be following last year’s screwball Fringe
comedy hit, Hoboheme, with an undoubtedly more literary endeavor. Kafka’s
Metamorphosis provides an interesting change of pace from the sketch comedy
that he is used to doing; this past year, Stuart has appeared in Etown Comedy
Shorts, which has been airing on Bite TV, and occasionally on stage with Rapid
Fire’s Theatresports. You can also keep your eyes peeled for his performance in an
upcoming episode of The People Who Touch Your Food, a locally filmed webseries.
Perhaps these experiences will bring some lightheartedness to this production,
which undoubtedly has its comic moments. I hope you enjoy the show!

Chelsea Preston – Actor

Chelsea is originally from Vancouver Island where she grew up performing in all styles of dance with the Parksville Ballet School. At the age of 16 she moved to Vancouver to train with the Richmond Academy of Dance. There she realized her love for musical theatre. After two years of extensive training in dance, voice and acting, she took the Theatre Arts program at Grant MacEwan University, where her credits include Little Me, Hekabe, Droll Stories, and The Addlepated Nixie. Chelsea  took part in last year’s Edmonton fringe festival in  Rapture! and the Victoria Fringe as Snow in Happily Ever After? (Poiema Productions). This sumer she looks forward to being part of Selchie Theatre’s Metamorphosis and Plain Janes Theatre’s production of Bells Are Ringing  in the Edmonton Fringe. In coming season, Chelsea is excited to be part of the Mayfield Theatre’s productions of The Wedding Singer, The Musical and Chicago.

Elena Porter – Actor

Elena is a graduate of both the Grant MacEwan Theatre Arts (2001) and University of Alberta BFA in Acting (2008) programs. Selected credits include last Fringe’s Sterling nominated play Game Face (Human Loser), Death and the Maiden, The Little Dog Laughed (MFA, University of Alberta), The Tortoise and The Hare (Promise Productions/FTA) The Wizard of Oz, Cabaret (Citadel), Unity (1918) (ALA Players), The Winter’s Tale, Two Gentleman of Verona: The Musical (Free Will Shakespeare). This Fringe, you can also see Elena in Tudor Queens: A Burlesque (Send In The Girls), as well as Ruminations of Maud (and other short stories) (The Other Theatre). Thank you for supporting live theatre in Edmonton!

Mark Stubbings – Actor

Mark Stubbings is an actor/playwright based in Edmonton, Alberta. Selected acting
credits include Orange Flower Water (Blarney Productions), Hard Sell (Northern Light
Theatre) and Wedding Ruiner (Last Night Productions). His plays The Beaver Effect,
Dust and In the Doghouse have received multiple productions and his most recent play
Dry the Rain was nominated for a Sterling Award for Outstanding New Work and short
listed for the Writer’s Guild of Alberta’s Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama.

Nikolai Witschl – Actor

Nikolai Witschl is an Edmonton based actor, writer and improvisor, and a graduate of the BFA Acting program at the U of A. His previous fringe credits include Hoboheme and Caligula: The Musical (2010), Between Tosha and Bolek (2009), and Nik & Stu: Counting Leaves (2008). He can also be seen this year in Guernica. He is excited to finally face one of his fears which began when he watched children turn into donkeys in Pinocchio.