Ensemble
Creative Team
Graham has been a leading actor and director at the Stratford Festival for 25 seasons, playing such roles as Romeo, Macbeth, Henry V, Henry VIII, Iago, Berowne, Jaques, Aufidius and Petruchio. He has appeared in theatres across North America including two seasons at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre with Brian Bedford in The Moliere Comedies and School for Scandal.
On the film and television front Graham spent three seasons starring on the CBC series The Border as Detective Gray Jackson and has appeared in several feature films including Take this Waltz opposite Sarah Silverman, Milton’s Secret with Donald Sutherland and Defendor with Woody Harrelson.
Graham is the founder and Artistic Director of the Groundling Theatre Company based in Toronto. Groundling’s inaugural production of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale received 5 Dora nominations including Outstanding direction and won the Dora for Outstanding Production of the Year in Toronto. Other Groundling productions include Measure for Measure starring Lucy Peacock and Brent Carver and Lear starring Seana McKenna and Colin Mochrie. Last winter Groundling presented Julius Caesar in co-production with Crow’s Theatre.
At the Stratford Festival Graham is a graduate of the Michael Langham Conservatory for Classical direction and has served as an Associate Director for four seasons under Tim Carroll, Antoni Cimolino, Martha Henry and Weyni Mengesha.
In 2019 he adapted and directed The Front Page for the Stratford Festival Mainstage. His adaptation of Shakespeare’s history cycle entitled Breath of Kings made its debut at Stratford in 2016 where Graham served as Associate Director and Creator while playing the title role of Henry IV in the two-part adaptation.
Graham is also the founder and Creative Director for GhostLight, an online digital teaching platform created in 2020 as a response to the Covid pandemic.
Graham Abbey brings an international reputation for artistic achievement, alongside a broad network of supporters, fans and colleagues to realize his ambitious vision for the company in the years to come. Announcing his appointment in the Toronto Star Karen Fricker stated, “In as much as Canadian classical theatre has stars, Abbey is one of them and a much- admired figure in his artistic community”. Graham was recently named by NOW Magazine as one of the top ten artist of 2020.
Christopher is a pioneering storyteller working at the intersection of theatre and immersive technology. He is the former creative director of Relative Motion, a UK based VR storytelling studio and the new creative director of Groundling’s Performance and Immersive Technology (PIT) Lab in Toronto.
Having worked extensively directing new musicals, new writing, the classics, and opera in London (UK), Christopher began developing his specialism in narrative virtual reality in 2017. With support from Arts Council England (ACE) and Heritage Lottery, he created two new VR productions: Shakespeare VR (acknowledged by UKRI as an outstanding and influential immersive experience from the last 20 years) and Reorientation, a game-engine/motion-captured R&D collaboration with Breaking Fourth Ltd. His work with Relative Motion includes Tosca VR (commissioned by The Space), Edward II VR (ACE and The Barn Theatre, Cirencester) and three new VR experiences with Sheffield’s Music-in-The-Round. Relative Motion lead on the development of the British Council funded VR experience, In A Thousand Silences, with Palestine’s, The Freedom Theatre and created the VR Backstage Tour for the Chichester Festival Theatre’s Digital Stages project – winner of the 2022 UK Theatre Award for Digital Innovation.
As a consultant in immersive storytelling, Christopher has worked with leading theatre organisations including the Royal Opera House, Chichester Festival Theatre, the Stratford Festival of Canada, and Theatre Aquarius. He was part of the 2019 Royal Shakespeare Company/Magic Leap Extended Fellowship Cohort and a member of Digital Catapult’s 5G Testbed in London/Brighton. In 2020 he was a guest speaker for Northern Ireland Screen Industries, and he developed/facilitated a workshop series in narrative VR for the MA in Contemporary Circus at the Stockholm University of the Arts.
He is presently based in Toronto, where he is developing new, narrative virtual reality projects and continuing his work with arts organisations in Canada and the UK as they step into the world of immersive technology.
Kristen LeBoeuf is a theatre creator and administrator currently based in Kingston, Ontario. Coming from a technical background, she finished her undergraduate honours degree in Stage and Screen at Queen’s University and immediately travelled to the Banff Centre to train in Technical Direction (2016). She then spent a few years working as a technician and lighting designer before deciding it wasn’t what she wanted to spend her life doing. Kristen recently graduated from the Master of Arts, Arts Leadership program at Queen’s University (2020) and she is now working towards a career in producing and artistic management of theatre. She currently wears a variety of hats including working as the Interim General Manager for Groundling Theatre, an Associate Artistic Producer of the Kingston Theatre Alliance, and Producer for The County Stage Company.
Board of Directors
C. Derrick Chua was born in Manila Philippines and raised in Scarborough Ontario. He is an entertainment lawyer and an award-winning theatre producer whose recent productions include Haley McGee’s award-winning Oh My Irma (International Tour – Edinburgh Fringe, Berlin & Kiel (Germany), Brighton & London (UK), Ulaanbaatar, Amsterdam, New York City), John Herbert’s Fortune and Men’s Eyes (Dancemakers), Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries (Theatre Centre), James Gangl’s Sex, Religion & Other Hang-Ups (Theatre Passe Muraille), Woody Harrelson & Frankie Hyman’s Bullet for Adolf, directed by Woody Harrelson (Hart House Theatre), Logan Medland’s Fingers and Toes: A Tap Comedy Musical (Urban Stages, New York City), Sharron Matthews Superstar: World Domination Tour 2010, at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (Toronto), Joe’s Pub (New York) and the Edinburgh (UK) Fringe Festival, and Hunter Foster & Rick Crom’s musical Bonnie & Clyde: A Folktale (ATA, New York City). Derrick is co-founder and Core Artistic Team Member of Studio 180 Theatre whose productions include The Normal Heart, Clybourne Park, Our Class, Parade, The Overwhelming, Stuff Happens, Blackbird, The Arab-Israeli Cookbook and The Laramie Project. He is the recipient of a Dora Award, a Harold Award, Now Magazine Award as Toronto’s Best Indie Producer and Canadian Actors’ Equity Association Honorary Membership for his Outstanding Contribution to the Performing Arts.
Adrienne Clarkson
Born in Hong Kong, Madame Clarkson came to Canada as a refugee with her family, during the war in 1942. She received her early education in the Ottawa public school system and later obtained an Honours B.A. and an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Toronto. She also did post-graduate work at the Sorbonne in France and became fluently bilingual.
A leading figure in Canada’s cultural life, Madame Clarkson had a rich and distinguished career in broadcasting, journalism, the arts and the public service. During her career, Madame Clarkson received numerous prestigious awards both in Canada and abroad, in recognition of her outstanding contributions in professional and charitable endeavours. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1992, and upon her appointment as governor general in 1999, she became Chancellor and Principal Companion of the Order of Canada.
Madame Clarkson was the 26th Governor General of Canada, from October 7, 1999, to September 27, 2005.
Prof. Jane Freeman is the founding Director of the School of Graduate Studies’ Graduate Centre for Academic Communication (GCAC). She established GCAC’s modular curricula of non-credit courses, workshops, and its Writing Centre, and designed several of GCAC’s current courses and workshops. Her development of GCAC is described in a chapter in Supporting Graduate Student Writers: Research, Curriculum & Program Design (University of Michigan Press, 2016).
Jane completed a BA and a BEd at Queen’s University, an MA at the University of Warwick, and a PhD at the University of Toronto. A Senior Fellow of Massey College and a member of the Stratford Festival’s Senate, Jane’s areas of expertise are Shakespeare, classical rhetoric, and oral and written communication. She completed a book in collaboration with Prof. Ursula Franklin, entitled Ursula Franklin Speaks: Thoughts and Afterthoughts, 1986–2012. In 2023, she was awarded the highest honour for teaching at the University of Toronto, the President’s Teaching Award.